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Birthday Reviews: John Shirley’s “Occurrence at Owl Street Ridge”

Birthday Reviews: John Shirley’s “Occurrence at Owl Street Ridge”

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Cover by Lisa Snellings
Cover by Lisa Snellings

John Shirley was born on February 10, 1953. Shirley’s novels include his debut, Transmaniacon, inspired by the Blue Öyster Cult song “Transmaniacon MC,” the Eclipse trilogy, and Crawlers. He has written men’s adventure novels under the pseudonyms D.B. Drumm and John Cutter, as well as several film and comic tie-in novels.

Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guide Award for his collection Black Butterflies: A Flock on the Dark Side in 1999. That same year, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the World Horror Convention in Altanta. In addition to his career as a writer, Shirley has performed with the band The Screamin’ Geezers and has written lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult and an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Although John Shirley’s “Occurrence at Owl Street Ridge” was originally written for Strange Attraction, an anthology of stories based on the Dark Carnival sculptures of artist Lisa Snellings (itself inspired by the Dark Carnival writings of Ray Bradbury), the story first saw print in the program book for the 1999 World Horror Convention, held in Atlanta with Snellings as the Artist Guest of Honor and Shirley as the Author Guest of Honor. Shirley also included the story in his 2001 collection Darkness Divided.

The title “Occurrence at Owl Street Ridge” is, of course, a reference to Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Street Bridge,” and Bierce plays a minor role in the story, which is also modeled after Bierce’s tale of the attempted execution and escape of Peyton Farquhar. In this case, Shirley’s main character is Dana, a disaffected woman who has lost her job as an executive assistant because she was caught using her work computer for her hobby as an artist one time too many.

Returning home to share the news with her husband, Reuben, who is only working part time at the brewery, she comes across her four teenage kids, each with their own issues ranging from asthma to potential drug use to weight issues. Rather than getting the support she needs from her homelife, she only sees how miserable her entire family is.

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In 500 Words or Less: Recipearium by Costi Gurgu

In 500 Words or Less: Recipearium by Costi Gurgu

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Recipearium-small

RecipeArium
By Costi Gurgu
White Cat Publications (312 pages, $15.99 paperback, 2017)

When my Toronto-based colleague Costi Gurgu launched RecipeArium last year, I read the blurbs and early reviews and really had no idea what to expect from it. It sounded either like a novel or a tongue-in-cheek alien cookbook, and I wasn’t able to make it to any of Costi’s events to figure out which it was (even when one was at a conference I help organize). Me and this book were like ships in the night. Or it was avoiding me, to hide its secrets.

Okay, maybe that sounds a little crazy. But now that I’ve finally read RecipeArium… the novel is a little crazy. And it turns out I was sort of right, since it’s a mashup of a novel and a cookbook.

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Birthday Reviews: Laura Frankos’s “A Late Symmer Night’s Battle”

Birthday Reviews: Laura Frankos’s “A Late Symmer Night’s Battle”

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Turn the Other Chick-small Turn the Other Chick-back-small

Cover by Mitch Foust

Laura Frankos was born on February 9, 1960. She has written the historical mystery novel St. Oswald’s Niche, and The Broadway Musical Quiz Book. Frankos has also written several short stories. She is married to author Harry Turtledove and is the sister to author Steven Frankos.

“A Late Symmer Night’s Battle” appeared in Esther Friesner’s Turn the Other Chick, part of her long-running Chicks in Chainmail series. It has not been reprinted.

As the title indicates, the story was inspired by the works of William Shakespeare. Frankos’s fairies are battlemaidens, currently living in a period of peace following their epic defeat of the reremice. They are working on their armor, training, and engaging in more amorous pursuits when their lands are unexpectedly attacked by bands of kobolds.

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Modular: First Time Out With I Love the Corps

Modular: First Time Out With I Love the Corps

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256 ILTC Teens Playing

A house full of teens playing I Love the Corps!

“Cover the back of your necks! It’s going for your necks!”

“Use the black hole gun!”

“I’m out of Hero Points!”

“Kill them! Kill them!”

“Argh!”

Yes the house is full of teens playing a review copy of indy game I Love the Corps, a self-consciously SciFi game which hits the notes of 90s Military SF, with a dose of Aliens, plus video games like Call of Duty and Mass Effect (the referee’s book has a handy appendix of inspirations, including music). The lads range from 12 through to 16, with my son Kurtzhau, 14, in the middle and in the thick of it refereeing an ambitious one-shot he’s crafted involving rebel humans and sinister uploading aliens, epic scale space dreadnoughts, and more twists than a sack-full of broken micro USB cables.

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Birthday Reviews: Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Just Right”

Birthday Reviews: Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Just Right”

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Cover by Sandro Costello
Cover by Sandro Costello

Mary Robinette Kowal was born on February 8, 1969. Originally a puppeteer, she began publishing fiction in 2004, with her first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, arriving in 2010.

In 2008, she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writers and has gone on to win the Hugo Award three times, each in a different category. In 2011, she won the Hugo for Best Short Story for “For Want of a Nail.” She won for Best Related work for season seven of Writing Excuses, a podcast she produces in collaboration with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Jordan Sanderson, and in 2014 for her novelette “The Lady Astronaut of Mars.” She has served as both Secretary and Vice President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and continues to volunteer for the organization in various roles.

“Just Right” was Mary Robinette Kowal’s first sale, and it appeared in The First Line in Summer 2004.

On the surface it tells the story of a woman who is dealing with the strange eccentricities of her six year old son. Celia’s husband, Lou, usually handles the morning rituals because Celia leaves each day to teach school. With the start of Summer vacation, however, she has suddenly thrown into the morning domestic routine and learns that her son, Mason, likes to do things in very specific, seemingly childish ways. When Celia stop playing along, Mason throws a very atypical temper tantrum.

While “Just Right” seems like a slice of life tale, it really is a very effective short horror story. Celia doesn’t understand what is happening because she is missing a very basic piece of information.

The effectiveness of the story comes from the banality of Celia situation. Anyone with children has experienced the seemingly random meltdowns when a child doesn’t get its way and learns how to handle the child. In this case, Celia is learning that the typical methods of raising her son aren’t always effective, although she is unaware of the cause.

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Birthday Reviews: Karen Joy Fowler’s “Always”

Birthday Reviews: Karen Joy Fowler’s “Always”

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Cover by NASA
Cover by NASA

Karen Joy Fowler was born on February 7, 1950. She began her science fiction career with the stories “Praxis” and “Recalling Cinderella,” both published in March, 1985. Her first novel, Sarah Canary, appeared in 1991. In addition to writing science fiction, Fowler wrote The Jane Austen Book Club, which was turned into a film.

In 1991 Fowler, along with Pat Murphy, founded the James Tiptree, Jr. Award to recognize speculative fiction that expands or explores the understanding of gender.

She has won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 2004 for “What I Didn’t See” and in 2008 for “Always.” Fowler won the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 1998 for Black Glass and again in 2010 for What I Didn’t See, and Other Stories. She won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for We Are Completely Beside Ourselves, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

“Always” was originally published in the April-May 2007 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, edited by Sheila Williams. It was reprinted the next year in Year’s Best anthologies edited by Rich Horton and David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer. Ellen Datlow included it in Nebula Awards Showcase 2009 and Fowler reprinted it in her collection What We Didn’t See, and Other Stories.

Set in 1938, “Always” is a sympathetic view of a cult colony on the California coast called Always. The cult leader, Brother Porter, has promised his followers eternal life. Fowler never fully addresses whether Brother Porter has really discovered the secret of immortality, or if he’s just a leader who’s found a way to fleece people and get sex. More important to Fowler appears to be an attempt to depict someone who has found faith in her beliefs, a faith which endures beyond the bounds of evidence.

Even as Fowler’s protagonist accepts the idea of eternal life, her depictions of the other inhabitants of Always shows the shortcomings of living forever. Winnifred is always complaining about her ailments, John is constantly nostalgic for his old life, Harry is always happy, and the protagonist, who entered Always as a young woman, is supplanted by Kitty, younger and prettier than she is.

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February Short Story Roundup

February Short Story Roundup

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ssmJust a little to report from this past month’s excursion into the realm of short heroic fantasy. First, there’s the best issue in some time of Swords and Sorcery Magazine. Second, issue #14 of Grimdark Magazine. While the latter is loaded with good non-fiction articles, there’s only a single, albeit 15,000-word-long, story.

Swords and Sorcery Magazine rarely falls below good, but less often rises to great. I suspect it’s the nature of a magazine that only is able to pay $10 a story. Nonetheless, I found myself not only enjoying issue #72 but, despite not being surprised by anything in them, absolutely loving this month’s stories.

With the first, “Godsteel,” by Michael Meyerhofer, it came down completely to his characters’ voices and relationships. Three archers in the army of the Godprince, stationed in the siege lines surrounding the city of Haltan, are being ground down day after day. The ongoing possibility of a pointless death during an endless blockade brings the trio to a fateful decision that will affect the outcome of the battle and their futures.

During the soldiers’ introductions in the first paragraphs I became wary. While the senior one is named Mennaus, the others were called Tongue, because he lacks one, and Brain, because he hasn’t much of one. I’m immediately leery of any story where everyone has a cutesy nickname based on some trait, a trait which is also usually his singular characteristic. I was relieved to see that wasn’t the case in Meyerhofer’s story.

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Birthday Reviews: Eric Flint’s “Portraits”

Birthday Reviews: Eric Flint’s “Portraits”

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Cover by Tom Kidd (after Pieter Paul Rubens)
Cover by Tom Kidd (after Pieter Paul Rubens)

Eric Flint was born on February 6, 1947. His first story, “Entropy and the Strangler” appeared in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Volume IX. He has collaborated with numerous authors, both established and new over the course of his career, including David Drake, Mercedes Lackey, S.M. Stirling, Ryk E. Spoor, Dave Freer, Gorg Huff, Paula Goodlett, Charles E. Gannon, Mike Resnick, etc. The list goes on and on.

His time travel novel 1632 has not only led to sequels from Flint, but to a thriving fanbase which he encourages to write their own stories and articles, many of which have been workshopped online and published in online zines and hardcopy books. These include not only short stories, but also novels.

Flint has worked to bring back into print the works of several classic science fiction authors, including Murray Leinster, James Schmitz, Keith Laumer, Tom Godwin, Christopher Anvil, and A.E. van Vogt. With Jim Baen, he established the Baen Free Library and he also served as editor of Baen’s Universe. He has edited various anthologies, including The World Turned Upside Down and When Diplomacy Fails.

“Portraits” first appeared in The Grantville Gazette, an online magazine tied to Flint’s 1632 series, which allows various authors to discuss the setting and try their hand at fiction. When Baen decided to publish hard copies of some of the articles and stories, “Portraits” was reprinted as the first story in Grantville Gazette Volume I (2004) and provided the volume with its cover art. It was subsequently reprinted in Flint’s collection Worlds.

“Portraits” tells the story of Anne Jefferson, an American nurse posing for the Flemish artist Pieter Paul Rubens. The story assumes knowledge of the 1632 situation and characters Flint introduced three years earlier. This is a story which relies on its published context to be fully appreciated.

In its few pages, however, Flint is able to demonstrate some of the differences between Anne Jefferson’s outlook as a twentieth century American trapped in 1635 and a native artist from that period. The scenes set between Jefferson and Rubens, or Rubens and his wife, can stand well on their own and hint at the larger world.

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Birthday Reviews: Joseph H. Delaney’s “Survival Course”

Birthday Reviews: Joseph H. Delaney’s “Survival Course”

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Cover by Ed Soyka
Cover by Ed Soyka

Joseph H. Delaney was born on February 5, 1932 and died on December 21, 1999. He worked as an attorney before he began publishing in 1982 with the story “Brainchild.” Delaney was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1983 and 1984.

He was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella three years in a row, beginning in 1983 for “Brainchild,” “In the Face of My Enemy” the following year, and finally for “Valentina,” written with Marc Stiegler, in 1985.

“Survival Course” was purchased for Analog by Stanley Schmidt and appeared in the June 1989 issue. It has not been republished.

“Survival Course” is a pretty typical time safari story, reminiscent of L. Sprague de Camp’s A Gun for Dinosaur and subsequent stories. What sets Delaney’s version apart is that his characters, Clint Mineau and Cletus Running Wolf, have been sent back to the Tertiary period to confirm the cause of the destruction of dinosaurs. Their mission was spurred on by a glancing blow by an asteroid which wiped out millions of people.

Delaney spends quite a bit of the story providing a travelogue of the period, allowing Clint and Cletus to see the local megafauna while they worry that their timing is off. There aren’t as many dinosaurs then they would have expected to find.

Unfortunately, this section runs a little long. Although it sets the scene, it also has a feel of Delaney wanting to share his homework with the reader, catching them up on the most recent (and now thirty years out of date) understanding of dinosaurs. When he finally gets around to the cause of saurian extinction, it almost feels like an afterthought, coming a little too late and a little too slight, and it feels like it lacks originality.

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Birthday Reviews: Neal Asher’s “Owner Space”

Birthday Reviews: Neal Asher’s “Owner Space”

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Galactic Empires Dozois-back-small Galactic Empires Dozois Galactic Empires Dozois-flap-small

Cover by Vincent di Fate

Neal Asher was born on February 4, 1961. His first published story was “Another England” in 1989. He began his long-running Polity series in 2001 with the appearance of the novel Gridlinked. His 2006 novel, Cowl was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award.

“Owner Space” was published in 2008 in Gardner Dozois’ anthology Galactic Empires. The story is the fourth Asher wrote about the Owner, following “Proctors,” “The Owner,” and “Tiger Tiger.” Three years later, he would publish the Owner trilogy, beginning with The Departure, in which he explored the Owner’s origins. For the purposes of “Owner Space,” however, the details of who the Owner is and how he got to where he is are unimportant, making him something of a deus ex machina in the story.

Neal Asher introduces a complex world in “Owner Space,” offering readers three separate groups to follow. He opens the story with refugees fleeing about the spaceship Breznev and quickly introduces the crew of the spaceship Lenin, chasing after them. With these two assemblages, Asher provides the context of an doctrinaire culture which tries to control all aspects of its people.

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