I don’t know what the phrase “extreme fantasy” means. To me the word “extreme” was best defined in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle : white water rafting in a convenience store, hang gliding off a cliff, drinking Mountain Dew and lastly listening to Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. The editor of The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy defines extreme as “stories that took a basic idea, whether simple or complicated, and developed it to some extreme, beyond what the reader might normally expect.” That doesn’t sound too bad, but I like Harold and Kumar’s definition of extreme better.

For this review, I will give a brief synopsis of each story, followed by what I thought about the story and then finally the rating I give it out of 5. There are 24 stories in total making this one meaty, or mammoth if you will collection. Onto the first story:

1) Senator Bilbo by Andy Duncan. First published in 2001.
Story : A descendent of Bilbo Baggins fights for political power and immigration control in the fantasy land of the Shire.
Thoughts : Boring and overlong. Duncan is usually a good writer, but the characters in this are simply unsympathetic caricatures of Tolkien’s. I mean Gandolf-like magicians interacting with turn-of-the-century senators? Come on! Not a great way to start of a short fiction anthology.
Rating : 1/5

2) Sandmagic by Orson Scott Card. First published in 1979.
Story : A young boy watches his parents die of murder and disease and vows to seek vengeance upon the ones that caused his pain.
Thoughts : I liked the way Card expresses the concept of magic and the consequences caused by using something far greater than any one being. This story is very nicely done— heartbreaking and dark all at the same time. Now if only Card could keep his mouth shut and stop spouting his religious views on the evils of American Democracy and the Satanic undercurrents of homo-sexual marriages.
Rating : 3.5/5

3) Dream A Little Dream For Me… by Peter Crowther. First Published in 2000.
Story : A young man dealing with writers block travels to Germany to unwind and finds out he may be the key to saving God’s one true dream.
Thoughts : Crowther may be better known as the publisher of the great small press publishing house, PS Publishing. However, it also turns out that he is one heck of a good short story writer. This is a tale of how dreams can tempt us, rule us, and ultimately destroy us; how hope can turn to sorrow and regret in an instance. This one has a dreamlike melancholy feel to it— like dreaming of bunnies frolicking while your girlfriend breaks up with you.
Rating : 3/5

4) Lost Wax by Leah Bobet. First published in 2006.
Story : A young boy dreams of magic forbidden and learns that not all things wished for are beneficent and wanted.
Thoughts : A simple story with an abrupt ending. This one could’ve been more descriptive and a tad longer, but still was fun. Nothing much more to really say here, although I could never imagine myself collecting discarded wax shavings.
Rating : 2.5/5

5) Save A Place In The Lifeboat For Me by Howard Waldrop. First published in 1976.
Story : A bunch of old-time film comedians search for their destinies/purpose?
Thoughts : This is absurdist to the extreme. I don’t mind absurdist when it’s done well, like with Beckett, but this was not done well at all. Can comedy really save the world? I don’t know, but if it can, this ain’t it. If anything, this type of comedy will set things back by centuries.
Rating : 1.5/5

6) I Am Bonaro by John Niendorff. First published in 1964.
Story : A man who can turn into anything he wishes loses his mind in more ways than one.
Thoughts : An odd and short little story. This one is quite striking and will stay with you for days— or maybe like Bonaro, you’ll forget it. What wonder!
Rating : 2.5/5

7) The Old House Under The Snow by Rhys Hughes. First published in 2004.
Story : Two friends become trapped in a mansion surrounded by ice which slowly sinks, sending them deeper and deeper into a bottomless world.
Thoughts : The editor of this book, Mike Ashley, promotes this story as a nightmarish version of Alice in Wonderland, and I couldn’t agree more. This was quite the surreal one. Rhys has a definite way with words that will leave readers itching for more. I am officially a fan of his.
Rating : 3.5/5

8) Banquet of the Lords of Night by Liz Williams. First published in 2002.
Story : In a world of darkness where any concept of light means death, one man struggles to bring light to his life and save the world.
Thoughts : This is a short yet suspenseful story. Each word read is filled with more and more dread, reaching a crescendo that explodes of the page. Liz Williams always creates interesting worlds and this is no exception. Reminded me a lot of the tall creepy things from Dark Crystal and Mirrormask .
Rating : 3/5

9) Charlie the Purple Giraffe was Acting Strangely by David D. Levine. First published in 2004.
Story : A purple giraffe becomes aware that he is in a comic book and wonders if there is existence if there are no readers.
Thoughts : A story that can be read many ways: of our cultures obsessions with being famous, of peoples need to feel, well, needed— or perhaps it really is just about a purple giraffe. I’d like to live in a world where comic characters have found out the truth and Batman’s pretty pissed off at us. We can all dream.
Rating : 2.5/5

10) Master Lao and the Flying Horror by Lawrence Person. First published in 2005.
Story : In fantastic ancient China, a demonic evil starts taking the heads of villagers to build its floating head army, and it’s up to a lustful temple acolyte and his aging mentor to save the day.
Thoughts : Clearly Mr. Person has seen many Chinese horror/comedy movies, because this story is like reading the movies I grew up watching in the 80’s. He is rather funny with his turn of phrases and uses them for many laughs. It also seems like there’s more stories set in this world— gives me something to look for. This one is very reminiscent of The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart, which I entirely love.
Rating : 3/5

11) Using It and Losing It by Jonathan Lethem. First published in 1990.
Story : A man who wishes to be apart from society makes himself forget the language of words, but soon finds out that like all animals, words aren’t the only ways to express.
Thoughts : Admittedly, I am not the biggest Lethem fan, but this was quite interesting. The concept of repetition to forget actually blows my mind and makes me wonder if it can work— another odd-ball tall from Lethem. Maybe I’ll have to re-read Glass Soup . Wait, that’s a different Jonathan. Hmm. Still, both Jonathan’s were enormously boring on NPR the other day, so I stand by not liking either Jonathan.
Rating : 2.5/5

12) The All-At-Once-Man by R. A. Lafferty. First published in 1970.
Story : A man seeks immortality by living all ages at once.
Thoughts : This one reminded me of the Great Gatsby . I can’t really pin-point the why but the main character of this story had a “Gatsby-ness” to him, and that’s brilliant. What bogs the story down is that it try’s to explain the “how” of immortality but doesn’t do it well. I wish the author just left it ambiguous. Still, a nicely thought out and quirky piece— the ability to live all ages at once is an remarkable concept.
Rating : 2.5/5

13) Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani by William Hope Hodgson. First published in 1919.
Story : Translated to mean, “my god, my god, why have you forsaken me.” This is the story of a scientist who while trying to initiate an experiment attempting to recreate the biblical Crucifixion finds more than he bargains for, with Lovecraftian results.
Thoughts : This is by far the oldest of the stories, and it really shows— the dialogue is painfully prolonged, while the explanations are devastatingly lengthy and esoteric. Another problem I had with the story is the many shifting narrative view points. This can get a bit confusing at times and every time one of the characters reads “I said”, I was left wondering who in fact was talking. This is not old-time good like Lovecraft, but rather old-time bad like Edward E. Smith.
Rating : 1.5/5

14) Boatman’s Holiday by Jeffrey Ford. First published in 2005.
Story : Everyone knows that when you die, you put a coin under your tongue to pay the ferryman to take you across the river Styx. But what do we know about the ferryman? Tired of ferrying people across for centuries on end, the ferryman decides to use the holiday granted him once a century to escape hell, if only for a week. But can there truly be escape when hell is just a concept?
Thoughts : I liked this one a lot. It’s like Dante’s Inferno mixed with the “cosmic.” The question has always raged: did man create hell or did it always exist? This story tries to answer that question through one man’s journey into himself. This one reminded me of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as well.
Rating : 3.5/5

15) The Detweiler Boy by Tom Reamy. First published in 1977.
Story : A detective searches for the murderer of an old friend but instead finds a string of murders leading back to something disturbingly cruel.
Thoughts : This one genuinely hit the spot. I question if this belongs in a collection of “fantasy” stories, but I really don’t care. It was a nice break and a damn fine story. More crime-horror than fantasy, but not totally without since all horror contains some sort of fantastical events. Like a side-show coming to town, this one’s a can’t miss. Total Recall anyone?
Rating : 3.5/5

16) The Fence at the End of the World by Melissa Mia Hill. First published in 2002.
Story : Two young girls are told never to leave their yard for fear of falling off the edge of the world.
Thoughts : This is the shortest story in the collection and being so short tells more of a tale than a story. This is about the children we forget that are locked up from the world by parents who are more dictators than family. I feel that there could be more to this tale, but it was in the middle of blossoming before it was cut off.
Rating : 2/5

17) Elric at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock. First published in 1981.
Story : Elric finds himself stranded at the End of the World with his soul sucking sword out of energy and trapped at the mercy of bored immortals.
Thoughts : Besides the previous story by Howard Waldrop, this is the probably the most controversial choice for this collection. Elric has always been a polarizing figure in the fantasy community, and as I get older I tend to come across more people that hate him rather than love him—I for one am a huge fan. The Elric series were the reason I started reading fantasy back when I was 13. Of course I was far too young to understand the underlying themes at play in each Elric tale, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. So the Elric stories always hold a special place in my heart. Kafka may have gotten me to start taking literature seriously, but it was Elric that made reading “fun”— so much so that I own this story in probably a dozen different collections. This is one of Elric’s later, more playful tales, and is in its own way probably the most assessable of his stories— perhaps that’s reason enough to include it. As the editor of this collection, Mike Ashley states, “it was impossible to compile this anthology without something by Michael Moorcock.” I couldn’t agree more.
Rating : 4/5

18) Cup and Table by Tim Pratt. First published in 2006.
Story : A secret society searches for a holy cup that, predating man, will allow them to talk to God and ask him any question, any plea. And only a junkie who can see through time knows the true plea that all of mankind truthfully desires.
Thoughts : I’ve been a fan of Pratt’s since his short story masterpiece, Impossible Dreams — it’s the nearest any story has gotten to a dream after my own heart. This one is another home run. I love the way Pratt shifts through time, layering more and more questions with more and more answers. He does in 18 pages what lesser writers take whole books to do. Love this guy and love his work. Buy everything he does people!!
Rating : 4/5

19) I, Haruspex by Christopher Priest. First published in 1998.
Story : In the early days of the 20th C. a man consumes the flesh and maladies of the dead in order to maintain a balance, keeping demons from overrunning the world.
Thoughts : Most people know Christopher Priest for his novel The Prestige , but he has had a prolific short story career for over 30 years now. This story starts off really slow and builds to a slow finish. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt that this story really slowed the flow of reading the overall collection— like the editor was reloading for something exciting to come so he needed a lull to fill the space. Not one of Priest’s better stories, but it had an interesting, if at times confusing and entirely disturbing, premise.
Rating : 2.5/5

20) Radio Waves by Michael Swanwick. First published in 1995.
Story : The ghost of a man seeking understanding and remembrance is chased by an “entity” in a dead world surrounded by radio waves.
Thoughts : This is an existentialistic story about choices. How even after death, the pain we caused and choices made still ripple against the tide. Can we forgive ourselves even long after the ones we hurt no longer care? This one is a nice, albeit surreal, look at death that reminded me a bit of the Japanese movie After Life .
Rating : 3/5

21) Tower of Babylon by Ted Chiang. First published in 1990.
Story : After centuries of building, The Tower of Babylon is finally finished, and a group of miners makes the 4-month trek to the top, attempting to dig upwards into the vault of heaven. But what they find isn’t exactly what they were expecting.
Thoughts : Besides the Elric story, this was the only other story I had read previously. This is the story of the nature of faith— the accepting of truth when there has never been any proof. Much praise has been heaped on Chiang and this story and deservedly so. What’s even more astounding is that this is Chiang’s first published story? What?!! It’s like finally making the majors and your first career at bat is pinch hitting in the bottom of the ninth in a game seven of the World Series and hitting a grand slam. Again, what?!! This has been discussed and dissected for years in the literary circle and I’m always amazed that by each re-reading of it I find out something new— some new layer previously undiscovered. It’s that good!! What I like most about this story is the way Chiang describes the agriculture surrounding the tower as one goes higher. Since whole communities live along the tower, mini-towns have sprout up and the need for food is ever prevalent. The mid-parts of the tower where water is scarce can only grow onions, while higher up where there is rain, they grow beans and fruits. It’s the little details that show how much care Chiang took into creating this world. Utterly brilliant.
Rating : 5/5

22) Jack Neck and the Worry Bird by Paul Di Filippo. First published in 1998.
Story : A day in the life of Jack Neck (at least I think that’s what it’s about).
Thoughts : This story is just odd. The reader is constantly getting smacked around by words and phrases that are made up and make no sense. I’m sure to Di Filippo, the words made sense in his mind, but since I don’t have the fortune to rent real estate there I didn’t get what’s going on. It’s truly like reading a story in a foreign language. You can maybe pick out every 100th word. Di Filippo is usually such a strong and defined writer. I think for this story he was given too much free reign and probably created a story he has been carrying around since childhood. It’s like reading a Dr. Seuss story if Dr. Seuss didn’t rhyme and made less sense. I have to give it to the magazine that first bought and published this story. That took a lot of guts, and good or bad, the future of short stories needs more of that.
Rating :1/5

23) The Dark One by A A Attanasio. First published in 1994.
Story : A young barbarian is gifted with power and immortality from an ancient sorcerer. Through centuries the barbarian walks, searching for his peace known as darkness, which eventually he hopes will lead him to destroying the world.
Thoughts : The one thing that stands out about this story is that it tries way too hard. Its message of spiritual bliss is laid on pretty thick, like syrup on a stack of pancakes or lotion on a fat guy’s belly. The message of this story is that no matter how much time changes, all things remain the same: empires will always rise and fall, man will always be greedy and selfish— and only darkness is the salvation. This story is all about how religion is faith and that is good, while science is truth and truth is death— how the worst invention ever founded by man is science. I was waiting for Keyser Soze to suddenly appear and say, “and another thing: the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that he didn’t exist.” I mean it’s like reading some “emo” kids poetry. However, what really bothered me about this piece is that towards the end there’s a huge shift in POV which is extremely jarring, I thought I suddenly was reading another story— like I had skipped the ending or something. This is sadly not the worst story in this collection, but it’s brutal to get through nonetheless.
Rating : 1.5/5

24) A Ring of Green Fire by Sean McMullen. First published in 1994.
Story : A peasant with a penchant for the ladies is cursed with his “member” being surrounded by a green ring of fire. After spreading his wanton onto hundreds of unsuspecting women, a group of men newly infected hunt him down to make him pay.
Thoughts : This one is quite interesting. One of the notable aspects of this story is how beautifully it progressed: from the inanely comedic to the tragically possible— like a message surrounded by a lollipop. I’ve always been a fan of stories that say something profound while still being entertaining. This story is about how even to a healer, some wounds can never be healed; how only through pain can many of us find compassion and hope. This is a fantastic way to end a short-story collection. Heartbreaking and completely spot on.
Rating : 3.5/5

So that’s the end of the collection. I hope that at least someone was interested with what I had to say and will pick up this one up. While this was not by any means the best collection I have ever read (that honor goes to Haruki Murakami’s Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman ), it was still quite good. There were more interesting and excellent stories than there were of dreadful ones. Generally what I find from collections that contain numerous authors is that the overall quality dips pretty low—since every reader has different tastes, some editors try to meet all expectations within a single book, which is frankly impossible. Still, surprisingly enough, this collection worked. There were around 6 stories that I found were poor, 10 that were average to good, and 8 that ranged from great to incredible. Those might not seem to be great odds, but generally in short story collections, the poor stories far outweigh the good ones and the average stories in this were still better than most. The one complaint I had with this book is the “extreme” tag the editor chose. I know I have a different definition of extreme, but none of these stories felt particularly excessive. What would have been better would have been to call this collection, The Mammoth Book of Fantastic Stories to Read While Cliff-Diving or Parasailing — or maybe not.

Fans of Asimov will recognize the bare bones of later works in Pebble in the Sky, his first published fiction novel. This story takes place many years before the Foundation series and contains some hints of these stories yet to come. The Galactic Empire has spread and continues to grow in all directions. Trantor is the capital and central world of the Empire, operating a massive bureaucracy from its political hub. At this time, however, Earthlings are still living on the surface of the planet and are isolated from the rest of the human population. Planetary prejudice and political unrest have reinforced this separatist notion, making Earth a backwater assignment no imperial servant wants.

Life on Earth is hard. There are limited resources and the suspicion of radiation poisoning colors everything. Society is run by a quasi-religious order that enforces the life limitation of sixty years, ostensibly to make room for others who are being born. Many seem content to live only sixty years, but others are always on the lookout for ways to avoid the mandated euthanasia.

Into this world drops (literally) Joseph Schwartz. Due to an unfortunate accident in a nuclear lab in 1949, Mr. Schwartz is thrown forward in time by millennia and finds himself living in an ultra-modern Earth. Not as easy as it seems, as language has continued to evolve and he can’t understand anything. In addition, humanity itself has physically evolved which makes Schwartz an ancient version of unknown homo sapiens. Even worse, Schwartz is 62 - two years past the enforced Sixty rule and destined to die.

This is not a dark, dystopic story, however, and is infused with Asimov’s usual intelligent humor. Political maneuvering and scientific discoveries go hand-in-hand as Schwartz makes new friends and struggles to survive. The Empire is forced to recognize Earth as a power to be reckoned with, but this may or may not be good for the Earthlings in general and Schwartz in particular.

Asimov was truly a master, delineating the scope of science fiction as a genre. He breathed intelligence and real science into his fiction, making his writing one of the best examples of what true science fiction is. His characters are believable, some likeable and others not, and somehow he always works a twist into the plot where the reader least expects it. Even more, Asimov pushes the readers to examine both self and society. He seems to want readers to acknowledge the negatives of humanity and then celebrate the positives. That which makes us as humans great can also be that which causes us to destroy ourselves.

If you are a fan of Asimov, you should read his first scifi book Pebble in the Sky. If you have never dabbled into Asimov, or any science fiction for that matter, dip a toe into this book. I think you might find the water is just to your liking!

Tick, an introverted and intelligent young man suddenly receives a mysterious letter. By opening it, Tick launches himself on an adventure of a lifetime. Each subsequent letter holds a quirky and sometimes humorous clue, promising Tick danger if he continues and harm to others if he quits. Intrigued and compelled, he pursues each clue vigorously in spite of the risk involved. The mysterious clues drag him across the country and introduce him to a spitfire Italian girl and an all-American jock from California. Banding together, the trio commits to seeing the mystery through.

At the root of it all are concepts of time and reality, the forces that bind and drive creation. In The Thirteenth Reality, Tick discovers more than one reality exists. Life as he knows it continues in Reality Prime while as many as thirteen other Earths continue on different planes of existence. If this seems overwhelming, don’t worry. Dashner lays out his concept of parallel realities in a manner young readers can understand. Even the basis of quantum physics, aka kyoopy, becomes approachable!

I enjoy how Dashner portrays Tick’s relationship with his family. Too many times, parents are viewed as either the idiot contingency or the evil overseers. Not here. Tick’s sisters drive him nuts but he still obviously loves them. Tick’s dad is a wonderful character that supports and trusts him even though this means letting go of his little boy. In a world where Tick is often a target, at home he is safe and loved. Maybe that isn’t realistic, but who said fantasy had to be reality? Perhaps a little wishful thinking would do us all some good.

I liked this story. There are a few classic aspects that walk on stage, but these are presented in a fresh and believable manner. The evil witch (dressed in lemon), a giant with a quasi-Cockney accent, a dwarf as round as he is tall, mechanistic magic that blurs the line between technology and fantasy; all delivered in wrapping paper designed by Dashner himself. He writes in bold colors, splashing strong characters across the pages who demand your attention (and sometimes your fear).

This isn’t a sweet little fairy tale, bad things happen and our hero is faced with tough decisions. Dashner quietly leads his readers from an odd mystery into a hair-raising quest complete with flesh-eating monsters. As odd as some of the scenes are, though, the entire thing holds together. This is definitely a book young readers should sample.

I was introduced to Jonathan Carroll through the insistence of two strangers. I’m not known to listen to people, indeed I’m a scoffer, but they wanted to be called Wiz and Grub – and since those are of my two favorite things to do I thought they may have been on to something. You add that one knew the Condor Man uniform on sight and the other had reading list that peaked curiosity itself (not just my own) and you had the beginnings of a recommendation that would be followed through. Some years – and what seems like a couple lifetimes later – Jonathan Carroll is one of those authors whose books I buy. That may seem anticlimactic, but Carroll is one of, and perhaps the first writer who went on that list of “all I need to know is that the book is out” authors. I don’t need to know what it’s about, I don’t need to know where or when it takes place, I don’t need to know if it’s called fantasy, mystery, horror or science fiction – because such questions, such words, cannot contain Carroll. Instead Carroll carries Liza’s bucket of pandora paint adding a stroke with a brush here, there and where.

Frannie McCabe is the chief of police in Crane’s View, New York a town he grew up in and the town he’d happily die in if given the chance, not that death was something that was on his mind until the death of an odd dog that he took in at his office. A dog that like McCabe has the marks of a creature that lived – not just existed – and upon its death he took it upon himself to bury ‘Old Vertue”. A small town, a veteran sheriff, a dead dog – it has the makings of a western or a bad country song. At an rate, the death of the dog, the disappearance of a couple in his town, a girl found dead in the school bathroom, his step-daughter’s new tattoo disappearing - the aroma of change in the air would set McCabe on a whimsical story where he will attempt to connect dots while retracing his steps. Like time travel stories? How about a story that captures the scent of American Pie? About love, family, a coming of age story and a going of age story. When you don’t have to meet yourself to disrupt the space-time continuum, but you may have to hang out with him and perhaps more than anything it presents the idea that there would be value in asking your prior self – a unique individual – questions to see the actions of that person and learn something is not just a cog in the present cumulative. If one could point at a fault there is a point where you think McCabe is going nowhere, where Carroll couldn’t seem to bring a conclusion big enough to pay-off everything he introduced. It may even seem – in reflection – a great opportunity for a more than quaint fictional work without Science Fiction and Fantasy elements missed. What I think actually occurs is that we see a reasonable and competent man by most standards completely functioning as a man we would rationally think would in an irrational – a magical - situation. So many times in fiction we are shown protagonists who become so by acclimating themselves, to rise to the occasion. To become something they aren’t and never were – something nobody could possibly be. In many cases there may be fall to overcome as well, but routinely we are described this relying on our preconditioned acceptance of this due to exposure in rather flat fiction. Carroll does not stumble in tying up The Wooden Sea, Frannie does, and related to that the end of such experiences are not end of eras in any way a calendar would understand. The Science Fiction element – a universal awakening – is so over the top for the a Sheriff of an escapist-alcove American town that you can feel the gravity of just how beyond being simply odd or disconcerting such situation would be. You would attack this how you know how – with McCabe, the experiences of a hell raiser as a child, a Vietnam Vet, a veteran of couple of marriages, who lives a more than stable life and now respected in the town he once was once ‘that kid’ of. Frannie is a man who had gone through his ‘cycle’ only to be thrown into something bigger. It is not because he does not have the qualities to identify him as heroic; it is that rarely do we describe the day-to-day, handle shit as it happens manner as such. He is not offered a mantle, he is, when looking back on his life a man with an understanding of service and what we have is a man who doesn’t have all the answers, indeed he doesn’t even know all the questions. For the fantastic to have an effect, you have to establish a base that we recognize and Carroll nails the towns so many of us live(ed) in. Where reputations matter, where people never seem to get away from – and if they do, everybody can recite you the specifics of it. Where downtown is distinguishable only because it has been always been called that, where you’re Smith’s daughter or boy. Where I certainly have no interest in going to such a place now, perhaps the person I will be one day will. It is in such places that America really resides:

From the beginning Carroll confounds us and it’s not just a mysterious 3-legged dog – man’s best friend – that enters his life. We are introduced to McCabe spouting one-liners, a wife and step-child showing up at the job with jibes and apparent issues and instead of getting a fractured soul, another broken cop getting by on booze – he did keep his smokes – that lives only to confound the world set against him we get a happy man, a loving husband, a pillar of the community, and man who is where he wants to be. We find a man not looking for anything, but not to the extreme of a man who fears what he may find – he has found what he wants. We are shown choices we can believe. What would you make god do to prove his power? What would you learn if you observed your father when he wasn’t at the moment being your father? What would you want to tell him? In the midst of events of global, and even universal gravity, McCabe is in his hood and confronting these opportunities as if they were what really mattered. So many times, we are told the world is worth saving in fiction, even if grudgingly, and in The Wooden Sea we see why McCabe’s world is. More than that, I’m not a reader who views it as a requirement of the author to make me root for the protagonist of a story to enjoy it, indeed even in my most get-along-gang of moods it’s still a quality that I can’t completely reconcile as not being a least a little slow, but obviously that isn’t to say such stories don’t often represent the best fiction has to offer and one would find it hard not to find some part of McCabe’s journey that is not relatable, that doesn’t at least brush up against something you carry.

The Wooden Sea shares characteristics with others Carroll books in that he rarely puts a new spin on genre conventions it just always seems like his is the right one we had yet to see, as if others were suddenly a heart beat off, a turn of phrase too early, a sentiment missed. There is also a clarity to Carroll’s work that I think is rather distinct. The Wooden Sea’s brand of wonder is one that questions what you see, feel and believe but never what you are actually reading. In fiction we are sometimes – I think – too enamored with stylistic conceit, and I while I agree with Hal Duncan in that style is substance in literature – but Carroll’s style somehow morphs into what should be fashion at the moment of reading instead of vying for next. I always marvel most at writers who are able to present several stories – many completely different thematically and even in tone –that don’t take away from one another in the absence of recognition. When I interviewed the wonderful Kelly Link she spoke of stories that could be read and reveal something new – a story that grows – and The Wooden Sea leaves more trees to climb, more secrets submerged.

The Wooden Sea is perhaps not Carroll’s most recommended work, but is still a notable chapter in the body of work of somebody who is in the argument of being the most noteworthy American Fantasist today.

So take a ride on a bicycle, grab an oar and watch yourself fly.

Jay Tomio
The Bodhisattva

Jacynda is a Time Rover from the year 2057, escorting academic tourists back and forth in the river of Time to engage in historical research. Called upon to recover a reluctant tourist who is enjoying the past a little too much, she finds herself in one of the most terrifying times and places during the Victorian Era - East End London, 1888, the playground of Jack the Ripper. As if a tourist refusing to return isn’t enough, Jacynda finds out a Rover has also gone missing. Woven throughout her escapade is the presence of the Transitives, a group of people with the mysterious talent to alter their appearance by shifting their shape completely. Jacynda must decide who to trust as she finds she is running out of the very commodity she has always controlled - Time.

Winner of the Daphne du Maurier award, Sojourn is an exquisitely crafted tale that takes readers back to the very bowels of the East End. Squalid, derelict, and desperate, the people there are simply trying to survive another day. Jacynda can’t help but compare her life in 2057 with the existence of those in 1888. The author lays the stark and sterile society of the future next to the teeming life of the Victorian Era. Jacynda begins to realize filth and struggle serve to heighten the pleasures of the simple things in life, such as fresh hot scones and a quiet bath.

Jana G. Oliver has performed a masterful feat, balancing the multiple threads in the storyline to culminate in an ending that both satisfies and leaves questions unanswered. The only threadbare aspect to the plot was the relationship between Jacynda and her employer in 2057, but this pales in comparison to the rest of the story. Readers will find non-stop action from the beginning as they tumble from 1888 to 2057 and back again. Ms. Oliver introduces characters and creates personalities, capturing the Victorian fussiness and the “ladies of the night” with finesse. Her addition of the Transitives, shape shifters, serves to add a different twist on the activities of Jack the Ripper. Ripperologists, fear not, this is not an attempt to lay to rest the identity of that cruel fiend. Jack does, however, have a place in the plot (as readers will find out for themselves).

Sojourn was a wonderful adventure, full of unexpected twists and turns. I encourage you, Reader, to experience this time trip for yourself.

“Battle Dragon” by Edo van Belkom is not a deep book, but it does pose an interesting question. If a firebreathing dragon was sent forward in time to the age of airplanes, how would it fare in those battles?

Tibalt is a fire-breathing dragon with revenge in his heart as he terrorizes the English village of Dervon 1000 years ago. Even after vengeance is satisfied the arrogant Tibalt vows to continue attacking humans as they are not worthy to share the world with dragons. Despite being warned that mankind would become more advanced and in the future would be able to be more than a match for dragons in the sky, Tibalt still considers humans worth nothing more than being wiped out. Left with no other choice, the wizard Asvald sends the dragon forward in time, to an era when humans will be more of a match for dragons, and he will learn the foolishness of his beliefs, or so that is the hope. I thought that sending a dragon forward in time to be someone else’s problem in order to solve yours was not very noble and heroic. But anyway…

That time is 1940 Britain, in the midst of World War II’s Battle of Britain. Would Tibalt win in aerial battles against the “steel dragons” of the British Royal Air Force and the German Air Forces? Would World War II air power rule the skies against a dragon?

After a dragon appears in the middle of the war, the Royal Air Force believes that they are witnessing a new German weapon. The Germans believe they are seeing a new British weapon. The dragon may want to destroy every plane it can find, but with both sides looking for him he may get a lot more than he bargained for.

It was a curious “What If?” to keep the pages turning. The storyline was pretty straight forward, with only enough character development to tell the reader exactly what they need to know in the present of the story. I’d put the target audience as Young Adults. “Battle Dragon” read almost like a fable, with a bit of World War II history about the Battle of Britain added in.

The Battle of Britain portion of the story was done in fine detail. I personally enjoyed that aspect of the story more than the dragon aspect. For a younger though who may be getting his or her first exposure to either dragons or history this could very well make for a very nice appetite whetting for both subject matters. Edo van Belkom ends the book with a nice acknowledgement and a bibliography of books and a video about the Battle of Britain to learn more about the real battle. It is obvious that he was very passionate about that part of the story, and he did justice to that piece of historical fiction within the story.

That said, the story is short. It comes in at 270 pages. Even for a young adult book I thought that it could be a little longer. Even 20 pages or so could have fleshed out some of the characters better. The story featured a wizard from 1000 years ago who was still alive in 1940 and proved to be pivotal to the plot. It would have been nice to know just a bit more about him. Other than the fact that he served in World War I and worked in a non-combat support role, that’s about all the information we get about a man who was at least a thousand years old.

In 1940 dragons were the stuff of legend. They existed a thousand years ago, but where did they go? Are they still in existence but hiding? Did man and their technology hunt them to extinction in the past? We never find out, even though we have a millenium old wizard who would likely know the answer. We could have learned more about the wizard and about the decline of the dragons in one fell swoop.

Also, after the drama of both sides in a race to find the dragon and add it to their arsenals, that storyline was ended in very quick and anti-climactic fashion. I realize you probably want to keep a YA book short, but another 20 pages with a little more depth would have added a good bit, and would have still been a quick read.

That’s why I liken the story to a fable. You don’t get much deep information out of the story, or anything unexpected out of the plot. But you learn a little bit about history, and everyone learns a valuable lesson in the end.

It’s definitely one for the youngsters but there’s not enough meat on the bones or in the plot to make this an exceptional read. It is an interesting read in a straightforward fashion and it is a quick read, although not one that I personally would buy new off the shelf. The plot on the back cover pretty much sums it up, so it’s a simple “what you see is what you get”. If I were trying to expose a young teenager to fantasy though I’d give this one a shot. I’m all for any books that get kids reading.

A condemned man known only as Prisoner Zero. A Chinese emperor in the distant future. A young street punk in Marrakech. These are the players in a struggle that spans space and time, a struggle that the fate of humanity will hinge upon. Stamping Butterflies chronicles the roles, no matter how small or large, they will have in deciding not only the future, but the past...

Jon Courtenay Grimwood's followup to his excellent Arabesk trilogy is at once brilliant and frustrating. Grimwood excels at depicting political intrigues and rendering locales in crystal-clear prose that lends immediacy to the streets of Marrakech or the far reaches of the 2023 worlds. Nor can his creativity or his ability with characters and dialogue be disputed.

Yet for all of Stamping Butterflies' ambition that reaches for the stars (both literal and figurative), it falls short. The three main storylines and their associated subplots never come together in a meaningful fashion - leaving the ending rather tacked-on. Furthermore, Grimwood's style of leaving blanks in the story and either filling them in gradually or leaving them for the reader to deduce - while effective at points, all too often breeds confusion here.

It is unfortunate, as there's a lot of potential here, but Stamping Butterflies ultimately can be likened to a runaway train - powerful but uncontrolled. What worked for the Arabesk books just never hits the mark on all counts here. I did enjoy certain aspects of the book in the end - but I honestly can't recommend it otherwise.

“Grand Designs” is a collection of 7 novellas, originally published as eBooks, set in the Star Trek Corps of Engineers series. This is the 9th collection of this series, spun off of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. When there is a daunting engineering problem, rather than send in a standard Starfleet vessel and crew, Starfleet can send the U.S.S. da Vinci and its Corps of Engineers. Under the command of Captain Montgomery Scott at Starfleet Command, no engineering problem is too great for Captain Gold and his crew.

The collection brought us stories by Allyn Gibson, Kevin Killiany, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, David Mack, Dave Galanter, and Paul Kupperberg. Almost all of them have written in the Corp of Engineers series before, and that showed as they seemed to have a good handle on the characters. As hinted by the title Grand Designs, all of the projects facing the crew in this book were large, with big implications. I also thought all the stories were original, deviating from the usual Starfleet objectives of diplomacy, conflict resolution, or armed conflict. I found this crew to be very engaging and likeable. As I compared it to a couple other crews from extensions of the Star Trek Universe I found that my interest in this crew of characters was rivaled, in my opinion, only by Peter David’s New Frontiers crew.

I do feel that one cannot just step into this book and read from the beginning. There are events that are referenced repeatedly in the novellas which I would presume occurred in a recent book. The crew is still reeling from the loss of 23 crew members in some tragedy on a recent mission, and were still becoming comfortable with a few of the characters in this version of the crew, who were new replacements for fallen comrades. While this was referenced plenty of times in the stories, actually reading these events would probably make those elements more relevant and powerful.

This brings me to one thing that annoyed me about the book. Certain impressions and descriptions of characters, how they were disliked by other crew members or were not yet comfortable because they were filling the post of a fallen crewmember who was greatly beloved, were continually outlined almost verbatim in most of the seven stories. That may be a function of the editing rather than the writing. I can see how the information is relevant in understanding characters and how they relate to one another. But when each story is part of a collection there is no need to be repetitive with that information. When I got to those sections it just felt like an annoying case of déjà vu.

I have to also mention that this book is 627 pages of novellas about an entire crew of engineers. There will be a lot of classic Star Trek technobabble in the stories. If you’re a person who gets lost in all that discussion this book, and probably the entire series I’d guess, may not be for you. I have never been put off by the technobabble but even I found my head spinning by many discussions of probability, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Schrodinger’s Cat in the last story, which was otherwise one of my two favorites in the book.

Denyse Bridger debuts her first fantasy novel in As Fate Decrees, a story featuring the gods of ancient Greece in all their capricious splendor. Amarantha, a young human woman, is purchased by Ares at a slave auction. He then trains her to be the quintessential warrior and Champion of the gods while also tempting her woman’s heart. When she is sent forth in the human world, she meets with an old flame who just happens to be the King of Corinth and all Hades breaks loose.

As a concept for a story, I found the novel completely different from anything I’ve read in a long time. The character of Ares was complex and intriguing, containing not only the bloodthirsty warrior but also the thoughtful gentleman and the compassionate lover. The romance of Amarantha was a key element of the story but I was not overwhelmed by gratuitous love scenes. In fact, as much passion was displayed for the battle techniques as for the methods of romance. Unfortunately, the story that promised so much interest actually delivered much less.

I was unfamiliar with the specifics of the Greek myths featured here and so found myself struggling to keep the characters straight in my head. The story line would travel well for awhile, but then fall apart completely with ineffective transitions and confusing emotions. I felt lost much of the time and when the second aspect of the story came into play, that of the Champion of the gods being called to save the gods themselves, I felt everything went flat. In fact, this book seemed like two separate stories to me - one in ancient Greece and one in modern times. The one in ancient Greece had potential that was thoroughly depleted when it moved into the future.

Overall, I found this book to be a disappointing read. I think if the author had focused more on the first part of the book, the development of Amarantha as the Champion of the gods, that the story would have been better. In my opinion, the author simply attempted to squeeze too much story into one book. I found myself thinking “wait a minute. . . Hold on!” when the story would bound forward, glossing over weeks or even months in the lives of the characters. There is a good story in here, but it is lost in the confusing transitions and lightening quick passing of time. Because of this, the book receives a disillusioned 6 out of 10 from me.

The short fiction of Ted Chiang can be found at or near the top of many ‘best of lists’ in the SFF world – particularly among some of its most vibrant writers. I still have not read his previous publication – Stories of Your Life and Others, so The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate is my first exposure to this highly lauded, yet relatively unknown award-winning author.

Set in Medieval Baghdad and Cairo The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate is framed as a moralistic fairy tale of sorts in the same vein as Arabian Nights. Fuwaad ibn Abbas addresses the Caliphate in Baghdad, telling his story, in the process relating three other stories told to him. We begin when Fuwaad meets a mysterious merchant, Bashaarat, who has a gate that allows you to pass 20 years into the future or 20 years into the past. Bashaarat relates three stories of other’s journeys into their past and future with Fuwaad finishing the tale with his own journey.

Chiang shows remarkable skill as he immediately engages the reader while continually building a sense of anticipation – we want to, we need to know what will happen and what the great lesson is of journey into one’s past and future. The characters of the stories are instantly complete with the economical prose Chiang applies. We learn everything we need know as we see what drives them into their past and future; we see the unintended, and even the other side of the story.

Throughout the story Chiang imparts a sense of God-willed certainty about both past and future as things are seemingly set by the will of God. Ultimately, the lesson learned by Fuwaad leaves a satisfying feeling, but the reader is left with little more than questions. Like some of the greatest thinkers of the past, Chiang does not actually answer his own questions, or interpret his created fable – that is left to us.

Gods and Pawns by Kage Baker is a collection of seven short stories (five previously published) based on other novels of hers about the “Company” which further explore several of its characters; namely Lewis, Mendoza, and Porfirio.


The basic premise: in the future, man has discovered how to travel back in time, but the past cannot be changed, and man cannot travel into to the future. The “all-powerful-cabal-of-scientists-and-investors-who-possess-the-secret-of-time-travel” is referred to as The Company, which, in turn, is headed by someone known only as Dr. Zeus. The Company goes into the past to rescue babes fated to die an early death in order to make them literally immortal, and to employ them in their efforts to save artwork throughout history that would otherwise be lost to man.

Even mere mortals can identify with sentiments such as these. But Lewis’ boredom will soon end in this first story To the Land Beyond the Sunset. It tells of his and Mendoza’s discovery of a family that considers itself immortal gods “somewhere in South America…1650 AD“. It’s ironic that the true immortals in this case must present themselves as mere servants to these people (as is always the case, the immortals are careful not to reveal their true selves or introduce any anachronisms into the society in which they are currently living.) This family of gods has a peculiar way of maintaining their perceived unending lives.


My favorite, The Catch, gave more information as to how the Company makes its selections and how its operations work. It describes the first attempt to create an immortal from a ten year old boy named Bobby taken from the 1950’s.




A sad story that gives the reader glimpses into the Company’s objectives and intents. It raises questions regarding its business practices; how ethics and compassion are handled along with profit and loss.


The Angel in the Darkness is a mystery story that focuses on the descendants of the immortal Porfirio Aguilar and includes characters introduced in The Catch. In addition to solving the mystery of who is threatening Porfirio’s family, Baker observes how Porfirio deals with the emotional aspects of an unending existence.


Other stories, like Standing in the Light and Welcome to Olympus, Mr. Hearst, are something akin to alternative histories as the immortals encounter the likes of 15th century Dutch painter Jan Vermeer, 16th century Hellfire Club founder Sir Francis Dashwood, and the relatively more contemporary William Randolph Hearst. Baker skillfully weaves known facts with imaginative conjectures as to the motivations of these men and the Company’s efforts to save their works or, in some cases, to deem the authenticity of their works.


The stories in Gods and Pawns flow easily and the characters quickly become distinct personalities. Although I have not read any of Kage Baker’s Company novels, I had no problem getting acclimated and enjoying the stories. No doubt, established fans of the Company books will enjoy this collection revolving around familiar faces, but I think those new to the Company will appreciate the universal themes of love and sacrifice as well as greed and sacrifice presented in this framework of time travel and immortality.

CRUCIBLE: MCCOY – PROVENANCE OF SHADOWS By David R. George III

This novel expands upon the plot of the original Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever”, frequently hailed by critics as the best episode of the series’ run.

In that episode, Dr. McCoy, having accidentally overdosed himself with a drug by jabbing himself with a needle as the Enterprise was shaken by an energy wave, experiences a bout of paranoia and escapes the ship. After being tracked down by Kirk and Spock, McCoy eludes them and dives into The Guardian of Forever. Suddenly reality changed and the Enterprise was gone. Kirk and Spock learn that the timeline had been changed and the Enterprise no longer exists. Kirk and Spock then followed McCoy to 1930’s era New York City. They discover that Dr. McCoy had prevented Edith Keeler, a social worker who ran a mission, from being hit and killed by a truck. The ramifications of this event led to the United States later delaying its entry into World War II, allowing the Axis to win the war. The Federation was never formed. Captain Kirk managed to prevent McCoy from saving Edith Keeler’s life, even though Kirk had fallen in love with her, and restored the original timeline.

Crucible: McCoy – Provenance of Shadows picked up from this point. It then explored McCoy’s life over the next 99 years, through all of the Star Trek movies up until James T. Kirk’s death at the beginning of Star Trek: Generations, and to the end of Dr. McCoy’s life.

However, in an alternate timeline, Kirk had not repaired the timeline. McCoy had saved Edith Keeler’s life. At first he was obsessed about returning to his own century. Finally as the years passed he accepted that Kirk and Spock would never find him, and settled down into a very different life. At first he was pleased that he’d saved Edith Keeler. As the years went by he realized that he had erred. World War II did not begin and end as his history had recorded it. Although Edith’s intentions were honorable, the results of her actions led to a much different outcome for history than McCoy had remembered. Despite battling guilt over changing the timeline, his own personal demons, and the social ills of the early 20th Century in the South, as well has his growing dread over what the changed timeline would hold, McCoy found a satisfaction and inner peace that he had never expected.

Back in the Timeline That Should Have Been, Leonard McCoy was haunted by bad dreams, and haunted by a fear of commitment. He and Spock traced a medical mystery through the years of their careers. The answer to that mystery led McCoy to the existence of an altered timeline, from which memories were bleeding into his actual life. Much to his surprise, that alternate history also provided the key to exorcising his personal demons in his “real” life.

For all that Crucible was a period piece set in Depression Era New York City and Hayden, South Carolina, a piece of alternate history, and a cross-section of Star Trek history, what ultimately came through the strongest to me, especially in the last third of the book, was that it was a romantic story.

Considering Crucible: McCoy within the context of the other two Star Trek books I have recently reviewed, this one was by far the most intricate in terms of story. I am not an historian but I thought that the feel of 1930’s era New York City and South Carolina were captured very well. The characters and the settings were very vivid, and the dialogue was well done. I do have to give credit to the author for not glossing over the painful subject of racism in the South of that era. It was a fact of life that existed, even if it existed just under the surface at times, and that was not glossed over to make the story more “sanitary”.

I thought this book was one of the more sophisticated stories, with vivid settings and multi-dimensional characters, that I’ve read from any Star Trek story. The main characters demons were brought to life so that Kirk, McCoy, and Spock became more than just gallant heroes, who were always sure of themselves, and always swept away their tragedies so they could move on to save the day again. In McCoy at least some of that torment found peace. This was his book after all.

This book had a lot to it. I personally would have liked to have seen how the alternate timeline finally ended. This story was more about how World War II impacted the lives of the McCoy and the other residents of Hayden SC. Keeping the events grounded in the characters, despite not appeasing my curiosity, did not diminish from the presentation at all. In fact, it probably made that aspect of the story more vivid.

Recently promoted Admiral James T. Kirk is still adjusting to life behind a desk at Starfleet, rather than on the bridge of the Enterprise.

In an effort to occupy a restless Kirk, Doctor McCoy finally convinces him to read the book that is a current cultural phenomenon. “Strangers From the Sky” tells the story of humanity dealing with the ramifications of a Vulcan vessel crashing to earth 20 years before humanities First Contact with the Vulcans.

Initially resistant, Kirk finds himself increasingly fascinated with the story. It begins to dominate his dreams. The dreams become much more vivid and begin to deviate from the story as told in the book. Is Admiral Kirk going crazy? Doctor McCoy thinks so. Starfleet thinks so. Even Kirk himself is having doubts.

Light years away, while in command of the Enterprise on a training mission for cadets, Captain Spock is having similar dreams. Sensing his friend’s need, Spock brings the Enterprise to Earth to help Kirk, only to have Starfleet diagnose him with the very same mental disorder.

Spock and Kirk talk McCoy into helping them with a plan that they hope will find answers to a mystery that goes much deeper than mental illness. Their journey stretches back to the beginnings of their friendship, and back to the era from which the Federation would arise, unless events lead to a very different First Contact between humans and Vulcans than the one that history recorded.

My impressions: This is only the second classic Star Trek novel that I have read. Of all the Star Trek series, the original is the one that I am least familiar with. However, Margaret Wander Bonanno clearly expressed the bond that has formed between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. She brought the characters to life for me, and captured that chemistry that I have seen so clearly defined on the big screen in the movies.

I loved the exploration of human history right around the time of First Contact, and seeing the reactions and outcomes of such a first contact. With the exception of Star Trek: First Contact, which came out 9 years after the release of ‘Strangers In the Sky’, I have not seen much set in that era. I had to make an adjustment to seeing elements of human and Federation history fleshed out that did not quite match the canon that was established in the motion picture Star Trek: First Contact. These were addressed in the author’s forward. Given that the book came out 9 years previously, her vision of how First Contact happened was quite similar to the movie version. I do think that both captured the same essence if not the exact same facts. The telling of a story in that setting, which previously had existed only in my curiousity and imagination was one of the high points of the novel.

Nor had I seen any stories told of James T. Kirk’s early days as captain of the Enterprise. I personally very much enjoy backstory so I thought the book was perfect for as my second classic Star Trek book ever read. I have been meaning to read more, and I believe that this nicely told story will serve as a nice foundation for me to do so.

I do think that many of the references and characters from Kirk’s past would make the book as enjoyable for people who are more familiar with the established history of the classic Star Trek universe, as it did for me, who began his Star Trek fandom with Star Trek: The Next Generation. I do recommend this book, and I personally would ready other books by the author, based upon my impressions of this book.

"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."
-- Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944)

It is a strange universe, one where the scientific respectability of general relativity contrasts with the maverick speculative theories of quantum mechanics; one where the literary respectability of the mainstream novel contrasts with the anything-goes nature of speculative fiction. What is science and what is magic? Quantum theory shows that an action taken now, in the present, can produce changes in the past; a particle only actually comes into defined existence when it is observed by a conscious observer; and such observation can change that which is observed for any subsequent observers. It's all enough to not merely blur, but erase the previously held division of science being impersonal and repeatable while ceding to magic the realm of the personal, the numinous. While other branches of fiction, even the most literary, cling to rational fables of cause and effect -- rely on unknown or misunderstood causes for their pathos -- a growing group of writers are turning speculative fiction into guidebooks for imagining our so very strange universe.

Zoran Živković is one such writer. Živković won the World Fantasy Award in 2003 for his "mosaic novel" The Library, a themed suite of connected stories on the joys and perils of bibliophilia. His Seven Touches of Music was first published in his native Serbian in 2001, serialized in English in the UK magazine Interzone, and has now been released in the USA as a gorgeous single volume by award-winning newcomer Aio Publishing. In each of the seven stories that make up this slim black volume, another mosaic novel, the playing of music triggers -- as if by magic -- an episode that subtly mixes science fact and the tropes of science fiction.

The protagonist of the first story, "The Whisper," is a teacher of autistic children; he is shocked when that ancient magical combination of music and blood produces in one of his charges an outpouring of numbers of the hardest science. In "The Fire" a librarian dreams of the long-ago destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, and the following day is granted brief access to that very Library via her computer before the arrival of musicians signals the destruction anew. In "The Cat," a widower buys a music box that when played gives him a glimpse at an alternate universe where he sees what might have been (complete with a cute nod towards Schrödinger's cat). In "The Waiting Room," the music of an organ-grinder at a train station gives a woman the ability to see visions of (wormholes into) the future. In "The Puzzle," a retired employee of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project who wondered if aliens would necessarily communicate by electromagnetic waves is taken by the sudden urge to paint strange patterns when listening to music at the park.

 

Each of these first five stories, pieces of a puzzle, follows a pattern: the protagonist in each lives a life of solitude, of quiet desperation; a touch of music leads to an odd happening or vision; and when the music fades they go back to living their quiet life -- changed, at least within the span of the story, only by the hidden, private knowledge they gain. Only by their touch of music. Each story has none of the artificial "resolution" common in many stories, and while readers who need definite endings may be left with more questions than answers, each story nonetheless feels complete and satisfying.

The final two stories break the pattern, giving shape to the overall collection. "The Violinist" visits Albert Einstein on his deathbed, where a touch of music recalls a memory from his youth, how hearing a perfect violin gave rise to a vision of a black hole and may have aided Einstein in his understanding of gravity and light. Now a similar visitation by music inspires Einstein to new revelations as he dies. The final story, "The Violin-Maker," provides the history of the violin Einstein heard and its maker's quest for perfection, while explicitly linking all the preceding stories through the character of the violin-maker's apprentice. In both of these final two stories an attempt is made to communicate the wondrous knowledge gained, but in each case the communication is unsuccessful.

This concern with the personal nature of knowledge and experience, the inability to share it with others, pervades each story of the collection. There is a progression in Seven Touches of Music, from the teacher in "The Whisper" who is but a witness to magic, through those who are unwilling recipients of its gift, to the violin-maker at the end who has been consumed with seeking it out. Because of the inexpressible nature of these moments of revelation, the tragedy progressively increases with each story as well. In the hands of a lesser author this might be thoroughly depressing, and yet here the pattern that emerges is not without hope. If these touches of music, of magic, can happen to individuals, and those individuals can never share the insights gained, then what is to say that such touches cannot happen to anybody, at any time? What is to say that they're not happening all the time to people all around you? What is to say that you may not experience such a touch someday yourself? And perhaps, however inexpressible, the effects of those touches do serve to unite people in some equally inexpressible way.

These big ideas are achieved by minimalist writing -- in the best sense of those words. Živković's writing is sparse and graceful, with short sentences and carefully selected details. Tasked with describing five autistic children, for example, Živković spends but a single paragraph on each, and focuses the descriptions not on overt physical features or personality, but on how each child draws when given pencil and paper. As this is a translated work, credit must also be given to the translator, Alice Copple-Tošić -- in all the book there not a word nor sentence that feels unnecessarily vague.

Necessary vagueness of course abounds: for Živković a degree of uncertainty is built into our universe. But while it may seem paradoxical to convey uncertainty with precise language, it is Živković's great achievement here to make this paradox comprehensible.

 

In both form and theme, Seven Touches of Music is most reminiscent of Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics or Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams -- with just a dash of Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. These novels span the gamut of magical realism and literary fiction, but no matter. While physics continues its search for a unifying theory, Živković works at unifying literature, showing the value of creativity and speculative imagination in understanding our world and universe. It is perhaps not entirely coincidental that the font used on the book's cover makes "Seven Touches of Music" look very much like "seven touches of magic."

-- Matt Denault

There are two things I need to mention up front: one, I generally read anthologies from front cover to back, and two, I never like every story I come across. Thus, I was surprised when I found myself pleasantly enjoying story after story in Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge edited by Lou Anders, an unthemed anthology of science fiction tales from many well-known names in the field. Rather than dwell on the few stories that didn't work for me, I'd like to take a look at the ones that really stood out. Let's call these gems, yes?

In Lou Anders' introduction to Fast Forward I, he references the 1950s Orbit series of anthologies edited by Damon Knight and another later series compiled by Frederik Pohl from 1966 to 1980. Unfortunately, both of these were well before my time and therefore are lost to me in terms of comparison. But what I found most interesting was Anders own take on science fiction: a tool for making sense of a changing world. Surprisingly, for a planned unthemed anthology, this premise appears numerous times in the stories of Fast Forward I, particularly in Justina Robson's "The Girl Hero's Mirror Says He's Not the One," Paolo Bacigalupi's "Small Offering," Stephen Baxter's "No More Stories," and Paul Di Filippo's "Wikiworld." Our world is constantly changing; how are we, as a people, to deal with it? Some of these authors have ideas how…

Fast Forward I opens quietly, with Robert Charles Wilson's "YFL-500" telling the devotional story of Gordo and the love he begins to feel for Iris, a woman whose coded dream gave him the inspiration to paint the acclaimed piece of art YFL-500. Set in the world of the Rationalization, a locality where humans are considered obsolete due to the precision and advances in robotics. This sort of future has been crafted many before, but what I found so eerily captivating about Wilson's take on it was just how calm and subdued humans were with their lives; there were no oppressive robots or evil henchmen or nasty overlords, just them and those considered obsolete living where they could off what little work they could do. Though the ending was a bit predictable after all the set-up, I found Gordo to be a strongly sympathetic character in a world where there was not a lot left but to try and love one another.

Paolo Bacigalupi's "Small Offering" is the most horrifying science fiction short story I've ever read. And for that fact alone you should read it. Dr. Lily Mendoza delivers babies in a future where delivering babies is more complex than ever. To say anymore would really ruin Bacigalupi's genius within, and so I sit here, urging you, you who is sitting there reading this, to pick up Fast Forward I, flip right to his story, and immerse yourself in one amazing, heart-wrenching, psychologically-damaging experiences one can craft with words.

Having only ever read Kage Baker's Company novels, I was excited to see a short story of hers in Fast Forward I that was set in a different world. We join Eugene Clifford, a teenage boy on an orbital spaceship above Earth, as he's running around serving to the Shooters. A new recruit, Charles Tead, has arrived though and it's Eugene's job to show him around. It's the Plotters job to find asteroids heading for Earth, plot their courses, and then inform Shooters who will take them out with superb precision. And it's just like high school: Shooters are jocks and jerks; Plotters are kids and twerps. But newbie Charles isn't going to be bullied around, planning to become a Shooter himself instead of a lowly Plotter. And Eugene might just suffer all the consequences. I enjoyed the harshness Baker poured into her Shoot