Review:
Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2011
| Editor: |
Gordon van Gelder |
| Issue: |
Volume 120, No. 5 & 6 |
| ISSN: |
1095-8258 |
| Pages: |
258 |
The editorial in this issue is about the investigation into the troubling
death of long-time contributor F. Gwynplain MacIntyre (which was not his
real name). It's disturbing, but to me it underscores one of the things
that I love about the Internet: people for whom life isn't working very
well can still find an outlet, make friendships, and control how they
choose to present themselves to the world on-line. That's something quite
valuable, and part of why the pushes for "real names" always gives me
pause.
Somewhat thematically related, this issue also features a non-fiction
essay by Maria E. Alonzo about her investigation of Jesse Francis McComas,
her great-uncle but better known to the SF community as one of the
founding editors of
F&SF and co-editor of the famous classic
anthology
Adventures in Time and Space. This is mostly a
curiosity, but it's fun to read about the sense of triumph in tracking
down lost family history.
This issue also features a Chris Moriarty book review column, always a
plus, as well as a few positive reviews of obscure superhero movies by
Kathi Maio (plus the required grumbling about a more mainstream film).
"The Final Verse" by Chet Williamson: This is more of a horror
story than I would normally like, but I got pulled into the investigation
of an old bluegrass song and the guesswork and footwork required to track
down where it came from. Williamson does a good job with the tone and
first-person narration, and the degree to which the protagonist cares
about the song to the exclusion of the horrific happenings of the story
blunts the horror. Not quite my thing, but I thought it was well-done and
played well with the possible meanings of song lyrics. (6)
"Stock Photos" by Robert Reed: This is well-written, like
nearly all Reed stories, but it lacked enough clues for the reader for me.
It's a very short story about a man who's out mowing his lawn when
approached by two strangers who apparently want to take photographs of him
for stock image collections. Then things get rather weird, but without
any explanation, and the ending lost me completely. Frustrating. (It is
partially explained by the later "The Road Ahead" story in this same
issue.) (4)
"The Black Mountain" by Albert E. Cowdrey: From one of
F&SF's most reliable story-tellers to another, and this is a more
typical story. Cowdrey offers an abandoned and very strange cathedral for
an obscure religion, a conflict over a development project, and some
rather creepy results, all told in Cowdrey's entertaining fashion. Some
places you just don't mess with. (6)
"Agent of Change" by Steven Popkes: Told Dos-Passos-style with
news excerpts, web sites, and the transcript of an emergency committee,
this story shows the discovery of Godzilla, or something akin to Godzilla,
in the Pacific, where it's destroying whaling vessels. I do like this
style of storytelling, and here it mixes well with humor and a bit of
parody as Popkes shows how each different news outlet puts its own
recognizable spin on the story. The story isn't particularly memorable,
and it doesn't end so much as just stop, but it was fun. (7)
"Fine Green Dust" by Don Webb: This story is dedicated to Neal
Barrett, which will give SFF short story readers a warning of weirdness to
come. In a near future where global warming as continued to make summers
even more miserable, the protagonist happens across a naked woman painted
green. The green turns out to be a sun block that claims to assist humans
in metamorphosis into animals. Most of the story is the protagonist
trying to decide what to think of that, interspersed with staring at his
neighbor's naked daughter. It's mildly amusing if you don't think about
it too much and don't mind the rather prominent male gaze. (5)
"Rampion" by Alexandra Duncan: The novella of the story, this
is set in Muslim Spain some time during the long fights between Muslims
and Christians in the north. It's told as two parallel stories: one
telling the protagonist's first meeting with his love, and the second
following him as a blind man, some time later, deciding whether, and how,
to re-engage with the world. The style feels like fantasy, but there's
very little overt fantasy here, and the story could be read as historical
adventure. It's good adventure, though; conventional in construction, but
with some romance and some drama and a good ending. (7)
"Signs of Life" by Carter Scholz: This is to science fiction
what "Rampion" is to fantasy: not really SF in the classic sense, but
fiction about the process of science. The protagonist works on gene
sequencing and is mildly obsessed with a visualization of junk DNA in an
attempt to find patterns in it. Like a lot of fiction about science, it's
primarily concerned with office politics, grant funding, and an awful
boss. There is a faint touch of the supernatural, but that strand of the
story doesn't amount to much. There's a happy ending of sorts, but the
story left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and I'd completely forgotten
it by the time I sat down to write this review. (4)
"Starship Dazzle" by Scott Bradfield: I've never seen much in
Bradfield's ongoing series of stories about Dazzle, the talking dog. In
this one, he's sent via rocket on a one-way trip into outer space and ends
up making a bizarre sort of first contact. Like the other Dazzle stories,
it's full of attempts at humor that don't really work for me, even though
you'd think I'd be sympathetic to the mocking of our commercialization of
everything. The ending is just silly, and not in a good way. (3)
"The Old Terrologist's Tale" by S.L. Gilbow: I love the setup
for this story. It's set in some sort of far future in which terraforming
has become routine, and a group of people are telling each other stories
over drinks. The first-person protagonist is a terrologist, someone who
designs planets (and the technology is available to do this almost from
scratch). The conversation is taking a turn towards the humiliating, with
a politician belittling the work of terrologists, when an old terrologist
who has been listening quietly starts telling a story about designing
worlds, both mundane and dangerously beautiful.
Gilbow does a great job here capturing blithe self-importance, the habit
of belittling other people's technical work, and revenge via storytelling
with a nasty barb. This was my favorite story of the issue. (7)
"Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer" by Ken Liu:
This is a rather odd but quite touching story about mothers, daughters,
nature, connection, and uploading. It's set after a singularity, in a
time when all humans are uploaded into computers and exploring higher
dimensions, digital natives in a much deeper sense than is meant today.
But Rene 's mother is an Ancient, from before the singularity and still
three-dimensional, and she wants to spend some time with her daughter.
That leads to a memorable moment of connection, without pulling Rene
entirely out of her father's world. Well done. (7)
"The Road Ahead" by Robert Reed: Two Reed stories in one
issue! And this one is a sequel to "Stock Photos" from earlier, since
apparently I wasn't the only one who found it hopelessly confusing. It
provides some backstory and makes a bit more sense of the first story, and
that also makes it a more interesting story in its own right. The stock
photo concept wasn't entirely a lie, as I had thought it was after the
first story. There is analysis, anticipation, and trends behind who the
pair take pictures of. But this story explores some internal tension,
some conflict between them and some knowledge that the woman has that the
man doesn't. And in the process it makes everything creepier, but also
more interesting, and provides a hint at a really dark way of viewing the
news media. I would say that this salvages "Stock Photos," except that I
don't think "Stock Photos" is necessary now that one can read this story.
(7)
"Music Makers" by Kate Wilhelm: This is another story about
investigation of the history of music, mingled with the supernatural, but
unlike the story that opened this issue, it's not horror. Rather, it's a
gentle and sweet fantasy about the power of music and benevolent ghosts
and a community coming together. It's a positive and happy note on which
to end the issue. (6)
Rating: 6 out of 10
Some of you might have noticed there is a new 
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowFullScreen" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/33734847?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitAllowFullScreen" width="400"></iframe>
One of my own contributions to the project has been the creation of 
When I was preparing my blog entry about 
I will be speaking at the 
I just returned home from 
This year, I've gradually realized that I no longer identify as a perl
programmer. For a decade and a half, perl was the language I reached
for to solve any problem that didn't have a good reason to be solved in
some other language. Now I only reach for it in the occasional one-liner --
and even then I'm more likely to find myself in