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Wednesday reviews round-up for 3rd June
Posted by Paul Raven on June 3rd, 2009 at 12:37
Wednesday again, already? And how did we arrive in June so fast, I ask you? Still, I’m not complaining – it’s warm and sunny, and there are reviews to share…
Praise for the long-sold-out novella Gunpowder by Joe Hill is till trickling in. Here’s Joe Sherry’s take:
This is straight science fiction. Distant world, psi-powers, terraforming, and starships. Except, these are children with all the power, children developed to have terrible powers available to use, to shape a planet. Yes, it spoils nothing to say that those initial plans go awry. Plans must. The boys aren’t perfect, they aren’t angels (or demons). They are kids with remarkable power. Elaine is assigned to them, but loves them and they love her. It’s that love, naturally, that is the cause of all the pain that is to come.
What works here is that Joe Hill builds to a natural confrontation, and then twists it all to go not where we might expect, but in a direction that suddenly feel organic and natural and right – and brutal. Gunpowder has a tough ending that very much works, and one which raises the question of what happens next.
Oh – if you weren’t sure – I liked it and I wanted more of it.
Likewise! I finally got round to reading Gunpowder a few days ago, and if you’ll believe the words of the in-house publicity guy, every review of this book has been spot on; it’s a dark but touching story against a backdrop of brilliant worldbuilding. If Hill does more stories in the same universe (and there are rumours that he might), he’s going to make quite a significant dent in the sf scene.
The rest of this week’s feedback is all about Postscripts #18. This special all-new-writers issue seems to be going down well – first off, here’s the low-down from The Baryon Review:
Peter Crowther is going against the grain by converting his successful Postscripts into a hardcover anthology. This is the first volume in the new format and with the lineup of new writers that appear in this volume; it should add to his readership and create interest in future volumes.
[...]
There’s not a bad one in the bunch and each has a reason to make you think about what the author has written and a lot of them will end up on you “be on the look out for” list.
PS Publishing has taken a good thing and made it better. $18 is not a bad price for a hardcover anthology, most especially one of this caliber.
Rob at The Fiction Desk is also impressed:
While I wouldn’t necessarily say that “This is the Summer of Love” is the high point of Postscripts #18, it certainly doesn’t do a bad job of rounding out what must be one of the most satisfying anthologies I’ve read in a long time [...] I liked some of the stories more than others, a few had shaky endings, and there were one or two that I felt might have been better executed a little differently in general, but this kind of cavilling is really part of the pleasure of reading a good anthology.
I’ve now got three months to wait for Postscripts #19. I have plenty of other books to read in the meantime, but I suspect I might revisit a few of these stories as well, or better yet, start looking at PS Publishing’s stock of back issues.
Still not convinced? Well, the Ostentatious Ogre has only read a handful of the stories so far, but he’s already found a new favourite:
It’s always a treat discovering new authors and so far I’ve only read three stories but I’ve already found an author who I think is great.
[...]
["The Wages of Salt" by Deborah Kalin is set] in a Desert Dystopia [... where] an archaeologist and her crew dig up something that should have remained buried. That’s all I’ll say as far as the story’s plot goes but this one is worth the price of admission alone. Kalin from the first paragraph brought me into this world she’s created and I’ll be honest; I’m fiending for more. I’ve already read the story twice now and I want, no I need more. Can’t wait to get my hands on some more material by this author.
That’s excellent news all round. Obviously we place great faith in everything we publish here at PS, but I know that Pete and Nick are especially keen to discover and expose exciting new writers to the short fiction scene – and the above reviews suggest that mission has been accomplished!
As always, click on the cover art to be taken directly to the catalogue page for any of the books above, or just pop over to the PS webstore to have a browse. And if you’ve read one of our books, new or old, be sure to drop us a line and let us know what you thought, be it good or bad – that’s how we keep improving. :)
June 6th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
This was Joe’s response when I asked him as part of a Q&A he did on his site.
Q: Will there be more stories set in the world you created in ‘Gunpowder’?
There will. The next is titled SLAVE GIRLS OF GUNPOWDER and will probably appear next year (I was hoping it would be ready for Christmas this year, but I’m not sure my schedule will clear enough for me to work on it). There will be four GUNPOWDER novellas in all. Yes, I know how it all ends.