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Wednesday reviews round-up for 9th September
Posted by Paul Raven on September 9th, 2009 at 11:16
Last Wednesday was silent on the reviews front here at the PS Newsroom, but the week betwixt then and now has seen a sizeable batch arrive in my aethereal inbox… so, let’s get to it!
First up, a couple more reviews of Lawson and Utley’s Passing for Human anthology. There’s one at SF Crowsnest:
The collection relies heavily upon the work of masters of the trade, who for the most part are all saying the same thing. I’m not sure I would have included all these stories, except for the fact it’s hard to resist names like Theodore Sturgeon, Ray Bradbury, Donald Wollheim and Robert Silverberg to name just a few. The newer and lesser known authors will definitely benefit by their association.
To my surprise, the stories that really stood out weren’t always by the afore-mentioned masters.
And another at BookGeeks:
The idea that aliens live among us masked as human beings is not new and has been fascinating both writers and readers of SF and fantasy for decades, inspired by antique myths of gods and supernatural creatures taking human form to alter and influence the fate of mortals. It was high time to assemble in one volume the most appealing stories devoted to such a captivating subject.
Praise then to PS Publishing and to editors Michael Bishop and Steven Utley for taking on such a burden.
This reprint anthology collects sixteen tales penned by famous authors such as Ray Bradbury,Robert Silverbeg, Barry N Malzberg, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree Jr, Paul Di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer. [...] Even for those who, like me, are not SF fans the volume is well worth reading, thanks to the excellent quality of most of the stories included.
Meanwhile, Andrew Monge of Horror Drive-In is quite taken with Old Man Scratch, the debut novella from promising new discovery Rio Youers:
… what makes the book shine is its study of the human heart. From the start, Scratch is portrayed as a cold and heartless man who has no consideration for anyone, while Johnny is shown to be a caring, loving husband who tries his hardest to deal with the problem in a civil manner. However, as the story progresses, we see Johnny’s countenance begin to devolve. He begins to fall deeper and deeper into his anger, bringing him to the brink of becoming everything he hates about his neighbor…and maybe worse. We as readers are left to wonder: given a similar situation, how close would we ourselves come to that brink? It’s an interesting question, one that will haunt each reader as they progress through the story.
And finally, I E Lester of the Internet Review of Science Fiction looks at four PS titles in a review/feature called “Long Live the Novella”. The books in question are Uncle River‘s Camp Desolation and an Eschatology of Salt:
Of PS Publishing’s recent novella releases, [this] is perhaps the most bleak. Set in Earth’s near future after the downturn has proven long-term, it describes the life, actions and death of one young woman. Shandra Stuart was a terrorist. She attempted to explode a nuclear device in the Panama Canal. Or at least that’s how she’s been portrayed.
[...] this is definitely the right length. A short story would not have allowed Uncle River the space to fully flesh out his fictional argument but over a novel’s length its cold, detached tone would have ultimately proven a turn-off. He’s judged this perfectly and produced a compelling, if a little odd, novella.
Stephen Baxter‘s Starfall:
This book’s great strength is due to its adherence to scientific accuracy. A series of events taking place over distances as great as these, without superluminal travel, is going to be slow and bitty. To enhance this, Baxter has broken his narrative into a series of short chapters, separated by months or years. This is a plot long in the telling, even if one short on words. Each scene advances the story succinctly, without fuss or unnecessary background detail, before jumping forward to the next scene.
[...]
This is another story that suits the novella, but for a different reason. Here the reason is plot, not style. Stretch this basic concept to a novel length and it would feel thin on substance. This is not saying it would become a dull story, but it could only have reached this length by adding in wallpaper. With Starfall Baxter has shown that less can truly be more.
Alex Irvine‘s Mystery Hill:
… an off-the-wall, aliens-on-earth novella in the style of Paul di Filippo or Robert Sheckley.
Ken Kassarjian has spent the past three decades running Mystery Hill, a tourist attraction where pendulums do not hang vertical and water seems to flow uphill. It’s not exactly what you would call a classy place—it has a mini-golf course. It is also a place that attracts weirdos—alien chasers, conspiracy theorists and folks who believe pretty much any old rubbish.
[...]
This is another perfect novella. It’s too out-there to make it to novel length and lacks the type of pay-off ending you would want for making the reading commitment to the longer length. But it’s enchanting, and likely to make you search out other stories by Alex Irvine.
And last of all, The Witnesses Are Gone by Joel Lane:
… perhaps the most mundane but most surreal of the four. It’s not true science fiction, nor is it really fantasy or horror, although it has elements in common with all three. (Horror is perhaps the best fit.)
[...]
At sixty-four pages it is the shortest of the four and the one with the loosest conclusion. It’s a book that stops more than ends in a traditional narrative sense. But this brevity actually helps. Too much more of Swann’s malaise could become depressing and spoil what is an impressive story. Its unending conclusion actually combats the lack of extra pages. You are left to consider what happens in the subsequent unwritten—and for this book, unnecessary—extra pages.
As always, click on the cover art to be taken directly to the catalogue page for the book in question, or just pop over to the PS webstore to have a browse. Have you read a PS Publishing title recently? If so, let us know so we can link you back from here!