Asimov's June 2010

In my never-ending quest to catch up on reading my SF mags, I recently tackled the June issue of Asimov's. Here are some quick thoughts.

Allen M. Steele continues to impress with "The Emperor of Mars," a sweet ode to Mars SF over the years and the story of how a man deals with the loss of his family. This is a complete departure from his Coyote stories but just as engaging. I think maybe I should delve into his catalog a bit further in 2011.

Chris Beckett's "The Peacock Cloak" was an interesting exploration of how people go about helping a brand-new world...by making the same mistakes that humanity has been making for years.

Stephen Baxter's "Earth III" is a continuation of a series of stories but I don't remember reading "Earth II," to be honest. It's a story of power, exploration, and challenging the predominant views of the world. I enjoyed it.

The rest of the stories were solid enough but nothing else jumps out as worth mentioning here.

I have started the next of the now 11 magazines I have stacked up, so I'm sure I'll be writing about it soon.

The Pile #2

Here's an updated look at the to-be-read pile to my right, from top to bottom...

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1 - We have been reading selections from here for the past 2 weeks of class, which has been just fine with me. This week we will be discussing "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Five Orange Pips" to close out our semester (outside of the paper due Wed. and our final the following Wed.). At some point, I would like to read everything in this and the second volume.

Asimov's June 2010 - Yes, I'm still many months behind on my SF magazines but I have at least started this one, which got off to a great start with Allen M. Steele's "The Emperor of Mars."

The Passages of H.M. - I just read about Jay Parini's novel based on Herman Melville's exploits and decided to request it at the library. It came in and I picked up it today. For some reason, my 19th century Brit Lit class has me thinking of the same period in American Lit and Melville is a biggie.

Masked - This has not been touched since the last picture of the pile. It will be at some point.

Chew Vol. 2 - The same can be said about this.

Fables Vol. 14: Witches - This latest volume of the long-running series just came out Thursday and I can't wait to dive into it. I really should finish the paper before that happens, though.

F&SF Mar./Apr. 2010

One reason I haven't been doing these posts on the SF mags I've read this year is that I haven't read that many of them. However, I ran out of space in the nightstand drawer I store the unread mags in and that spurred me to get reading. It's no secret I like the anthology format and I consider F&SF to be the better of the two SF mags I read on a regular (well, sort of) basis.

Humor is difficult to writer because it is so easy for the words to fall flat on the page. A couple stories this time out worked well - "Epidapheles and the Insufficiently Affectionate Ocelot" by Ramsey Shehadeh and "The Frog Comrade" by Benjamin Rosenbaum. The former was a tale of a bumbling wizard narrated by an invisible chair named Door that mixed humor with an affecting character study of Door and the latter was a twist on the old princess and the frog story with a nice dose of Communism thrown in. Once you throw in Paul Di Filippo's "Plumage From Pegasus" about a penal system full of writers, you've got a nice set of humor.

The humor works well in contrast to darker stories, of which there were a few good examples. Dennis Danvers' "The Fairy Princess" is a story of a woman divorced from life and newly-sentient sex robots. "Blue Fire" by Bruce McAllister looks at the night a child Pope met a child vampire and what it meant for both of their souls.

You also get your classic themes and classic writers in this issue. The opening story was a take on mythology and time-crossed love ("Amor Fugit" by Alexandra Duncan) and the always dependable Albert E. Cowdrey gave us a story about art and death in "Fort Clay, Louisiana: A Tragical History." Mix that with the books column and the hide-and-seek nod to one of the stories in the classifieds and you get another good issue.

The Pile

Now that I've written about the last two things I've read, I thought I'd run down what's currently sitting in my to-be-read pile. I'll go top to bottom...

The Mar./Apr. issue of F&SF - No, you didn't read that cover date incorrectly. I'm waaaaay behind on my SF magazine reading - there are 3 more issues of F&SF and 7 (!) of Asimov's still socked away in a drawer (well, the drawer isn't big enough to hold them all, so some are shifted to the bookshelves behind me) after this one. On the plus side, I've read over 120 pages of this issue since last night and will read more after this post is completed.

English Victorian Poetry - We're spending two days on poems from this anthology between novels in my English class. We covered Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Matthew Arnold on Wednesday and will discuss Alfred, Lord Tennyson on Monday.

The Woman in White - This novel by Wilkie Collins is next up after the poetry. It's the longest novel we've read in class so far and I'll need to knock out large chunks in a short amount of time. I'd heard of Collins before this but not the book and I'm eager to check it out. Strangely, it also got a mention in Bob Dylan in America.

Masked - This is an anthology of super-hero prose stories edited by Lou Anders, who usually puts these sorts of things together very well. I've read the first four stories so far but that was a while ago. It's not that I've lost interest - I just need to carve out some more time.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk - I was a fan of David Sedaris's essays in The New Yorker back when I was a subscriber and this small book of short stories seemed like a good way to check in with him again. The title alone, you know?

The Last Run - This is the third (and final?) Tara Chace novel from Greg Rucka, a series that started as the comic Queen & Country. You know, I'm still not sure I own all those trades (a quick check reveals I didn't get the final one of the main series or a couple of the offshoots). Anyway, the last novel came out in 2005, so it's been a while.

Chew Vol. 2 - This collects issues #6-10 of the ongoing series about cibopathic Tony Chu. It's an odd premise and a great book.

Fantastic Four - This is one of the most venerable comics in the Marvel Universe, of course. This particular collection contains the first six issues of the current run by Jonathan Hickman which has gotten pretty good reviews. The first story is a multiple worlds tale and I'm a sucker for those, so I'm interested to see Hickman's take on the team.

It'll take a while to get through these but I'm always ready to read...

More Stories

I love reading short stories. For many years I kept track of how many stories I read and it was usually over 200 a year. Not a bad total when you factor in the novels and comic books read during each year as well. As fans of short stories know, anthologies are a good way to discover new writers to follow and to find new stories from old favorites. When I heard that Neil Gaiman, one of my very favorites, and Al Sarrantonio were editing a new collection of stories called, well, Stories, I was ready to read it.

Most of the writers in Stories are high-profile and well-known - your Joyce Carol Oates and Lawrence Block and Jeffrey Deaver and Walter Mosely. The ones who aren't well-known to everyone are usually well-known in their genre, Michael Swanwick and Jeffrey Ford, for instance. It's a star-studded cast, for sure. Like all anthologies, though, there are stories to love and stories to not love so much.

Roddy Doyle starts off the collection with "Blood," which is a perfect opener. His normal 41 year-old man starts craving blood and doesn't know why. The story tracks what he does and how he deals with his feelings about that fact. At the end, he has to admit it to his wife and it's a great scene to close out the story. I've never read any Doyle other than random stories in anthologies like this one and I'll have to remedy that fact.

The collection also ends very well with Joe Hill's "The Devil on the Staircase." Not only is it a chilling tale of murder and hell but it plays with typography- most paragraphs resemble the titular staircase as the main traverses up and down the 800 plus stairs on the mountain where he lives. I love that type of play in literature when it's integral to the story.

I also want to mention "A Life In Fictions" by Kat Howard. Who is Kat Howard, you ask? Well, she's the throw-in amongst all the big names - this is her first published story. Let me tell you, she more than holds her own. It's a very short story about a woman who keeps getting written into fiction by the writer who loves her. It's a smart idea and it plays out perfectly. I will definitely be on the lookout for more of her work.

I could go on and on about each story I loved but instead I'll quickly mention a few more. Jeffrey Ford turns in a creepy and melancholy romance in "Polka Dots and Moonbeams." Lawrence Block delivers a sensationally skin-crawling "Catch and Release," making your opinion of the main character change over the course of it. Stewart O'Nan delivers a quiet yet powerful tale of a woman searching for a dead girl she has no connection with in "Land of the Lost." Michael Swanwick plays with the idea of fiction and what it means for the characters contained within that fiction in "Goblin Lake." Finally, Kurt Andersen's "Human Intelligence" takes the old SF idea of aliens observing the planet out for a pleasing whirl.

Obviously, there were stories I didn't like but I'd rather not dwell on those. Instead, I'd like to savor the storytelling on display in this worthwhile collection.

Reading Rebound

I finished the Dec. 2009 issue of Asimov's last night and I didn't have a positive view of the magazine. I gave up on the final story by Brian Stableford (I keep trying with him but I'm just not a fan) and the rest of the stories didn't do much for me, except for Mike Resnick's humorous high concept, "The Bride of Frankenstein." I was reluctant to pick up the Jan. 2010 issue but I've been trying to wipe out my SF mag backlog, so I did. I read the entire issue today and was glad I did.

It's rare to find any anthology, whether magazine or book, where you like everything but I found that today. Thanks to Geoffrey A. Landis for the mix of hard SF and character, Felicity Shoulders for the gut-punch ending in a story about a world where babies with modifications are abandoned, Steve Rasnic Tem for the uplifting melancholy, Chris Roberson for the birth of a Superman substitute in an alternate world, Robert Reed for the similarities and differences of his alternate world (which includes a never-made movie by Martin Scorcese, Carol Emshwiller for her wonderful oddball characters, and Allen M. Steele for the pulpy thrill of the "true" story of an alien lifeform landing on an exclusive Georgia island.

Clearing

I've spent most of my weekend trying to clear out some things (mostly brought on my whiny post about all of the piles I have) and have been slightly successful. It's also helped by the facts that my Spanish professor didn't post any online exercises like she said she would and that the pdf of the first book of The Iliad I have to read for English isn't downloading properly.

Yesterday morning I finished The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris, the follow-up novel to his acclaimed debut And Then We Came to the End, which I liked well enough. I almost gave up on The Unnamed after 75 pages but then decided to stick with it. It's about a man who has a recurring condition where he just walks. That's right, walks. He is unable to stop himself until his body decides and then falls into deep sleeps that are dangerous due to where he sleeps. He's not a particularly interesting character and the first two-thirds of the novel are fairly tedious. The final third is much more interesting, when Tim has reached a state of roaming and warring with his body. It is odd and compelling and the story ultimately reaches a nice crescendo before tailing off again in the final pages. I'm glad I stuck with it but wouldn't say I loved it.

Once I finished the Ferris novel, I returned both it and the next novel I had out from the library, then canceled my other requests. It's time to try and get a handle on the reading material I have here before dipping back into the never-ending stacks.

I did make a start by reading the second story in the Oct/Nov issue of F&SF, "Bandits of the Trace" by Albert E. Cowdrey. I usually like the work Cowdrey produces for the magazine but this one kicked it up a bit. The story has an odd opening then shifts to a college professor who is struggling with a book and a crossword puzzle. He ends up roping a student into a puzzle around which is book is based. We then get the entire first chapter of that book, telling the tale of the titular bandits, which is quite engrossing. Eventually all three sections weave back together and the fantastical element is revealed. It's clever and fun.

I've managed to clear out most of the 160+ posts I had in my Google Reader and heard some good music that way - Phantogram, Lissie, and new stuff from Josh Rouse and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. I also listened to the third disc of that Hall & Oates box set, though I still have another to go...and then bought myself 2 more albums yesterday (Charlotte Gainsbourg and Vampire Weekend).

I watched a handful of things from the DVR, including the last two eps of Batman: Brave and the Bold with my son. He thought "A Bat Divided" was hilarious and I agreed with him, plus it was fun seeing the version of Firestorm they introduced. That show is tons of fun.

I am hoping to finally watch the final episode of Dollhouse before the Super Bowl starts. I also plan on starting the Jack of Fables trade at the top of my pile during the game.

End of the Year Pile

I've made a bit of a dent in my pile over vacation but not anything substantial. Here's what I have to read in the early part of 2010...

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

Finch by Jeff Vandermeer

Total Oblivion, More or Less by Alan DeNiro (from the library)

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (waiting for me at the library)

Umbrella Academy: Dallas

Chew Vol. 1: Taster's Choice

House of Mystery Vol. 1: Room and Boredom

I also have 2 issues of F&SF and 3 issues of Asimov's stacked up.

I shouldn't wait for 2010 to start reading any of these but I probably will. Yeah, I know

Piecemeal

I cannot stop listening to Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices.

Paolo Bacigalupi's debut novel, The Windup Girl, is dark and fantastic.

Jack Skillingstead's "Life on the Preservation" is wonderfully depressing and uplifting at the same time.

Adventure Comics #4 uses Superboy Prime for a bit of metafiction in the midst of the DC-wide Blackest Night storyline and succeeds.

I am excited for Chuck to return on Jan. 10 and Lost to do the same on Feb. 2.

Even though I have stacks of things to read and tons of stuff on the DVR, I think I'll watch Ashes of American Flags (the recent live Wilco DVD) again...

Asimov's July 2009

Following on the heels of a strong June issue, Asimov's delivers another high quality issue with the July 2009 edition. There are three excellent stories and a couple of solid stories, with only one real disappointment. When reading a magazine or anthology, it's hard to get a better percentage of stories you like.

The issue gets off to a great start with Michael Cassutt's "The Last Apostle." Joe Liquori is Omega, the last of the Twelve Apostles, the group of astronauts who landed on the Moon and were dubbed by a writer. He is on the mood again in his 80s, sort of living in a retirement home on the Moon, and he makes a return trip to an unscheduled stop he made years ago with his landing partner, the Alpha Male. That return doesn't go as planned but has unexpected consequences that will forever cement his name in history. The story is an interesting look at an alternate space program that could have been and has a very strong sense of character and mood.

I did not much care for Kit Reed's "Camp Nowhere" and she is a writer I usually like. I think the voice of the main character, a teen whose parents resent him and take him to a sinister psycho therapy-like camp, was too whiny. I didn't care at all what happened to him. So it goes.

I was happy to return to R. Garcia y Robertson's future of SuperCats and Greenies in "SinBad the Sand Sailor." The titular character gets into trouble when he drops his cargo of drugs (that he is smuggling) to pick up a pretty air hostess who has been thrown overboard. He is soon forced to rob a wind wagon, be hostilely be taken aboard another ship, only to be accepted and then outcast, before going back to reresuce the woman he resuced...but she ends up rescuing him more than once. It has a cool setting and is just an entertaining story. Someone needs to collect all the stories Robertson has written in that setting - it would be a big book of stories that are tons of fun.

The next two stories were solid - "Sleepless in the House of Ye" by Ian McHugh and "Shoes-To-Run" by Sara Genge. The former is a tale of aliens trying desperately to keep their offspring alive amidst harsh weather and attacks by worms; the latter is about a girl who wants to be a man instead of a woman as well as a tale of a future where Paris has sealed itself inside a dome and what the people outside the dome try to do.

Finally, there is Stephen Baxter's "Earth II." I have always enjoyed Baxter's appearances in Asimov's, though it's been a while since his last one. This one is set on a world in the future where inhabitants of Earth fled after a disaster. The story deals with the legacy of those Founders and the future of the world, with its coolsummers and hotsprings and Purple all over the place. A society where women are the warriors and the men stay home. Xaia Windru pushes on to find the City of the Living Dead and learns more about herself and her world than she though. This story takes place in the same world as Baxter's current novels Flood and Ark and I'm going to have to put those on my reading list.

As a bonus, Paul Di Filippo points me toward a few books of interest (I would love to get to read as much as he does) in the On Books column - Nick DiChario's Valley of Day-Glo, Robert Freeman Wexler's chapbook Psychological Methods to Sell Must Be Destroyed, and yet another poetry collection from Bruce Boston (my favorite poet regularly appearing in the pages of Asimov's).