Review of CARSON OF VENUS THE EDGE OF ALL WORLDS

TITLE: Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds (ERB Universe #1, Swords of Eternity Super-Arc #1)

AUTHOR: Matt Betts

278 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462238 (hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Stranded on an alien world for nearly two decades, Earthman Carson Napier finds his own past haunting him in strange and terrifying ways when he’s confronted by a sinister madman bent on ruling Amtor. To stop his opponent and his insidious weapon, Carson must gather an alliance of friends and former enemies alike in an epic struggle for control of the planet. A stand-alone novel, this book also launches ERB, Inc.’s new canonical line of stories and the “Swords of Eternity” four-book super-arc. The book also includes a new Pellucidar-related short story by Christopher Paul Carey.

MY RATING: Five out of five stars

MY THOUGHTS: If I didn't know better, I would think I had just read a long-lost Edgar Rice Burroughs manuscript discovered somewhere in the depths of the offices of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. in Tarzana, CA. Matt Betts does a truly wonderful job of matching the tone and pacing of Burroughs' five original Carson of Venus books, and that includes a pitch-perfect prologue in which Betts, visiting the Burroughs offices to pitch a different project, meets Carson Napier himself – or at least Carson’s astral projection, reaching someone on Earth for the first time since the death of Burroughs himself back in 1950. Burroughs often inserted himself in his pulp adventures as the man asked by the characters in question (Tarzan, John Carter, Carson, etc.) to turn their true-life adventures into novels for the masses.

In typical Carson Napier fashion, once the action starts it doesn't stop: Carson and his team (the love of his life, Duare, and his best friends Ero Shan and Nalte) manage to turn a simple scouting mission into a combination of search-and-rescue, espionage, and a bit of social influencing as they come across other characters, despite orders from their jong ("king") to simply scout and return with information. It's not that Carson and his friends intentionally disobey orders -- it's that they just keep stumbling on things that take them further from home and closer to the source of their (and their kingdom's) latest problem. The action ranges across locations on Amtor (the native name for Venus) both familiar to long-time readers and newly-revealed in this adventure. The action scenes contain all the derring-do one expects of a Burroughs novel and all of the near-fatal-misses one expects of a Carson book. Unlike a number of Burroughs’ more well-known characters, Carson is not a capital-H Hero or a superhuman. He’s a man who made a mistake in his calculations (aimed his rocket-ship for Mars but ended up on Venus instead, inspiring some readers to call him “Wrong-Way Carson”) and just keeps finding himself in one dangerous situation after another with no choice but to survive or die.

I've always felt that as much as Burroughs interconnected his series in his original novels (Tarzan has traveled to Pellucidar; Jason Gridley's "Gridley Wave" allows communication between Barsoom, surface Earth, and Pellucidar), Carson always seemed the odd man out: he communicated his adventures to Burroughs via astral projection, but otherwise seemed to have little or no connection to the others Burroughs wrote about. Betts reveals a previously-unknown friendship between Carson and Gridley from before Carson left Earth, and (this is not really a spoiler) an appearance by Gridley in this novel not only deepens the connective tissue but also sets up the "Swords of Eternity Super-Arc" of which this is the first book. For those concerned: this IS a Carson of Venus novel first and foremost. The nods at the Super-Arc help propel this story rather than sidetrack or derail the action (the way most tie-ins to DC or Marvel Comics "Events" often derail the action of the ongoing series they appear in), and the story Betts starts in chapter one concludes in this book. No cliffhangers, no "to be continued in the pages of...". Betts follows Burroughs in telling a complete-in-one adventure yarn that still feels like a part of something larger.

But Betts isn't simply a Burroughs imitator. The author's sly sense of humor and ability to craft exciting action sequences carries through and enhances the story in ways mere imitation would not, especially in the creation of three new characters that I hope we'll see more of in any future Carson of Venus novels. I sincerely hope ERB Inc. will continue to tap Betts to write further Carson novels. He's clearly able to bring a modern sensibility to standard Burroughs fare, integrating it cleanly without denigrating or over-writing the original Master.

The book also comes with a bonus short story written by Christopher Paul Carey, which fills us in on just how Jason Gridley came to appear in front of his old friend Carson on Venus. This is the true start of the "Swords of Eternity Super-Arc," and it's a tightly-told tale that takes place in Pellucidar, is narrated by Jason Gridley, and introduces new ERB character Victory Harben. It’s not a spoiler to mention that while Victory is a new character, her personal history comes from material Burroughs actually wrote; her family can be traced back to several different Tarzan novels. We get to see just enough of her that I can confidently say she is absolutely a Burroughs heroine: as smart, tenacious, and strong as Jane Porter-Clayton, Dejah Thoris, and Duare. I'm excited to see where the Super-Arc takes her between here and the fourth book in the “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc, Victory Harben: The Fires of Halos, which will also be written by Carey. She is sure to  join the pantheon of Burroughs characters people want to know more about.

Oh, and speaking of Victory: to steal a movie phrase, be sure to stick around for the “after-credits scene.” If you’re the type of reader who skips the acknowledgements, etc., at the end of a book, you might miss out on an interesting little teaser.

**NOTE: This review was written after reading an Advance Review Copy provided by the publishers in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.**

Reading Round-Up: April 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues as “books.” I read or listened to 11 books in April: 5 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #119 (April 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Yoon Ha Lee’s “Always The Harvest,” Andrew Dana Hudson’s “Voice of their Generation,” Celeste Rita Baker’s “Glass Bottle Dancer,” and Fred Van Lente’s “Neversleeps.”

2.       The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe #6) by Raymond Chandler. Marlowe makes a friend, and the friend commits murder and goes on the run, leaving Marlowe to figure out what really happened while he’s arrested as an accomplice. Listened to the abridged audiobook narrated by the always excellent Elliot Gould.

3.       The Burglar in Short Order by Lawrence Block. Finally, a collection of every short story, vignette and non-fiction piece featuring or about the writing/creation of Block’s burglar/bookshop owner Bernie Rhodenbarr. Not a bad piece in the bunch, including a new essay about how certain characters don’t age but do sometimes fade gracefully from the spotlight.

4.       Miles Morales: Spider-Man Volume 1: Straight out of Brooklyn by Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garron, others. Like I said about Seanan McGuire’s “Spider-Gwen” runs last month: Saladin Ahmed has gotten me invested in a character I knew almost nothing about before he started writing the character. I knew vaguely who Miles Morales was because of all the press when he succeeded Peter Parker as the Ultimate Universe Spider-Man and again when he was merged onto the main Marvel Earth, but otherwise my only familiarity was from the Into the Spider-Verse movie. Now I’m totally on board with Miles, his family, and his friends.

5.       Miles Morales: Spider-Man Volume 2: Bring on the Bad Guys by Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garron, others. A solid second collection, continuing Miles’ adventures and increasing the tension surrounding what new villain in town Ultimatum wants with Miles.

6.       Common Source (John Simon Thrillers #3) by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Schmidt’s third near-future-SF buddy cop thriller lowers the city-wide stakes slightly (no terrorists looking to destroy major landmarks) but increases the personal stakes, as android cop Lucas George must deal with several of his brethren gone rogue and his Maker going missing. Full Review coming closer to the book’s May release date. (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

7.       How to Flirt in Fairieland & Other Wild Rhymes by C.S.E. Cooney. I am really not a strong poetry reader, and I usually don’t feel equipped to judge poems on anything more than an “I liked it” scale. I can say that I enjoyed this collection of fantasy poems, all of which tell stories one wants to fall into.

8.       Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds by Matt Betts. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. launches an official, canonical new set of books starting here: the first new official Carson of Venus novel in decades. New canonical Tarzan, Pellucidar and John Carter novels will follow over the coming year. A longer review is forthcoming next week, but suffice to say I loved it and want more! (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

9.       A Sinister Quartet, edited by Mike Allen. A wonderful collection of fantasy-horror novellas by C.S.E. Cooney, Jessica P. Wick, Amanda J. McGee, and Editor Mike Allen. I loved every part of this book, but can’t give a more detailed review at the moment pending possible review publication elsewhere. (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

10.   The Adventure of the Naked Guide (The Blood-Thirsty Agent #3) by Cynthia Ward. Ward’s third, penultimate, adventure of Lucy Harker takes her from war-time Germany into the hidden world beneath the Earth’s crust for a reunion with family and with old foes. Non-stop action from start to finish.

11.   The Klaus Protocol by Frank Schildiner. A most excellent Russian spy thriller set in the Asian theater of war in the days before World War Two. Full Review HERE.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (366 because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “The Least of These” by Veronica Roth, from Lightspeed Magazine #119 (April 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “Always The Harvest” by Yoon Ha Lee

3.       “Voice of Their Generation” by Andrew Dana Hudson

4.       “A Subtle Web: A Tale From The Somadeva Chronicles” by Vandana Singh

5.       “Bow Down Before The Snail King!” by Caleb Wilson

6.       “Glass Bottle Dancer” by Celeste Rita Baker

7.       “Neversleeps” by Fred Van Lente

8.       “The Witch Sleeps” by Rati Mehrotra

9.       “In The Land of Rainbows and Ash” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “How To Submit” by Don Redwood, from Daily Science Fiction, edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele-Lee Barasso

11.   “A Bad Night For Burglars” by Lawrence Block, from The Burglar In Short Order

12.   “Mr. Rhodenbarr, Bookseller, Advises A Young Customer On Seeking A Vocation”

13.   “The Burglar Who Strove To Go Straight”

14.   “Like A Thief in the Night”

15.   “The Burglar Who Dropped In On Elvis”

16.   “The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke”

17.   “The Burglar Who Collected Copernicus”

18.   “The Burglar Takes A Cat”

19.   “Monsters” by Jim Butcher, from Parallel Worlds, edited by L.J. Hachmeister and R.R. Verdi

20.   “The Dark of the Sun” by Christopher Paul Carey, from Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds, edited by Christopher Paul Carey

21.   “The Sinister Quartet (Introduction)” by Mike Allen, from The Sinister Quartet, edited by Mike Allen

22.   “The Twice-Drowned Saint (Being A Tale of Fabulous Gelethel, the Invisible Wonders Who Rule There, And The Apostates Who Try To Escape” by C.S.E. Cooney

23.   “An Unkindness” by Jessica P. Wick

24.   “Viridian” by Amanda J. McGee

25.   “The Comforter” by Mike Allen

So that’s 25 short stories in April. Once again under “1 per day,” putting me further behind for the year so far. (April 30th was the 121th day of 2020.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  25 read; YTD: 84 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 9 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 11 read; YTD: 50 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 4 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 1 books read; YTD: 6 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: April was National Poetry Month, so my goal was to read some poetry. I am notoriously not a reader of poetry, but I did manage to read one poetry collection by C.S.E. Cooney.

May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so my goal is to read a number of authors either from or descended from that part of the world and maybe squeeze in some non-fiction about that part of the world.

Sunday Shorts: Two Dark Portal Fantasies

Sunday Shorts is a series where I blog about short fiction – from flash to novellas. For the time being, I’m sticking to prose, although it’s been suggested I could expand this feature to include single episodes of anthology television series like The Twilight Zone or individual stories/issues of anthology comics (like the 1970s DC horror or war anthology titles). So anything is possible. But for now, the focus is on short stories.

Portal fantasy stories – where a child passes through a door/window/wardrobe/tornado/etc. and emerges in a fantasy land – are all the rage again these days, especially in short story and novella form. In April, I read two short stories almost back-to-back that approached portal fantasies from a very dark angle.

Seanan McGuire (author of the “Wayward Children” novellas that explore what happens when those portal kids come back to the mundane world) posts a new short story every month on her Patreon for folks who subscribe at a certain level. April’s story was “In the Land of Rainbows and Ash.” You can tell from the title, perhaps, but definitely from the second paragraph (“They are the skeleton keys which, when turned, can open wide the world, because they do not know any better.”) that this is not going to be a happy, light frolic into a fantasy world. The narrator (a gryphon, although her family prefers to be called “griffin”) manipulates the young arrival from the get-go, pushing her towards her destiny in this land. The griffin’s twin natures (nurturing bird and predatory cat) war within herself as she works at the behest of a higher power. The internal conflict is palpable throughout, as is the growing sense of dread that this is not going to end well, all juxtaposed with a fantasy world that is sunny and beautiful, as are the creatures within it.  As is my usual wont, I won’t spoil the ending. I will say that, as with the unconnected-to-this “Wayward Children” books, McGuire’s incredible ability to subvert tropes, her intricate wordplay, her ability to get to you love a character you should be hating with a few small turns of phrase, are all used to full effect here. To read the story, though, you’ll need to subscribe to Seanan’s Patreon at the “short story per month” level.

C. Robert Cargill’s “We Are Where the Nightmares Go” appears as a reprint in the May issue of Lightspeed Magazine (Issue #120. The story will be free on the Lightspeed website on May 21, or you can buy the ebook edition of the issue and read it right away.) Again, we know we’re in for something dark not just from the title but also from the very first paragraph when the author tells us “But those are the children who came back. No one talks about the other children, the ones who walk through basement doors and rabbit holes never to return…” We can be pretty sure that whatever happens, our unnamed protagonist child will not be journeying home again (and shouldn’t the fact that the heroine of the story stays nameless also be a hint we’re not meant to get too attached?). Where the portal world of the McGuire story is a sunny fantasy world with dark secrets, Cargill shows us a nightmare world of killer clowns and a Thing on the Other Side of the Doorway who speaks in obtuse language meant to confuse as much as lead. There’s a gauntlet to be run, mazes and carnivals of dark intent and a series of lost, maimed children to be encountered. The plucky heroine never loses her motivation. Maybe she’ll be the one to break the cycle and make it home after all? Again, I don’t want to spoil the wonderfully dark turn at the end. But I will say Cargill lays the clues out very well along the way. I read the story twice, just because I had to see where the seeds were dropped after reading the ending.

Review of THE KLAUS PROTOCOL

TITLE: The Klaus Protocol

AUTHOR: Frank Schildiner

158 pages, Frank Schildiner Books, ISBN 9781395000780 (format)

DESCRIPTION: (from online retail listings): "You will do this, Comrade Captain," Yehzov said in a strangled whisper, "or the torture you received from Commandant Blokhin will feel like the gentle caress from a lover." SOVIET UNION 1938: Army Captain and former military intelligence officer Konstanin Kalinin has a simple choice. Discover a high ranking traitor stationed on the Soviet/Japanese Asian border, or receive a slow death by torture. He has less than two months to untangle a web of deceit and death as two countries prepare for bloody war. Can Konstanin discover the double agent before the spy or the Soviet secret police capture or kill him? Based on real events just prior to World War 2, THE KLAUS PROTOCOL is a mystery thriller set before the little known war between the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan. 

MY RATING: Five stars out of five

MY THOUGHTS: Frank Schildiner’s new self-published novella retains all the hallmarks of his traditionally-published works: fast-moving action and strong characterization built off of meticulous research into the genre or series in which he is writing. Fans of Schildiner’s fantasy/horror Frankenstein and Vampire Hunters novels from Black Coat Press or his short story work in a variety of New Pulp anthologies will not be disappointed in his first straight-up spy novel.

After a short framing sequence, Schildiner immerses the reader in the Soviet Union political landscape of the late 1930s. The depth of his research into the back-stabbing manipulations by various Soviet sub-leaders of the military and secret police shines through on almost every page without ever distracting from the on-going action. He artfully avoids info-dumping historical perspective on the reader (saving most of that for the author’s note at the end) by tying the backgrounds and butchery of the real-life leaders to the internal thoughts and previous experiences of his protagonist, Captain Konstanin Kalinin.

Kalinin himself feels like a character out of a LeCarre novel: an everyman with a certain set of skills who finds himself thrust into situations potentially beyond his abilities but who rises to the occasion (not without error along the way; Kalinin is good, but he’s not perfect) rather than be overwhelmed. Although this novella takes place before World War Two, I can easily envision a world in which Kalinin and LeCarre’s George Smiley are at least aware of the others’ activities and successes from opposite sides of the political chessboard. And because Kalinin is an everyman (troubled marriage, troubled career, a bit downtrodden but not completely without hope), it is very easy to root for him to succeed despite the fact that failure could spell defeat for the Soviet Union in their war against Japan.

The mystery aspect – Kalinin’s mission to uncover who is behind the leak of military secrets – is played out well: multiple plausible suspects, red herrings, characters with their own sub-agendas and secrets, and an ultimately satisfactory reveal. But don’t read the author’s end-notes first if you want to be surprised or try to work it out yourself alongside the main character. The action sequences, including several motorbike chase sequences, are exciting, and the several scenes of torture (usually with our main character on the receiving end as opposed to other characters) are brutal while staying shy of being “too much.”

There are a number of intriguing secondary characters that add depth to the story as well. Strong female characters abound as a match for Kalinin (whether they’re on his side or not is something I won’t spoil). Fans of M*A*S*H will recognize a particular type in the character of Sergeant Mosin, who I would be happy to see in a short story of his own. And of course both the real-life and fictional bad-guys are well-drawn and complex.

This one comes with full recommendation to fans of historical spy novels and action-adventure novels. It’s out now for Nook and Apple Books, and should be on Amazon in a few days.

Reading Round-Up: March 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

Going strictly by these numbers, March was a slow reading month for me. Except not really. It’s just that a good chunk of what I read in March was proofreading, copy-editing or beta-reading on books that won’t be out until later in the year: one novel, two novellas, a memoir, and a large pile of short stories. They’ll be added into the tally for whatever month the books actually come out in.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues as “books.” I read or listened to 8 books in March: 5 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #118 (March 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Kristina Ten’s “Tend To Me,” Tahmeed Shafiq’s “Love and Marriage in the Hexasun Lands,” and A.M. Dellamonica’s “Living The Quiet Life.”

2.       The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark. An intriguing novella set in an alternate Cairo in which magic works and supernatural creatures interact with humanity, with a very steampunk feel. And it’s a mystery, featuring two detectives trying to figure out exactly is haunting the titular tram car and how to exorcize it. Interesting characters, strong world-building.

3.       A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark. This is actually the first novelette set in Clark’s alternate history magic-imbued Cairo, but I read them out of order. The order doesn’t really matter – there are two characters from this one who play supporting roles in the other, but otherwise they are stand-alone tales in the same setting. I really, really loved the lead detective in this one and hope to see more of her. This is a very “fair play” mystery – all the clues are there for the reader to follow.

4.       Choke Hold (Angel Dare #2) by Christa Faust. This made it onto my To Be Read Challenge for 2020 because I should have read it a long time ago. It’s a sequel to Faust’s award-winning first Angel Dare thriller, Money Shot, and it’s every bit as intense and full of violence and sex. The sex isn’t particularly graphic, but it’s also not completely off-screen. Faust is one of only two female authors to appear under the Hard Case Crime imprint, and I have to assume low sales are why we haven’t seen a third Angel Dare book, as this one ends with a strong hint that Angel’s story isn’t over. Sad, because for noir/crime/thriller fans this should be an ideal series.

5.       Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Recommended by my friends Dan and Mikayla, I finally listened to Ali’s first memoir, narrated by the author. What an incredible story of indoctrination and rebellion at the personal level and how it can also affect the larger picture. I find that I get much more out of memoirs when I can listen to the actual author read/perform their own story.

6.       Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider Volume 1: Spider-Geddon by Seanan McGuire, Rosi Kämpe, others. I have been out of touch with most Marvel and DC Comics for a long time, including the Spider-Man family of books. I started buying monthly issues again largely because of the comics work Seanan McGuire, Saladin Ahmed, and Kat Howard have been doing the past two years, including Seanan’s Spider-Gwen runs. I have to say Seanan did a wonderful job introducing me to a character I was completely unfamiliar with and getting me to care about her quickly. And the art is fun, even in the midst of a line-wide crossover event (Spider-Geddon) for which I was not reading ANY of the other titles.

7.       Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider Volume 2: The Impossible Year by Seanan McGuire, Takeshi Miyazawa, others. The second and final Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider volume collects the second half of McGuire’s initial run at the character, setting up the title’s relaunch.  More solid characterization, and lots of “let’s blow up everything in Gwen’s world” scenes.

8.       Ghost-Spider Volume 1: Dog Days Are Over by Seanan McGuire, Takeshi Miyazawa, others. A new, shorter, series title for a relaunch that sees Gwen taking advantage of her status as one of the only Spider-folk who can cross dimensions on her own to go to college on Marvel’s core-Earth where nobody knows who she is. Except the Jackal does, and he wants her as he’s wanted every version of Gwen. McGuire writes the creepy stalker character very well.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (366 because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “Giant Steps” by Russell Nichols, from Lightspeed Magazine #118 (March 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “Living The Quiet Life” by A.M. Dellamonica

3.       “Many Happy Returns” by Adam-Troy Castro

4.       “Reliable People” by Charlie Jane Anders

5.       “Viewer, Violator” by Aimee Bender

6.       “Tend To Me” by Kristina Ten

7.       “Three Urban Folk Tales” by Eric Schaller

8.       “Love and Marriage in the Hexasun Lands” by Tahmeed Shafiq

9.       “Another Beautiful Day” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “The All-Night Horror Show” by Orrin Grey, from The Dark #58 (March, 2020), edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace

11.   “The Summer Is Ended and We Are Not Saved” by Natalia Theodoridou

12.   “Escaping Dr. Markoff” by Gabriela Santiago

13.   “Casualty of Peace” by David Tallerman

14.   “Goodbye” by Jim Butcher, from author’s email newsletter

15.   “Whoever Fights Monsters” by Cynthia Ward, from Athena’s Daughters, edited by Jean Rabe

So that’s 15 short stories in March. Once again way under “1 per day,” putting me further behind for the year so far. (March 31th was the 91th day of 2020.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  15 read; YTD: 58 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 3 read; YTD: 7 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 39 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 4 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 books read; YTD: 5 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: March was Women’s History Month, so my goal was to read primarily female writers. Of the eight books read in March, five were by female authors (okay, yes, three were by Seanan McGuire.) (Also, of the 15 short stories read, 8 were by female authors.)

April is National Poetry Month. I am notoriously not a reader of poetry, but I’m going to try to read at least a little.

Series Saturday: The Blood-Thirsty Agent

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

In Cynthia Ward’s action-packed novella series “The Blood-Thirsty Agent,” Lucy Harker is a dhampir – a child born of the sexual union between a vampire and a mortal. In this case, Lucy’s mother is the famous Mina Harker, and her natural father is Dracula, Lord of the Vampires. The time is the early 1900s and the action ranges from cabin suites on the Titanic to the trenches of World War One to the Hollow Earth, allowing the author to work in winks at, and pastiches of, some of her (and my) favorite adventure characters of the time period.

The Adventure of the Incognita Countess introduces us to Lucy, her family, and her unique role as an agent of Her Majesty’s Secret Service under the direction of the man called “M.” As a dhampir, it is Lucy’s job to protect the Empire from vampires and other supernatural creatures. But her assignment on the Titanic is of a more mundane nature: bodyguard for an American carrying secret plans back to the President. Things take a more pulp/supernatural turn when Lucy encounters the beautiful Clarimal Stein, who has a secret of her own: she is the vampire Mircalla Karnstein. They also run afoul of a German “science hero” up to no-good.

Incognita Countess sets the tone for the series and gives us a good sense of the alternate history these characters live in: a world where Titanic is powered by secret heat-ray technology Britain has reverse-engineered from the Martian invasion of several years before and where the Germans are intent on stealing that technology. There’s a pulp-weird-science, almost steampunk vibe to a world that otherwise is recognizable as our own, and the stories are as fast-paced as a classic Doc Savage or Shadow tale. The novella length suits each adventure perfectly, but especially in this first book – after all, Titanic was only on the seas for so long before that iceberg hit; the impending doom of the ship (which the reader is aware of but the characters are not) lends an immediacy to Lucy’s triple missions (protect the American; find out what the Germans are up to; kill the vampire).

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of interpretations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in which the vampire and his victim, Mina Murray Harker, fall in love. (See Francis Ford Coppola’s film version, in which Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula’s lost love, or the novel Dracula the Undead by Bram’s nephew Dacre Stoker as just two examples.) Ward, to her credit, goes in a different direction: Dracula forced himself upon Mina and she only found out she was pregnant after the vampire had been defeated. There is no love lost by any of the characters for Lucy’s natural father; it’s pretty clear our lead character is the product of supernatural rape and that she’s never encountered her natural father. I find this choice far more interesting, and Lucy’s feelings about her conception far more compelling, than yet another story in which Dracula and Mina are in love and have children.

Lucy is an outsider to society, pretending to be many things she is not in order to survive and serve the realm: she pretends to be the child of Mina and her first husband, Jonathan Harker; she pretends to be a normal mortal when in fact she has tremendous power thanks to her dual heritage; she pretends to be an upstanding heterosexual woman when she isn’t. And she struggles with having to hide so much of who she is under a veneer of late Victorian societal norms.

In each book, Lucy finds herself questioning something she’s been taught as not just true but TRUE: in Incognita Countess, it is the truism that vampires are emotionless creatures capable of pretending to have feelings but in fact having no humanity at all. In The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum, it is the “fact” that being anything other than heterosexual is a sin. And in the upcoming The Adventure of the Naked Guide, it is the concept that England’s colonial expansions are a force for good in the world while Germany’s encroachment on the sovereignty of other nations is an abomination. In each novel, it is encounters with other characters that force Lucy to reevaluate her world-view, starting with the seemingly emotional vampire Clarimal Stein. And in challenging Lucy’s worldview, Ward challenges the reader’s as well. Like the authors she’s influenced by (Burroughs, Stoker, Doyle, Verne, among others), Ward couches social commentary – social criticism – in the folds of pulp adventure tales.

I also find it interesting that all three of Lucy’s adventures occur in places removed from “normal” society, and spaces to which access is tightly controlled in one way or another: the guest-rooms and deeper sections of Titanic; the trenches and other side of the enemy line in World War One western Europe; and finally the world at the center of the Earth which Edgar Rice Burroughs named “Pellucidar.” Ward never shows us Lucy in everyday society – the closest she comes is interacting with humans aboard Titanic, but even there she’s dealing with a heightened and claustrophobic version of everyday society. The settings are not “normal” because our heroine is not “normal.”

As mentioned, Ward also works in tributes to her influences. We do eventually get to see Mina Harker. Lucy’s stepfather, the “M” who heads the Secret Service, is quickly revealed as Mycroft Holmes so of course there are mentions of her step-uncle and his partner-in-business. There’s technology derived from the Martian invasion chronicled by H.G. Wells. On Titanic, Lucy spends several scenes talking to Lord Greyborough, who is rumored to have been raised by apes. And of course, there’s the upcoming third book’s trip to Burroughs’ Pellucidar, with mentions of several characters from that series. There may have been more subtle nods that I missed, but the big ones are plainly obvious and totally enjoyable. None steal the focus from Lucy herself, but in playing off of them we get to see more of Lucy’s personality and internal struggles.

I hear that the fourth Blood-Thirsty Agent novella, due out later this year or early the next, will be the last. If so, I’ll be sad to see the series end just as I feel I’m really getting to know Lucy and Clarimal. All good things do come to an end, but I hope that we’ll get to see more of Lucy’s upbringing and meet more of her stepsiblings before the end.

In the mean-time, I highly recommend The Blood-Thirsty Agent series to fans of alternate history, steampunk, pulp adventure, vampires in love, and LGBTQ representation in genre fiction. Published by indie Aqueduct Press, the novellas can be purchased in print or ebook form:

·         The Adventure of the Incognita Countess

·         The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum

·         The Adventure of the Naked Guide [forthcoming]

Reading Round-Up: February 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues and stand-alone short stories in e-book format as “books.” I read or listened to 12 books in February: 11 in print, 1 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #117 (February 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Victor LaValle’s “Ark of Light,” Kij Johnson’s “Noah’s Raven,” Daniel Jose Older’s “A Stranger At the Bonchinche,” and Maria Romasco-Moore’s “Dying Light.”

2.       The Golden Key by Marian Womack. A gothic-supernatural novel that takes place mostly in a London experiencing an upswing in interest in the occult thanks to the death of Queen Victoria. Told from the points of view of three characters: a man with a mysterious past, a woman who covers her deductive abilities with a veneer of the supernatural, and a young governess in the town the man is from. Full Review Here.

3.       The Midwinter Witch (The Witch Boy Book Three) by Molly Knox Ostertag. The third in Ostertag’s tales of Aster, a boy who has a talent for witchcraft even though all of the boys in his family are supposed to be shapeshifters. This time, Aster has to decide if it’s time to show off his growing prowess at the family reunion/midwinter celebration or he should heed his protective mother’s advice and stay hidden a while longer. I love every installment of this series.

4.       The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. Alternate history/steampunk/Afrofuturism novella that takes place in an independent New Orleans under siege by several outside forces including the Confederacy and the Union. The main character, a young girl who serves as a conduit for a powerful Orisha, must figure out how to save her city with the aid of a smuggler, the smuggler’s airship crew, a feral child and a pair of odd nuns. Full Review Here.

5.       LaGuardia (LaGuardia Vol 1) by Nnedi Okorafor, Tana Ford and James Devlin. In Okorafor’s future where aliens are immigrating to Earth, New York City’s LaGuardia Airport is still a hot mess for passengers arriving and departing. This topical piece of SF takes on immigration, acceptance vs. tolerance, and politics. The art by Ford and Devlin is realistic and expressive. Looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

6.       Arrow of God (Africa Trilogy #2) by Chinua Achebe. I set a goal to read all of Achebe’s Africa Trilogy last year after reading Things Fall Apart in 2018. I didn’t make the goal, so I set it again this year. This middle volume of the story only peripherally mentions events from the first book, but continues to focus on the conflict between local custom and new rules during the British colonization of Nigeria, this time with particular attention to religious belief. Powerful work.

7.       The Shape of Friendship (A Lumberjanes Original Graphic Novel) by Lilah Sturges and Polterink. The second Lumberjanes original graphic novel (as opposed to trade paperbacks collecting the monthly comics run) focuses on the friendship between April and Jo, and how that friendship morphs/changes with the arrival of Barney, who Jo went to came with before attending the Lumberjanes camp. April’s devotion to and protectiveness of her childhood best friend is beautiful, and the story doesn’t go in the expected/trope-y directions. This might also be the first Lumberjanes book to make explicit the fact that Jo is transgender, and it is wonderfully handled.

8.       The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle. I read this before I found out it was a response to/reworking of a specific H.P. Lovecraft story I’ve never read. It is a fantastic story on its own, with deep character work for the three main characters and plenty of both cosmic and every-day horror to go around. When compared to the very racist, very not-scary Lovecraft original, it becomes even more impressive. Longer Review coming soon.

9.       Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. One of my “To Be Read” Challenge books for 2020, this is only the second Butler I’ve read in my life. More SF than horror, it shares some similarities with Butler’s Fledgling in that the author pulls no punches and hides no trauma. I found myself intrigued by the Earthseed belief system the main character develops, and caught up in how Butler extrapolated, in the 90s, a near-future that feels even more real right now.

10.   Docile by K.M. Szpara. As I said in the Full Review I Posted Recently, Szpara’s debut novel joins Sabrina Vourvoulias’ Ink, and Butler’s Parable of the Sower, on a shelf of near-future SF that is not only believable given our current climate but harrowing and hopeful at the same time. Be warned though: there are all kinds of sexual and emotional abuse and assault front and center throughout the book, and lots of explicit sex. This book is not for the squeamish.

11.   The Dream-Quest of Vellit Boe by Kij Johnson. Another Lovecraftian novella that builds off of and responds to a specific Lovecraft story (in this case “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,” which I read many years ago and have some vague memories of). Johnson gives us a strong female professor setting out across the Dreamlands to find a missing student. It’s more fantasy than horror, and takes on the nature of dreams, reality, and the way the machinations of those who are more powerful affect those who have little or no power. Longer Review coming soon.

12.   Imaginary Numbers (InCryptid #9) by Seanan McGuire. The newest InCryptid novel finally places cousin Sarah Zallaby, who has been recuperating since overusing her powers in the second novel, at the front of the action, along with cousin Artie. Even having read the back-cover description, the book didn’t go where I thought it was going to, with some very pleasant surprises along the way. There’s also a bonus novella that bridges the action of the previous novel (which focused on Antimony Price) and this one.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “Ark of Light” by Victor LaValle, from Lightspeed Magazine #117 (February 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “How We Burn” by Brenda Paynado

3.       “Dying Light” by Maria Romasco-Moore

4.       “The Gamecocks” by JT Petty

5.       “Noah’s Raven” by Kij Johnson

6.       “A Stranger at the Bochinche” by Daniel Jose Older

7.       “Toxic Destinations” Alexander Weinstein

8.       “A Statement in the Case” by Theodora Goss

9.       “All That Glitters” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.    “Journal” by Jim Butcher, from The Jim Butcher Mailing List, edited by Fred Hicks

11.   “Emergent” by Rob Costello, from The Dark #57 (February, 2020), edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Sean Wallace

12.   “Holoow” by Michael Wehunt

13.   “Ngozi Ugegbe Nwa” by Dare Segun Falowo

14.   “Live Through This” by Nadia Bulkin

15.   “The Best Horses Are Found in the Sea, and Other Horse Tales To Emerge Since The Rise” by Beth Cato, from Daily Science Fiction February 14, 2020 edited by Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden

16.   “The Horror at Red Hook” by H.P. Lovecraft, in stand-alone ebook format, editor unknown

17.   “Follow The Lady” by Seanan McGuire, new novella published as back-matter for the novel Imaginary Numbers.

So that’s 17 short stories in February. Way under “1 per day,” so I’m behind for the year so far. (February 29th was the 60th day of 2020.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 2 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  17 read; YTD: 43 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 3 read; YTD: 4 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 12 read; YTD: 31 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 1 books read; YTD: 5 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: February was Black History Month and Women in Horror Month, so my goal was to read primarily authors from Africa or of African descent and female horror writers. Of the twelve books read in February, five were by authors from Africa or of African descent; three were horror or horror-adjacent works by female authors (Octavia E. Butler counted in both categories, but I did not count Seanan McGuire as a female horror writer because the book of hers I read this month was not part of her horror output.)

March is Women’s History Month, so my goal is to read primarily women authors across various genres and formats.

Review of DOCILE

TITLE: Docile

AUTHOR: K.M. Szpara

490 pages, Tor.com, ISBN 9781250216151 (hardcover)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): There is no consent under Capitalism. To be a Docile is to be kept, body and soul, for the uses of the owner during your contract. To be a Docile is to forget, to disappear, to hide inside your body from the horrors of your service. To be a Docile is to sell yourself to pay your parents’ debts and buy your children’s future.

MY RATING: Five out of five stars

MY THOUGHTS: Note: I received an Advance Review Copy from the good folks at Tor.com, but that did not influence my opinion of the book.

K. M. Szpara’s Docile is one of the most harrowing pieces of near-future science fiction I have ever read, taking its deserving place alongside Sabrina Vourvoulias’ Ink in showing us a soon-to-come world that is just one bit of legislation, one tweak of technology, away from where we stand right now. Where Vourvoulias took on immigration and demonizing the Other, Szpara digs in deep on the wealth gap, debt slavery, and sexual consent. It is far from an easy read from every point of view – emotional manipulation and sexual assault abound – but it is a vital read in light of what’s going on in our society right now.

Elisha Wilder’s family is plagued by out-of-control debt in a world where the laws have been changed so that spouses and children inherit their partners/parents debt and are expected to pay it off. Jobs are scarce, food and healthcare are exorbitantly priced, and people are regularly sent to prison because they can’t make regular payments on the money they owe. The city and county of Baltimore have a solution, though, thanks to Bishop Pharmaceutical’s invention of Dociline: people can agree to become Docile servants for the city’s trillionaires to pay off their family’s debt. Dociline erases emotion and free will, enabling debtors to survive the debt-slavery experience without developing mental illness … or remorse, since the drug also comes with an inherent memory-wipe of anything that happened while under the influence. The drug is guaranteed to flush out of a person’s system within a few weeks of the last dose without lasting harmful effects. Except that Elisha’s mother Abigail came home after ten years on Dociline and has never been the same. Still, someone has to alleviate the family’s crushing debt, so Elisha submits himself to the Office of Debt Resolution, where he ends up being purchased for life (his family’s debt erased and a stipend offered to help them survive) by none other than Alexander Bishop the Third, scion and soon-to-be CEO of the pharmaceutical empire that erased Elisha’s mother’s personality.

Dociles have seven unalienable rights according to the law: to vote in public elections; to adequate care, including food, water, shelter, and medical care; to anonymity of surname; to keep one personal item with them; to personal physical safety; to sexual health and protection from pregnancy; and to refuse or demand Dociline, and change your mind at any time. Elisha plans, long before knowing who his Patron will be, to refuse Dociline so that he doesn’t turn into his mother.

Alex is looking for the ideal Docile on which to test the newest iteration of the drug. He’s recently broken off a lucrative engagement (trillionaires don’t marry for love in this future) and his future CEO position is in jeopardy unless he marries or proves he can handle Dociles under his control. He’s attracted to Elisha and becomes Patron before learning, very publicly, that Elisha refuses to take Dociline.

From there it’s a battle of wills: Elisha trying to retain his free will while Alex tries to prove he can gain control over a person even without Dociline in their system. Not surprising and not really spoilery, Elisha spends most of the book losing that battle. It is painful to watch, especially as the book is narrated in first person by both main characters. You can see Elisha’s personality change and diminish; his internal justifications for letting himself be bent to Alex’s will, to be the perfect companion, becoming more desperate and less convincing (to the reader) as the novel progresses. The expression of this total change in Elisha, from head-strong family-oriented individualist to a man unable to make simple decisions about clothing without being directed, shows what a masterful writer Szpara is. The changes are incremental: slight alterations in how Elisha tells his story, for example which sensory and physical details he chooses to include or omit, are the growing indication that he is losing himself. At the same time, in the chapters narrated by Alex we see a cocky young rich kid start to understand not only the power he wields but the ways in which it can be abused. Alex comes to see his own complicity in the way the rich take advantage of the poor and questions what he’s done to Elisha in the name of staying comfortable and in power; Alex’s justifications for his actions ring just as desperate and hollow as Elisha’s.

The numerous explicit sex scenes between Alex and Elisha are another spotlight on the dark side of this supposedly harmless method of removing debt. Elisha justifies his first sexual experience (not just with Alex, but ever) as somewhat consensual within the “master/submissive” relationship the Docile program fosters. He thinks the Docile’s right to sexual health should give him the right to say “no,” even though he chooses not to exercise it. It quickly becomes apparent to the reader, and eventually to Elisha, that Dociles don’t really have a choice once they sign a contract with a Patron and that those on the drug can’t say “no” because Dociline removes their decision-making capabilities and free will. Thanks to Alex’s brainwashing efforts, Elisha also eventually loses the ability to say “no” even sans Dociline. There’s one scene in particular, early on, between Elisha, a patron named Dutch, and another Docile named Onyx, that is slightly less explicit in sexual detail but far more brutal emotionally, and it drives the point home that the Rich don’t really care about the well-being of the Poor under their control unless or until it renders the Dociles unusable. The fact that Alex falls in love with his slave doesn’t mitigate the horrible things he does in the name of research and science and appeasement of his family and Board of Directors; it’s still painful to watch him realize he’s virtually destroyed the man he’s come to love.

The supporting cast is filled out by the main characters’ biological and extended families. Elisha’s father, sister, and sort-of step-mother and step-sister see the changes in him long before he’s able to see them himself and they don’t like what they see, concerned for his mental and physical health. Alex’s family likewise see and don’t like the changes wrought by his connection to Elisha, but their concerns are about how it will affect his future as the face of the company and ultimately stock shares and societal cache. It’s almost a stereotype, that the Rich are heartless while the Poor are paragons, but Szpara subverts the cliché at every turn: people in Alex’s circle are not who or what he thinks, Elisha’s father’s anger threatens to destroy any possible relationship with his son. This adds even more depth to the novel as Alex and Elisha’s interactions with their own and each other’s families gives Szpara the opportunity to showcase the clear wealth gap and the ways loved ones are affected by an individual’s decisions.

Ultimately, as hard to handle as the emotional and sexual abuse are, Docile is a story of hope: that the actions of one person might inspire a societal shift away from abuse and towards compassion, away from selfishness and towards community. It’s also an exploration of identity: of how who we are is informed not only by our own actions but by the past actions of those we love, and how we can lose ourselves without realizing it’s happening. Docile is a must-read. And probably a must-re-read.

Review of UNTRANSLATABLE

TITLE: Untranslatable

AUTHOR: Alma Alexander

158 pages, Crossroad Press, ISBN 9780463304662 (ebook)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): There is a story behind every word. There is a word behind every story. Some concepts require a single word in other languages but paragraphs to explain in English.
There are times when it is impossible to have a direct translation of something, to understand an idea at once simple to one mind and unutterably impenetrable to another—except through the bridge of story, through a literal journey into another language, another culture, another mind. The 14 stories in this book are bridges made of words—crossing into language landscapes of Japan, of Sweden, of France, of Portugal, of Tierra del Fuego—glimpses into the worldview and the mindset of cultures different enough from our own to produce a single word that encompasses a world of concepts.
Translating the untranslatable.

MY RATING: Four of five stars

MY THOUGHTS: The interplay between languages is always intriguing. How do concepts and subtleties move from one language to another? How, when translating, do we take into account differences in the way gender, tense, or possession are expressed? In this collection of fourteen stories, half reprints and half new, Alma Alexander builds worlds out of words that don’t easily or succinctly translate into English. And there is not an unsatisfying story in the collection, although some stick closer to the theme than others.

In the table of contents, Alexander provides broad translations for the words she’s chosen to build her stories on, but those translations should not lead the reader to expect what kind of story each will be. The author uses science fiction, fantasy, and horror equally throughout the collection; words whose broad definition implies hopefulness sometimes underlie dark stories, and vice versa. I would argue that not every word Alexander chose for this collection is difficult to translate into English. “Inshallah” is pretty straightforward as “By Allah’s will,” and by Alexander’s definition, “Kintsugi” seems more like the name of an artform that a word seeking translation. But that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise strong and very diverse collection.

“Black Wings over Kjellmar” is science fiction, built around the Inuit word Iktsuarpok, “the frustration of waiting for someone to turn up or the anticipation of constantly going outside to see if someone is coming.” The human ambassador to a world that has a hidden winged population gets frustrated at every turn as she seeks to learn more about them. It’s a tension-filled story, touching heavily on issues of colonialism: what gives human curiosity precedence over the rites and rituals of native populations? And where does one drawn the line between personal interest in a culture and political demands?

The fantasy tale “Dreamshare” is built around the Japanese word Ikigai, “a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to live.” A woman leaves her village and her safe life to track down the man who left her thanks to a visiting ship and the magical drug that brings communion through shared use but uses up those who can’t find someone to share with. I found this one a particularly brutal story in its depiction of addiction and drug use, and a dark twist on the type of story one would expect such a word to inspire.

The French word Trouvaille, “a valuable or lucky find, something lovely discovered by chance” informs the horror tale “Bucket List.” Here again Alexander plays with the meaning of the word, giving it a dark turn. While the house with the bucket of “3 for $10” might be a valuable find, it doesn’t turn out to be that lucky or lovely for the protagonist, a character who cannot say no to his own innate curiosity about why things are what they are.

I found “Equinox,” a fantasy tale build around the Yagan (Tierra del Fuego) word Mamihlapinatapei (“the wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.”) to be a whimsical story at points, a nice switch from the preceding couple of darker tales. The distant interaction between a summer child and a winter child at a remote campground as one family leaves and the other arrives affects both of their lives. I really liked the development of the Winter people’s society as different from our human “summer people” experiences. This is one of the stories in the collection that really nails the loose translation of the word as both inspiration and plot point.

“To Remember Riobare” is a science fiction/horror blend built around the New Guinian word Mokita, “the truth everyone knows by nobody says.” It’s another story that heavily hinges on the translation: what are the unspoken truths about the place this colony exists and how it effects procreation? I think a lot is left unsaid and up to reader interpretation about whether what the main character experiences is real or in her own head. Potentially unreliable narrators always fascinate me.

“Color” is ostensibly connected to the Japanese word Komorebi, “the quality of dappled sunlight through trees, the interplay between the light and the leaves.” I’m not sure it quite capture the word it’s attempting to convey, but it’s a solid fantasy story about human changelings inspiring a fairy lord to want to see in color and how it changes his world completely and forever. Another pretty brutal story in terms of the emotions it evokes, and one of my favorite stories in the book.

“Go Through: is a fantasy/horror, trading on the “portal story” trope without ever really resolving, for me, the shifting perspectives. I wanted to like it more than I did. It’s meant to illustrate Mångata, the Swedish word for the glimmering, roadlike reflection that the moon creates on water.

Another story in the collection that I absolutely loved was “Leaving Via Callia.” It is fantasy-tinged, about a boy who hopes to one day leave his village and family to sail the seas, thanks to a dreamy prophecy made by his ailing grandfather. It’s a lovely, poignant story of living life while waiting for the expected to occur, built around the Japanese word Aware, “the bittersweetness of a brief and fading moment of transcendent beauty.”

“Night Train” trades off of the aforementioned easily translatable Arabic word Inshallah, literally “if Allah wills.” This is a fantastic story about meeting your internal ghosts/gods and deciding whether you need to change or not, and a pretty solid depiction of depression to boot. I loved it when I first read it in the anthology Dark Faith II: Invocations, and loved it as much on a second read.

The fantasy story “She Wore Yellow” is another that really works with the word it’s meant to reflect. The Korean word Won expresses the reluctance on a person’s part to let go of an illusion. In this story, the narrator sees the same woman over and over again throughout his life, wearing different colors that seem to have different meanings, but no-one else sees her. Despite their assurances that he is seeing things, he cannot let go of her until he learns what she is all about.

I mentioned that the Japanese word Kintsugi, the art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer resin dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum, seems more like the name of an artform than a word that needs translation. It’s the basis for “Something That Would Shine,” another story of an Ambassador to an alien world getting in over his head. In this case, discovering the native race’s secret in producing the crystals that are so valued on his homeworld. Very topical, speaking to modern issues of blood diamonds and taking advantage of indigenous populations who are also taking advantage of their own.

The Arabic word Ya’aburnee, an incantation meaning “you bury me,” doesn’t seem like a good fit for Alexander’s tale of “The Flying Dutchman,” but the story itself is an interesting twist on the classic tale. A man who escaped service on the titular ship tracks down the captain years later to try to free him from his curse, or at least to understand it why he persists in it long past the need.

“The Painting” is perhaps the only non-genre story in the collection, based on the Spanish word Duende, “the mysterious power a work of art has to deeply move a person.” A very bittersweet story about the effect art can have on people, and the effect our reaction to art can have on others.

Finally, in “The Bones of Our Ancestors, The Blood of Our Flowers,” Alexander tries to explicate the Portuguese word Saudade, “the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” A beautiful fantasy-tinged tale to end the collection, wrapped up in remembrance and loss and hope for the future.

Untranslatable is a strong single-author collection, and each story is accompanied by the author’s notes about why she chose each story to represent the word it does. By her own admission, some connections are less firm that others, but that doesn’t diminish from the quality of the stories included.

SUNDAY SHORTS: The Black God's Drums

TITLE: The Black God’s Drums

AUTHOR: P. Djèlí Clark

112 pages, Tor.com, ISBN 9781250294715 (softcover)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air--in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie’s trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper also has a secret herself: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head, and may have her own ulterior motivations.

Soon, Creeper, Oya, and the crew of the Midnight Robber are pulled into a perilous mission aimed to stop the Black God’s Drums from being unleashed and wiping out the entirety of New Orleans.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS:

The Black God’s Drums is one of those genre-blending novellas that squeezes an inordinate amount of world-building into a short 110 pages without feeling over-packed and without sacrificing character and plot. The book is “retro-Afrofuturism,” to quote Tade Thompson. It is steampunk, wherein airships abound. It is alternate history in which what would be the continental US is four smaller countries in an uneasy truce, while the Caribbean is home to The Free Islands. It’s also fantasy, with African gods interacting/bonding with humans to affect the physical world without ever physically manifesting themselves). And it’s a coming-of-age story featuring a thirteen-year-old protagonist, but I hesitate to call it a “young adult” novel based on the tone and style.

At the center of all of this is Creeper, an orphan street urchin. Creeper’s life could be more comfortable – several of the adults she’s acquainted with offer her a way off of the streets but accepting would mean giving up independence and being forced to conform to gender “norms,” including clothing expectations, that Creeper has no interest in complying with. She’s a complexly written protagonist with goals and insecurities, struggling with the loss of her parents and the precarious situation her city is in. She’s eminently likable. You want her to succeed. She’s also connected to Oya, orisha of wind and storms, and the visions and feeling Oya sends her are not always in synch with what Creeper wants for herself.

Captain Ann-Marie, the Free Island smuggler/privateer, has a similar problem thanks to Oshun, orisha of water. The interplay between the woman and the girl – where they are in life, how they cope with being a vessel for a god’s personality and power, how they each perceive the other – is part of what makes the novella so compelling. It’s a wonderful dynamic that avoids the twin tropes of “only talking about men” and “romance between the two female leads.”

Another compelling aspect is how Clark has crafted and layered in his alternate history. So much 1800s alternate history is focused on the Confederacy winning the Civil War and taking over. Clark gives us a North America in an uneasy peace between four geographic factions, Free New Orleans being the most precariously positioned of them all thanks to both politics and geography. The Free Islands are in almost as much danger as New Orleans, saved mostly by the existence of the titular weapon.

The supporting cast is also interesting, from the orishas who work through the leads, to Captain Ann-Marie’s multi-cultural and multi-gendered crew, to the Sisters Agnes (blind) and Eunice (a bit maniacal), Creeper’s all-knowing contacts at the local convent. The Sisters especially play a crucial role in the proceedings in a wonderfully written scene full of banter, backstory, and just a hint that these women may be more than they appear. I’d read a novella focused just on Agnes and Eunice and their ward Féral.

The Black God’s Drums does tell a complete story, but I really hope this is not the last we’ve seen of this world. There’s so much hinted at in the tragic histories of New Orleans and the Free Islands, the swamp people and the Jeannnots, and the Captain’s airship, the Midnight Robber, that I’d love to see explored.