Golden, Red Sky Blue Moon (2013)

Bruce Golden, Red Sky, Blue Moon. Shaman Press, 2013. Pp. 379. ISBN 978-1-4841332-2-4. $3.99 (e-book)/$15.99 (paperback).

Reviewed by Darlene Santori

Can a fairly long book with a multitude of characters move swiftly enough, hold the reader’s attention, and make sense of it all? Well, it can if it never gets bogged down in thickets of purple prose, if its characters are vibrant and as real as the person next to you, and if you believe the world these character inhabit could actually exist. While the plot may seem well-worn, the setting and the circumstances surrounding Bruce Golden’s new book aren’t. Red Sky, Blue Moon is about as far from the satire of Better Than Chocolate (2007) or the mysterious forests of Evergreen (2009) as you can get. If this book were a film (and there’s something very cinematic about it), it would be described as an epic adventure.

Bestiary (A cappella Zoo #10, 2013)

A cappella Zoo: A Magazine of Magic Realism & Slipstream, Issue 10: Bestiary: The Best of the Inaugural Demi-Decade of A cappella Zoo, Spring 2013 (March). Pp. 330. ISSN 1945-7480. $9.00.

Reviewed by Brian Eisley

A cappella Zoo is a journal of magic realism and slipstream fiction and poetry, currently edited by Amanda Lyn DiSanto and Lisa McCool-Grime. Founded in 2008, A cappella Zoo has made a bit of a splash with imaginative and evocative stories of the fantastic. The tenth issue, titled Bestiary, is an anthology of the best work from the magazine’s first five years. The defining characteristic of magic realism is the introduction of fantastic elements into a familiar, everyday environment; the story typically draws its energy from the reaction of ordinary characters to a bizarre situation. Often, the overarching mood of the piece is one of yearning—the longing of people in our mundane world for the escape and meaning symbolized by the supernatural, and conversely, the desire of the fanciful character at the center of the story to be “normal”. The guest editor for this issue, Oregon writer Gina Ochsner, talks in her introductory interview about “the primal need for narrative in which the otherworldly, the strange, the supernatural is … allowed to visibly collide with the known ‘real’ world.” Her selections for this special issue demonstrate a variety of aspects of this collision.

Michaud, Girls & Monsters (2013)

Anne Michaud, Girls & Monsters. Dark Fuse, 2013. Pp. 158. ISBN 978-1-9377718-4-3. $3.99 (e-book)/$16.99 (paperback).

Reviewed by Margrét Helgadóttir

Girls & Monsters by Canada-based author Anne Michaud, is published by Dark Fuse, a small press specializing in horror, thriller, crime, and other suspenseful genres. This is a dark collection of five Young Adult novellas about five young girls who face the monster within, under the bed, in the neighbouring house or while travelling. The book has a broad range of horror plots and you’ll meet classic monsters like the ghost, the mermaid and the scientist, but there are also some surprises. I believe most women readers would identify with at least one or two of the girls, who struggle not only with monsters, but with the typical hazards of growing up as teenage girls. The book is well written and fast-paced, very entertaining and is well worth reading for all ages.

Jennings & Darrach, Menial (2013)

Kelly Jennings and Shay Darrach (edd.), Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction. Crossed Genres, 2013. Pp. 146. ISBN 978-0-6157056-1-3. $11.95.

Reviewed by Kathryn Allan

The future is full of sprawling cities and colonized alien worlds. Cityscapes tower above placid lakes and human economies span the solar system. While most science fiction stories focus on the shiny technologies of the future and heroes who wield them, we don’t often stop to consider the builders, clerks, and cleaners. In Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction, edited by Kelly Jennings and Shay Darrach (published by Crossed Genres), seventeen short stories explore the future of the worker. Being from the working class, I have an affinity for the people who work behind the scenes, on whose labour we entirely depend to make our lives safer and more convenient. I was certainly pleased to see a volume of SF compiled around the theme of labour.

Thompson, Entanglement (2012)

Douglas Thompson, Entanglement. Elsewhen Press, 2012. Pp. 288. ISBN 9781908168054 print/9781908168153 e-book. $15.99/$3.99.

Reviewed by Terry Grimwood

Caveat: My own Exaggerated Press published Douglas Thompson’s novel Apoidea in 2011. I have endeavoured to offer a fair and unbiased review of this novel.

Entanglement is an intelligent, adult science fiction novel that blends the new with the old. Like all good SF, its futuristic technologies are founded on present day developments and theories. Its foundation, therefore, is solid. At the same time, Entanglement is imbued with a Golden Age sense of wonder. There are moments when it possesses an almost Wellsian feel, moments that are Swift-like in their satiric incisiveness, then others when it reminded me of the great Robert Silverberg.

Cronin, y1 (2012)

Sherrie Cronin, y¹, Cinnabar Press, 2012. Pp. 338. ISBN 978-0-9851561-1-4. $9.99.

Reviewed by Martha Hubbard

y¹, the second of a projected six-part series of novels by geophysicist and seismologist Sherrie Cronin, is a complex and deceptive book to describe. On the surface, it is about the struggle of people who are physically, sexually and emotionally different to find a place and be accepted in that place. Also a murder mystery, several love stories, as well a kidnapping and an exposé of the pharmaceutical industry unfold during the course of the novel. This complex plot, which seems too much for a single volume, is nonetheless interesting and readable, spoiled only by infodumps of propagandist social and economic theory, and poor portrayal of women.

Bogle, Frank Herbert (2012)

Bob R Bogle, Frank Herbert: The Works. Self-published, 2012. Pp. c.760. ISBN 978-0-9855893-0-1. $6.50.

Reviewed by Terry Grimwood

Of one thing, there can be no doubt, this biography is a labour of love. Frank Herbert: The Works is an overview of the life and written output of one of the most influential of post-war science fiction writers. Written in a clear, readable style, it is at once a fascinating account of the main points in Herbert’s life and an astonishingly in-depth analysis of his stories.

Tassie, Green Blood Rising (2012)

Lea Tassie, Green Blood Rising. Smashwords, 2012. Pp. 239. ISBN 978-0-9864709-5-0 (e-book)/978-0-9864709-4-3 (print). $2.99/$16.00.

Reviewed by Kate Onyett

In a tale of ecological threat, for the protagonists of Green Blood Rising, the world ends not with a bang of explosive force, but the soft, quiet sound of trees, growing fast and far beyond their natural rate.

This book merrily follows in the tradition of more ‘intimate’ emergencies, following a select group of people through a major upheaval; a trend begun with the founding fathers of ‘sci fi’ in the 1890s. The themes may relate to far wider concerns, but the action centres on just a few individuals, and there is much explication—the science in the fiction as important as the drama of the events. There is a considerable amount of explication in this book, rather than being simply an emotional roller-coaster ride. It harks back to a subtler style of slowly increasing menace and creeping unease. For the danger comes not from the ‘threat’ (vegetative overgrowth disrupting human society), but the reactive panic and violence that the fall of society triggers. The real threat is human in origin, and remains so. It also belongs to the sub-genre of ‘nature has turned.’ Whereas a lot of doom-laden apocalyptic scenarios rely on bombs, wars (again, the human threat), these present a blasted world on which humans scrabble to survive. This time it is the solid overgrowth of trees that brings society to its knees in a world rendered a great deal more green and pleasant than before. And one cannot escape Tassie’s implicit commentary on the fragility of modern life, divorced as it is from the natural world and its resources. With transport down and food lines disrupted, life on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, as well as odd reports from further afield, inserted in as the characters learn them, show that the world—human society, that is—is going to hell in a hand-basket.

Shawl (ed.), Bloodchildren (2013)

Nisi Shawl (ed.), Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars. Carl Brandon Society, 2013. Pp. 442. ISBN 978-1-61138-237-2. $8.01.

Reviewed by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (the second of two reviews of this title)

Bloodchildren is a collection of stories by past recipients of the Octavia E. Butler scholarship to the prestigious Clarion and Clarion West writers’ workshops. The Hugo and Nebula-award winning Butler is one of the most well-known and best-loved African-American writers of Science Fiction. In her (comparatively) short life, she left a rich and brilliant body of work. This eclectic, electronic anthology, edited by Nisi Shawl, is a fund-raiser for the foundation that continues the work Butler did promoting under-told styles and perspectives. It is a welcome reminder of how essential it is to provide alternative voices in writing, particularly in genre writing—providing a balance to a mainstream whose focus is invariably the Anglophone male’s point-of-view.

Murrain, The Right Asteroid (2012)

Michelle Murrain, The Right Asteroid: The Cassiopeia Chronicles (Book 1). Ursa Minor Publishing, 2012. Pp. 262. ISBN 978-1-4776093-2-3. $10.00.

Reviewed by Margrét Helgadóttir

The Right Asteroid, the first book in The Cassiopeia Chronicles by California-based author Michelle Murrain, was published late in 2012 by Ursa Minor Publishing. This fast-paced adventure story with a strong flavour of grandiose space opera and Wild West narrative tells of a future world where humans have lived in colonies for generations on Mars and Moon and want independence from Earth and the company SolGov. When an alien probe is discovered and the aliens are heading for Mars, it sets off a chain of events that have an strong impact not only on the human colonies and their relationship to Earth, but also on the individuals who fight their own struggles: the loss of a son and not knowing how he died, editors who censor your stories before publishing them, the military leader who has ethical doubts about following orders, or the woman who realizes that her lesbian lover isn’t in love with her, but with the exploration of Space. The book is entertaining and builds complex and realistic worlds. It also has a colourful palette of characters, from lesbian protagonists to a Baptist preacher and the black politician. The book has some minor flaws, but is all in all well worth reading for open-minded science fiction fans.

Keeton/King, Nimbus (2012)

B.J. Keeton and Austin King, Nimbus: A Steampunk Novel (Part One). Amazon, 2012. Pp. 106. ASIN B007YJ5A82. $2.99.

Reviewed by Steven Pirie

I’ve a confession. For personal reasons I won’t bore you with, I’ve sat on writing this review for ages. When I took the review on, Nimbus: A Steampunk Novel Part One was the first instalment of a four part work with the other three parts not yet written. Now, all four episodes are written and available for your reading pleasure, and in many ways I’m happy with my delay. I didn’t watch any of the Lord of the Rings until all three films were ‘out there’, and I’ll do the same with The Hobbit. I like to look at completed works—that’s my excuse, anyway.

Nimbus is billed as a Steam Punk novel, and given it’s a tale of steam-powered airships and wheelchairs there’s some truth in this. But the technology is not forced upon the reader. Instead, it forms a subtle background to a tale (so far) of isolation, but there’s more going on than the whir of cogs and the hiss of steam.

Shawl (ed.), Bloodchildren (2013)

Nisi Shawl (ed.), Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars. Carl Brandon Society, 2013. Pp. 442. ISBN 978-1-61138-237-2. $8.01.

Reviewed by Peter Kaptein (the first of two reviews of this title.)

Bloodchildren, an anthology being sold to raise money for the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Clarion Fund, is available only until June 22, 2013—Octavia Butler’s birthday—from Book View Café for the price of $8.01 for the EPUB or Mobi e-book. Each of the eleven new authors has been a recipient of the Octiavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship which enables writers of color to attend one of the two yearly Clarion writing workshops. A story by Octavia Butler herself brings the anthology to twelve. In Bloodchildren you will find augmented people running faster than humanly possible, performing ritual dances to the rich and the clueless. You will find female, homosexual, Indian and black protagonists. There is the occasional heterosexual male in two stories—and only one of them is white. You will find hunger. Demi-gods. Airships, monkeys and mutiny. Stories from the point of view of the dispossessed and the subjected. Stories about outsiders. Stories of magic, escape and slavery. Stories in outer space and on earth. Stories of loneliness and love. Eight out of the twelve stories in “Bloodchildren” are really close to amazing, but the anthology feels almost rushed in its release.