Fantasy & Science Fiction: August 2007
January 8, 2008 by Andy
The August issue begins with Esther M. Friesner’s “At These Prices,” an amusing story of a hotel staffed by fantasy regulars: brownies, trolls, dwarves, and fairies. These characters and their fervent dedication to coffee and poker are quite funny, but the real laughs come from Bella Franklin, the free-booting and dotty hotel guest they match wits with. Bella may be a “bloody mythological illiterate” but she’s also a “highly gifted and vindictive nitpicker” and gives the ancient tricksters all they can handle.
An F&SF regular, Albert E. Cowdrey provides “Murder in the Flying Vatican,” subject of the issue’s nice cover art by Tomislav Tikulin. Colonel Kohn, a specialist in off-world homicides, is called out of retirement to solve a case on Heaven’s Footstool, an orbital monastery that provides enlightenment for rich and politically important tourists.
Like any good whodunit there’s a menagerie of suspicious characters and one or two resourceful allies for Kohn. Terran politics, the monks’ internal power struggles, and even the space station’s design all play a role in the resolution.
Unlike many SF mystery stories, however, neither stylistic excesses nor fictional science dominate Cowdrey’s novella. Instead the characters and plot take center stage. It’s a suspenseful ride and comes together very well.
Nancy Farmer contributes “The Mole Cure,” a well-done gross-out that should leave its readers imitating contortionists in front of their mirrors, queasily inspecting every spot, bump or freckle for ambulatory intentions.
Chris Willrich’s June 2000 story “The Thief With Two Deaths” is one of my all-time favorite F&SF stories. In addition to being well-written, funny, and fresh, its goblin library holds a precious place in my own goblin heart.
Willrich continues to chronicle the adventures of Gaunt and Bone, and his story “A Wizard of the Old School” is the fourth installment. This time Imago Bone, the thief who survived both deaths, and Persimmon Gaunt, the morbid poet who loves him, visit the mage Krumwheezle, hoping he can relieve them of the cursed book they carry. The outcome of this visit was told in August 2006’s “Penultima Thule,” but this time we see things from the wizard’s perspective.
I like Bone’s swagger, and I sympathize fully with old Krumwheezle’s hopeless infatuation with Gaunt. Temptation makes this wizard an interesting character, and the story revolves around the tension of his moral waverings. Willrich reveals an adoration for the high fantasy tropes he exaggerates so wryly. It’s a contradictory impulse I share and a big part of my enjoyment of these stories.
