Fantasy & Science Fiction: April 2008
April 16, 2008 by Andy
Compared to Maurizio Manzieri’s cover art, the April 2008 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction is underwhelming overall. Among the highlights:
“The First Editions” by James Stoddard
The first pages of this story are deceptively predictable. The protagonist visits the home of Yon Diedo to see his library of unique books, only to be transformed into a book himself by his sorcerous host.
This blasé beginning soon falls away, the gothic mansion recedes, and the focus becomes the nook where the narrator now resides among a menagerie of interesting people/books. Existence as a book is more tactile than one might expect, and the society more complex.
Like George R. R. Martin’s “Sandkings,” this is a variation of what I call the God’s Ant Farm motif. The rebellion the narrator eventually instigates doesn’t end in Diedo being devoured by books, but with a romantic dilemma. This, the generous pacing, and the 19th century tone might not be for everyone, but how could a booklover not enjoy this love story between books?
“Five Thrillers” by Robert Reed
I have mixed reactions to Reed’s work. His stories stay with me but I’m not always sure I like them. “Five Thrillers” is no different, but I’m going out on a limb and deciding I like it. Mostly. Sort of.
Joe Carroway is a uniquely gifted individual. He can immediately size up people and situations and do just what needs to be done to both advance his own agenda and save the world. And unlike most people, he’s not secretly bad. He’s more than open about it. When he’s not lying to you.
Neither is there any dissembling in Reed’s storytelling. The protagonist is unabashedly unsympathetic and I never liked him, making it hard to engage with the story’s moral questions. But I did want to see what dirty business he would undertake next as Reed leads us through Carroway’s career, which spans some particularly precarious times in Earth’s future. Not exactly uplifting stuff, but if it wasn’t such a trite metaphor you’d expect to experience some pain when having your face riveted to the page.
I don’t know if Reed has published more stories in F&SF than anyone else, but it sure feels like it. Not, as it turns out, a bad thing. At least not today.
“The Fountain of Neptune” by Kate Wilhelm
A middle-aged woman with a terminal brain tumor decides that if she only has months left she may as well enjoy herself. She flies to Rome without telling anyone and spends days soaking in the culture and ambience. But she notices something odd about the fountain in Piazza Navona. And it gets odder. Her doctors warned her of hallucinations, but only she can decide what they mean.
Ultimate meaning is as illusory in this story as are the narrator’s hallucinations. I’m a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, preferring to know where I stand, but as Wilhelm’s protagonist concludes, this uncertainty feels right, however unsettling.
In his book review column Charles de Lint is bemused by the chaste passion of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight trilogy but realizes such “Victorian” attitudes are not necessarily out of touch with today’s kids. Judging by Meyer’s sales, not every teen is oversexed, overdrugged, abused or antisocial or even enchanted by those who are. But even such puritans think vampires are sexy.
