'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 55

Short Stories 366:52 — “Where the Rain Mothers Are,” by Rafeeat Aliyu

[image error]I’ve probably said this a dozen times already just in the last two months, but one of my favourite things about this short story project has been finding new-to-me authors. Added to that list is Rafeeat Aliyu, thanks to her brilliant story “Where the Rain Mothers Are,” which I discovered through Strange Horizons.

This is a story with speculative fiction/fabulism at its base, with a woman who is ageless and immortal, Gherek, making soup while waiting for her partner to come home from work. Instead, men who work for a criminal arrive, looking for a girl they believe is in her home. They clash, and two things become clear: one, Gherek can no longer stay where she is, as she has been exposed surviving the assault, and two, there is indeed a little girl hiding in her home, and Gherek is going to take her with her.

What follows is a beautiful story that just drips with wonderful world-building. The descriptions of food and scent are beyond evocative, and this world we only glimpse a little of still manages to have so much to tantalize: from the strange transports to the walled-in homes of the wealthy, to a mysterious group of immortals and Gherek, who left them on perhaps not great terms, but now, with a little girl to care for with gifts of her own, wonders if she might risk a return.

I can’t wait to find more Aliyu, and more than that, one of the anthologies in which she’s published appears to be queer, so that’s all the more magic for me as a reader.

Short Stories 366:51 — “Be Not Afraid,” by Alyssa Cole

[image error]Audiobook novellas for the win again today, with Alyssa Cole’s “Be Not Afraid” (which you can get in a bundle of four novellas from Audible, by the way). This is another historical, set during the American Civil War, and the meeting between Kate and Elijah is… well, it’s something. Elijah has just been on the losing side of a rout and taken off into the dark, hoping to loop around somehow and rejoin his unit, and he stumbles onto Kate as she has it out with a British soldier taking liberties who she then stabs.

Then they meet.

Things go pear-shaped (well, even more pear-shaped) after that, and Elijah ends up captured in the British camp where Kate is working, and while she tries to get him to see America is a lousy dream, he tries to get her to see the British aren’t really offering anything new, and America can be home, and—of course—they both find themselves all the more attracted to each other as time passes. Both are tempted: the British offer freedom to Elijah if he’ll swap sides, and Elijah’s discourse on what America might be gets through to Kate, but they both have emotional traumas to work through to get there.

I’m really loving these historical romances from Alyssa Cole. They’re absolutely top-notch, and the performer, Karen Chilton, does an amazing job with cadence and emotionality. I’m going to have to search out more books performed by her. I love finding amazing audio performers—it always leads to finding new authors, too.

Short Stories 366:50 — “Rosebud Missouri: 1921,” by Jewelle Gomez

[image error]Every story about Gilda I read just draws me further and further in. That we’re circling into more “modern” times with this piece really starts to bring attention the unique point of view she has, and the empathy Gilda displays in this particular story was phenomenal. Basically, if you’ve never read The Gilda Stories, consider this my third reminder to grab it and do so.

In “Rosebud Missouri: 1921,” we find Gilda once again alone (in the sense she’s not with any of her own vampiric kind), though not completely isolated. She owns a farm, has a good friend (the widow of a priest) and is watching this woman, Aurelia, come into her own after a meeting she hosts to discuss aiding the poor.

It quickly becomes clear that Gilda is considering Aurelia as someone to potentially bring over and become her vampire companion. This story, as I said, shows Gilda’s incredible depth of empathy, but more, it shows her realizing just what it is she’s in for, how terribly some of her choices could go, and the result of even just a moment of giving in to anger or fury, however righteously. As always, Gilda is just completely engrossing.

Short Stories 366:49 — “The Hermit of Houston,” by Samuel R. Delany

[image error]Every time I read a short fiction piece by Samuel R. Delany I have to expand my idea of range. Not just in the ways in which science fiction can aim a lens at people—though, to be clear, that too—but in what a writer can accomplish in the space of a single piece of short fiction.

Because holy hell, “The Hermit of Houston.”

There is so much going on in this story, which is ambiguously set in a future not too far from now, given the name-dropping of things like Facebook and Trump and the like, but everything has gotten twisted. Delaney takes some satirical pot-shots at many different facets of today, with humour, snark, and—I think—more than a little bit of frustration and anger, and the end result is a story I read then immediately re-read.

“The Hermit of Houston,” is the story of a life, yes, but a life aimed, controlled, bordered in, and planned. His past has been edited, what information he has is, at best, suspect, despite him working in what passes for a library these days. And the revelations, tucked between misdirections and purposeful ignorances, gave me these little moments of shock between the humour and satire. The world building, done so wildly and with those brilliant little turns of phrase or dropped mentions of contemporary thought or culture, was freaking amazing, especially with Delany’s sharp (and somewhat ruthless) twists.

I’m really enjoying all the stories selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, but I have a feeling this story is going to be the jewel in the crown, as it were.

Short Stories 366:48 — “Graham Greene,” by Percival Everett

[image error]Another short fiction piece (and author) I stumbled across thanks to LeVar Burton Reads (if you’re not checking out that podcast, you should), “Graham Greene” is a story found in Everett’s collection Half an Inch of Water. Listening to LeVar Burton read this story was a complete treasure in more ways than one: I was on a train ride home late at night, and a couple behind me (who had met on the train) were loudly discussing their religious beliefs and how their faith could cure the world’s ills if others just understood the one-true-way (TM) and I have never been happier to have earbuds and a podcast in my life.

“Graham Greene” is a delightfully fun little story about a man who gets himself in over his head by being, well, nice. You get the impression he’s always a bit of do-gooder, but perhaps this came from a not so do-good place, but regardless, he meets up with a woman on a reservation who is more than a hundred years old, and she passes him a photograph from decades ago and says, basically, “this is my son, I’ve got a week left to live, please bring him to see me before I die.”

And he tries, because he’s that kind of guy. What unfolds is a story of that trying, but also of the cast of characters in this small reservation, and the man himself—a black man trying to do something good for someone he barely remembers knowing—revealing much about himself through these acts. It’s charming, and the wee little sidestep twist of an ending had me smiling and grateful for the ride.

Short Stories 366:47 — “Jooni,” by Kemba Banton

[image error]There was so much going on so incredibly well in such a short space of time in this story I think Kemba Banton might be some sort of magic-wielding individual herself or something. This time, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History takes us to Jamaica in 1843, and the titular character of Jooni, and delivers a series of short, sharp shocks to the system through her eyes.

Jooni is an obeah woman, like her mother was before her, and as we learn of her history, her mother’s history, and her current situation in a post-slavery Jamaica, Banton juggles pretty much every ball: the emotional traumas of Jooni, the complexity of being different from even within your own kind, the cost of losing a voice, the struggle to find both purpose and place when everything has been stripped away, and—more than any of the other stories I encountered so far in the collection—the importance of inherited narrative. Jooni is a freaking phenomenal character, and watching her face fear, isolation, anger, pride and—ultimately—herself was a really triumphant ride.

The idea of forgetting ones own voice, especially when that voice has been passed on from those who came before, really, really resonated with me as a queer reader especially. And as “Jooni” progressed, I was so completely invested with the hope she was going to find a way to something: either a new place, a new future, or at least some sort of happiness where she was. Banton delivered an ending I truly appreciated that surpassed what I’d considered. I loved this.

Short Stories 366:46 — “Red Dirt Witch,” by N.K. Jemisin

[image error]Okay, before I say anything else, I’m going to mention again how freaking well the stories are performed for this audiobook. How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? is fast becoming a source for new audio performers to follow like mad, and I love it when that happens—it leads to finding new authors to enjoy. The sheer amount of characterization the narrator puts into performing the dialog and prose here was off-the-charts awesome. I could feel Emmaline’s every frustration and fear, and that was fantastic.

The story is (recently) historically set, in the Jim Crow South, where Emmaline, a single mother who is gifted with premonition in the form of dreams and also other earthly powers with plant and craft, is just trying to teach her three children to make their way through the world with the goal of survival. She does not believe the world will change for the better (and her dreams certainly seem to align with that idea). He keeps her daughter and two sons close, and tries to teach them all the ways in which white people will trick them, hurt them, blame them, or otherwise hate them for no reason, and the best courses to avoiding conflict. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s practical.

When a fae-like creature comes to Emmaline’s home to offer an exchange: one of her children for safety for her and her other two children, Emmaline refuses flat out. But she’s not the only one with gifts, and not the only one willing to make a deal to get to a future safely. What unfolds is a brilliantly told tale about hope, vision, and sacrifice that manages to pull no punches about reality while still offering a sense of accomplishment and forward motion. And the scenes in the “dreaming” were just magical.

Short Stories 366:45 — “The Storm Painter,” by Ayodele Olofintuade

[image error]I love fabulism, and I love stories set outside of the range of the North America I tend to see on the bookshelves locally, and I love finding new-to-me authors, so “The Storm Painter,” by Ayodele Olofintuade was a hat trick thanks to the Strange Horizons Podcast.

We start at an art exhibition, where the artist herself is late, and where heritage both familial and magical is about to make itself known in some terrifying ways. I loved Adé, who is an artist whose works come from within, and who doesn’t deal well with the rest of the world of creativity—selling, exhibitions, being “on”—and just needs a break from the party her sister, Nkem, has arranged for her. Their relationship is painted in broad strokes at first, and while Nkem has a magical, alternate form, Adé does not. She is an artist, inspired and talented, yes, but just an artist.

Or so she thinks. As the story progresses, with a figured glimpsed at a distance and then an unexpected guest, everything in Adé’s world is about to shift (literally) and she finds herself facing off against forces she thought she escaped. I loved everything about this story, but most especially about how it was so deeply about family despite being about the supernatural and magic and awakening power. I’ll be looking out for more Olofintuade.

Short Stories 366:44 — “That Could Be Enough,” by Alyssa Cole

[image error]Another novella for today’s short story on this yearly trip through short fiction, and once again it’s both (a) from Alyssa Cole and (b) available in a superbly performed audiobook. So if you’re fans of either, get on that.

This story was originally released as part Hamilton’s Battalion: a Trio of Romances, “That Could Be Enough” struck me as familiar at first, and it wasn’t until I looked into the audiobook and learned about the trio of romances that I realized why—it connects and crosses over with The Pursuit of…, which I already discussed on this yearly trek through short fiction and loved.

So, what have we got here? We’ve got Mercy, who is a maid and scribe for Eliza Hamilton, and who has had her heart so thoroughly broken that she has sworn off love forever more. She used to write, used to find joys in even the most minor of things, but now she keeps herself tightly contained, as it’s the only way to be safe.

Then Andromeda comes to call. She’s there to tell Eliza Hamilton about her grandfather and his role in Hamilton’s battalion, and she sparks something in Mercy that Mercy never wanted to feel again. It’s okay, though, because Mercy knows how to keep herself under her own control.

It’s just that Andromeda likes a challenge.

What unfolds here has a dash of misunderstanding (not my favourite as a conflict, but it’s done very well and in a way that made Mercy’s reaction make absolute sense), but honestly I would have forgiven it had it been done with even a heavy hand as the characters are just so fantastic, the setting so vibrant, and—ultimately—the story so damn appealing and refreshing and triumphant.

Short Stories 366:43 — “Yerba Buena: 1890,” by Jewelle Gomez

[image error]I don’t think I could pin down my favourite thing about The Gilda Stories as a singular point, but I can say the way the stories—and the worldbuilding and Gomez’s takes on vampiric lore—unfold is a huge part of it. This is the second Gilda story, and she has been of her kind for forty years or so at this point, and is now, finally, meeting others of her kind beyond the two original vampires she knew (who brought her into the fold).

Yerba Buena (modern day San Francisco) is the setting, and the brushes of history alongside the setting are brilliant. The discussions of how Gilda prefers pantaloons, the references to new, flickering electric light, and the mud and dirt everywhere combine to a depth of setting that underscores just how much change Gilda will see. The story also introduces multiple other vampires, who are taking up Bird’s baton to teach Gilda the ways of their kind.

But of course, not all of her kind are compassionate, and Gilda’s first brush with others includes pain and horror, which is the root of the story in Yerba Buena: 1890. And Gomez doesn’t pull punches with how the rest of human society views Gilda (since Gilda is telepathic, this is all too plain to her). But her character, and her desire to be good—even when tempted—becomes such a defining quality of the stories, and this first brush with darker vampires really drives that home.