Near: Stories of the Near Future and the Far

by Cat Rambo

Two complete collections in one! Near: Stories of the Near Future and the Far, a publication containing two individual collections that harken back to the days of the Ace Doubles style (second work on inverted pages). Whether set in terrestrial oceans or on far-off space stations, Cat Rambo’s masterfully told stories explore themes of gender, despair, tragedy, and the triumph of both human and non-human alike. Cats talk, fur wraps itself around you, aliens overstay their welcome, and superheroes deal with everyday problems.
Contents:
Near: Stories of the Near Future and the Far
*Introduction (Near / Far) (2012) • essay by Cat Rambo
*Near (2012) •• collection by Cat Rambo
* The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each (2009) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* Peaches of Immortality (2011) / short fiction by Cat Rambo (variant of “The immortality Game” in Lightspeed)
* Close Your Eyes (2011) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Therapy Buddha (2010) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut (2009) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Memories of Moments, Bright as Falling Stars (2006) / short story by Cat Rambo
* 10 New Metaphors for Cyberspace (2007) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* RealFur (2008) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Not Waving, but Drowning (2010) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* Vocobox (2012) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* Long Enough and Just So Long (2011) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Legends of the Gone (2009) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
Far (2012) •• collection by Cat Rambo
* Futures (2011) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Kallakak's Cousins (2008) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Amid the Words of War (2010) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Timesnip (2011) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* Angry Rose's Lament (2008) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Seeking Nothing (2010) / short story by Cat Rambo
* A Querulous Flute of Bone (2011) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* Zeppelin Follies (2011) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Space Elevator Music (2012) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* Surrogates (2010) / short fiction by Cat Rambo
* Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain (2012) / short story by Cat Rambo
* Bus Ride to Mars (2012) / short story by Cat Rambo
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Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Anthologies, Short Story Collection, Collections

318 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2012

About the author

F&SF writer Cat Rambo lives and writes in the Midwest. They have been shortlisted for an Endeavour Award, Locus Award, World Fantasy Award and most recently the Nebula Award. Their debut novel, BEASTS OF TABAT, appeared in 2015 from WordFire Press, the same year she co-edited AD ASTRA: THE SFWA 50TH ANNIVERSARY COOKBOOK. Their most recent book is DEVIL'S GUN (novel, Tor Macmillan). They are a former two-term President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and still volunteers with the organization.
They run the popular online writing school focused on fantasy and science fiction, the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers. (academy.catrambo.com)

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Reviews

[Mark Pantoja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't actually remember the first time I heard or read about Cat Rambo or one of her stories. I do remember the first time I saw her name and I was like: "Cat Rambo? Who the hell goes by 'Cat Rambo'?" Well, Cat does. 

Cat Rambo's name has floated across books and anthologies and zines I've read for the last five years or so. Editor of Fantasy Magazine , fiction in Strange Horizons , Clarkesworld , Hyperpulp, Asimov's, and a shitload of anthologies. Her name is synonymous with speculative short fiction over the past decade and seems to have exploded in the last couple of years. She had nineteen short stories come out in 2011. NINETEEN! 

I got to meet her up at Clarion West in 2011. She lectured on online presence and industry stuffs, giving her time in and out of the classroom. She's a great supporter and resource, one of the many writers up in Seattle who make moving up there a temptation. 

A few months back she asked me to review her upcoming short story collection Near+Far (2012, Hydra House), which is what you're reading now. There're so many stories in this collection I'm going to break this review into two parts, the Near and Far collections, which follows the book's layout. Both collections have their own table of contents and restart the page numbering. I read my version as a PDF, but apparently the printed copy is bound in a style called tête-bêche, like how the old Ace Doubles used to do it. But you know, done classy. I think it not only works, but it's just the sort of thing print publishers need to do if they want people to go out and buy the print copies of their books. It worked on me and I've already read the book. The covers were done by Sean Counley and the interior artwork was done by Mark Tripp.

Cat also did a line of jewelry based on the book's artwork:




Near+Far jewelry



Nancy Kress sporting snazzy Near+Far jewelry 


This book is great opportunity to examine Rambo's work in detail. It's a retrospective with stories that go back to 2007, so you can see what she's been doing over the years. As I said before, I was familiar with her and her fiction, but I'd never read her stories back to back and wasn't able to see just what she was doing with her work. 

She starts off the Near collection with a strong story, "The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each". It's a beautiful, lyrical story of a formerly female protagonist who's gone and had its gender removed after years of sexual abuse by its now deceased uncle. But that's all back story. The real story is of it and two others navigating waters filled with man-eating mermaids (done with a nice bit of worldbuilding) while the trio prowl the seas looking for garbage, the modern booty. But the real-real story is whether or not the protag can forgive the semi-autonomous boat it inherited from its uncle which it holds partially responsible for its abuse. "Mermaids" encapsulates what Cat Rambo is really writing about: relationships.

Her stories are quiet meditations on relationships. Now, "quiet" in a review is usually code for boring or nothing happens. This is not the case. There's murderous mermaids, superheroes, asphyxiations, dark shamans, quasi-animal burnings. There's plenty of action and things ahappenin'. No, what I mean by quiet is that many of her stories are about, at their core, relationships, usually between two people, they just don't say so up front. 

This is not an easy thing to do, to have these subtle but effective explorations of relationships (brother-sister, victim-perpetrator, husband-wife, rival friends, boyfriend-girlfriend) all while the world is ending, cybernetic cats are prowling, supervillians are attacking, and immortality is at your fingertips in some crazy fruit. Usually there's some new element that's introduced which causes the relationships to stress and/or react. In many of her stories the element is a new-fangled product with spec-like qualities, such as with "Vocobox(TM)" (a voicebox for cats) and "RealFur" (living clothing) and "Therapy Buddha" (a talking buddhist psychology doll; actually the product isn't very spec-ish, it's the worldbuidling in this one.). The new element doesn't cause discord in the relationships, it just pulls the lid back, exposing them. For example, "Close Your Eyes" is a haunting tale of a sister who cares for her dying brother. She drives him around, supports him financially, lives with him. She's put her entire life on hold while he withers away. And for all her sacrifice she is rewarded with bitter resentment and passive-aggressive sarcasm on page one, a relationship that I think is all too real and common. The new element is the brother's interest in shamanism, which he explores in classes at the hospital he goes to for treatments of his undisclosed illness, but the discord was there years before the story started.

The emphasis on relationships lends the Near collection an intimacy and immediacy that feels contemporaneous. For the most part, these are people who are living modern lives right around the corner from us. Besides the cybernetic superheroes. 

One of the things that I wasn't so thrilled about at first were the stories' endings. That's because many of them end on natural notes, meaning that while plots are not resolved the character's arcs were. Such is the case with "Memories of Moments, Bright as Falling Stars", where the story just ends. What about the bad guys? Will the protag survive? You can't just end a story right there like that!?!? But she did. And once I reread it I found that it ended there because the protag's story had concluded. This is a strong collection because even if there are pieces that don't work for you (wasn't a big fan of "10 New Metaphors for Cyberspace", a borderline poetry piece that went over my head) there're many others that will. It's a collection filled with a variety of stories that are able to get at and portray the human experience in wondrous environments.


Part II:

Whoa. This collection, Far, brings the guns just like Near did. This time around, though, we are in the future. And if anything, things seem to have gotten worse, even if they are brighter and better lit due to the overhead halogen lights of your cubicle-home.

Cat Rambo's exploration of advertising, products, commercialism, and consumerism are only exacerbated in stories like "Surrogates", "Seeking Nothing", "Amid the Words of War", and "Zeppelin Follies", the last of which Rambo claims was her attempt at slapstick comedy. It's not that it wasn't funny, it's just that standing back, looking at the world of commercialism she created, where writers write by managing software that spits out endless variations of the same story for every conceivable market niche and everyone wears malleable Bodies that keep the actual world at arms length, well, it's pretty frightening from my standpoint because it's a dystopia where the depicted society isn't all that unhappy, like in Brave New World. Often cited as the model dystopia, Brave New World is really a social satire or even utopian satire (Huxley called it a "negative utopia": the drugged out disconnected world is , by and large, "happy"). It is implied in "Surrogates" and "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" that the rich are only happy because they've built a world of consumerism based on picking the fruits of lower caste's labors, which implies that the rest of the world could indeed be a dystopia. How is this different from our current world? Blood diamonds and oil shales anyone? In Rambo's "Zeppelin Follies" everyone seems pretty content with their hyperconsumerism, which to me is just an extrapolation of where we are headed. Both "Surrogates" and "Zeppelin Follies" reminded me of David Mitchell's Nea So Corpocracy in the "An Orison of Sonmi~451" chapter of Cloud Atlas, a fantastic book.

If the last collection touched from time to time on the themes of relationships and intimacy, then this collection   is the inverse. We're still talking about relationships, but Far is about the inability to find connections and how far we will go to connect. I mean, the protag of "Angry Rose's Lament", a drug addict trying to find some kind of connection to replace his drug craving, contemplates letting an intelligent wasp eat his brain so he can join an immortal group-mind. Yeah, that's what it's about.

After that we have "Seeking Nothing" which is a fucking HAUNTING tale about a young man who is desperate to connect with anyone, absolutely anyone. He's a social outcast managing clones working on a distant planet, who cannot seem to connect with the few non-clone coworkers or his past. It is a frightening tale of utter loneliness. This was by far one of my favorite stories in this collection. The protag's loneliness still lingers in my mind.

"A Querulous Flute of Bone" was also about seeking out a relationship: romantic love. I could see the plot coming a mile away, which was fine, because the story was really an exercise in beautiful world-building. What I loved so much from the first story in the Near collection, "Mermaids Singing Each to Each", and about the near-future exploration of commercialism of "RealFur", "Vocobox(TM)", and "Therapy Buddha", was the effortless world-building Cat dropped into her stories. And here we see even more of that. "A Querulous Flute of Bone" is like one world-building idea after another, but never overwhelming. It frankly left me hungry for more. In the afternotes, Cat says that this story is part of a shared world project started by Philip Athans, so perhaps there's more.

"Surrogates" seemed a bit like the Far version of "Not Waving, but Drowning", 'cept in a far future society. The protag has an Insanity Chip in her head, which allows her to edit the world she senses. It's a touch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but from a great angle. And her descriptions of the edits the protag sees are immersive.

I'd say that, for me, hands down, the best story in both collections was "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain". Most stories about falling in love turn me off immediately. It's been done so much. But this story was intimate, beautiful, tragic, and told as smoothly as the character's porcelain skin. I'm pretty shocked it was original to this collection. Original stories tend to be stinkers or just perfectly fine stories, never having gone through the vetting processes of editor crits (I'm sure Hydra House had the story edited, but I mean in the marketplace). Whatever the case, this had to be my favorite story of the collection. 

There are afternotes for the stories in both collections, which is one of my favorite parts to read. It's like the context of the context.

On its own, Far is a strong collection of stories. Together in one book, both collections, Near+Far, represent a selection of Cat Rambo's work over the last five years and show that she is a writer able to capture the human perspective on life and relationships in the most imaginative environments.

[Stefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat Rambo has published over a hundred science fiction and fantasy short stories to date, in places like Asimov’s, Weird Tales, and on Tor.com. The field of short genre fiction is quite crowded nowadays—which is wonderful, don’t get me wrong—but Cat Rambo’s name always jumps out at me whenever I see it in a Table of Contents. Sure, that’s partly because it’s just such a cool name, but much more because, after reading a few of her stories over the years, I was and still am captivated by her unique voice and imagination.

Because of this, I was thrilled to find out about Near + Far, a brand new collection of Cat Rambo’s short fiction. It’s being released on September 19th by Hydra House, and if you have any interest in SF short stories, this is definitely a book to look out for—not only because the stories contained in it are great, but also because of its gorgeous design.

Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two excellent collections under one binding. It's a clever conceit: one collection of near future SF, one collection of far future SF, bound back to back. Flip the book over for a whole second set of stories. The gimmick wouldn't be worth anything if the stories didn't hold up, so it's a good thing that they do. Cat Rambo's fiction runs the gamut from character-based to tech-based, with all of the stories grounded in her clear and lovely prose. Most of my favorites were on the Near side, including "Peaches of Immortality," "Ms. Liberty Gets A Haircut," "Memories of Moments, Bright as Falling Stars," and "Long Enough and Just So Long." "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" is my favorite on the Far side, and they all get bonus points for great titles as well.

[Dusty Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not every story is great, but most of the stories are brilliant. I find Cat at her most entertaining when using a traditional narrative rather than her experimental work. I also love the way she turns tropes on their heads or just eschews them completely. There's nothing about her work that feels unoriginal.

Whether you like her stories or not, you have to respect Cat Rambo's success. If you're trying to sell short stories to magazines you should be reading her work. You'd be doing yourself a disservice by ignoring her, actually. Very few people can match her proficiency in the short speculative fiction market.

[Halsted Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the novelty of owning a tête-bêche double-anthology like Near + Far, so I opted for the physical version instead of an ebook. I do not regret my choice. Stories with the solidity of these require a physical manifestation. I would finish a story and then find myself carrying the volume around with the last sentences still in my eyes, unable to sever the connection. Rambo's stories show her deft hand with the intricacies of relationships and the vagaries of gender, but I was most enthralled with how delicately and compassionately she addresses the topics of addiction and abuse. These glimpses into the near future and the far are thought-provoking morsels to be savoured.

[Mieneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading Near+Far, I had only heard Cat Rambo's work in audio form as there have been numerous Escape Pod episodes featuring her stories. In fact, if after reading this review you are still wondering whether this collection is to your taste, I highly recommend listening to these stories. The ones from this collection available from Escape Pod are in chronological order: Kalakkak's Cousins , The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each , Angry Rose's Lament , and A Querulous Flute of Bone . They're not just a good taste of Rambo's writing, they're also great stories and well worth your time. These were the stories I already knew, but in Near+Far I discovered a collection filled with wonderful stories and even if there were a few that didn't work so well for me, the majority of them were a treat.

The introduction and story notes added by the author after each entry added real value to the collection, explaining something of a story's origin and history. I found the looks behind the scenes these notes gave and the ideas and themes the author departed from fascinating. I appreciated that the notes were appended to the stories instead of printed as an introduction to them, leaving the reader to discover the stories and their themes on her own, instead of trying to identify the author's intent while reading. Returning themes touched upon by Rambo are themes of gender, identity, love, the need for emotional and physical connection, marital problems, and issues of addiction. These are all sensitive subjects and Rambo gives them due care in handling them.

For some reason I enjoyed the stories included in the Far section of the collection more than those of the Near, though I liked most of those as well. I can't quite put my finger on why this is, though it might just be that the combination of life in space and on alien worlds and the often intimate, personal tales of the protagonists struck a chord. What I also really enjoyed about the Far stories is that many of them seemed to be set in the same universe. This is most clear in the case of the TwiceFar stories – Kallakak’s Cousins and Amid the Words of War – as they are both set on the TwiceFar space station, though Angry Rose's Lament, Seeking Nothing, and Timesnip are also connected to this universe. It gave a sense of cohesion and continuity, albeit not a linear one. I decided to do a quick look at my favourites and what grabbed me about each story. The first three are from the Near section of the collection the other three from the Far.

Memories of Moments, Bright As Falling Stars
A look at a bleak future where two street kids, in an effort to better their situation, steal thrown out memory from a bio-medical company. Because in this future humanity can increase their memory and their brain's computing ability by adding external memory in a form resembling tattoos. This illicit act has some unforeseen repercussions and some dreadful consequences. I really enjoyed this vision of the future, not for its bleakness, but for the fact that despite everything there is still kindness in humanity, personified by Ajah, and people still love with all their hearts. Grizz and Jonny are typical street kids, but their bond and their desire to build a live together is timeless. It's a setting I'd love to be able to revisit in a different story.

Not Waving, But Drowning
Every marriage knows some rough spots, though not all of them are as rough as the one describes in this story. However, the fear of losing your partner to something or someone new, that their new interest hobby or professional choices will drive a wedge between you and create a rift that can't be bridged is, I think, universal to all relationships at some point. To love is to compromise and in this story Jamie has to compromise beyond her ability to cope and thus the cracks become a fracture. However, I also felt sympathy for Emilio, unhappy to be a 'kept' man and unable to find a job, he chooses the one job that will accept him, even if that will probably mean the loss of his marriage. In this case, the SFnal elements to the story – the PsyKorps and the shunt enabling telepathy – are almost incidental to this analysis of the break-down of a relationship.

Legends of the Gone
The story of a slow apocalypse, of the gradual disappearance of man leaves more mystery than it provides answers. If you know life is futile and humanity sure to disappear, how and why would people endure? That is the question this story poses. It also reconnects to the theme of humanity's need for connection, emotional and physical, whether that is with fellow human beings or, in the case of the narrator's neighbour, robotic cats. I loved this story of hope and endurance and besides... robotic cats, what more can you need?!

Angry Rose’s Lament
A story dealing with addiction, but also a need to belong and have a sense of security, Angry Rose's Lament is a story with a deep emotional impact. The juxtaposition between Rose's inability to believe that Luke would willingly let himself be subsumed into the larger personality of the Solin and Paul's desire for just such a merging, creates an interesting tension to Paul's interactions with both the Solin and with Rose. Even after reading and listening to this story several times I'm still unsure whether this tale has a happy or unhappy ending.

Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain
I loved this story from the concept of a planet filled with porcelain people, to the lists interwoven into the narrative, to its unexpected ending. It's a bittersweet tale that focuses once again on love and the need for connection, with an added side of betrayal. The world-building in this story is exquisite, there's unique flora and fauna, the porcelain people themselves, the way they eat and how they have to adjust to those who eat carbon-based foods, and the way they make love, all of it is amazingly thought through and evocative.

Bus Ride to Mars
How could I not love a tribute to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales? What I really liked about this linked series of vignettes is that we get a decent cross section of a future which clearly has its basis in our today, but has elements taken to their extremes, sometimes disturbingly so and sometimes in a humorous way. I liked Djuna's voice, she's a conduit for these observations, and though they are coloured by her perceptions, she remains a mystery. Why is she going to Mars? Why did she have to leave her home? It's these unanswered questions as much as the quirky slices of bus-life that fill this story that make the story so intriguing.

Near+Far is a gorgeous collection, which shows off the scope of Cat Rambo's writing and most definitely showcases her deft touch telling tales about what makes us human: emotion, love, and a need to be connected to others. I really enjoyed reading all these stories together and I think it's an excellent way to become acquainted with Rambo's work. If you enjoy SF short stories with a sensitive side, this is the collection for you.

This collection was provided for review by the author.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short fiction by Cat Rambo. The stories are divided into two categories, the "Near" ones are set, as you might expect, in the Near Future, on Earth. The "Far" ones are set either in the more distant future or on other planets. In paperback, from what I understand, this is done in a novel way, where the book has a front cover on each side, and you turn the book over and turn it upside down to read the other story's collection, and either one could legitimately be considered the "first" batch. Unfortunately, I read it in ebook form, where it's merely one collection followed by another.

I've read a few Cat Rambo stories in the past and enjoyed them, and one of hers, I believe made my personal Hugo nomination ballot last year (or, if not, it was very close, I can't remember for sure). I also had the mistaken impression she'd been writing a lot longer than is apparently the case... perhaps because of the resonance of her last name in the public consciousness, I thought she'd been a staple of SF for decades. And while she's had a few pieces of fiction published dating back to the 90s, she actually seems to have burst onto the SF scene in full around 2004-5, and most, if not all of the stories in this book are from the last ten years, which means none of them feels dated.

I was prepared for the usual mixed bag in a short story collection, but, when I started on the "Near" half, I found myself enjoying most of the stories in them. Firstly, almost all of the stories are SF, as opposed to Fantasy, which is not as much to my tastes. There are a few where the science is somewhat soft, or there are some more magical elements, but only one that I'd describe as outright fantasy (set in the modern day, though, it should be noted), and even that wasn't bad, just not my thing. The rest gave me a great variety, some small character pieces, some built off an interesting idea, a superhero tale, a cyberpunk tale, and a few takes on typical SF themes, but not really a disappointment. I'd thought, then, if it kept up that quality, I might consider it one of the best single-author anthologies I'd yet read.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite keep up. The "Far" stories, while not bad, and, indeed, still containing a few excellent examples, didn't seem to quite match, for me, the enjoyment I had for the first. Party of this was perhaps high expectations from the variety of the first... I was expecting, hoping, to see dozens of different futures or alien worlds that were as believable as her near future stories, but far more divergent, as, the farther you go in the future, the more you can speculate about what might be out there. Unfortunately, several of the "Far" stories seemed to take place in the SAME future, with, occasionally, the same setting and a few shared characters, a rather conventional space opera dynamic, and although they explored different themes and some of the aliens were quite interesting, the overall effect was narrow... for every story set in that typical space opera setting, I lamented about how there could have been one set in a completely different universe with no aliens at all, or where humanity met only one alien race and had a unique relationship with them, or maybe a mind-bending post-singularity tale. There were a few exceptions (or, perhaps, the space opera setting had a lot of varied elements added to it, and all of them were actually intended to take place within it), but on the whole the stories felt like different looks at a single future. There was some experimentalism, but much of it seemed to be of the more style experimentalism or deliberately modeling works of classic literature, techniques that leave me somewhat cold.

Still, even though it didn't quite live up to my highest hopes, it's quite good, and moreover, they tread a nice line where they can be enjoyable both to a long-time SF reader and someone who's a bit newer, because the science and speculation usually play second fiddle to character and clarity. My favorite stories of the collection, I think, were "The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each", "Peaches of Immortality" (the two stories that opened the "Near" batch), "Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut", "Memories of Moments, Bright as Falling Stars", and from the "Far" section, "Amid the Words of War", "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" (which was a surprise as when I started I felt like it was going to be the kind of thing I disliked). Those are just the ones I really enjoyed. There are others that I liked, just, somewhat mildly, and only a few I didn't like at all (and only one that was a struggle to get through without just skipping ahead to the next story).

Rating-wise... I'll give it 4, which I might have given it anyway if I had liked the second batch as much as the first, but it would be a much higher four. This is a four just on the edge, but still worth the score. A very good collection, worth a look.

[T.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most reviews of Cat Rambo’s beautiful anthology have spent a lot of time examining the unique and compelling quality of the layout and physicality of the book. True, it is necessary to note the down right “cool” format of the collection: the double-sided covers that, with a flip of the book, brings the reader to the other collection. There are echoes of classic Sci-Fi novels with visionary depictions of red planets and solitary spaceships careening out into universes unknown. Rambo’s Near + Far certainly looks the part of great Sci-Fi of old and the appearance is something I’ve noticed many reviewers focusing on.

This, while understandable, detracts from the succulent stories nestled between those two bewitching covers.

I’ve been a devotee of Rambo’s work for many years. She is an accomplished storyteller with more than 100 published short stories under her belt and a gifted editor and instructor. I was not, therefore, the least bit surprised when I picked up my copy of Near + Far and did not set it down for four straight hours.

The title of the anthology is quite literal and very clever in its hints of what the reader can expect. In Near we visit times and settings, (mainly Earth), that modern readers will find familiar. In Far we journey to worlds unknown and undiscovered.

The thematic elements in these stories are married beautifully with Rambo’s distinct, visceral writing that subtly courts the reader in preparation for the gut punch of raw emotion. These stories are speculative fiction at its best, where the fantastical is mirrored in the reality of human (and non-human) life. There are quirky, complex stories that echo the dreams of little girls everywhere, yours truly included, (“Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut”), the thread of loneliness and how isolation impacts everyone in individual ways, (“Therapy Buddha”), the function of dysfunction, (“Vocobox”) and the sting of betrayal, (“Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain”).

Cat Rambo never disappoints. Her strongest talent is in the “says the Spider to the Fly” way she writes. She lures readers in and we think, perhaps, we know where she’s going, what path Rambo will set us on and while we’re considering this, thinking we know exactly where we’re headed, Rambo slips the rug from beneath us and makes us grateful for the tumble.

If you love great fiction (regardless of genre) then pick up Rambo’s Near + Far. I cannot apologize for converting you to the Rambo Cult. Come join us. We have chocolate.

Highly Recommended.

[Tracie McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review is based on the electronic review copy that Cat kindly forwarded to me, but I can’t help but mention the paperback. “Near + Far” comprises two distinct collections of stories compiled into one volume. Each volume has its own cover, and upon completion of one volume, you flip the book over to read the other. It’s a quirky little bonus for treebook aficionados, and reading about it in the book’s foreword makes me ever-so-slightly envious.
As mentioned, the two halves of the collection are separated into near future and far future stories, although on my first read-through I thought the “near” and “far” referred to geographical distance, with most of the far future stories being set on planets other than Earth. And how to describe the contents of “Near + Far”? I’d like to say simply “Kick-ass”, but two words (or is it one, with the hyphen?) don’t really count as a review, so I’ll cover off the rest of the word count by mentioning my favourites. There was only one story that I didn’t like, and I could write at length about why I didn’t like it, but even then, the quality of the prose is faultless.
One of the things that I admire most about this collection is the way that Rambo explores similar themes throughout, yet each story is distinct, imaginative and original; it never feels like the “same old, same old”. “Therapy Buddha” is a sad and chilling story that deals with a recurring theme within the collection, of social isolation and disconnection from one’s fellow human beings, causing characters to bond with non-humans and inanimate objects. Further excellent examples of this theme can be found in “RealFur”, “Surrogates” and “Vocobox”. The marriage in the latter story might be dysfunctional, but the match between characters and concept is one made in heaven.
One of the themes in “Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut” has been a fascination of mine since I was thirteen years old – what if you are a being who is created for a specific purpose, but you want to be something else? The same theme recurs in “Long Enough and Just So Long”.
“Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain” is an allegorical tale of love and betrayal, and I won’t spoil it by saying any more about it.
I know you’ve probably heard this a million times before about a million different books, but this time it’s true; if you’re a fan of exquisitely crafted speculative fiction short stories of dazzling scope and imagination, then this collection is a “must have”.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought Cat Rambo's short-story collection Near + Far in trade paperback rather than ebook form because I wanted to hold it in my hands. I was (and remain) enamored of the book's design: two sets of stories, set back to back like the much-loved old Ace Doubles, so that when you turn the book over you see a whole new book. And the satisfying heft of this edition lets you know that you are in for a substantial treat. The physical appeal of the book cover(s) and design do not mislead. This is an immensely satisfying volume of two dozen stories, with afterwords by the author.

The much-published Rambo is one of the more versatile writers of contemporary short speculative fiction, and these collections--"Stories of the Near Future and the Far," as they are subtitled--showcase the broad range of her work in science fiction, from the zany space opera of "Kallakak's Cousins" to the wrenching near-future hard science of "The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each," from the superheroes of "Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut" to the buyable Bodys [sic] of "Zeppelin Follies." No matter their setting or style, all of Rambo's stories contain two things. One is insight into the human condition, the mysteries of the human heart, and the pleasures and perils that attend our urge to connect and communicate. The other is language that is wielded with superlative care and that delights, as in this bit of description from "Bus Ride to Mars": "There was a silence before the kid spoke again, voice like an uncertain snail's horns emerging."

Near + Far is a fine achievement and a good companion to Rambo's earlier collections of fantasy fiction.

[Wendy S. Delmater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome to the dark and realistic future worlds of veteran science fiction writer Cat Rambo. Two of the stories in this double collection were originally published in Abyss & Apex so when it came out we asked to look at it. We were not disappointed. Buy this and you’ll get a lot of fiction for your dollar, too. Rambo explores the loss, anger, ambiguity and heartbreak of a rapidly changing world.

The Near collection is first.

“Close Your Eyes” was particularly effective, giving the readers two choices of story openings and two endings. If a story lingers in your mind, in part, due to ambiguity . . . this has it in spades.

Next, the female superhero tale, “Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut,” is full of cleverness, introspection, occasional feminism (not preachy, though) and outright humor. Example: Kilroy has joined AA and apologized to several villains she damaged unnecessarily while fighting intoxicated. Before each meal, she insists on praying, but she prays to her own, alien god, and an intolerant streak has evidenced. She’s apparently a fundamentalist of her own kind and believes the Earth will vanish in a puff of cinders and ash when the End Times come. That’s why she’s been working so hard to acquire money to get off-world, lest she be caught in the devastation.

All in all, it’s a story about knowing who you are.

We published “Ten Metaphors for Cyberspace” in The Best of Abyss & Apex, Volume One, as a prose poem. It’s hard to classify, but anything by Cat Rambo inspired by William Gibson that was, “Too much fun to write” is worth your time. Example: one metaphor for the internet: A Crazy Quilt.

Embroideries of data links elaborate each patch, signaling its access type with their pattern, cross-stitch for unimpeded access near French knots of one-time passwords. The fabric tells the access fee, public denims and burlap against slicker subsidized sites made of mercerized cotton or flashy R-rated satin. Punch through the folds to the infrastructure built of bed linens, layers of uncountable threads, a wooly blanket of processes scratchy to the touch.

Probably my favorite piece in Near is “Memories of Moments, as Bright as Falling Stars.” It’s perfect: exactly how those particular people would react to the bleak future she sets out. Lyrical. Chilling. Loving. Painful. Real.

On the other hand, “RealFur” is…arch. Rambo says she’s tactile, and I’m more visually oriented, but it’s still an interesting story about a marriage falling apart. And as for “Not Waving, Drowning”? How would you handle it if your spouse could start to read your mind? Perhaps it was the lies that kept us human, kept us from being forced to judge publicly, to confront the things that would tear us apart. Next, “Vocobox™” suggests what could happen when your cat could talk. It’s not really about the cat, though.

Anyone who was ever frustrated with Heinlein’s treatment of teenage girls in his fiction will like “Long Enough and Just So Long.” It even has a girl named Podkayne. Next up is a post-apocalyptic tale that shows how survivors cope with the end of the world. “Legends of the Gone” closes the Near sadly, fittingly, poetically.

Now, the Far collection, which in the dead tree version is upside down and on the back. Far (as in far future) starts out with “Futures,” a flash fiction celebration of alternative universes and time travel.

Then there is “Kallakak’s Cousins.” Funny, and the sort of tale where things keep getting worse until an improbable resolution; in other words it’s sort of Miles Vorkosigan, lite. “Amid the Words of War ” is a sad tale of an alien soldier (insectile) who is captured, tortured, released, and tortured by his own side. This is followed by “Timesnip,” where a time-cloned suffragette plies her trade trying to sell a patriarchal society on time-cloning their glorious past, and instead lays the groundwork for a matriarchal revolution.

“Angry Rose’s Lament” is another A&A story, and all I can say is that if you’ve ever dealt with trying to sober up someone you love—any any cost—you’ll really get this. “Seeking Nothing” also contains Angry Rose, but she’s not the focus; the tale is about a young man raised by fundamentalists on a lonely off-planet job, fresh out of school and wet behind the ears. And lonely.

What a lovely title: “A Querulous Flute of Bone.” But this is unlike Paolo Bacigalupi’s “the Fluted Girl.” Instead, we are treated to an artifact hunter, a seeker of distilled emotions, and a member of a race that changes its sex according to stimuli. He and his foil, another artifact hunter, seek the rarest artifact of all.

I loved the next offering, the screwball farce “Zeppelin Follies,” with a merry band of romance writers and society with a penchant for body modification.

I’d give a resounding Eh to “Space Elevator Music,” but you have to understand that slipstream and I are not on the best of terms. “Surrogates,” on the other hand, has people not on the best of terms: Belinda prefers her insanity chip to reality and lets it edit out certain people she’s not happy with.

The last two stories are “Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain” and “Bus Ride to Mars.” In “Porcelain,” a multiverse story in miniature, you have perhaps the most finely crafted piece of the collection. The shock of regret that I did not publish this was very keen: this is Cat Rambo at her best. However, “Bus Ride to Mars” is a science fiction/slipstream riff on The Canterbury Tales. I’m not a fan of slipstream, but this was well done.

Great collection. Very worth your time and treasure to get a copy. RECOMMENDED.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond the physical awesomeness of this book, Cat Rambo's stories are amazing. From evil mermaids to living coats and far, far beyond, these stories cover a wide range. There are only two drawbacks: 1) not being sure how to handle having two bookmarks, and 2) always having Grover's voice in my head when I think of the book's title(s).

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd collection of short stories I read for the Endeavour Award. Actually pretty good but nothing that really connected for me. Lots of relationship stories with odd twists and almost a horror spin to it. But definitely not like anything I've read.

[Shaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this as part of the Women in Science Fiction bundle and was interested in reading more of Cat Rambo's work. It rather confirms me in my opinion that Rambo's fiction is quite weird and usually not very comforting. This collection makes for quite interesting reading. I had only read one of the stories previously. The collection is broken into two groups of "near" and "+ Far" (Surprise!) and the stories I liked better were mostly in the latter group. From Near, I quite enjoyed Peaches of Immortality which has a similar idea to one used by Claire North in her book The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. From Far, I'll highlight Kallakak's Cousins, Zeppelin Follies, Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain and Bus Ride to Mars, if for no other reason than the tributes toCaterbury Tales. They're all pretty weird though. Or did I say that already?

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good stories, some okay stories. Took a long time to read and, because of the format, it was hard to get attached. I liked the afterword.

[Quinn Barbuta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very quirky and interesting short stories.

[Jemima Pett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in this book blew me away. Cat Rambo is a master of her craft; these have been published in most of the best scifi anthologies and magazines around.

The first set deals with Earth or near-Earth stories, some dystopian, some spec fic. There is a fair amount of deadly or at least deadbeat relationship development in here, and Rambo admits that much of it emerged from her own troublesome break with her partner. Ones I particularly liked include the sensuous live fur coat, the society on the edge of a lake which was just doing its best to survive, and some of those involving androids.

The second group, Far, is set on other worlds. Some link together, or at least share spaces or characters. Having developed one character, Rambo feels they deserve their own outing. I know that feeling! These scifi stories sometimes delve into fantasy worlds, and many of them are from themed anthologies, which makes me want to track them down to see what the approach other authors took.

With a set of stories this big it is almost impossible to remember them all. In fact, I found it impossible to read more than a couple in one sitting. It’s probably taken me around three months. The intensity of each story is overwhelming in bulk; I needed a break after a few, then after a couple, then after just one.

They also played to my insecurities as a writer. These are so good, all published, all original and inventive. I think of my work and cry. Should I give up now? Or accept I am still a journeyman at best, and learn from this master?

A jewel in the crown of scifi and fantasy short stories, to be treasured by all who enjoy the shorter side of the genre.

[Shel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The difficulty with this review will be not to gush too much...well-told short stories are potent magic and Cat Rambo's a magician.

If you have an affinity for speculative works, fantasy with sorcerers and mermaids, science fiction with new gizmos, other worlds and aliens, this collection will enchant.

Perhaps it's time to go on a short story binge. If you appreciate short stories by Aimee Bender, Ryan Boudinot, Joyce Carol Oates, Karen Joy Fowler, Carol Emshwiller, Octavia Butler, Rebecca Brown or Julia Slavin, try these too.

Standouts from the collection include: "Seeking Nothing," "RealFur" (transgenic living fur coats, eerie and memorable as Margaret Atwood's ChickieNobs in Oryx and Crake), "Surrogates," (Insanity Chip!), and "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" (a Nebula Award nominee and a favorite. I blogged about it and Joyce Carol Oates' "Amputee").

A note of caution: With themes of alienation, loneliness, miscommunication, and disconnection many of these stories are sad draughts.

Pairs well with: Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight, The Surgeon's Tale and Other Stories with Jeff Vandermeer, Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler and the ineffable Lightspeed Magazine.

Amazon asks the silly question, "Would you buy this book again?". Not only would I, but I likely will — the print version. It's one of those I'd like to have on the shelf. Even with improvements on the newest Kindle, I still find e-books unsatisfying for short stories. Maybe short stories are like butterflies: more visual, elusive, mesmerizing. They need to flip about and be admired.

OK, now let's go ahead and gush. Cat Rambo has some remarkable geek cred, (roots in D&D, MUD, worked for Microsoft, lives in awesome Seattle-area) and writer cred. She's learned her craft from Octavia Butler (!) at Clarion West. Publication credits. Award nomination credits. She's running for SWFA vice president. If you like Pinterest, she posts the most lovely images. Follow. Follow.

She's currently shopping a quartet of fantasy novels, which seem sure to find a home — might as well put those on the to-read list now.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently reread this one, and was surprised to find out how short many of the stories were; they're rich with emotional weight, and I keep being surprised at how neatly they're written, and how evocative they manage to be without sprawling.

The book's actually a flip book. You read it through to the halfway point, getting your stories of the near future (superheroes, live fur coats, a talking cat, salvage among mermaids), and then you turn it over and read the other half, stories of the far (the Twice-Far space station, perfumery among clones, implanted insanity, alien artifact hunters, and Planet Porcelain). The stories are lovely; some are almost prosaic, some are quietly fantastical, and overwhelmingly they are deeply affecting. (I'm still turning "Surrogates" over in my head, after reading it three times; I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the protagonist, in certain respects, and... honestly, please, just go read the book, I will only mangle it if I try to explain it.)

I don't read much science fiction (and I'm starting to read more), and I was a little hesitant about picking up the collection, but I'm glad I did.

[Mathew Walls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consistently good. A lot of short story collections are pretty up and down, but the worst I can say about any of these is that they didn't grab me as much as some of the others. I particularly enjoyed Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut, Vocobox™, Kallakak's Cousins, Surrogates and Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain, but they're really all good, except maybe 10 New Metaphors for Cyberspace, which reads more like a McSweeney's article than a short story.

This is the best sort of sci-fi, where the fictional elements (aliens, new technologies, etc.) are integrated so well into the story that you don't need to be told what everything is, you understand perfectly from context, and it all serves the story rather than being mere set dressing. J just really well-written stories about relatable people in scenarios that allow us to understand something interesting about them.

[Thalarctos · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are several stories here that made me think, that stretched my mind, while still managing to be readable. Some science fiction short stories these days seem to think they have to barely qualify as English in order to be cerebral enough to exist. These are smart, interesting stories. I recommend this book.

[Paul Hancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of short stories. There were some really excellent stories in here, but also a few that i didn't like at all. I'm not going to pick apart each story but in general i enjoyed the far future stories a lot more than the near future. From this collection I think i have enough of a feel for Cat Rambos writing to say that I'll look out for her work in the future.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely clutch of stories that run the gamut from poignant to quite creepy.

[Peter Tillman]

Not in BG system

[Django Wexler · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are some really good stories. I kept thinking, "Okay, THIS one is my favorite," only to be proven wrong a few pages later. Highly recommended.

[Jan Moens · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

[Fortakrafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

ncie one

[Edwin Downward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fasten your five point harness and tighten your helmet strap because you're in for a wild ride.

[morbidflight · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great selection of short stories and other writing. Take two with water before bed every night, and you'll see strange lands and familiar faces.

[Jetamors · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite story from this collection was "Ms. Liberty Gets A Haircut"