Glorifying Terrorism, Manufacturing Contempt: An Anthology

by Farah Mendlesohn (Editor)

Terrorism

Genres: Short Stories

261 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

Farah Mendlesohn is a Hugo Award-winning British academic and writer on science fiction. In 2005 she won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book for The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, which she edited with Edward James.

Mendlesohn is Professor of Literary History at Anglia Ruskin University, where she is also Head of English and Media. She writes on Science Fiction, Fantasy, Children's Literature and Historical Fiction. She received her D.Phil. in History from the University of York in 1997.

Her book Rhetorics of Fantasy won the BSFA award for best non-fiction book in 2009; the book was also nominated for both Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

In 2010 she was twice nominated for Hugo Awards in the Best Related Books category.

She was the editor of Foundation - The International Review of Science Fiction from 2002 to 2007. She formerly was Reviews Editor of Quaker Studies.

Reviews

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/826490.html[return][return]This is a collection of short stories, mostly sfnal, none of them. Many of them go for standard sfnal riffs of humans occupying alien planets (or vice versa) and the underdog biting back; the most memorable of these for me was "Execution Day", by Marie Brennan. Some take a different tack; I particularly liked Ken MacLeod's piece, "MS Found on a Hard Drive", which assembles various of his musings on the subjects of terrorism and contemporary (or near-future, or recent past) Scottish and Irish politics. Charles Stross has a neat epilogue as well, suggesting that the Labour Party will come to its senses, but not until long after it is too late. A collection worth looking out for on its own literary merits, quite apart from the political point being made.[return]------------------

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology was published as a reaction to the Terrorism Act 2006 and each story in it could be interpreted as breaking that law, particularly in regards to the "glorification of terrorism" clauses. In this regard, they were a mixed bag. Some were subtle and some were as subtle as a half-brick in a sock. The quality was generally high, although I was disappointed by Ken Macloed's contribution which was fragmentary and a bit random.

The problem is really that, by its very nature, it'd have to be a mostly dystopian book. And, as I've pointed out before, I don't like dystopian fiction much. However, the point is more to do with the politics, and I still feel that it's an important point to make, and I'm glad that I did buy the book.

[bluetyson]

Glorifying Terrorism, Manufacturing Contempt: An Anthology (2006)