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Salvage rites and other stories
Book by Watson, Ian
252 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1989
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Ian Watson
300 books121 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 23, 2024
The first Ian Watson collection I have read for many years. Watson was a writer I devoured when I was at college. What was so impressive to me back then was his inventiveness, which was of a very high order. His work was almost always original and ingenious, two qualities I appreciate very much.
Reading Salvage Rights was an interesting experience for me. It instantly reminded me of why I held Watson in such high regard back then; and it also made me realise that he is still one of the best living short story writers in the world. My only mistake has been in leaving it so long to get back into reading the books of his I haven't yet read.
The stories are a mixed bag, by which I mean that many themes are touched on, many ideas explored, many different approaches are taken. The opening (title) story is a horror fable that has surrealist overtones. It should be an obvious tale with a cliche ending, but it is not. Watson rarely or never does straightforward work, even when (one suspects) he wants to.
'The Moon and Michelangelo' is a science fiction story with a very unpredictable (but completely logical) twist. I am no longer a fan of interplanetary stories. Fiction that features the human colonization of the stars now seems to me to be utterly absurd (not in a good way) and yet Watson concentrates of other aspects and makes this tale vital and powerful.
'Jewels in an Angel's Wing', 'The Emir's Clock' and the astounding 'Joan's World' are all stories that fit into a genre that Watson has almost made his own, although it has no name. I like to call it 'speculative gnosticism' and it seems predicated on the idea that the controlling force behind the universe is actually evil (or that aliens have godlike powers) and that as a consequence humanity has been (or is in danger of being) trapped in one peculiar hell or other where neither time nor space are reliable. This can be quite nightmarish stuff. 'Joan's World', however, is ultimately uplifting. It also happens to be one of the strangest and most original SF stories I have ever read.
Of the fifteen stories in this collection, there are very few disappointments. Even when Watson adopts a cosy touch with his style (his later work seems more English somehow than his early work, which had touches of Kafka and Akutagawa in its mannerisms) his ideas are still sufficiently amazing to lift the tale into excellence. This is especially true of 'The Mole Field' and 'Lost Bodies', which start as cosies but soon change their mood entirely (the latter tale is actually one the best in the book). There is another kind of cosy that masquerades as horror; and 'Samathiel's Summons', 'Aid from a Vampire' and 'The Resurrection Man' fall into this category or at least skirt its edges, and yet all three are excellent.
Watson is also good at the cerebral lateral-logic story, a style of writing that was taken to great heights by Borges, Calvino and Lem but is relatively rare in the English-speaking world (although Barrington Bayley, John Sladek and Rudy Rucker are notable exceptions). 'Hyperzoo' is about the spatial fourth dimension; 'Letters from the Monkey Alphabet' is about reincarnation and has a pleasing formal structure.
The cultural satire 'Day of the Wolf' is totally remarkable, a very neat reversal of colonialist attitudes. An ordinary writer would have been fully satisfied with the central conceit alone, namely the establishment by Tanzania of colonies in England, but Watson goes further, as he always does, and perfectly fits in a supernatural trope too. This story is a masterpiece of pacing, irony and genuine suspense.
But my favourite story in this book is 'The Legend of the Seven Who Found the True Egg of Lightning', which is very funny and strange, a mock fable from quasi-equatorial climes that is both inspiring and absurd (in a good way).
Reading Salvage Rights was an interesting experience for me. It instantly reminded me of why I held Watson in such high regard back then; and it also made me realise that he is still one of the best living short story writers in the world. My only mistake has been in leaving it so long to get back into reading the books of his I haven't yet read.
The stories are a mixed bag, by which I mean that many themes are touched on, many ideas explored, many different approaches are taken. The opening (title) story is a horror fable that has surrealist overtones. It should be an obvious tale with a cliche ending, but it is not. Watson rarely or never does straightforward work, even when (one suspects) he wants to.
'The Moon and Michelangelo' is a science fiction story with a very unpredictable (but completely logical) twist. I am no longer a fan of interplanetary stories. Fiction that features the human colonization of the stars now seems to me to be utterly absurd (not in a good way) and yet Watson concentrates of other aspects and makes this tale vital and powerful.
'Jewels in an Angel's Wing', 'The Emir's Clock' and the astounding 'Joan's World' are all stories that fit into a genre that Watson has almost made his own, although it has no name. I like to call it 'speculative gnosticism' and it seems predicated on the idea that the controlling force behind the universe is actually evil (or that aliens have godlike powers) and that as a consequence humanity has been (or is in danger of being) trapped in one peculiar hell or other where neither time nor space are reliable. This can be quite nightmarish stuff. 'Joan's World', however, is ultimately uplifting. It also happens to be one of the strangest and most original SF stories I have ever read.
Of the fifteen stories in this collection, there are very few disappointments. Even when Watson adopts a cosy touch with his style (his later work seems more English somehow than his early work, which had touches of Kafka and Akutagawa in its mannerisms) his ideas are still sufficiently amazing to lift the tale into excellence. This is especially true of 'The Mole Field' and 'Lost Bodies', which start as cosies but soon change their mood entirely (the latter tale is actually one the best in the book). There is another kind of cosy that masquerades as horror; and 'Samathiel's Summons', 'Aid from a Vampire' and 'The Resurrection Man' fall into this category or at least skirt its edges, and yet all three are excellent.
Watson is also good at the cerebral lateral-logic story, a style of writing that was taken to great heights by Borges, Calvino and Lem but is relatively rare in the English-speaking world (although Barrington Bayley, John Sladek and Rudy Rucker are notable exceptions). 'Hyperzoo' is about the spatial fourth dimension; 'Letters from the Monkey Alphabet' is about reincarnation and has a pleasing formal structure.
The cultural satire 'Day of the Wolf' is totally remarkable, a very neat reversal of colonialist attitudes. An ordinary writer would have been fully satisfied with the central conceit alone, namely the establishment by Tanzania of colonies in England, but Watson goes further, as he always does, and perfectly fits in a supernatural trope too. This story is a masterpiece of pacing, irony and genuine suspense.
But my favourite story in this book is 'The Legend of the Seven Who Found the True Egg of Lightning', which is very funny and strange, a mock fable from quasi-equatorial climes that is both inspiring and absurd (in a good way).
Read
November 6, 2020Reading my "W"s short fiction list, I only read four stories here (thanks to inter-library loan.
"The Emir's Clock" - a young female academic explains to us her friendship with "Bunny", actually a wealthy son of a Muslim Emir and an all-around charming and brilliant guy. And also, about how he took her one day to view an ancient clock in a church in a small English town, explaining how the clock's history struck him as encapsulating a very Arabic way of looking at the world. And how they both (although she, much less so than him) seemed to be visited by some divine inspiration or message that day. And how the Emir returned to his home country on the death of his father and began turning all his wealth and power towards the creation of artificial intelligence...and the terrible position this puts her in, now that she too has unraveled the message they both received. Quite a nice little science fiction story with religious and horrific resonances - well done!
"Samathiel's Summons" - two female college students react differently to the recent spate of murdered women on campus, with Helen choosing stripped-down self-defense training and Trish opting for stoned occultism - which actually works. But can the demon Samathiel ("Call me Sam") solve the problem, without the cost outweighing the benefit? A nice little bit of horror-comedy (although - trigger warning - involves rape references) about what you can expect from demons.
"The Mole Field" - A horror novelist and his wife visit a remote rural church in England to see a supposedly disturbing mural. It doesn't prove to be, but as it turns out, leaving the place is more difficult than they expected. Not a bad little horror story - the M.R. James approach wrong-foots you from the unexpected pulp payoff. Still, the pacing could have been better.
"Aid From A Vampire" - The only vampire in the world - of unknown (and not necessarily supernatural) provenance finds that, in a future population wracked by AIDS, his bite cures the afflicted, while removing his agelessness and invulnerability. Eh, not my thing, really.
"The Emir's Clock" - a young female academic explains to us her friendship with "Bunny", actually a wealthy son of a Muslim Emir and an all-around charming and brilliant guy. And also, about how he took her one day to view an ancient clock in a church in a small English town, explaining how the clock's history struck him as encapsulating a very Arabic way of looking at the world. And how they both (although she, much less so than him) seemed to be visited by some divine inspiration or message that day. And how the Emir returned to his home country on the death of his father and began turning all his wealth and power towards the creation of artificial intelligence...and the terrible position this puts her in, now that she too has unraveled the message they both received. Quite a nice little science fiction story with religious and horrific resonances - well done!
"Samathiel's Summons" - two female college students react differently to the recent spate of murdered women on campus, with Helen choosing stripped-down self-defense training and Trish opting for stoned occultism - which actually works. But can the demon Samathiel ("Call me Sam") solve the problem, without the cost outweighing the benefit? A nice little bit of horror-comedy (although - trigger warning - involves rape references) about what you can expect from demons.
"The Mole Field" - A horror novelist and his wife visit a remote rural church in England to see a supposedly disturbing mural. It doesn't prove to be, but as it turns out, leaving the place is more difficult than they expected. Not a bad little horror story - the M.R. James approach wrong-foots you from the unexpected pulp payoff. Still, the pacing could have been better.
"Aid From A Vampire" - The only vampire in the world - of unknown (and not necessarily supernatural) provenance finds that, in a future population wracked by AIDS, his bite cures the afflicted, while removing his agelessness and invulnerability. Eh, not my thing, really.
September 26, 2022
I actually read the Grafton edition, which wasn't listed on here, but I'm sure there's not much difference! As with all such collections, there are always some stories that grab you more than others, and this is no different. However, one thing that remains common to every tale in this offering is the sheer sweep of imagination shown by Ian Watson, and which those of us who love his work have come to expect. The collection runs the gamut of speculative fiction, with quite a cross section of themes presented, touching on SF, Fantasy, and Horror, with (to my mind) the title story being the most disquieting of the bunch. It's taken me a while to get round to reading this particular collection, (my edition was first published 1990!) but I have to say it didn't disappoint!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews