Canavan’s Comments (group member since May 15, 2018)

Canavan’s comments from the Spells, Space & Screams: Collections & Anthologies in Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror group.

“Chasing Ivory”, Ted Kosmatka

A story about (view spoiler)[species preservation. It’s nicely written and has its heart in the right place, although I might opine that the author sidesteps the really hard question — how to preserve the ecosystems necessary to make real progress on this vital issue. (hide spoiler)]

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Lena said:

Sabrina!

I’m not a huge, huge fan of this show, but I did enjoy it enough to have binge-watched the first season. I’ll be curious to see where the writers go this April after that somewhat surprising conclusion.

I am looking forward to another series that kicks off this April, viz., the last season of Game of Thrones. I’m a little concerned about the show, given that they seem to have a ton of loose threads to tie up and they’ve only allotted themselves seven episodes, rather than the usual ten, in which to do so.

Grahame said (in part):

Why didn't Thanos think of [1]?

I suppose that the Disney producers thought that might not make for an exciting film.
;-)

“Number Nine Moon”, Alex Irvine

My reaction to this story was similar yours, Lena. (view spoiler)[Survival stories like this one can generate reader interest in a number of ways. One is by making the reader empathize with the characters, but I don’t think Irvine gives us much to go on in that regard. Second, the author can ratchet up the tension by occasionally placing obstacles in the path of our protagonists; oddly, Irvine doesn’t do that. By that I mean that there are about a zillion things that have to happen in this scenario in order for Steuby and Bridget to successfully rendezvous with the freighter and all of them are readily accomplished with barely a hitch. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭½

“Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee”, Alastair Reynolds

(view spoiler)[Like the preceding story, Ken Liu’s “Seven Birthdays”, Reynolds’ tale centers around an invidual with a greatly prolonged lifespan who, by the tail end of the the story’s timeline has become something we would scarcely recognize as human.

I found the technobabble about exploration of the solar surface and below kinda fun. And I liked the structure of the story — moving back and forth in time from Kamala’s dissertation proposal to her contact with the anomaly; that structure, I thought, rather elegantly fit with the way Reynolds resolved the story. On the negative side of the ledger, there isn’t much here in the way of characterization. We really have just Kamala, and she’s presented as fairly two-dimensional.

Lena makes reference to the somewhat confusing nature of the conclusion and, to be honest, I did have to think about it for a bit. My assumption is that the “atemporal pruning” the “future Kamala” refers to has the effect of reaching back in time to impact “dissertation Kamala”. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭½

Lena said:

Red Sonja takes another hit

Singer’s departure was almost a forgone conclusion. I was surprised when I heard he had been signed in the first place. It’s less clear what Millennium plans to do with the property. Is it just being temporarily shelved until they find someone new to helm it or are they going to ditch it completely?

“Seven Birthdays”, Ken Liu

The opener to this anthology (view spoiler)[tracks the evolution of its central character, Mia, over a very lengthy period of time, peeking in on her at eight time points — on her seventh birthday, her 49th (7²), etc., all the way up to her 7⁷th birthday and beyond.

There’s a fair amount to unspool in this short story. One of the threads focuses on the idea of technological solutions. “There is always a technical solution”, we are rather optimistically informed. To that end the story starts out as a rather straightforward family drama in which an absentee mother is working on an engineering fix for global climate change. The focus starts to shift a bit by Mia’s third birthday as we see how planetary considerations lead humanity to shift from a carbon-based existence to a digital one. Liu makes clear, however, that in spite of the rather radical changes Mia undergoes, some psychological features remain constant — concern for family and life, for example. Liu does a nice job of artfully rendering this idea by use of a flying kite metaphor, ranging from the simple paper one flown on Mia’s 7th birthday to the plates that make up the Dyson swarm she later creates. (hide spoiler)]

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Janelle asked:

Happy Women's Day! What's your favorite book by a female author?

Off the top of my head, probably Middlemarch by George Eliot.

“Ursus Triad, Later”, Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg

Up until now I’ve resisted responding to those posts in this thread that have groused about the way in which Ellen Datlow’s story selections weren’t narrowly tailored to match the title of the anthology; that is, many of the stories included deal with sex/gender issues in a science fiction setting, but do not feature actual aliens. I can understand the complaints, although, to be fair to Datlow, her introduction makes it sorta clear that her intended focus was going to be more broad than the title implies. That said, for me this story is a bridge too far. While sexually explicit, it features neither aliens nor any of the trappings found in science fiction. It’s a much better fit with one of the many anthologies published in the last few decades on re-interpreted fairy tales.

In the present story, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” is re-imagined (view spoiler)[as a furry rape fantasy, in which the Goldilocks character emerges psychologically fulfilled and triumphant by coming to eventually accept and even relish her sexual subjugation. It’s a theme that (to be honest) makes me uncomfortable. I suppose that this is an idea worthy of literary exploration, but I hated the writing. “...she would have wept, great groaning tears against the wood, wood pressed to her lips, splinters like the wafer of God between her teeth, but here there was if not godlessness then the orbit of no salvation”. I will admit that that passage ain’t as bad as some of the prose found in Lost Signals, but it is nonetheless pretty turgid stuff. (hide spoiler)]

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Lena said (in part):

In college I told my friends about Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, which I loved as a kid. To me it was about a girl who got to grow up on the jungle and learned to speak with animals. When we watched it in college it was a soft core B Movie that grows less PC each year.

I unrepentantly still like it.

I did see the 1984 movie with Tanya Roberts, Lena, but honestly don’t remember that much about it. Irish McCalla starred as Sheena in a short-lived television series in the 50s. Some of those episodes can be found on YouTube. And back in 2017 there were reports that Millennium Films had optioned the property for a potential reboot.

“Sextraterrestrials”, Joe Haldeman & Jane Yolen

I wish I had appreciated this selection of poems as much as others seemed to. I won’t go on at length about each of the poems except to say that I generally thought Haldeman’s to be more interesting, although I found the rhythmic structure a bit clunkier (for my tastes anyway).

“To the Marriage of Two Kinds”, Haldeman ✭✭½
“Intermarriage”, Yolen ✭✭
“Sex on the Planet of the Trees”, Haldeman ✭✭½
“First Contact/Second Coming”, Yolen ✭✭
“Sex Among the Abos”, Yolen ✭✭✭
“Come, Talk”, Haldeman ✭✭✭

Overall: ✭✭½

Lena said:

Gasp. Two of my friends who never saw this 80s Sword & Sorcery treasure?!?! Glad I could share.

I will risk incurring your wrath, Lena, by gently suggesting that others might not find this movie to be a “treasure”. 😉

One of the problems is that Brigitte Nielsen is not the world’s most talented actress (she won a Golden Raspberry for this particular performance). Years after the film’s release, Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the co-stars, remarked, “When my kids get out of line, they’re sent to their room and forced to watch Red Sonja ten times. I never have too much trouble with them.”

On the other hand, who am I to cast aspersions? I totally get how films we see and love when we are younger have a way of overriding our critical faculties when later re-watched through adult eyes. To this day I still get a kick out of watching one of my childhood favorites, Reptilicus, a movie that makes Red Sonja look like Citizen Kane.

“The Tattooist”, Susan Wade

This isn’t a bad story. It boasts a somewhat interesting idea and a main character that’s fairly well realized. I also rather enjoyed the author’s detailed descriptions of the tattooing process. On the negative side of the ledger, the reader fairly quickly discerns what is going to happen with Claren ((view spoiler)[her growing emotional attachment to Hadrian and the concomitant distaste she starts feels towards Terry (hide spoiler)]) and as I was reading I felt as though I were desultorily waiting for those expectations to be confirmed. I found myself vaguely wishing that Wade had tried to confound my expectations or had attempted something a bit more though-provoking.

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R.I.P. Hugh Lamb (1946-2019)

Author and editor Mike Ashley reported today in a mailing list that I belong to that Hugh Lamb passed away last night.

“He had been in poor health for some months and the last time I spoke to him, two weeks ago, it was clear he had had enough. Hugh will, of course, be long remembered for his many excellent anthologies and collections of material by classic authors, many of whose reputations were revived by Hugh thanks to his diligent research.”

Lamb’s anthologies, which started appearing in the 70s (e.g., A Wave of Fear ) were partly responsible for rekindling my own interest in supernatural literature. A sad loss.

A tribute to Hugh Lamb, written by his son, Richard, can be found on the former’s web site here.

“Oral”, Richard Christian Matheson

In this short, short story, (view spoiler)[the title signals in a none-too-subtle fashion the primary idea — verbal communication between a couple (in which the woman describes in minute detail the sensations derived from everyday objects and actions) is used as a metaphor for the sexual intercourse, highlighting the approach-avoidance aspect of that biological act. (hide spoiler)]

I didn’t particularly dislike this story, but for whatever reason neither did I find it very revelatory or interesting.

✭½

“Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture)”, Neil Gaiman

I find Gaiman to be something of a hit-or-miss writer. Some of his pieces are hugely entertaining, while others miss completely. “Eaten”, unfortunately, falls into the latter category. (view spoiler)[It’s more or less a barely coherent montage of images/ideas relating to vorarephilia and/or sexual cannibalism that left me rather cold. (hide spoiler)]

✭½

“Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland”, Gwyneth Jones

Science fiction writers have been warning us about the psychological perils of virtual sex at least since the 70s. The stuff in Jones’ story doesn’t feel particularly fresh or compelling. (view spoiler)[It’s essentially a statement on the impossibility or near impossibility of experiencing the “zipless fuck”. (Jones borrows Erica Jong’s term, first famously used in her 1973 novel, Fear of Flying.) (hide spoiler)]

✭✭½

I’ve been out of pocket for the last few weeks with stuff at work, so I’m really late getting to this party. In skimming through the posts, I’m a bit disappointed to see so much dissatisfaction with this month’s selection. I didn’t nominate it, but did vote for it, so I’ll at least try and get through most of the stories in the two weeks that remain.

“The Reality Trip”, Robert Silverberg

This is one the few stories not written specifically for Ellen Datlow’s anthology. An oldie, but goodie. I think the author does a good of capturing the earnest, if often goofy and unhinged Zeitgeist of the late 60s/early 70s; in my case, it certainly evoked abundant memories of bad poetry readings. What I liked about this story is that, as awkwardly and inelegantly expressed as are Elizabeth’s passions, Knecht comes to embrace the authenticity of those feelings. I rather suspect that Silverberg feels much the same way.

This is familiar territory for the author. He’s explored similar ideas in his novels and stories (e.g., “Ishmael in Love”).

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Steve asked:

Is there a thread where you can post any short stories you've recently read and recommend? The 'What are you currently reading' thread appears to be mainly for novels. There's separate threads for particular magazines/e-zines which is great, but a general short story recommendations thread would be good.

You can also post in Ronald’s “One story a day” thread.