F&SF August-September 2009 Reviewed
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Published by Spirogale Inc
Jul 16, 2009
The penultimate issue of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's 60th year sees the return of several regulars, some after a long absence, and a rare piece of European fiction translated. This particular issue is heavily weighted toward fantasy, and unusually necromancy features in two of them.
Sean McMullen
Sean McMullen's "The Art Of The Dragon" is an oddly effective story about the manifestation of a giant dragon that eats works of art such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. McMullen cleverly explores the sociological implications of the dragon's appearance, rather than building on the initial whimsy.
In Nancy Springer's "You Are Such A One," a woman who for years has felt almost invisible to her family passes the house of her dreams, and on calling there is mistaken for a ghost by the caretaker. Like the McMullen, it doesn't go where the reader expects, even if in the end it does rather fizzle out, it's a clever concept.
"A Token Of A Better Age" by Melinda M. Snodgrass shares it's early Christian Roman setting with her last novel. It's a well-told tale of a disgraced Roman official and the centurion and his slave, who has shown him the truth of the world, and of the realms that abut it.
Matthew Hughes
"Hunchster" by Matthew Hughes cleverly takes the theme of Damon Knight's classic "I See You" and sets it in a tiny backwoods town that's had it's heart ripped out by the vagaries of the dot-com. It's short and with its laconic style punches above its weight.
Tina Kuzminski's "The Goddamned Tooth Fairy" is the first of two classic reprints, and to be frank is the strongest story in the book. It tells of single Dad Ute and Iris, with whom he goes dog-racing. It's beautifully observed, and even with one narrative lurch in tone is Highly Recommended.
"The Bones of Giants" by Yoon Ha Lee features an intriguing premise, that necromancers skilled in the art can manipulate the dead through hand movements. Tamim is a young man who believes himself ready to die, but who is befriended by Sakera a mysterious young woman. With a nervous spasm in one of her hands, she needs his help in controlling the giant skeletons they use as mounts. Exotic, clever, and Highly Recommended.
Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud's "Icarus Saved From The Skies" takes a well-worked trope, of the man growing wings, but while on the plus side Châteaureynaud has a distinctive authorial voice, the story itself has a perfunctory feel. Whether that's due to the translation from the French is unclear.
"The Others" by Lawrence C. Connolly is a sequel to his "Daughters of Prime," which can be read at the magazine's website until the next issue. Cara Randall has been cloned and send to an outpost world to study the (intelligent) indigenes there. But the process of cloning Cara has come to highlight the enormous differences between the various clones, but also how little they understand the aliens. Gamma Cara's headlong flight through the woods is taut and at times grim and showcases Connelly's ability to cross the sub-genres from SF to horror and back.
Rand B. Lee
In Rand B. Lee's "Three Leaves Of Aloe" Amrit works in a Mumbai call-center to pay for her daughter's education. However her daughter Meera in unwilling to accept the bullying at the school, and in fighting back gets in further trouble. The vice-principal threatens Meera with expulsion unless she is prepared to accept implanation of a nannychip, which will moderate her behaviour. Nicely self-revelatory.
Albert E. Cowdrey's "The Private Eye" tells of clairvoyant Jimmy John (JJ) Link who is called into help find a kidnapped heiress by Sherriff Chew, a Good Ole Boy . The plot isn't remotely original, but it's more than made up for by the charm the characters bring to the story, together with Cowdrey's wry, sardonic style. One of Cowdrey's best.
"Snowfall" by Jessie Thompson is a brief, powerful story about an abused girl dreaming of freedom in the snow-covered fields, and it makes one wonder what Thompson might have achieved had she not suffered as Harlan Ellison's introduction (which is longer than the story) makes clear -- but perhaps her personal problems are inherently linked to her creativity. Highly Recommended.
Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling's "Esoteric City" is Turin, home to the wizard Achille Ochietti, who is taken to Hell at the beginning of the story where he is told that he is to meet Lucifer himself. Sterling has become a thoroughly European writer nowadays, but he hasn't lost his ability to throw a kaleidoscope of ideas into a story, in which he posits that biomancy has taken over from necromancy, and that the battle-lines of black and white magic are obsolete and that God and Satan are instead fighting over green and brown magic. Wickedly funny, and cynical, it's Highly Recommended.
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