NEBULA 2005: More Stories

kw: book reviews, story reviews, science fiction, fantasy, short stories

This continues a post on June 6, 2005.

• "What I Didn't See" by Kary Joy Fowler. On the surface, Alternative History; underneath, "what do we really percieve." A "gorillas in the mist" setting. Much is implied, so reading this takes plenty of thought.
• "Quarks at Appomatox" by Charles L. Harness. Alternative History, or perhaps a decision point that could have led to one. I can't put anything here without giving too much away...
• "Of a Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs" by Adam-Troy Castro. Outer-edge stuff, on the SF-F boundary, where the "S" clearly means "Speculative". The "dogs" are the "dogs of war." Can chaos be scheduled?
• "Goodbye to All That" by Harlan Ellison. You can't classify Ellison. Neither can you read him unless you are exceptionally alert. Like many by Ellison, going to heaven (or hell) has unexpected side effects.
• "The Speed of Dark (Excerpt)" by Elizabeth Moon. A very synoptical chapter of the book. This could be considered mainline fiction, based on this chapter alone. I don't know where the rest of the book goes. It treats autism very sensitively, from the inside.
• "The Empire of Ice Cream" by Jeffrey Ford. Solipsistic fantasy, at one level; dream sequence at another. Synesthesia is the atmosphere, and an extension thereof the theme.

I seldom read the essays or poems in a NEBULA collection. I did read Barry Malzberg's essay "Tripping with the Alchemist," about the Scott Meredith agency and his multilayered association with it. Malzberg's stories are easier reading than this essay.

I like poetry, and I write poetry. Why don't I read the Rhysling Award winners? Because I don't like all poetry. I prefer a poetic work to have both rhyme and rhythm. It's been years since a Rhysling Award went to a poem that you could put to music.

I understand blank verse, and can read Shakespeare, but I don't care at all for free verse, which to me isn't verse at all. Being ultraconservative to the point of autism myself, I prefer structure, rather than prose with poetic figures, broken into lines at odd places. I takes a really superb example of free verse to gain my grudging admiration.