Kafkaesque Anthology- Book Review

“THE TOURIST SHOPS OF PRAGUE SELL DOZENS OF ITEMS COMMEMORATING FRANZ KAFKA. You can drink a latte in the Café Kafka, add sugar to it from a packet with Kafka’s face on it, and then light your cigarette from a box of Kafka matches.


“Franz Kafka died in obscurity in 1936, publishing only a handful of bizarre stories in little known literary magazines. Yet today he persists in our collective imaginations. Even those who have never read any of Kafka’s fiction describe their tribulations with the Department of Motor Vehicles as “Kafkaesque” How did this happen?

“Kafkaesque explores the fiction of generations of authors inspired by Kafka’s work. These dystopic, comedic, and ironic tales include T.C. Boyle’s roadside garage that is a never ending trial, Philip Roth’s alternate history in which Kafka immigrates to America to date his aunt, Jorge Luis Borges’ labyrinthine public lottery that redefines reality, Carol Ernshwiller’s testimony by the first female to earn the right to call herself a “man,” and Paul Di Filippo’s unfamiliar Kafka—journalist by day, costumed crime fighter by night.

“Also included is Kafka’s classic story “The Hunger Artist,” appearing both in a brand-new translation and in an illustrated version by legendary cartoonist R. Crumb (Fritz the Cat). Additionally, each author discusses Kafka’s writing, its relevance, its personal influence, and Kafka’s enduring legacy.”



The stories listed below were some of the most bizarre but ingenious I have ever read. They work on repetitive themes Franz Kafka incorporated in his own work.



A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

The title introduces the topic of the unfolding story of a man on exhibition, fasting. Initially I wondered where it was going, and soon was mesmerized by the words and the story.


The Drowned Giant by J.G. Ballard

A rendition of Gulliver’s Travels with macabre twists.


The Cockroach Hat by Terry Bisson

Love, death and misdirection as told in an alternate reality by a cockroach.


Hymenophera by Michael Blumlein

A clothes designer discovers an eight-foot wasp in his salon.


The Lottery in Babylon by Jorge Luis Borges

As was in Babylon of old with wanton and unusual tastes, the lottery fulfilled most of the buyers’ dreams with its prizes.

The Big Garage by T. Coraghessan Boyle

An Audi owner joins three bedraggled car owners living in a garage while waiting for repairs that may never come.

The Jackdaw's Last Case by Paul Di Filippo

A journalist turns crime fighter by night in Kafaesque style.

Report to the Men’s Club by Carol Emshwiller

A feminine take on living in a patriarchal society.

Bright Morning by Jeffrey Ford

An escape story with a twist, of a fantasy/science fiction writer implementing Kafka elements.

The Rapid Advance of Sorrow by Theodora Goss

A surreal look at communism in eastern Europe.

Stable Strategies for Middle Management by Eileen Gunn

Bioengineering has its disadvantages when applying insect genes to facilitate organizational abilities.

The Handler by Damon Knight

A story difficult to interpret except to stay it has the aspect of a Trojan horse.

Receding Horizon by Jonathan Lethem & Carter Scholz

A parody on “It’s A Wonderful Life”.

A Hunger Artist by David Mairowitz and Robert Crumb

A pictorial version of the story by Franz Kafka.

“I Always Wanted You to Admire My Fasting” or, Looking at Kafka by Philip Roth

Humourous reminiscences of a boy’s Hebrew-school teacher being invited to dinner.

The 57th Franz Kafka by Rudy Rucker

Not my type of story. Someone else may find it entertaining.

The Amount to Carry by Carter Scholz

An insurance broker composes music meets Mr. Kafka of Workman’s Accident Insurance Institute.

Kafka in Bronteland by Tamar Yellin

In reflection of her Jewish upbringing, a Yorkshire woman encounters Kafka on the moors.


JOHN KESSEL and JAMES PATRICK KELLY are the award winning co-editors of canon-defining anthologies, including Feeling Very Strange, The Slipstream Anthology, Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, and The Secret History of Science Fiction.


The review copy was provided by Charlene Brusso, with many thanks.

Book format: paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Available:
amazon.com
chapters.indigo.ca

Rocket Boy and the Geek Girls Anthology Book Review

This anthology was edited by Phyllis Irene Bradford. It is filled with a variety of science fiction: stories of space, technology, aliens and humanity. Most of the stories are thought provoking, action filled, humourous and have something for every reader. This anthology was a nice return into the science fiction genre. The majority of the stories within have been previously published in magazines and anthologies such as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Speculative Inflights Magazine, Women at War, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, The Future We Wish We Had, Dinosaur Fantastic, American Journal of Australian Literature,  and Helix Magazine. Each of the stories is accompanied by a brief description about the author and their writing.

The genres covered are space opera, sci fi, fantasy, and futuristic.

18 stories

Of the eighteen stories I managed to read tje first two sections finding most of them quite interesting. Unfortunately I found the PDF format produced eye strain after reading one or two stories which resulted in a slower reading schedule.

Space stories

      Emancipation by Pati Nagle, 1996, The Williamson Effect

An old ritual on an asteroid that separates day from night is changed so that day is to be forever. Manuel, keeper of the Night, finds a way to restore the darkness through a compromise.

Rocket Boy on Call by Pati Nagle

Rocket Boy is a futuristic skip tracer who has romantic ideas about his case assigner.

Blindsided by Venus in the House of Mars by Nancy Jane Moore

Lia Bukanan arrives at the Galatea Station, with biodome regulated climate, after working as temp crew on a ship needing a vacation. After a bar fight, Lia hooks up with a “captain” with his own starship. Who turns out to be a bounty hunter.

Sitting Shiva by Judith Tarr

A peacekeeping machine that didn’t grab my interest. Perhaps it will for another reader.

Kinds of Strangers by Sarah Zettel

A starship, the Forty-Niner, returning to Earth from a successful tour of the asteroid belt is losing its crew while their expert intelligence computer is malfunctioning. Or is it? A great line was, “A little red sphere drifted out toward her face.” Ms Zettel reveals insight into space travel and its inherent perils.

Technology stories

Alien Voices by P. R. Frost

A ballet artist takes a chance with a risky surgery, and learns during therapy that the implanted nanobots replicate themselves and heal any new injuries. The nanobots develop an appreciation for ballet.

Aberlard’s Kiss by Madeleine E Robins

A woman has a bioengineering firm make her a man who she introduces to a friend.

Perfect Stranger by Amy Stirling Casel

A young boy has gene therapy to heal a defective heart.

        

 Revenants by Judith Tarr

A creepy yet intriguing story about a woman taking her child to the revenants zoo setting with dinosaurs.

Alien stories

Its Own Reward by Katherine Kerr

 Your First by C L Anderson

 Gray to Black by Brenda W Clough

Slick by Brenda Kelso

Ask Arlen by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Humanity stories

 Steelcollar Worker by Vonda N McIntyre

A Mighty Fortress by Brenda W Clough

Who Killed Science Fiction by Jennifer Stevenson

         

 Rocket Boy and the Geek Girls by Irene Radford

The review copy was provided by Sue Lange.

Book Format: ebook PDF 406 pages 

Publisher:  Book View Press http://www.bookviewpress.com/

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Science-Fiction/

amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Boy-Geek-Girls-ebook/dp/B002T44HPE

The Third Bear by Jeff VanderMeer (Book Review)

From the back cover:

“The creator of a child-swallowing manta ray struggles with office politics: a parasitical collective of co-workers, his (literally) flammable supervisor, and the hazardous whims of the fiftieth floor. A broken-hearted sharpshooter travels to a dusty border town, searching for the elusive floating city where her husband has vanished. A dissolute author – equipped only with two pearl-handled pistols, a rockhopper penguin, and plentiful vodka—is dispatched to Lake Baikal, where he hunts for his metafictional redemption.

“The Third Bear is the much–anticipated first collection of critically-accalimed author Jeff VanderMeer’s surreal and absurdist short fiction. VanderMeer, whose work has been compared by critics to Borges and Kafka, evokes exotic beasts and eccentric scenarios from the uncharted depths of our innermost psyches."

Tthese are stories about the inexplicable, and the reader ought to consider the imagery within each of the stories. Mr. VanderMeer's early exposure to the sea play upon several of the stories: to read those of a sea-faring nature brings the reader right into the story itself. There are many hidden things within the lines of each story. The genre elements of horror are mingled with fantasy and every day realism. Many of the stories have disturbing elements to them.


The Third Bear

A forest village is plagued by brutal killings by a bear. Despite repeated attempts to send hunters, the villagers turn for assistance to the witch in the woods. An intriguing aspect of this story was the door to the witch’s abode.

The Quickening

An orphan living with her Aunt in Florida acquires a white rabbit: who talks. An engaging story of growing up.

Finding Sonoria

A stamp collector hires a PI to find the place “Sonoria” from the name on the stamp. After an unfruitful search, the PI begins thinking he can see the trees moving in the wind on the mountain. Then his dreams begin.

Lost

A man slips into another reality after the death of his wife.

The Situation

Warped victimization of working in a futuristic office where the office manager is flammable.

Predecessor

Utterly creepy story of a scientist in an old mansion with bizarre experiments.

Fixing Hanover

A piece of machinery is washed up on shore which a man names Hanover when he is asked to repair it. An alarming incident occurs when Hanover speaks.

Shark God versus Octopus God
(based on a Fijian myth)

The Shark God, Dakuwaga, rules his portion of the sea by relentless blood lust with his army of 10,000 sharks, considered invincible. One day, Dakuwaga decides to battle the Octopus God for Kadavu Island, learning the aspect of mercy from a powerful opponent. An excellent story.

Errata

The first two sentences in this short set up the reader nicely:”I am writing this sitting in the waterlogged lobby of a rotting, half-finished condominium complex. I am surrounded by cavorting freshwater seals and have two pearl-handled revolvers in my lap, a bottle of vodka in my right hand, ahuman body in the freezer in the kitchen behind me, and a rather large displaced rockhopper penguin staring me in the face.” By the way, the penguin’s name is Juliette. Thus begins a tongue-in-cheek mission to change the future. Good fun.

The Goat Variations

A future America where the separatist evangelists have divided the country with the government fighting them. Deep beneath the Pentagon REM-stage images have been collected from segregated adepts: a collective message of a future event. A time machine is built to convey users to alternate realities.

Three Days in a Border Town

The descriptive images of desert sand and ancient buildings provide an intriguing backdrop for a woman-looking for her missing husband. In each of the border towns she discovers another clue about the illusive City in the desert.

The Secret Life of Shane Hamill

A humourous look at a bookstore employee who builds a Roman galley. There’s a nice twist at the end.

The Surgeon’s Tale

This story is a variation of the Frankenstein theme.

Appoggiatura

(Fragments from the legendary city of Smaragdune’s Green Tablets)
Short stories within a larger one with vivid imagery in the prose along with bits of some of the previous stories in thus anthology.


Despite the sinister undertones in the majority of these stories there is something here for every fantasy reader.

Jeff VanderMeer is the award-winning author of City of Saints and Madmen, Finch, and Veniss Underground. He has recevied two World Fantasy Awards and an NEA-funded fellowship.


The review copy was provided by Matt at Tachyon Publications.

Book format: paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Tachycon Publications
Author website: Jeff VanderMeer

Available: August 2010

Amazon.ca

Chapters-Indigo.ca

Animythical Tales by Sarah Totton (Book Review)

From the back cover:

“In this elegant volume, award-winning author Sarah Totton takes her readers on speculative journeys of the heart and mind that will both challenge and engage you. Within these tales, readers will learn the meaning of darkness and pain and fear. Yet they will also learn about love and happiness and laughter. Sarah Totton explores the full kaleidoscope of the human heart and peels is back, one layer at a time. She offers her readers a full palette of emotions and stories to sift through, never settling, never holding back, and never flinching. Whether she is writing about the loss of innocence through dark revelations, the point to which a human mind can be stretched before succumbing the magic of faerie, or something a s preposterous as cloud-fishing in a work with pink yaks, the stores in Animythical Tales are always told with an eye toward revealing something important about the human condition. If you have ever yearned to fall into fabulous adventures in unforgettable worlds, Animythical Tales is the collection for you.”

This book begins with an impressive introduction by Forrest Aguirre. Ms Totton has an eloquent writing style to take the reader on magical journeys of fantasy laced with horror elements in an everyday setting. The majority of the stories are sea based, and all of them reveal a nice attention to detail.

A Fish Story

First appeared in Realms of Fantasy Magazine, October 2006.
Reprinted in Fantasy: the Best of the Year: 2007.

About a young woman who desires a man not interested in her.

The Man with the Seahorse Head

Published in Commonwealth Short Stories CD 2007-2008.
Regional Winner for Canada & the Caribbean of the
Commonwealth Short Story Competition

A man raising his children with care before setting them free into the sea.

Flatrock Sunners

Appeared in Black Static #12

Missing the companionship of his father, a teenage boy reminisces about their times together and his father’s explanation about the Flatrock Sunners: a group of ghosts.

Pelly Medley

A scientist counting seabirds on an island acquires a mysterious box from a souvenir shop that reacquaints him with his childhood friends.

Bluecoat Jack

Published in TEXT: UR-The New Book of Masks, 2007.
Honourbale Mention, Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, 2008

A warped tale of using peoples’ memories for artistic purposes.

A Sip from the Cup of Enlightenment

To be published in Polyphony 7

This was a lovely fantasy with dark elements of a teacher at a school whose divinity was based on the sayings of oracles about prophets and dragons. He discovers a skeleton with red hands in a closed off portion of the school, and discovers the consequences after stealing one of the bones.

Choke Point

First published in Fantasy Magazine, December 2009

A wonderful tension packed story with a nice twist at the end. A scientist researcher prepares to move into the city for his love, Rebecca. There are excellent descriptive details of background combined with a naturalist’s viewpoint.

The Bone Fisher’s Apprentice

First published in Writers of the Future, Volume XXIi.
Honourable Mention, Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, 2007.

The apprentice was discovered as a foundling by the Bone Fisher, a spinner of dreams. Yearning to discover her connection to humans, she meets a beach scavenger, Bellan, and teaches him one of the Bone Fisher’s secrets.

A Little Tea and Personal Magnetism

In a hilarious parody, an aspiring writer, George Y. Whynot, demonstrates his lion taming skills.

The Teasewater Five

Published in The Nine Muses, 2005.
Honourable Mention, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, 2006.

After having a stillborn birth, an artistic woman, create a series of perfect miniature figurines: animals, a bird and a boy. Her equally talented brother animates them including the ability to speak by infusing a bit of his soul. This with a very creepy ending.


The review copy was provided by Sarah Totton. Ms Totton is a licensed veterinarian in Ontario, a former wildlife biologist, and recently earned her doctorate in epidemiology.


Book format: paperback, 124 pages
Publisher: Fantastic Books
Author website: Sarah Totton
Available: March 2010

chapters.indigo.ca

amazon.ca

amazon.co.uk

borders.com.au

amazon.com

Fast Ships, Black Sails (Book Review) for International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Arggggh! To help commemorate the Pirate Guys at Talk Like a Pirate today’s book review of FAST SHIPS, BLACK SAILS is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy pirate stories published by Night Shade Books. For other participants to the International Talk Like a Pirate day please visit here.

Do you love the sound of a peg leg stomping across a quarterdeck? Or maybe you prefer a parrot on your arm, a strong wind at your back? Adventure, treasure, intrigue, humor, romance, danger - and, yes, plunder! Oh, the Devil does love a pirate - and so do readers everywhere! Swashbuckling from the past into the future and space itself, Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, presents an incredibly entertaining volume of original stories guaranteed to make you walk and talk like a pirate.

There will always be pirates, even today in the Mediterranean and in the seas around Africa. In the VanderMeer Anthology pirates have moved into space and beyond, chartering the vast unknown while making their livelihood at what they know best. Within these covers is the perfect pirate story for any reader, presenting classic and unique stories of buccaneers sailing the seas of the cosmos or present day Earth.


Boogum by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette – This first story is about piracy in space with unusual cargo taken from a captured freighter and a semi-sentient spaceship with Captain Black Alice who finds herself making a sacrifice.

Castor on Troubled Waters by Rhys Hughes – comic story of pirates and gambling debts well told.

I Begyn as I Mean To Go On by Kage Baker – a creepy classic pirate story. Two castaways are taken onto a ship, Martin Luther, whose captain has a bad reputation. By the law of the sea they are obliged to work on the ship, and things become interesting when they find their way to an ancient emerald mine in South America.

Avast, Abaft! by Howard Waldrop – found this one humorous and similar in nature to the HMS Pinafore and the Pirates of Penzance.

Elegy to Gabrielle, Patron Saint of Healers, Whores, and Righteous Thieves by Kelly Barnhill – about a woman with the ability to use magic whose daughter belongs to the sea.

Skillet and Saber by Justin Howe – a new sailor on a ship is assigned as the cook’s apprentice with some comedic episodes.

The Nymph’s Child by Carrie Vaughan– This is a story of a woman who poses as a man to be allowed to go to sea, and when caught by pirates must give up her daughter.

68° 07' 15" N, 31° 36' 44" W, by Conrad Williams provides a horror story about Captain Low on a revenge mission after his crew is slaughtered.

Ironface by Michael Moorcock – A very short piece about pirates in space on a trip to Venus that I felt should have been longer.

Pirate Solutions by Katherine Sparrow – This is an experimental piece about computer analysts who drink from a bottle of rum to become pirates, and setting sail in an old ship with masts. When they reach their isolated island, and dig up a treasure chest full of ancient rum bottles, they send out messages in bottle which in turn, bring other computer geeks from around the world to join them.

We Sleep on a Thousand Waves Beneath the Stars by Brendan Connell – A story about hungry pirates who don’t discriminate over what they eat.

Voyage of the Iguana by Steve Aylest – A story with a weird list of journal entries on said voyage with mishaps. This I found boring.

Pirates of the Suara Sea by David Freer and Eric Flint – This is a about space pirates in an alien sea where the vessel is manned by a woman captain. She manages to jettison part of the cargo when the pirates arrive, with special plans for the intruder’s captain.

A Cold Day in Hell by Paul Batteiger – provides a unique setting with three masted sailing ships on ice skates whizzing across frozen seas. Two ships leave Boston on an expedition to capture The Queen’s Revenge and its captain Frost, considered to be more monster than human.

The Adventures of Captain Black Heart Wentworth: a Nautical Tail by Rachel Swirsky – This story is great fun, featuring rat pirates and later a shipwrecked cat who had eaten her previous lover.

Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake by Naomi Novik – An alternative Earth awaits the reader where England is ruled by Roman deities and the sacrifices of women are dominated by mens’ will. Araminta, the daughter of an important noble is kidnapped by pirates, but she has a few unique abilities to assist her in outwitting them.

The Whale Below by Jayme Lynn Blaschke – An alien story of a pirate spaceship seizes a ‘whaler’ ship only to find no one on board.

Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarsköe by Garth Nix – This story is about a gentleman rogue and his magical puppet facing a priestess who happens to be a cannibal. There are some interesting scenes with shapeshifters.

There were several authors in this anthology I had never read before, and will be looking up more of Rachel Swirsky, Katherine Sparrow and Garth Nix.

Format: Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59780-094-5

Available at:

Chapters.indigo.ca

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk