From richard.horton@sff.net Mon Mar 15 23:44:28 2004 Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 22:29:17 -0600 From: Rich Horton Newsgroups: sff.people.richard-horton, sff.discuss.short-fiction Subject: Summary: New Stories from Collections, 2003 Summary: New Stories from Collections, 2003 I read a number of original stories in single author collections this past year. I'll list the collections in two categories: "regular" books, and chapbooks. 1. Regular books Ghosts of Yesterday, by Jack Cady; Tales from the Crypto-System, by Geoffrey Maloney; First Meetings in the Enderverse, by Orson Scott Card; Changing Planes, by Ursula K. Le Guin; Monterra's Deliciosa & Other Tales &, by Anna Tambour; Greetings from Lake Wu, by Jay Lake; Custer's Last Jump and Other Collaborations, by Howard Waldrop et. al. That's 7 books. They featured 43 original stories between them, 3 novellas, 5 novelettes, 35 short stories. About 276,000 words total. The best novella was "Monterra's Deliciosa", by Anna Tambour, a wickedly funny and odd story about a great French cook from Iowa. I also liked Tambour's novelette "Valley of the Sugars of Salt", about talking fruit. Other good novelettes were "Glass: A Love Story", by Jay Lake, Cinderella+Greek Myth+Gangs; "The Latter Days of the Law", by Howard Waldrop and a very young at the time Bruce Sterling: a "private eye" in Heian Japan -- as Heian Japan collapses, actually; and Card's facile but pretty enjoyable "Teacher's Pest", about Ender's dad, actually. The best short stories were probably a couple from Le Guin's Changing Planes: "Confessions of Uni" seems the consensus pick, and I liked it, but I think I liked "Porridge on Islac" (about genetic engineering gone amuck) the best. Other notable shorts: Lake's horror story about the devil confined in a rural Texas abandoned school bus, "The Goat Cutter"; a couple more from Tambour: "Om" and "Call Me Omniscient"; and Maloney's sly "A Colombian Breakfast". 2. Chapbooks I saw three chapbooks from Small Beer Press: Foreigners and Other Familiar Faces, by Mark Rich; Other Cities, by Benjamin Rosenbaum; and Bittersweet Creek and Other Stories, by Christopher Rowe. I also saw one from Dark Tree press (publisher of the small horror magazines Black Satellite and Mythos Collector): Dead Planets, Unhallowed Stars, by Tim Curran. 7 stories total, 2 of them novelettes, the rest short. About 34,000 words. Rosenbaum's collection is a set of 14 short-shorts about unusual fantastical cities -- most appeared last year in Strange Horizons, one in another online venue, and the other ("The City of Peace") is new to the collection. It's pretty good stuff overall. The new story in Rowe's collection is "Men of Renown", a novelette, which I thought pretty fun, about the nephilim being revived in the present day. I also liked Rich's stories, particularly "Take Me", about a woman and a man who may have coalesced from plants. The Curran stories were not to my taste -- they are Science Fiction Horror, featuring foul-mouthed humans venturing to other planets and getting eaten by the horrific (and all too often unexplained) things they find. I'll give credit to Curran for a couple of good gross images, but I'll also blame him for idiocies like having a radio message from Tau Ceti, 12 light years away, take "thousands of years" to reach Earth. From richard.horton@sff.net Mon Mar 15 23:47:11 2004 Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 23:06:37 -0600 From: Rich Horton Newsgroups: sff.people.richard-horton, sff.discuss.short-fiction Subject: Re: Summary: New Stories from Collections, 2003 On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 22:29:17 -0600, Rich Horton wrote: >2. Chapbooks > >I saw three chapbooks from Small Beer Press: Foreigners and Other >Familiar Faces, by Mark Rich; Other Cities, by Benjamin Rosenbaum; and >Bittersweet Creek and Other Stories, by Christopher Rowe. I also saw >one from Dark Tree press (publisher of the small horror magazines >Black Satellite and Mythos Collector): Dead Planets, Unhallowed Stars, >by Tim Curran. > And one to add, just received yesterday, read today: _Buffalogics, Inc._, by Lawrence M. Schoen, published by SRM Publisher (Steve Miller and Sharon Lee's outfit). It includes one already published story, "Buffalo Dogs", and an original sequel, "Telepathic Intent", a novelette. >7 stories total, 2 of them novelettes, the rest short. About 34,000 >words. > Now 8 stories, 3 novelettes, about 45,000 words. >Rosenbaum's collection is a set of 14 short-shorts about unusual >fantastical cities -- most appeared last year in Strange Horizons, one >in another online venue, and the other ("The City of Peace") is new to >the collection. It's pretty good stuff overall. The new story in >Rowe's collection is "Men of Renown", a novelette, which I thought >pretty fun, about the nephilim being revived in the present day. I >also liked Rich's stories, particularly "Take Me", about a woman and a >man who may have coalesced from plants. The Curran stories were not to >my taste -- they are Science Fiction Horror, featuring foul-mouthed >humans venturing to other planets and getting eaten by the horrific >(and all too often unexplained) things they find. I'll give credit to >Curran for a couple of good gross images, but I'll also blame him for >idiocies like having a radio message from Tau Ceti, 12 light years >away, take "thousands of years" to reach Earth. And Schoen's story is a bit lightweight but pretty fun, about aliens with the ability to use telepathy to control others, and a murder among them.