* * * *
Wide Spectrum Fantasy
Consider for a moment the different characters of two well-known outlets for fantastical literature, as being representative of two schools of fantasy. I refer to the magazines known respectively as Realms of Fantasy and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. The former, helmed by Shawna McCarthy, who once sat behind the desk now occupied by our own Sheila Williams, seems to represent the more traditional end of the fantasy spectrum, presenting stories of a certain “commercial” and perhaps conservative stripe. The other zine, run by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link, radiates a determinedly “postmodern,” slipstreamy vibe. Two poles of the fantasy spectrum, right?
It seems hard to imagine an author whose work might comfortably appear in both places. And by that, I don't mean different stories from the same person, since many authors work alternately in varying modes, and could easily slant a particular piece toward one zine or the other. But rather, I'm referring to a hypothetical author who could write a single polymorphous, multivalent story and then plausibly sell that same story to either RoF or LCRW, where it would appear right at home in either venue.
But I believe I've found such an author in the person of Vera Nazarian. Her work treads a delicate tight-rope between the poles exemplified (perhaps ultimately problematically) by RoF and LCRW. The stories she chooses to tell have all the good old-fashioned narrative and thematic virtues of “commercial” fantasy while also sustaining enough allegorical, subtextual, and formalistic oddities to place them in the “postmodern” camp. A winning and striking combination.
Nazarian's newest collection of sixteen stories—none of which, curiously enough, have actually appeared in either RoF or LCRW—is titled Salt of the Air (Prime Press, hardcover, $29.95, 266 pages, ISBN 0-8095-5738-X). It comes with an insightful introduction by Gene Wolfe, which should be tip-off enough that we are dealing with high-quality goods here. Let's take a walk through the stories, to see Nazarian's range and concerns.
“Rossia Moya” is somewhat atypical for this volume, starting out as an SF piece. In the near future, the world has decided to cordon off a failed Russian state. Our protagonist is a woman, Russian-born (like Nazarian herself, a bit of autobiography that lends heft to this piece), who returns for one last visit to her homeland and finds herself taking an unpremeditated action of startling permanence. The story then opens out into a fantastical conclusion, much like Disch's famous “The Asian Shore.” We should note the gender of the protagonist, since every tale herein is also seen through a woman's eyes.
The standard fable of hideous male lover and at-first-unwilling female consort is inverted for “Beauty and His Beast,” wherein a young man trespasses on the garden of a bestial queen. Unfortunately, there is no happily-ever-after for this pair, an outcome sad yet somehow uplifting, a type of conclusion that Nazarian will employ again before this book is over.
Reading like Cory Doctorow's Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (2005), “The Young Woman in a House of Old” might be my favorite tale here. Miss Marianne Mornay (what a perfect name!) is a human raised in a house of goblins, and finds her life in the outside world drastically hampered by her upbringing. Mournful yet ultimately accepting of the limits of destiny, she and her story might be a Charles Addams cartoon fleshed out.
“Absolute Receptiveness, the Princess, and the Pea” manages to conflate Oedipal longings with the famous fairytale, ending with a kind of O. Henry zinger. And for a change-up, Nazarian next channels Moorcock in an Elric-style tale of brother and sister mages, called “Bonds of Light."
Tanith Lee seems a touchstone for me in placing Nazarian in a writerly lineage, and “The Starry King” harks to Lee's sensibilities as it tells of a woman who manages to free a mythic figure bound in the celestial realm. Note the theme here also of attaining release from ethical burdens by sacrifice, for we'll encounter it again.
Poor Janéh is a girl born without the ability to show expressions, in “The Stone Face, the Giant, and the Paradox,” although she seethes inside with the normal range of emotions. How she attains normality is the thrust here.
Nazarian's fictions, aside from the opener, move through a pre-technological realm best known as fable-land, where royalty rules and magic obtains, but hoary clichés such as fated swords and rings, dragons and elves play no part. It's an older realm than the rehashed Tolkien-land rip-offs, and the universal, timeless setting is part of the potency of her craft. “A Thing of Love” features one such cruel land where a female court executioner named Faelittal must face carrying out a certain death sentence that threatens to undo all her past equilibrium.
In a tale straight out of Robert E. Howard, Nazarian bring us a warrior named Iliss, who, having witnessed the death of her family at the hands of invaders from the far north, decides to kill their war-like god or die trying. “The Slaying of Winter” also features that extinction of heart-pangs by certain sacrifices that we saw in “The Starry King."
Whiffs of Lord Dunsany emanate from “Sun, in Its Copper Season,” which tells of a woman whose sleep patterns literally govern the coming of night. Although Nazarian's tone has, prior to the next story, “Lady of the Castle,” allowed small and brief glimpses of humor, she is generally a somber author. But “Lady...” which finds a poor roving singer named Ruricca NoOnesDaughter placed by odd circumstances onto a throne, to the resulting consternation of the nobility, including the lad who thought to inherit his father's place, is rather slapstick.
“Wound on the Moon” is the first of two stories with a kind of Arabian Nights feel. This one tells of a thief who dares to go up against a merciless potentate. The other tale in this mode is “The Story of Love,” in which a girl abused by her father grows up surprisingly wise and healthy, save for one blind spot, which only a trip to a temple dedicated to the goddess of love can remedy.
The final three stories again exhibit Nazarian's spacious range. “I Want to Paint the Sky” turns on a punning interpretation of the title, and is admittedly slight, yet ultimately joyous nonetheless. “Lore of Rainbow” conflates a woman's mythic love affair and its collapse with the literal loss of color from the world. And “Swans” skillfully deploys the old trope of a magical garment that renders humans into animal form.
Nazarian's prose across all these fine tales is uniformly expertly fashioned, never straining for effect or missing the chance to register a moment of insight. She's a dab hand at catchy opening lines, such as: “The ageless young woman reposes upon a settee of gossamer silk, propped up by pillows and fanned by servants.” Or, “As the late afternoon sky stood lavender upon gold in the great city, the thief was imprisoned for the highest crime there was.” Her secondary characters are formed nearly as deeply as the various female protagonists, who seem to share a sisterly bond. Her fantastical conceits are either strikingly new or witty revamps of older ones. And she always manages to hew to time-tested narrative strategies while simultaneously layering in metafictional goodness.
With talent like this, it's no wonder she should be welcome everywhere.
* * * *
Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine
Perhaps you never knew that the publisher NBM, whose wares I've often praised, derives its acronym from the three names above, but such is the case. I don't know who Beall and Minoustchine are, but last year, at New York's Comic-Con, I had the pleasure of finally meeting publisher Terry Nantier, who has been sending me review copies for so long, and I got to tell him in person what a great job he's been doing. The latest offerings from NBM uphold my kudos.
There's a very short story—really just a few scattered paragraphs—that ostensibly connects the images in Luis Royo's Dark Labyrinth (hardcover, $24.95, 64 pages, ISBN 1-56163-484-0). This fixup text, telling of a crazed supernatural artist and his apprentice, much like the linkages in Bradbury's The Illustrated Man (1951), is actually superfluous. Our main pleasure comes simply from feasting our gaze on Royo's exotic women, clad in armor, leather, mail, masks, bustiers, or nothi
ng much at all. (Oh, yes, there're a few male figures here as well, but all pretense at equality aside, this is really a Calderesque gynocracy.) Royo has created a gallery of gothically glamorous Suicide Girls whose like will never be found in real life, and captured them at leisure and in battle and under delicate torture. But isn't uncaptureability the essence of fantasy? Your mileage, of course, will vary.
Artist Richard Moore has been known to produce the occasional erotic escapade himself, such as in his books Horny Tails (2001) and Short Strokes 2 (2006). But in his comedic horror series Boneyard, the delightful cheesecake is kept to PG levels, and does not occupy center stage. For instance, the latest compilation, Volume Five (trade paperback, $9.95, 112 pages, ISBN 1-56163-479-4) does indeed feature nude gals in a shower scene at a summer camp—but they're acting out a cliché to trap a serial killer. Humor trumps sexy every time in this series. To refresh your memory about the premise: human Michael Paris has inherited a cemetery filled with supernatural critters, not least of which is his kinda girlfriend, the vampire named Abbey. In this outing, Michael and pals work to bring the mysterious summer-camp killer to justice, while also suffering an assault from Jack Pumpkinhead on their home. Moore's B&W art is up to its usual superb standards, and his dialogue remains snappy and clever. And if you've ever wanted to see what happens when a baseball bat connects with a giant sentient pumpkin, you'll get your wish here.
Last but most assuredly not least is the latest installment in the Dungeon saga of Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim: Twilight Vol. 2: Armageddon (trade paper, $14.95, 96 pages, ISBN 1-56163-477-8). If you recall my review of the last installment, you'll be aware that Marvin the Dragon and his protégé Marvin the Red (Red Rabbit, that is), were on the run from their ex-buddy who had taken over the Dungeon, that playground for barbarians. Well, where they end up is totally unexpected, at least by me. And how they get there is even more surprising.
In one otherwise innocuous panel on page eleven, the authors blithely announce, “And at that precise moment, the planet Terra Amata explodes.” Yes, the very globe on which all the action so far has occurred just goes kerblooey without warning or cause. It's this kind of spontaneous, daring, oneiric, fertile, quirky inventiveness that makes this series such a winner.
The planet separates into habitable chunks, floating crags aloft above the molten core of Terra Amata. The progress of the Marvins (and their pal, a drug-addict bird named Gilberto, straight out of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers) now consists of leaping from crag to crag. They eventually end up in a lush Polynesian setting, where they encounter several new characters, most notably Marvin Dragon's irascible giant son and his sexy lizard bride Ormelle. Marvin the Red falls for Ormelle (and likewise), while Marvin Dragon tries to learn to be a good dad (and grandfather!). There are quests, battles, romps in bed, disappearances, reunions, invisible monsters, trials and “granny's good cake,” enough for any ten lesser books. The art continues to charm with its loose, rubbery, wrinkled lines. May Sfar and Trondheim go on for many more volumes!
Copyright (c) 2007 Paul Di Filippo
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* * *
MY WINDOW ON THE WORLDS
by G.O. Clark
I can't believe
I'm watching dust devils
on Mars, moving across the
Gustav Crater past the watchful
eye of Spirit,
—
the little rover that
could, along with its twin,
still outlasting all expectations,
not to mention the pink,
one-man bunny band.
—
That old phrase,
my window on the world,
should be pluralized now,
our robot probes and rovers
beaming back images
—
only imagined in the
past, broadcasting them
to my techno-windows on
the worlds, just a remote,
or mouse click away.
—G.O. Clark
Copyright (c) 2007 G.O. Clark
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* * *
SF CONVENTIONAL CALENDAR
BY Erwin S. Strauss
* * * *
There's bound to be a Memorial Day convention in your neck of the woods. Plan now for social weekends with your favorite SF authors, editors, artists, and fellow fans. For an explanation of con(vention)s, a sample of SF folksongs, info on fanzines and clubs, and how to get a later, longer list of cons, send me an SASE (self-addressed, stamped #10 [business] envelope) at 10 Hill #22-L, Newark NJ 07102. The hot line is (973) 242-5999. If a machine answers (with a list of the week's cons), leave a message and I'll call back on my nickel. When writing cons, send an SASE. For free listings, tell me of your con 6 months out. Look for me at cons behind the Filthy Pierre badge, playing a musical keyboard.—Erwin S. Strauss
MAY 2007
18—20—KeyCon. For info, write: Box 3178, Winnipeg MB R3C 4E7. Or phone: (204) 669-6053 (10 AM to 10 PM, not collect). (Web) keycon.org. (E-mail) [email protected]. Con will be held in: Winnipeg MB (if city omitted, same as in address) at the Radisson. Guests will include: Richard Herd. L.A. Williams, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta.
18—20—Mobicon. mobicon.org. Mobile AL. General SF and fantasy con. Further details to be announced.
24—28—International Space Development Conference. isdc.nss.org. Dallas TX. Co-sponsored by Nat'l Space Society.
24—28—Star Wars Celebration. starwars.com. Convention Center, Los Angeles CA. Lucasfilm-sanctioned official event.
25—27—MarCon. marcon.org. Hyatt, Columbus OH. K. DeCandido, L. Reynolds, T. Zahn, N. Janda, P. & S. Pettinger.
25—27—Oasis. oasfis.org. Orlando FL. Joe Haldeman, Resnick, M. Bishop, K. A. Goonan, Niven, J. McDevitt, R. Sawyer.
25—27—ConDuit. (801) 776-0164. conduit.sfcon.org. Sheraton, Salt Lake UT. David Weber, Bob Eggleton, Dr. S.D. Howe.
25—27—Anime North.animenorth.com. Doubletree & Congress Centre, Toronto ON. Guests TBA. J-pop dance, brunch.
25—27—Animazement. (919) 941-5050. animazement.org. Sheraton, Durham NC. Anime.
25—28—BaltiCon. (410) 563-3727. balticon.org. Marriott, Hunt Valley (Baltimore) MD. Major East Coast SF/fantasy con.
25—28—BayCon. baycon.org. Marriot, San Mateo CA. Major West Coast science fiction and fantasy convention.
25—28—ConQuest. kcsciencefiction.org. Airport Hilton, Kansas City MO. P. Eisenstein, T. Harvia, T. Nielsen-Hayden.
25—28—MisCon. (406) 544-7083. miscon.org. Ruby's Inn, Missoula MT. Science fiction and fantasy convention.
25—28—Media*WestCon. mediawestcon.org. [email protected]. Holiday Inn So., Lansing MI. No official guests.
25—28—WisCon. sf3.org/wiscon. Concourse Hotel, Madison MI. Feminist SF/Fantasy. K. Link, L. Marks.
* * * *
JUNE 2007
1—3—ConCarolinas, Box 9100, Charlotte NC 28299. concarolinas.org. [email protected]. SF & fantasy.
1—3—A-Kon, Box 852244, Richardson TX 75085. a-kon.com. [email protected]. Anime and gaming con.
1—4—NZ Nat'l. Con, Box 16150, Wellington South, NZ. conspiracy2.sf.org.nz. [email protected]. Mercure Hotel.
8—10—SoonerCon. soonercon.com. Oklahoma City OK. Science fiction, fantasy, and gaming convention.
8—11—Australia Nat'l. Con, Box 1212, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia. matcon.org.au. Rydges. M. Mahy, I. Carmody.
21—24—MidWestCon, 5627 Antoninus Dr., Cincinnati OH 45238. (513) 922-3234. cfg.org. Doubletree, Sharon OH.
22—24—ApolloCon, Box 541822, Houston TX 77254. apollocon.org. Guests TBA. General-interest SF, fantasy & horror.
22—24—ConTerpoint, 5911 Veranda Dr., Springfield VA 22152. conterpoint.org. Rockville MD. SF/fantasy folksinging.
22—25—Gathering of the Gargoyles. gatheringofthegargoyles.com. Pigeon Forge TN. “A little bit of country..."<
br />
* * * *
AUGUST 2007
2—5—TuckerCon (formerlyArchon), Box 8387, St. Louis MO 63132. archonstl.org. Collinsville IL. NASFiC. $120.
30—Sep. 3—Nippon 2007, Box 314, Annapolis Jct. MD 20701. nippon2007.org. Yokohama Japan. WorldCon. $220.
* * * *
AUGUST 2008
6—10—Denvention 3, Box 1349, Denver CO 80201. Denver CO. WorldCon. $130+.
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* * *
NEXT ISSUE
AUGUST ISSUE
Gonzo king Rudy Rucker and Hugo-winner Bruce Sterling join their considerable talents next issue to bring us a big, outrageous, fast-moving and freewheeling novella as our lead story for August, as a pair of out-of-work Special Effects Artists set out on a daring and dazzling journey down the mysterious “Hormiga Canyon,” home to some Very Big (and Very Strange) Ants—a trip that will compel them to voyage to the end of time and unearth and master the very secrets of the universe itself! This is a fabulous, over-the-top romp, deliciously audacious, and a lot of fun, so don't miss it!
ALSO IN AUGUST
Veteran writer Tom Purdom takes us adventuring on the high seas in dangerous sail-and-broadside days when the British Navy was slugging it out with slave traders, and tells the compelling and morally complex story of what you can find when you dare to part “The Mists of Time"; new writer Daryl Gregory warns us that sometimes intense concentration may be too much of a good thing, in a compassionate visit to “Dead Horse Point"; new writer Justin Stanchfield, making his Asimov's debut, paints a fascinating picture of high-tech exiles of the future, and what happens when, against the rules, a “Prodigal” returns; Kathleen Ann Goonan, returning after too long an absence, dares to venture across “The Bridge” between a doomed past and an enigmatic future; frequent contributor Jack Skillingstead shows us the plight of a woman unfortunate enough to get everything she's ever wished for, in “Thank You, Mr. Whiskers"; and new writer Tim McDaniel, making his Asimov's debut, treats us to a wry look at what goes on in a “Teacher's Lounge,” and how it just might save the world!
Asimov's SF, July 2007 Page 22
