ANIMALS AS MAIN CHARACTERS in fiction
used to mean cuteness, didactic Captain Obvious messages, and the
kiss of death to acquisitions editors. These days, our furry or
feathered friends are likely to be sentient, sophisticated, and
savvy. I like it. I especially like the animal heroes in
“Chronicle
Worlds: Tails of Dystopia,” edited by Samuel Peralta and
Chris
Pourteau. With that D-word in the title, we don’t expect
Disney-style warm fuzzies. With Peralta and
Pourteau
curating the authors, we do expect “Tails of
Dystopia” to be
first-rate.
All
expectations are satisfied.
It
isn’t just because proceeds help
Pets for Vets, a project benefiting homeless animals and war
veterans, that this anthology “went on to become the #1
Bestselling
SF Anthology on Amazon.” Thirteen stories, set in worlds
fully
realized in other published fiction, showcase some of today's most
accomplished writers of speculative fiction.
Pourteau and
Peralta put together
“Tails of Dystopia” as a follow-up to Pourteau's
2015 release,
“Tails of the Apocalypse.” I appreciate the sampler
premise,
introducing readers to the fictional worlds of thirteen authors who
have more on tap where that came from, e.g., Ann Christy's PePrs.
Just when I thought the TV series “The Humans”
(reviewed in
12-March-2017 Perihelion) was a far-off fiction, authors like Christy
remind me that it’s all more plausible, and more imminent,
than I
care to imagine. (No, it does not mean I will stop thinking of
Stephen Hawking as Chicken Little. Whether by robot apocalypse or
Trump as president, the renowned British scientist has no end of ways
for us to fear imminent annihilation.)
The end of
life as we know it is the
core of dystopian fiction. Our beautiful world is annihilated, or
abandoned, or taken over by cruel overlords. Life will go on, though,
in “Tails of Dystopia,” even if it means vacating a
ruined Earth
to colonize in outer space. Cheri Lasota's
“Planetfall”
takes us by spaceship to New Eden, where the age-old problems start
up again, one faction of humans vs another.
The promise
of romance and the bonus
of a telepathic dog bring a sense of fun to Lasota’s story.
While I
tend to shun the romance genre and all its tropes, this
“tail”
tale left me smiling. And that is no small feat. Bring on the sexy
space captains with PTSD, as long as they come with “the
first
schnauzer in space”—one of many lines that left me
grateful
for
Lasota’s light outlook.
Daniel Arthur
Smith's “Eggby”
also left me feeling better about humanity and the world to come,
even though some really dark, desperate, terrifying things happen. I
winced and cringed at the sizzling of small mammals after they run
through some hot duct work in the ceiling, but the tarsier (gotta
love that tarsier!) lives. What a creature! What a masterful tale of
humans exploiting the agility of cute little mammals and enhancing
them with brain implants to do our bidding. How does Smith get me to
like such a wicked premise? The tarsier is a simple primate,
motivated by the reward of crunchy bugs or lizards, and there is just
no room for PETA protests in a story like this one. I loved every
minute of it.
Justin
Sloan's “The Last Bobcat”
is funny and snarky and wonderful. I totally need to read more of
this author, who was raised on an island, “and at the corner
of our
road, someone had a large bobcat in a cage. As a child, it was fun
and terrifying living so near such a wild creature, and of course my
parents often worried what would happen if it got out.” I
also want
more of Allie, the crazy kick-ass heroine with the flaming sword and
warrior spirit.
“You
can’t fight the end of the
world,” an older and wiser woman tells Allie.
“Watch
me,” Allie replies.
Ah, I needed
that. December 2017 was
rough. The whole year was. Allie reminds me that giving up is not an
option. And the bobcat, whose name isn’t Bob, thank you very
much,
made me laugh. Did I mention how rare it is that a story makes me
smile these days? Laughing, no less—that makes “The
Last
Bobcat” worth the price of all thirteen stories put
together--which is a mere ninety-nine cents until the introductory
offer ends. After that, it’s still a steal at only three
dollars
for stories that cheer us. Well, a couple of them merely make us feel
our own world could be a lot worse, but I’ll take that too.
If you read
my 2015 review of “Tails
of the Apocalypse,” you already know how many of those
stories
ripped my heart out. “Demon and Emily” by David
Adams, “The
Water Finder's Shadow” by David Bruns, and “The
Poetry of
Santiago” by Jennifer Ellis are so
haunting, I vowed never to
read
these authors again. Oh, my worthless vows! Good writers lure me back
for more of this abuse, again and again. This time, Bruns
didn’t
remind me of my own dear, departed dogs dying of old age. Shadow, the
canine sidekick, gets promoted in “The Water Finder's
Apprentice.” No old tom haunts Ellis’s story, this
time. She
grew up with a border collie, and it shows. She knows these dogs. In
“Cry Wolf,” Emmett the border collie is a good boy.
He wants to
obey Master. When other dogs “cry wolf,” they are
punished and
humiliated. What’s a good boy to do when he intuits danger
but
risks another false alarm if he barks?
Rysa Walker's
dog Daphne has an even
more confusing job, with time travel and parallel dimensions
threatening her pack. “The Circle-That-Whines” is
an
intriguing read, full of mystery and reasons to seek out more stories
from Walker’s “CHRONOS” books and
novellas. Harlow C.
Fallon's “The Ones Who
Walk Beside You” had me worried for Joe, his friends wolf and
horse, and the gift they share. Again, I was not crushed and punished
with a tragic ending. Thank you Harlow!
What a
pleasant surprise to find John
L. Monk in this anthology. I’ve been hooked on Monk since his
debut
novel, “Kick,” first appeared a few years ago. I
devoured each
new installment in the trilogy, known as the Dan Jenkins cycle, which
culminated in a “binge edition”--and if you read
Monk, you know
why “binge” is so fitting. Food is one of the great
hooks in the
Dan Jenkins tales, and food is more important than ever in
“Monkey
Do (a This Dark Age story).”
Narrating
from the point of view of
Max the chimp, Monk captures the voice with authenticity and great
comic effect. I thought The Jenkins cycle had a dark side, but Monk's
second trilogy is set in a world where all the adults die of a
mysterious new disease, leaving the children to take over on a scale
that makes “Lord of the Flies” look like a family
vacation.
I can't help
but love Max and his
mission to feed all the animals Farmer Ray left in his care. When a
boy and girl discover the farm--free food for the taking!--Max must
find a way to thwart them. His progression from mild Max to avenger
and defender has me thinking this would be great as a graphic novel.
Ever consider turning this into a comic book, Mr. Monk?
The ending is
dark, but not in a way
that has me shaking fists of rage or feeling the futility of it all.
E.E. Giorgi
never fails to delight
and intrigue me. “Octant VI” is her third short
story set in
the world of The Quarium Wars. A tween girl, Destiny, and her ferret,
Duyi, scavenge a ruined planet (what better place for refugees and
war orphans to hide?). What they find in the scrap heap one day
changes everything. There's a scene as epic as Dorothy, Toto, and the
hot air balloon. There’s also a story coming about Destiny in
her
teen years, which I’ve beta-read and love-hated, because
Giorgi
does what great writers must do: make her protagonists suffer. But
“Octant VI” ends on a more positive note, and
that’s where I
will stay for now.
Ann
Christy’s PePrs are a
fascinating concept. Make one of them a lion, and I’m even
more
smitten. If you want to know more about Perfect Partners,
don’t
imagine I’m going to tell you. Buy the books. Proceeds help
support
Pets for Vets, a charity that rescues and re-trains shelter animals
and matches them with military veterans who could use a companion
animal.
“Khan”
by David Adams gives us a
rare white tiger fighting for freedom on another planet. Beautiful
story, with sad observations about the human race, and everything to
love about the tiger.
"The Weight
of Hunger" by
Robert Calas is a darker selection. A kestrel falcon named Eglantine
shows us the beauty of her lady and the world that was lost, the
burden of hunger, and the pressure to choose between staying true to
what one is versus becoming one of “them.”
Hank Garner
has a truly heart-rending
tale with a young autistic boy separated from his parents as the
world is threatened with annihilation. A dog and a mysterious
stranger bring the boy some comfort in “He Knows the Way
Home.”
If you need a trigger warning, let me tell you, this is the single
most PTSD-inducing story here.
Samuel Peralta and Chris
Pourteau
hand-pick authors from the hundreds of books they read every year,
and their judgment is like the iconic Good Housekeeping Seal of
Approval. They choose only the best. (“Chronicle
Worlds:
Tails of Dystopia,” edited by Samuel Peralta
and Chris Pourteau, Windrift Books) —Carol Kean.
Will Show for Computer Geeks Continue?
DECEMBER 13, 2017, MARKED THE THIRD season finale of “Mr. Robot,”
one
of my favorite shows of all time. If we really are in a
“Golden Age of
Television,” Mr. Robot is Exhibit A. I started binging on TV
series with “Six
Feet Under,” recommended to me by a florist. I then binged
“The Sopranos”
and
“Breaking Bad.” Throw in
“Westworld,” “Penny Dreadful,”
“Taboo,” sundry “Star
Trek” spin-offs,
“The Walking Dead” (and “Fear the Walking
Dead”) and there’s
barely time to watch
movies. More importantly, a series of 32 episodes (that’s how
many episodes of
Mr. Robot
will have aired after the third season finale) allows a level
of plot
complications and character development that aren’t possible
in a two-hour
movie. Yes, this sometimes results in episodes of mere
“filler”, as has
unfortunately occurred with The Walking Dead. There’s no
“filler” in Mr. Robot,
as every episode is worth watching.
Mr.
Robot has other TV series beat. As much as I liked
The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, I can’t personally identify
with gangsters.
However I’m a computer geek so I can identify with the
hackers portrayed Mr.
Robot. The computer hacking scenes in Mr. Robot have a verisimilitude
that has
never appeared in a drama before, because they hired real hackers to be
technical advisors and it shows. Mr. Robot incorporates news headlines
and the
zeitgeist in a way other shows don’t. Add that the episodes
of Mr. Robot are
experimental with the form, and you have a show that’s head
and shoulders above
the rest.
For
those who haven’t yet tuned in to Mr. Robot, it’s
about a hacker named Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek). His hacker abilities
are his superpower.
If you have the misfortune to get on his bad side, he’ll hack
your life and you’ll
hear a knock on the door from the police, or you’ll be fired,
or find all your
bank accounts drained, or most likely all three. Elliot soon sets his
sights
higher than just hacking evil individuals and hacks E(vil) Corp,
bringing about
the failure of the entire economy. He enlists others, and they become a
hacker
group called fsociety.
Besides
being a superhacker, Elliot has mental health
issues. He’s got a few, but mainly he’s got a split
personality. His other
personality is his dead father Edward Alderson (Christian Slater), the
titular Mr. Robot. Even
though Elliot’s father is nominally dead, Mr. Robot can
appear at any time and
take over Elliot’s body. By the third season, the two
personalities inhabiting
Elliot’s body are at war. This is just one of many conflicts
played out on Mr.
Robot. Others involve the FBI and The Dark Army, a group of hackers (or
gangsters?) with ties to China and led by the transvestite Whiterose
(BD Wong).
As
I write this, fans of Mr. Robot don’t know if it
will be renewed for a fourth season. This is a real cliffhanger, as it
hasn’t
yet been canceled or renewed. Ratings are down, but critical acclaim
remains
high. Will critical acclaim alone be enough to save Mr. Robot? I hope
so! (“Mr. Robot,” USA Network, Wed 9) —Joshua
Berlow