Gardens and Countries
Review: Young Woman in a Garden Stories by Delia Sherman
I haven’t actually encountered Sherman before, although she’s been around for a while and been quite prolific. The field is just that big these days.
Young Woman in a Garden is her first collection, published in 2014. It contains a range of stories, most of them on the longer side, and most of them what I would call fabulism. Her style is very…British classics (She’s actually Canadian) more than mainstream SF&F.
I think my favorite of the stories is “The Maid on the Shore,” which was published in F&SF. I also liked “Walpurgis Afternoon,” where a woman finds out her new neighbors are witches…and so is she.
A couple of these stories – “The Red Piano” and “Sacred Harp” are about music. Most of them, though, are about…well…men behaving badly.
The women are typically decent (although sometimes violent) but many of the men in these stories deserve whatever happens to them. Not all, though, “The Printer’s Daughter” is an interesting take on the Pinnochio concept, for example, and I definitely feel sorry for the printer.
Oh, and there are a lot of lesbians in here too. I enjoyed this collection, although I find Sherman’s style not quite something I am going to seek out. (It reminds me a bit too much of my Jane Austen related trauma, unfortunately.
Copy received at the Nebula Conference.
Review: So You Wanna Run A Country? by Kevin Holohan
CW: Bestiality
I guess I’m calling this science fiction, because it definitely has cyberpunk elements. It’s also, though, very definitely not our world, with the internet dependent on a telepathic metal called trepanium.
This is, though, definitely a cyberpunk world. People are entirely dependent on the internet. Homelessness has been redefined as a lifestyle choice so people don’t have to feel bad about harassing homeless people.
And a crazy reality show entitled So You Wanna Run A Country? catches two young people in its net…but the net is really being cast by the reclusive kingdom of Inner Azhuur. One of them has something that belongs to them.
The author calls this a satirical parable and honestly it wasn’t up my alley. But it was well enough written that I finished it anyway…not quiteinto Great Chef territory but close. Holohan writes in a more mainstream style that makes the surreal elements more so.
Recommended to those who love a good satire.
Copy received at the Nebula Conference.