TITLE: The Ruins of Noe
AUTHOR: Danika Dinsmore
PUBLISHER: Hydra House Books
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2012
WEBSITE: http://hydrahousebooks.com/?product=the-ruins-of-noe-preorder

Since reading Danika Dinsmore’s Brigitta of the White Forest a year ago, I’ve been looking forward to the sequel. When offered a chance to read and review an eARC for The Ruins of Noe, I jumped on the opportunity. The book did not disappoint. It continued the delightful tone, characters, and setting of the first book while standing apart with its own strengths and perspective.

As Brigitta continues her training to become an Elder for the village, she is drawn into a larger problem facing the White Forest. As the spirits of the dead do not pass on and children are born without destinies, Brigitta is shown a prophecy that foretold this and included her as the one who had to go out and solve it.

With High Priestess Ondelle, Brigitta is transported to the ruins of the fairies’ ancestral home, the lost city of Noe. Though both fairies from the White Forest had believed that all of fairy-kind had moved to the White Forest when the world became filled with chaos, they are surprised to find a pair of ragtag settlements. Each fairy stronghold is ruled over by a cruel despot who has no interest in some strange fairies stirring up trouble. As things turn from bad to worse, Brigitta soon finds herself alone in a strange and dangerous world where she must try to save the world without any guidance.

This second installment has a more mature tone than the previous book, aging along with the young adults who may have read the first book. Awful things happen to good people and not everything is fixed by the end. The White Forest fairies quickly learn that the history they believed in was filled with half-truths. Brigitta has to grow up fast over the span of days, facing problems that would be difficult for an adult to deal with. This book also introduces the first signs of a love interest, which also hints at more mature themes to follow.

The Ruins of Noe improves on the previous book in terms of helping readers getting their bearings in the strange and magical world of the White Forest fairies. There are still some rough patches, but overall it does much better in explaining the world. Because I read this version as an ebook on my iPhone, I didn’t realize till I finished the book that there was a glossary.

While the first book was a self-contained story, this sequel leaves many plot hooks open as an avenue towards telling a much larger tale. Dinsmore did an excellent job at keeping me hooked, and sometimes even panicked, by the tale she wove. I can hardly wait for book three.

TITLE: Shorn
AUTHOR: Larissa Niec
PUBLISHER: Mercury Retrograde Press
RELEASE DATE: October 1, 2008
WEBSITE: http://larissaniec.com/main/shorn

PAGES: 336
ISBN: 9780981665403
PRICE: $16.95 (pb); $5.00 (ebook)

Shorn, by Larissa Niec, is a standout piece of fiction, especially from a small press. Niec’s prose is rich, evocative and gripping. She has created a rich and interesting world that she describes with a deft hand. Without much exposition or outright explanation, I soon had a sense of how the culture and cosmology of her world worked. The biggest criticism I might level against the book is that it is clearly the first in a series. After the last page I felt as though I had only read the opening act of a much larger tale, with no sense of satisfaction after the first book.

The tale is set in the fictional realm of Avelos, where disparate clans are united under a single High Chieftain. In ages past, a winged race known as the Avelune betrayed the clans and had to be struck down. Since then, anyone born with the markings of the Avelune have their wings shorn off and are forced into servitude. Jhared Denaban, trained to be a soldier, is one such Shorn who has many hopes pinned to him. His teachers raised him in a nurturing environment, hoping that a compassionate upbringing would tame his inborn sins. Political leaders want to see him fail so that he can be used as a weapon against the High Chieftain. And there are Shorn who pass on old tales of the Avelune that paint them in a more heroic light. They wish for Jhared to join their cause and help them steal their freedom. Through this, Jhared must pick his own path.

Parallel to Jhared’s point of view is that of Nemiah Gabriana, High Priestess of Avelos. Since an uprising by an earlier High Priestess, the High Chieftain has broken the church and turned the High Priestess into a puppet of the clans. But Nemiah sees visions of chaos that will soon strike Avelos, bringing pain and suffering to everyone. She must find the strength to force a solution in the face of those who would distrust any ambition on her part.

Avelos faces a double pronged threat as the story continues: The first is the threat of war with a neighboring kingdom; second is a destructive and unnatural wind that creeps through the land and leaves death in its wake. Some people believe the two are related, while others do not.

These narrative arcs weave together to build a compelling world to immerse yourself in. What I thought the plot was going to be at the beginning was not what the plot was shaping up to by the middle of the book. My initial thought when I reached that point was, “It took this long to get to the actual plot?” But I was mistaken. The entire book, in fact, was a build up to a bigger plot. There are some smaller personal plots that come to a tentative resolution for both Jhared and Nemiah, both internally and externally, but that got lost in the scope of the larger story. I really had to think to remember if there had been any sense of resolution for anything.

As much as I enjoyed Niec’s writing, the unsatisfying ending sticks with me. There is no indicator for when the next book will come out, though Shorn was originally published three years ago. Since they’ve given the series a name, I’m going to guess that the author didn’t intend just two books. This makes the hope of resolution in book two seem faint. If you want engrossing prose, you will love this book. If you want a tight narrative structure that stands on its own, you may be disappointed.

TITLE: Like Mayflies in a Stream
AUTHOR: Shauna Roberts
PUBLISHER: Hadley Rille Books
RELEASE DATE: October 1, 2009
WEBSITE: http://www.shaunaroberts.com/mayflies.html

PAGES: 196
ISBN: 9780982514016 (hc); 9780982514009 (pb)
PRICE: $24.95 (hc); $11.95 (pb); $5.00 (ebook)

The setup for Shauna Robert’s Like Mayflies in a Stream, is a compelling one: an archaeologically-accurate retelling of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Hearing that alone was enough to make me order a copy immediately. But while the book is excellently written in many regards, I didn’t connect very well with the characters.

Focusing on the city-state of Uruk during the early reign of King Gilgamesh, it opens with a land oppressed by a juvenile tyrant. The king is restless, which results in men left broken after Gilgamesh wrestles them and brides brutally raped on their wedding days. Shamhat, a priestess of Inanna, is sent out by Gilgamesh to find the wild man Enkidu. The king’s prophetic dream implied that Enkidu will be the peer that will soothe the king’s restless heart. But Nanna-Ur-Sag, high priest of Inanna, has also had a prophetic dream. In the high priest’s dream, Enkidu will be the man that humbles the king and brings justice back to Uruk.

The amount of detail included regarding ancient Uruk is astounding, richly recreating a culture that is very foreign from my own. But the weight of the detail also proved to its disadvantage. As someone who has never read The Epic of Gilgamesh and isn’t overly familiar with the time period, the untranslated words used in the text were very confusing. I could sometimes figure it out through context, but sometimes I was just stumped. Even Google couldn’t explain some of the terms.

The plot follows the same general arc of the original Epic, though reimagined with a stronger sense of realism and told primarily from the point of view of Shamhat. This focus on the original tale left me feeling like the story suffered from the loyalty. While it starts off strong, I quickly lost interest in the characters as the book went on. The attachments the characters possessed felt more explained than made real through narrative, and they risks they faced felt hollow when no ill came from it.

There were also some things that seemed excluded that shouldn’t have been. In the middle of the book, Enkidu suffers from an illness. There is no indicator how long he’s suffered from this illness or what his illness might be. It’s merely handled as though it’s been going on a while and dominates the rest of the story without any indicator of what’s going on. Gilgamesh and Enkidu later travel off to the the Cedar Forest, which is the realm of the gods, to fight the Humbaba, the ogre that guards it. Up until this point the book felt rooted in the realm of reality, so this was a startling turn. It all happens off camera, but they come back with the ogre’s head. Was it really an ogre…?

Overall, it felt like the book needed to be twice as long in order to tell the story it wanted to tell, but because so much is left out it fell flat for me. As a glimpse into Mesopotamian culture, Like Mayflies in a Stream is a fascinating read. And if that is what you’re looking for, you should be happy. But in terms plot and character, there was just too much missing for me to truly enjoy it.

TITLE: Deadfall
AUTHOR: Shaun Jeffrey
PUBLISHER: Deshca Press
PAGES: 175
RELEASE DATE: Originally 2010; Smashwords Edition 2011
WEBSITE: http://www.smashwords.com/

Amber Redgrave is a private bodyguard for Ms. Hawkins, an elderly woman who believes her late husband had enemies. Amber doesn’t really believe that Ms. Hawkins is in danger; the woman was described to her as a nutter. But one day while shopping together at the mall, Amber’s cushy guard job is sorely tested.

Angry after the horrific turn of events, she questions her boss and ex-lover, John Richmond about what went wrong. He can’t or won’t give any details, and turns the discussion to a new mission he’s about to embark upon. When he leaves the room for a moment, his phone rings and Amber answers it. One of the men on John’s team was pulled off the mission. Without hesitating, Amber volunteers herself.

The team is briefed about their mission – the children of a wealthy businessman have been kidnapped; if the ransom is not paid, the children will be executed. No police can be involved, and this mission is a secret so as not to tip off the kidnappers.

Amber is put in charge of the group, much to Eddie’s chagrin, a member of the team who doesn’t believe women can be leaders. John is also shocked and angered that Amber managed to get herself involved with the mission.

Once they are taken by helicopter to the mission site, it’s a race against time to rescue the children. After being attacked by zombies, though, it becomes clear that they have been lied to and what their mission truly entails.

Deadfall is a different and very cool take on the zombie fad going on in the horror genre these days. Deadfall sticks to many of the usual zombie characteristics – a zombie bite will turn a human into a body, a bullet to the head will destroy it, the zombies eat the flesh of its victim. But these zombies are the result of a military lab experiment – could a zombie army be used against enemies? Is there a way to stop them once they’ve proven their usefulness as a deadly weapon?

Once Amber and her team realize they are being used as test subjects in a deadly experiment, they do everything they can to stay alive, relying on their training and wits. But not all of them will make it out alive. And who is the mole who got them into the situation in the first place?

Deadfall is non-stop action right from the start; you barely get a chance to catch your breath. You begin to care about the characters, and root for them to make it out alive. Your heart sinks when one of them gets bitten; you know what’s going to become of him or her.

The Smashwords version also has an alternate ending; it’s similar to the original ending with just a few minor changes. Both endings do the novel justice.

Shaun Jeffrey has written a fun, suspenseful story for anybody who loves zombies. And if you’re not a zombie fan, let Deadfall turn you into one.

Future Imperfect by Peter Wood

Mike and Darla rummage through some old science fiction magazines in Darla’s dearly departed grandfathers attic. They contemplate on why the future those magazines predicted never came to pass. To Mike, flying cars and death ray guns seemed like a future that was supposed to be and wonders if the past was steered down a wrong path. Darla remembers her grandfather tinkering on those very gadgets. The semi-serious discussion takes a turn when they find a silvery gun in the middle of the rummage. All of sudden a flying corvette doesn’t sound so crazy.

“Future Imperfect” is a classic change-in-reality type of tale. Mike insists the future seemed too real in the old fifties magazines, as if the course of events were altered so they wouldn’t come about. The tale takes a predictable turn when a third character suddenly appears. So I don’t ruin it, I will not comment further on what happens.

This is the second publication of Mr. Wood’s I have read. I like his imagination and simple approach to story telling. I found this plain tale to be an enjoyable read.

Catastrophe Baker Makes First Contact by Mike Resnick

Hurricane Smith is in a pickle. The Navy has hired him to investigate a new race of beings in the Leinster system to determine if they are friendly, and blow them to smithereens if they aren’t in the slightest. Unfortunately, he has a date with a six-armed alien. With a bit of prodding (and a willingness to sacrifice his fee) he convinces Catastrophe Baker to do the job for him. With the aid of an all-to-friendly ship, and his trusty laser, Catastrophe travels to Leinster and confronts the greatest hero of the newest godless race.

As a reader of a few of Mr. Resnick’s works, Catastrophe Baker is a character I am familiar with. The larger-than-life hero confronts yet another potential enemy in this tale. As in other works, Catastrophe finds more trouble with his ‘allies’ than his foes. The story can be broken up into three parts, each involving the hero with another character. Mr. Resnick’s gift for satire shines through in each segment as Catastrophe attempts to comprehend Hurricane’s xeno-fetishes, stave off Bubbles the ship’s advances, and finds a unique common-bond with his to-the-death Leinster opponent.

I have read so many Mike Resnick stories I lost count, all of which falling in a scale from “The best ever!” to “It’s okay”. This one I would rate right in the middle, which made it “Damn good.” A fun and funny tale by one of the master’s of science fiction.
Recommended

Lifestealer by Joseph Giddings

Clare is the owner of a healing spa. She has a very dark past, one she prefers to keep hidden. Then the usual outside noise of horny teenagers flirting with the girls becomes unnaturally loud. A man with a gun, and chest wound, barges through her door and into her life. A life she is eager to ditch for a better one.

“Lifestealer” is a story of multiple twists. Every few paragraphs a new dilemma is introduced for the tales dual characters. The story hinges on a secret assassin agency. The ‘Lifestealer’s is an organization of skilled killers who borrowed their name from a race of creatures who could steal a persons life just by touch. Clare is curious on why the man ended up in her spa, and offers to heal the dying man for information; and extracting information is a skill she is well versed in. James, the assassin, is a man who suddenly finds himself out of his league, but trained assassins keep secrets of their own.

“Lifestealer” is a tale with an intriguing plot and a pair of engaging characters. James appears to be just the person Clare needs, sort of a ‘right person at the right time’ godsend. The first half of the story introduces an interesting set of circumstances for both Clare and James, the kind that had me leaning into my computer screen with anticipation. However, the duo, tight first person narrative made the story difficult for me to stay engaged. It wasn’t hard to follow, but was annoying when each characters perspective switched from paragraph to paragraph – a tactic I do not recommend for most writers. I also had a problem with James’ pursuers. They shot him, where did they go? If he were important enough to shoot with an intention to kill, wouldn’t he be important enough to make sure he was dead?

A far larger issue for me was the fresh dilemmas that began to surface in the last half of the story. For me to delve deeper into them would be a disservice for potential readers, but I will warn those who are about to read this piece to get ready. The story becomes ‘extraordinary’ at this point and sets up an ending that is far lighter than what the seat-grabbing tale deserved.

Overall, despite my many issues with the piece, I still found more to like about “Lifestealer” than to dislike. It was a story very fitting for a magazine that is eager to maintain roots with its pulpy origins.

Suited for Command by Adam Colston

240 years ago, Captain Viggo left his personal space suit on a hook and forgot to power it down. Now the AI suit’s main power has run out. Relying on back up power, he jumps off the hook and seeks the help of other suits on the ship to help him install a new battery. What they find is a ship empty of crew, leaving the AI suits with a unique opportunity. They have a whole universe ahead of them, and a spaceship of their own to explore it. What could possibly stand in their way?

“Suited for Command” is a very fun story. The AI suits have personalities their last human user installed into them. This tale is visually friendly, I could see clearly in my mind when the high-gravity suit ripped a stuck door free of its hinges instead of just sliding it as it was built. The story is simple, straight forward, and funny. If only these suits could have been allowed to do more.
Recommended

Analysis

This issue of Ray Gun brought back memories of the fiction I fell in love with when I first dove into the short story collections I bought when the bookstores where a lot smaller. These tales felt more in line with the stories that were first published in the 60’s and 70’s (I read them when they were reprinted, really), than the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s that marked the Golden Age. I found them fun to read and easy to fall into.

TITLE: Nearly Departed in Deadwood
AUTHOR: Ann Charles
PUBLISHER: Corvallis Press
RELEASE DATE: January 15, 2011
WEBSITE: http://anncharles.com/deadwood/

PAGES: 376
ISBN: 0983256810
PRICE: $13.99 (pb); $3.99 (ebook)

In her debut novel, Nearly Departed in Deadwood, Ann Charles weaves a fun romp of humor, romance, mystery and the occult. The pages are brimming with eccentric small town characters that brought the setting to life. Though not quite as paranormal a romance/mystery as I had hoped it would be, I would gladly read more tales in her Deadwood Mystery series.

Violet Parker, the book’s protagonist, is a single mother and struggling real estate agent trying to land her first sale before getting fired. But eccentric customers, haunted houses and workplace harassment all threaten to defeat her at every turn. On top of all this, girls have been disappearing from the town of Deadwood. And the girls all bear a striking resemblance to Violet’s daughter. Afraid that her child could be next, Violet starts to play amateur sleuth to find the abductor.

I’d chosen to review this book for Rise Reviews because the author had billed it on a panel as being a blend of paranormal romance and mystery. And I could see it earning that label. But the paranormal elements seemed slow in coming and were carefully handled to seed doubt regarding whether something supernatural had actually occurred.

The presence of ghosts, and someone who claims to be able to sense them, is dismissed as absurd by Violet Parker. The book leaves room for doubt while also planting seeds for future supernatural weirdness. None of this affected my enjoyment of the book, but for those who are only interested in strong, overt paranormal elements I worry that this could prove a letdown.

I deeply loved Violet Parker as a protagonist. She proved very human and approachable, a long cry from the badass tramp-stamped katana carriers or shallow love slaves you might find in similar books. (Not that I mind either of those…) Instead she was someone I felt was easy to relate to because she was very much like someone I might know in real life, foibles and all.

The part I liked least about the book was, bizarrely, something Charles did very well: I got really upset by some of the injustices that Violet experienced. I don’t know if this is just a cultural difference between Seattle and South Dakota, or perhaps a difference in how real estate works, but I was very dismayed by what Violet put up with in her work environment.

Her antagonistic co-worker is not subtle in his methods. This isn’t hard-to-prove shenanigans. It’s outright harassment. I liked Violet to such a degree that I became increasingly outraged on her behalf. “You don’t need to sell a house,” I thought to myself. “You need to tell your boss what’s going on, then get a lawyer if it doesn’t stop!” The author does such a good job at making this co-worker despicable that I just felt ill every time he showed up or did something to Violet. Kudos to Charles for making a protagonist that sympathetic, even if it spiked my blood pressure.

Otherwise, I found this to be a wonderful book to read. It sucked me in and kept me on the edge of my seat and left me excited to read more when I finally reached the end. This is a great book for those wanting something more down to earth and intimate instead of just saving the universe again.

Accompaniment by Keffy R. Kehrli

Jonas can’t stop playing the guitar, literally. It’s the first time he’s picked up the instrument, and now he can’t stop playing because of a compulsion spell. Jonas is the hired muscle in a crime duo working a scheme to ensnare fairies, now he is doomed play forever. His partner helped him get into this mess but now has happy feet and is ready to ditch him. Too bad Jonas can’t stop him.

This story wasn’t drawing me in when at first. It wasn’t until I got halfway through it before I finally got what was going on. The writing is first class but the plot didn’t seem that special, until the end. Well worth sticking with. I liked it.

A La Mode by Karina Fabian

The protagonist is a detective who hasn’t had a job in awhile. A thug offers him a very nice deal. Eliminate the favorite in a beauty contest for him. Lots of cash, gold and jewels for him, and the girl is a certified virgin. Much more than a close-to-broke dragon-detective can turn down.

The story is set up like a classic detective tale, except the detective is a scaly dragon. Cute concept, but too brief to pull off well in under a thousand words. Ms. Fabian did great in the amount of space she had but the entire story appeared to be written for an eye-rolling punch line.

Aliens by D. J. Swatski

The Bauxal have come to Earth and destroyed Buenos Aires as a demonstration of their power. Jason has been monitoring them on his computer. The aliens demand tribute for membership into their Federation. They have no idea what they are up against.

This story has a very nice twist halfway through. Jason and his friend Reilly are the centerpieces of this historical moment. The story left me wondering about the two boys but it didn’t lessen the appeal of this fun piece.
Recommended

As Is by Sandra M. Odell

Hank is poking around Gary’s garage when he asks what the strange exercise bike looking thing is. “A Time Machine” is what Gary claims. Gary’s prodding friend wants to know all about it, but Gary insists it doesn’t work. But a friend like Hank won’t let it be. A guy like that has to find out the hard way.

Very cute and funny. The story isn’t at all disappointing, even if Hank doesn’t like the results he discovers. Likely the most fitting time machine story I ever read.

Brown Bottle Nostrum by Jay Lake

The protagonist is the only living relative left to put dear departed grandpa’s house in order. Ever since he was a kid, he wondered what the brown bottle with it’s duct taped top labeled ‘facial’ had in it. Now that the odd old man isn’t around to warn him, he can finally satisfy his curiosity.

It is hard to find fault in work written by a pro like Jay Lake but this piece had one hint too many for me. I knew what was going to happen a paragraph before it did, therefore the reveal did not come as a surprise.

Data De Morte by Lorna D. Keach

Shelby has performed the harrowing tasks the Dark Lord has demanded of her – slaying beasts, solving mysteries, polishing floors – and now she has one last task to do before she can be accepted in the hallow ranks of evil, help him catch up on paperwork. But even Shelby has standards, and being asked to use the wrong computer may be asking too much from her.

This is a nerd becomes hero in nerd universe. Some clever writing but it was just too silly for me to call this story funny.

Open-Door Policy by David S. Grant

The protagonist is the new guy in the office. The men all form a circle each morning, never talking, just commiserating in a glum group. The protagonist doesn’t know why they’re all maimed, and silent, but he just wants to fit in. Lola, the boss, is eager to oblige.

This is an entertaining piece of sadism (not a real fan of it, mind you). Horror isn’t my first genre of choice but this tale is quite clever. Don’t understand why the group doesn’t take care of the problem but it wouldn’t have been much of the story if they did.

The Forbidden Stitch by Cat Rambo

The narrator speaks of a map tucked in a common book. The map is of a land of negative emotions and you are led to believe of the possibility you find yourself in it.

I’ve read many of Ms. Rambo’s works, some of which had bowled me over. The writing in this piece reflects her gift for words but the point of it was lost on me. I was left scratching my head, wondering what the story was about.

The Misanthrope by Janna Silverstein

The protagonist in this tale hates people, so when he discovers he has a talent of making his wishes come true, people who irritate him begin to drop like flies. A talent like this can have its down sides if you’re not careful. Then again, there’s always a sliver lining to the darkest of clouds.

Calling this one cute would be like calling a Rembrandt nice. Mildly funny but delightfully entertaining. Loved how the protagonist just rolled with the misfortunes he created.
Recommended.

With Gleaming Blades by Anne Patterson Friedman

Gordon is retired, his joints are failing, his mind may be going, and he’s bored. Melinda worries about the state of mind of her husband. He watches the same sword-slashing movie over and over. He vows to protect his wife from a monster he says is preying on the neighborhood. There is a serial killer lurking about, and Melinda begins to worry if the monster he is talking about lives in the same house with her.

I really enjoyed this story. It was fun. Losing your mind in your old age is tragic but if I lose mine, I want my dementia to be like Gordon’s. Unfortunately, this delightful tale nudged its way to silly by the end. Still liked it though.

Analysis

I’ve read quite a bit of flash fiction as of late. Some of the best and fullest stories I have viewed over the past year were done under a thousand words. The cast KC gathered is a testament on how over looked this emerging class of story telling has become. On my other review outlet (http://www.diabolicalplots.com/), I wrote flash fiction should have it’s own award category in Hugo, Nebula and all the rest. The stories in 10 Flash and plenty of others support’s my contentions.

An entertaining issue of short but well written stories.

TITLE: Witches
AUTHOR: Kathryn Meyer Griffith
PUBLISHER: Damnation Books, L.L.C.
PAGES: 288
RELEASE DATE: 2011
WEBSITE: http://www.damnationbooks.com/

Amanda Givens is a white witch who lives a quiet life in the woods of Canaan, Connecticut with her familiar, a cat named Amadeus. Amanda is still grieving the loss of her husband, Jake, who recently died in a car accident. Although Jake was aware of her powers and didn’t mind them, Amanda keeps her secret from her friends and the people in town.

But when an evil cult, lead by Rachel, a black witch from the past, begins tormenting the town and its citizens, Amanda knows she must do everything in her power to help. Especially when the cult kidnaps and harms her best friend Jane’s little boy. But the townspeople only see her powers and think she’s evil.

As she runs from an angry town mob, Amanda is suddenly spirited back in time into Rachel’s body. If Amanda is put to death for witchcraft like Rachel was, Rachel will be able to take over Amanda’s body in the present time and spread her evil. Amanda must protect herself and Rachel’s neglected children as well as try to get back to her own time. Unfortunately, when Amanda was send back to Rachel’s world, she lost her powers as well. Will she ever be able to survive during the Burning Times and get back to her own life? And will she want to after she falls in love with a man who reminds her of Jake?

Witches is a fun and fascinating story of witchcraft in the present and past. While not exactly a horror novel, Witches does have many suspenseful and creepy moments. A little romance rounds out the story. Witches pulls you in at the prologue and doesn’t let go until the end. The witchcraft elements were very well-written and quite believable.

I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great story that makes you want to keep turning the pages well into the night.

For those of us tiring of steampunk and utterly burnt-out on cyberpunk, there is a new punk in the science-fantasy section: Biopunk. Growing Dread (C. Dombrowski, editor) is a dark anthology of tales in which our hubris invariably gets the better of humanity. We come to our complicated – and often messy – end knowing that we brought this catastrophe upon ourselves. But all is not lost; in our pride, we always weave a little of ourselves into whatever future remains of life on Earth. Our genetically engineered creations may surprise and conquer us, but in a way that reflects our nature more than anything else. Humanity proves indelible, particularly in the consequences for our failures.

Muffin Everlasting by Minerva Zimmerman is more charming than first impressions predict. The main character has an ego the size of a hot air balloon, but the writer follows through on that by letting him make the kind of jumbo-sized mistakes that people with jumbo-sized egos tend to make. This story’s sense of humor levitates the reader over the lumps of disbelief brought up by a few logical flaws, and as implied apocalypses go, we could do much worse than a plague of pocket-sized unicorns.

Boosting the Signal by Lillian Cohen-Moore made me sad in an insubstantial way. It had more of a cyberpunk theme than I expected to find in this anthology, and more backstory than plot. It’s an interesting sort of character story with a lot of potential; an expanded version of this would probably make a very good read.

God Bloom by Angel Leigh McCoy made me give a damn about the main character. His situation was complicated to begin with, but he bore it with such dignity that his change of fortune at the end was almost painfully bittersweet. I was thrown out of my suspension of disbelief by a few problematic details at first, but by the end it didn’t matter. I reread it immediately, just savor the main character’s experiences.

Unchained Melody by Jeremy Zimmerman is an uncomfortable read for survivors of sexual abuse. It’s a character study; a bit light on plot, but still gratifying in the end. In spite of the personal discomfort I experienced reading it, I think I would enjoy an expanded version of this story. I reached the end with high hopes for the main character, and it might be interesting to see what she made of herself in the aftermath of her own survival.

Kundalini Rising by Michael Hacker is another story that seems heavier on the cyberpunk than on the biopunk. The characters were in turns too naïve, too arrogant or too ignorant, and it had a frustrating dream-within-a-dream quality that made becoming immersed in the narrative a challenge. Given all of that, I did not expect Kundalini Rising to end as well as it did; ultimately, I found myself liking it in spite of myself.

Necrosis by Berit Ellingsen starts slowly and then drags through too much exposition before arriving at any significant action. The science that the writer chose for inspiration is interesting, but it doesn’t really pay off in the story, which was disappointing after all the build-up it was given. The main character – a standard-issue government operative stereotype – is essentially a narrative device. We follow him through the world and the plot, but he doesn’t really matter. One could chalk all of that up to the use of convenient genre tropes, but I think the surprise vampire at the end was taking the tropes a bit too far.

Neurolution by R.S. Hunter is a bit procedural, but still satisfying. The ending was obvious from the beginning, but that didn’t detract much; the outcome isn’t really the point of this story. It’s about basic human desperation to avoid oblivion, and about ultimately settling for the same solutions we always must: Record-keeping and reproduction.

Green, Green World by Michaela Hutfles is an evocative and brief poetic dystopia. It’s a little heavy-handed with the message, but it compensates for that by being a rather good use of format. I read it a couple times to explore its little nuances, and the next time a green mood strikes me, I’ll read it again.

Aesthetic Engine by Mae Empson is a new play on several old myths. This story is also an effective application of the biopunk theme with flavors of alternate history and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Still, with any other ending, this story would have been unfulfilling – it ended as it had to, which was satisfying in its way, if not precisely happy.

How to Hack Your Dragon by Christine Danse is completely innocuous. The title put me off, and there are plenty of things wrong with the science – this would probably be a more solid story rewritten as straight fantasy. But even though the characters are a bit flimsy, the youthful, airy tone is pleasant enough for that to be a feature rather than a bug. Read this story in the mood for a flight of fancy. 

Doctor Circe and the Separatist Man-Cheetahs by Erik Scott de Bie is the anthology’s pulp piece, but it turned out slightly cleverer than I anticipated given the title. It has more character growth than expected – I expected none, but there actually was a little. The female ‘villain’ wasn’t a run of the mill evil scientist or a simple-minded sexpot, for a fun change of pace. And the ‘hero’ was actually vile, and managed to improve himself a little over the course of the story. There were a few distracting problems in the science, but the punchy ending redeemed much of what I didn’t love about the rest.

I had a good idea of what I was getting into when I selected this anthology for review. I expected the authors to play fast and loose with the science – which they did – and I expected to enjoy reading it, anyway – which I did. Actually, I was surprised by how much research obviously went into the conception of many of these stories. However the authors tinkered with reality and logic, they sought inspiration in some fairly sophisticated places. Growing Dread is science-fantasy because the stories within take magical liberties with real science, but that shouldn’t count against the anthology. There is wit and novelty in these pages and a few interesting glances at the self-harm that seems to captivate us.

Try it; you might like it. Or at least find it growing on you.

“It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear,
but the pale and the hungry-looking.”
– Julius Caesar

• 1. Write story
• 2. Get said story published
• 3. Profit! Karma!

I believe short fiction is important. The small press magazine I edit (Fantastique Unfettered, aka FU) uses a Creative Commons license, CC-BY-SA [1], for reasons related to this view, and in service to the dual end-goals of money and karma on behalf of the writers we publish.

Our alignment is not indie against corporate, small against large, or fan against pro. Those are foolish stances. Our alignment is one against obscurity [2], expressed via a pragmatism that acknowledges money may or may not follow our good karma. We certainly hope it does: our goal, after providing quality fiction to our readers, is to pay writers professional rates.

This article will appear in the second issue of FU, but I hope it’s not where you originally read it. You see, it carries the same CC-BY-SA license. A Creative Commons, Attribution, ShareAlike license, meaning that others can do pretty much anything they want with the article, but they must give attribution and release under the same. Each instance of a presentation, adaptation, or derivative of the article is, essentially, a finger pointed back at FU. Um, not that finger.

The old world-think of walled gardens and content farms suggests the only way forward is copyright extensions, possibly to perpetuity. Our old-thinkers recognize the current audience is merely the first audience. It’s a numbers game, and while individual creators will not make much to crow over statistically, the bulk IP of the mass of creators certainly will. These Caesars would own human culture, every song a commercial jingle, every myth protected by a ™.

I’m not an ideologue: I’ve stated in blog posts that I don’t know how well CC-BY-SA scales, and for the Stephen Kings of the world, traditional copyright may be the only reasonable default for their work. Creative Commons is a tool, in a toolbox that includes tradition copyright, and I have no prohibition against the latter (though even if I reach ‘rockstar’ level, I would ensure my work returns to the culture at some point.)

With Aether Age (our first CC-BY-SA project, a shared world of space-faring Greeks and social revolutions in Egypt) we’ve made the work immediately available to the culture. The same is true of FU. The same will be true of my novella, Elegant Threat, to be release in the M-Brane Double #1 later this year. The New People by Alex Jeffers, the other half of the Double, will carry a traditional copyright. My first novel may carry a traditional copyright, depending on the publisher.

Writers deserve to be paid for their work, and we hope that you, dear reader, will take an active interest in supporting short fiction. If not FU then some other venue. As a writer I hope to someday make loads of cash at my craft and to have people bemoan my place on the NYT list. That hack, they’ll complain as I laugh my way to the bank. (Yeah, it’s a writer thing.) So, a final reminder that our use of Creative Commons licensing is not purely ideological or a revolt against traditional publishing.

Creative Commons licensing does not rob writers of ownership of their work, the ability to publish it in anthologies, collections, or even to waive the license to accommodate incoming requests to publish/adapt under other terms.

The license is a tool to reach readers, and to proclaim cultural relevance to the future. Maybe our work, and work like it, becomes an island of open/libre culture in a future of copyrighted IP masquerading as culture. We intend to run FU much like a nonprofit (though it isn’t a nonprofit), to not profit off the periodical ourselves, but to use any incoming funds to make FU self-sustaining, then better pay our contributors.

CC-BY-SA is a tool for proactively freeing art to the culture, and will be right for some projects, and wrong for others. It is a tool for generating karma and reaching more readers. The other CC licenses and traditional copyright are also valid tools.

While the small press is a valuable part of the greater cultural ecosystem, big publishers (and big writers) are our heroes. Copyright is, ultimately, agnostic, insofar as it allows creators and their families to benefit from their work. The same is true of Creative Commons, and use of CC licenses does not preclude profitability.

It would be easy to stop there, with that pithy statement ignoring the real challenge we face in obscurity. The small press is a playground for the new, the odd, the possibly non-commercial –or not commercial right now–, the niche. The small press bears the responsibility to pursue the mandates of a given niche while striving for a quality of content, presentation, and a dedication to the idea that if anyone should be hungry and unsatisfied with imitation and shallowness, the merely commercially viable, it is us.

To close on a theme, perhaps our Caesar is that societal voice addressed to those who would participate in the culture, that suggests: you are a consumer, only.

We have come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him.

Please steal this article and post anywhere you like, just provide attribution and keep it under the same license. Encourage others to do the same. [3]

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/

See the Tim O’Reilly article here

http://www.fantastique-unfettered.com