Paula R. Stiles

So yeah, it turns out I'm not a big fan of L. Ron Hubbard. But that didn't stop me from requesting a copy of L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writers of the Future, Volume XXVII from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. I always enjoy a good sci-fi/fantasy anthology, and I was at least subliminally aware of the Writers of the Future program, and figured this'd be a good bet for some high-quality SF/F short fiction (SFFSF?).

I love it when I'm right.

The Writers of the Future contest seems a fairly show more reputable program, with contest entries judged by such esteemed SFF writers as Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, and Frederik Pohl, among others. And past contest winners include such notable names as Stephen Baxter, Patrick Rothfuss, and Dave Wolverton. So right off the bat, this book showed the promise of some good stuff inside.

And on the whole, it delivers. There are some weaker stories, but they're merely decent, not bad. But beyond that, there are a few truly phenomenal entries. Here's a (very) brief review for each story:

• "The Unreachable Voices of Ghosts" by Jeffrey Lyman — Almost every story in this collection is a science-fiction piece; this is no exception. A lonely man goes on what is essentially a suicide run to the edge of the solar system, fishing for a miniature black hole, and finds something else besides. There's a nice atmosphere to the piece, and if the twist at the end isn't entirely unanticipated, well, it's still a solid and oddly-moving start to the anthology.

• "Maddy Dune's First and Only Spelling Bee" by Patrick O'Sullivan — Maybe this fantasy story should have been held until the end of the collection, because it sets the bar impossibly high for everything that follows. I'm not going to spoil anything by going into any detail, but this is hands-down the best entry here; it's worth buying the book just for this one. I would love to see someone pay O'Sullivan to turn this into a series.

• "The Truth, From a Lie of Convenience" by Brennan Harvey — A reporter on the Moon discovers that a Crazy Conspiracy Theory just might be true! Shocking! Nothing really new here, though it is still mostly enjoyable, even if the ending is kind of weak.

• "In Apprehension, How Like a God" by R. P. L. Johnson — Another strong story, this time a sci-fi murder mystery. I guessed the killer early on, but I never guessed the killer's actual identity. Color me impressed.

• "An Acolyte of Black Spires" by Ryan Harvey — Fantasy or sci-fi? I couldn't tell, but it doesn't really matter. This one felt fairly cliché and dry throughout, though the mild twist at the end made me appreciate it more.

• "The Dualist" by Aaron Hughes — At this point, the trend seems to be that the even-numbered stories are my favorites. It wasn't until the last couple of pages that I figured out where this story was going, and it wasn't until the final paragraphs that I understood, and was thusly blown away. A surprisingly moving tale.

• "Bonehouse" by Keffy R. M. Kehrli — An intriguing premise: hunting down people who've run away and fully immersed themselves in the internet. But it didn't really do much with it. Enjoyable, if entirely forgettable.

• "This Peaceful State of War" by Patty Jansen — A decent "first contact" story, and if the fact that mysterious alien biology is the culprit is fairly predictable, the truth of that biology is stunning.

• "Sailing the Sky Sea" by Geir Lanesskog — A fairly-entertaining tale about survival in a gas giant's atmosphere. I loved how they pulled off the rescue, though I wish it had been foreshadowed earlier, instead of just coming out of the blue as it did.

• "Unfamiliar Territory" by Ben Mann — This might be my least favorite story here. It felt pretty clichéd, and didn't really have a whole lot of plot, though it managed to tease at a larger story to be told later.

• "Medic!" by Adam Perin — This story saves the collection from a comparatively-weak second half. We get the story of a crotchety battlefield medic as he attempts to save his 1,000th life and earn his transfer out of the service. The main character is entertaining, and the ending is nicely emotional.

• "Vector Victoria" by D. A. D'Amico — Another weak entry, based on the otherwise-intriguing premise of a government-engineered virus and the protesters (terrorists?) that try to counter it. Unfortunately, the story is a ho-hum rehash of old government-is-good/government-is-bad arguments, with no real resolution. And I found titular protagonist to be incredibly naive (as intended, I'm sure) and irritating (likely not).

• "The Sundial" by John Arkwright — This might be the second-best story here. If you pressed a gun to my head, I'd probably classify it as "fantasy"; it almost feels like it doesn't belong in the same book as the rest of these stories. I won't spoil anything, though; you have to pick up this book to read "Maddy Dune", anyway.

Also included are three essays on advice for writers and artists; I'll be honest: I skimmed 'em. I was just there for the stories. On the whole, it's decent collection, elevated by the presence of 4-5 particularly strong stories. If I had to rank the top five, I'd have to go with "Maddy Dune", then "The Sundial", with "How Like a God" and "The Dualist" tying for third, and "Medic!" bringing up the rear. It's worth checking out just for those stories. And I'm going to have to keep an eye out for previous collections, as well. [4 out of 5 stars] show less

Issue four of "Innsmouth Magazine" (from June 2010) opens with "Quoth the Cultist" by Mari Ness, which gives us an Egyptian take on Cthulhu using Poe's "The Raven" as its template. I couldn't make up my mind whether this was really clever or simply stupid. "Red Goat Black Goat" by Javanese / American writer Nadia Bulkin is set in West Java and is a chilling tale of feral goats. "Eyes in the Vastness of Forever" by Argentinian Gustavo Bondoni tells of new settlers from Europe meeting Native show more Americans for the first time. "The Doom That Came to Yamatai" by Travis King tells of the mysterious Empress Himiko, who is much more than the simple ruler of the realm of Yamatai. "The Mountain That Eats Men" by Caleb Jordan Schulz sees miner Vincente selling his soul to the God of the mountain in an effort to strike lucky and become rich. He does so, but with deals such as this there is always a price to be paid. "Bottomless Lake Bus Stop" by the Hungarian writer Bogi Takacs is set in the caverns below Budapest. "A Model Apartment" by Bryan Thao Worra, a Lao-American poet, is a clever story in the traditional style of an artist seeking out the type of knowledge they really should avoid – this time around its Kazoua Vue, a young Hmong woman recently arrived in New England. Worra makes evocative use of Lovecraftian locations and characters quietly mentioning them to add authenticity to a story that is cleverly constructed with an increasing air of foreboding and dread throughout. "Estelle Makes the Casino Run" by Pamela Rentz, a member of the Karuk Tribe of California, is about a bus driving through a strange mist and being assailed by strange creatures. This is a great story that works well and is nicely written, but is unfortunately too short – I could have happily stayed with the concept much longer. Daniel Jose Older's "Death on the Firing Line" has the not alive / not dead narrator being charged by the Council of the Dead of San Francisco to sort out some unaccountable nonsense going on in the Haight, while "Kali Yuga" by Sanford Allen sees tension between husband and wide Sunil and Aarti over a chilling statue of Kali Ma that Aarti wants to prominently display in the reception desk at their business. Sunil is dead set against the statue but when two vicious robbers turn up he's soon glad that Kali Ma is on hand. This is an interesting story of cultural traditions and whether the old ways should be left behind told in the context of a simple horror yarn. "The Hunger Houses" by Raymond G. Falgui, a teacher of English Literature at the University of the Philippines has a revolutionary tinge around class systems and those who purport to rule, whether these be Old Ones or the super-rich. Finally "Jeroboam Henley's Debt" by Charles R. Sanders is a good tale about slavery, the "Underground Railroad" and the revenge taken by the servants of a "God with an unspeakable name".

Issue four of "Innsmouth Magazine" is the longest to date with more stories than the first three issues. It is also interesting that the editor has focused on stories based in other cultures and written by authors from other cultures that are normally out-with the traditional milieu of the Lovecraftian tale. Some of the stories are very obviously Lovecraftian, while other have only tangential connections while others are more or less straight forward horror stories. All this adds up to a hugely interesting mix of stories making for another strong issue of the magazine. I read this issue as part of the "Innsmouth Magazine, Collected Issues: 1 - 4" released in 2012. Published by Innsmouth Free Press, it was edited by Silvio Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles with cover art by Paco Rico Torres. show less

Lovecraft did not include many women in his mythos (maybe three or so total). This anthology responds to that absence by presenting a collection of short stories and art created by women with women at the center. It's a solid collection of stories, very few of which have anything other than a bleak ending — because when when you're playing with the elder gods, you usually end up with bloodshed, madness, or death. Regardless, the women at the center of these stories are smart or powerful or show more twisted in their own delightful ways. A couple that I loved include Jilly Dreadful's “De Deabus Minoribus Exterioris Theomagicae,” which presents the story as a thesis outline, and Pandora Hope's “Eight Seconds,” in which a bull-riding woman faces off against her own destruction — although these two barely scratch the surface of the many great stories in this anthology. show less

Ignoring the misleading cover blurb of “The Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year” (which it most obviously isn’t, and isn’t intended to be), this is an entertaining collection of stories from mostly unknown writers, many of whom show enough promise to continue selling to professional markets. The stories range from near misses marred by uneven writing or predictable stories and characters to a few that feature accomplished, intriguing, better-than-average storytelling and show more characterization. The best of the bunch were Patrick O’Sullivan’s “Maddy Dune’s First and Only Spelling Bee,” turning what could have been a predictable premise into a tale that made me genuinely care about the pair of, respectively, barely alien and very alien main characters; Van Aaron Hughes’s “The Dualist,” in which a provocatively complicated diplomatic relationship between human and alien had me curiously wondering what would happen next; “Sailing the Sky Sea” by Geir Lanesskog, featuring a well-drawn cast of characters playing out a convincing mystery in a very brief amount of time; and “An Acolyte of Black Spires” by Ryan Harvey, with a well-imagined alien society that successfully drew me into the story and ultimately provided a satisfying resolution. The common denominator of the best stories in the collection seemed to be unique, believable, and very “alien” alien characters. show less