Will Shetterly

Volume 14 of this series, and I just cannot emphasize enough how much an achievement it is on part of all the individual writers involved as well as the “show runners” Emma Bull and Elizabeth Bear to have kept Shadow Unit alive and fun to read throughout over such a long stretch.

This volume comes without any bonus material at all, presenting just two long stories. I’m missing the vignettes, but not quite as much as I was expecting to, because their usual functions are either to give show more us background on the Abnormal Crime Task Force’s history or glimpses into the private lives and minds of the team’s members, and the latter is here done by the two regular episodes, “Dark Leader” by Elizabeth Bear, Will Shetterly, and Emma Bull, followed by “Due North” by Leah Bobet. They are both very quiet and introspective episodes, with not much outward tension but rely mostly on character and psychological tension.

“Dark Leader” is an enjoyable read, but mostly “business as usual” for the ACTF (or, as it’s often fondly called by its members, the WTF), and for me at least this volume’s highlight was “Due North”, my favourite contribution by Leah Bobet to the series. The episode mimics TV shows in having an A plot and a B plot, both of which are only thematically connected – the theme being community, what it takes to create one, and what sacrifices are made to keep one alive, and it’s hard not to see both threads as a commentary on the WTF team itself that by now has become home and family for many of its members.

All in all, this is an almost contemplative volume, but none the less impressive for that. It marks the calm before the storm which is looming on the horizon in form of the much-dreaded final Volume 15… show less

I know I’ll be sad when I get to the end of this series – and not just because there will be no more episodes after that, but also (and possibly even more so) because at this stage, there cannot really be any doubt that things are not going to end well for the members of the FBI’s Anomalous Crime Task Force which we readers have come to know quite intimately over four seasons of episodes and vignettes.

It is not just the length of time we have spent with them that has made these people show more grow on us, but the at time almost uncannily deft hands the series’ authors have at characterizations, and in particular at convincingly describing relationships, Romantic and otherwise. The introduction of the new team member in this and the previous volume is very much a case in point, and again I was particularly struck by the way his relationship to his wife is shown, which comes across as both moving and realistic.

The series has always been playing with superhero tropes, and I guess it was only a matter of time until one of the Anomalous Crime cases would go meta and cast himself as a supervillain. Leah Bobet’s “Wild Card”, the opening story in this 13th volume of Shadow Unit finally delivers on that, and does so in an almost comedic manner, closing with what surely must be the most bizarre suspect interview in the history of crime fighting ever. The episode sets the tone for this volume, which in general is comparatively light-hearted for what is at heart a very dark, occasionally even outright bleak series. Like in the previous volume, we get a large number of episodes but only a tiny helping of additional material. Elizabeth Bear shows in “Underworld” that she’d make a great author of True Crime books (at least if she gets to make her facts up), in Chelsea Polk’s “Single Bullet Theory” a returning character from outside the team takes the central spotlight, giving us a fascinating glimpse on how the anomaly marks even people it left in its wake, while Emma Bull’s and Will Shetterly’s “Apolysis” is all about spiders, to which all I have to say is – ewwww. And that sometimes I’m glad that this is not an actual TV series…

Shadow Unit is a fascinating project, not just imitating TV crime shows, but actively transferring their narrative structures into writing and coming up with all kinds of interesting ways to achieve a TV series’ effects with literary means and keeping it fun to read throughout. Two more volumes to go now… show less

Even though the language and structure of this book could have used some polishing, the story of how a boy went to Bordertown to find his runaway brother is a compelling one. Our protagonist, just Ron, seems to stumble from one contentious situation to another as he finds his way through the random adventure that is living in Bordertown. In any other setting I would find this plot structure to be quite contrived, but considering how complicated Bordertown is in terms of its population show more groups, settings, and politics, I absolutely expect it - especially from a character like Ron who has a tendency to run off at the mouth and talk himself into trouble. Most of Ron’s random adventuring through Bordertown is actually a clever mask for his real intentions behind running away from home, as well. Clearly he is young and prone to rash decisions, but when the author reveals that the prompt for Ron’s journey to Bordertown was his brother’s suicide (and a search for the magic that will bring ghosts back to the real world rather than an actual search for a living person) it adds much depth to the story. Ron’s acceptance of this reality, and the limits of magic in regards to his transformation into Wolfboy, speak to the nature of Bordertown’s influence on its residents and how it acts as a catalyst for positive change even through hardship, which gives what would otherwise be a rather typical coming of age story a much more complex set of themes. Thank you again, urban fantasy genre, for delivering something that no other type of fiction really can! show less

I’ve been fascinated by Shadow Unit ever since I first read about it – both because of the concept and because several favourite authors (Elizabeth Bear! Sarah Monette! Amanda Downum!) are involved with this. The problem used to be that I do not much like to read on the computer, so except for the occasional, wistful-sigh-accompanied visits to the web site
nothing ever came of the fascination. – But now I have Kindle, and with some really fortituous timing all three completed seasons show more are out as e-books, so I can finally read them. And you know what? Judging by this first instalment, they’re just as good as I expected.

Shadow Unit is a virtual TV show – what it reminds me most of (though your mileage may vary, depending on what your favourite shows are) is Criminal Minds with a paranormal twist (which might yet turn out to be science-fictional – it’s still too early to tell yet). It’s about a special FBI unit down the floor from the BAU (who refer to it mostly as the WTF) and concerns itself with so-called “gammas”, perpetrators that have undergone some mutation, or maybe it is an infection – neither the reader nor the protagonists know at this stage, but I’m expecting that the overarching plot will eventually shed some light on that. Beside that plot, the show (there’s four novellas by Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette and Will Shetterly in this instalment, plus several vignettes) spends a lot of time on the mebers of the Shadow Unit, their characters and their histories – the first two episodes here focus very strongly on that, even to the point of pushing the individual cases (the third level Shadow Unit plays out on) somewhat into the background. It is quite a varied and fascinating cast of characters presented here, all of which, is being hinted at in varying degrees of explicitness, come with their own backstories and secrets which am expecting will be elucidated in due course. As an additional twist, two of the team members are showing some symptoms of the mutation/infection/whatever and while they have not turned gammas yet (they’re designated as betas, with normal humans being alphas) they might very well be on their way there…

Shadow Unit works very well, both on the level of giving the feel and atmopshere of a police procedural TV show and on that of a serial work of literature – each of the authors retain their indivual, distinctive voice and yet each contribution fits snugly into the greater whole, telling a thrilling story (or, in the case of the vignettes, shedding a brief light on various team members) while at the same time exploring the protagonists and furthering the overarching plot. The episodes are suspenseful, moving, funny (though I have to admit that some of the banter went rather over my head, probably due to me not being an USian and as soaked in their popular culture as the writers are). This seems like the start of a very enjoyable ride and I’m keen to find out where the writers are going to take it. show less