Simon Petrie

Use Only As Directed, edited by Simon Petrie and Edwina Harvey, is the latest anthology to come out of Peggy Bright Books. I have previously reviewed Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear by the same editors and I think Use Only As Directed improves upon the earlier anthology. I particularly liked that there was a clear theme to the anthology — basically, what it says on the bottle cannister.

Although not all of the stories were necessarily cheery, I found the anthology relatively up-beat on the show more whole. (Having said that and looked over the stories, perhaps that's as much a commentary on other things I've been consuming lately...) There is a wide variety of stories contained within; every story sticks to the theme, but there are a lot of very different interpretations. I appreciate the lack of homogeneity and the novelty of getting something completely different each time I picked up the anthology.

My favourite stories were "The Blue Djinn’s Wish" by Leife Shallcross, "Future Perfect" by Janeen Webb and "Home Sick" by M Darusha Wehm. There is basically nothing these three stories have in common. The first is a genie story, the second is sort of almost hard SF and the third is, I suppose, more ecological near-future SF with a huge pile of refined rubbish. I also quite enjoyed "Yard" by Claire McKenna, which was a bit darker but ultimately satisfying.

Basically, I think there's something in this anthology for everyone. You may not like every story but, assuming you like any spec fic (and I'm not sure why you're reading this blog if you don't), there will probably be a story you enjoy in Use Only As Directed. As usual, I have some brief thoughts on each story below. If you haven't yet sampled a Petrie and Harvey anthology, this one would be a good place to start.

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Dellinger (Charlotte Nash) — A tale of cyborgs and sentient space ships. I liked the ideas explored. What happens when you create an artificial sentience based on a human mind then set it to controlling a ship?

The Blue Djinn’s Wish (Leife Shallcross) — Easily the best genie story I've ever read. The princess who finds the magic bottle is happy and already has everything she could wish for, but will that last?

The Kind Neighbours of Hell (Alex Isle) — A grimoire and a demon summoning... But as the grimoire used correctly?

Mister Lucky (Ian Nichols) — the protagonist has the ability to control luck (more or less). An amusing, fast-paced read.

Home Sick (M Darusha Wehm) — set on the floating island of rubbish in the Pacific. Climate refugees from a submerged Pacific nation are sent there by the New Zealand government and the main character chooses to go with them. An interesting story that I enjoyed.

Always Falling Up (Grant Stone) — Interesting take on clone soldiers and the man who provided the template for their minds. Fits the theme very obviously, but it's a bit more of a philosophical take, I thought.

Yard (Claire McKenna) — Although it didn't start promisingly (violence that I wasn't in the mood for), I really liked where this one went. And the main character, and her yard.

Never More (Dave Freer) — An amusing tale of a wizard's apprentice who used to be a cat. And his quest to become acceptable to a girl-cat. Also a raven.

Fetch Me Down My Gun (Lyn McConchie) — Interesting but a bit heavy handed. I didn't love the first half, but the second half improved it with added meaning.

Uncle Darwin’s Bazooka (Douglas A Van Belle) — A bit slow to start, but then it gets to the bit combining genetics and fairies, so what’s not to like? The ending was a bit predictable though.

The Climbing Tree (Michelle Goldsmith) — A story about disappearing children. Not bad, but not as creepy as intended, I think.

Large Friendly Letters (Stephen Dedman) — A post-apocalyptic setting, some feral teenagers and a munitions trader. What could possibly go wrong?

Future Perfect (Janeen Webb) — One of my favourites in this anthology. The story was up-beat (albeit not exactly cheery) and made me think. Admittedly, it mostly made me think about incorrect interpretations of the many worlds hypothesis, but it’s never bad to think extra thoughts about quantum mechanics.

The Eighth Day (Dirk Flinthart) — I couldn’t not read this in church singy-monotone, which was a little off-putting and induced confusing flashbacks. Also, the pay-off wasn’t as good as I was hoping, given the aforementioned monotone in my head.

4 / 5 stars

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I loved this story. The world-building is fabulously detailed, but only trickles out in such manners that it supports the story. The characterisation is controlled, and compelling. The plot and the pacing are finely tuned suspense of investigation of an apparent suicide that becomes so much more. Good hard SF/SF in space fiction, good gritty detective fiction.

Wide Brown Land by Simon Petrie is a collection of stories set on Titan. I've previously read and reviewed Matters Relating to the Identification of the Body, which is a novella set in (and on) the same world, and a few short stories, such as those appearing in Difficult Second Album, "CREVjack" and "Fixing a Hole" (which also appear in Wide Brown Land). Most of the stories in Wide Brown Land are reprints from various venues, but four —‘Erebor’, ‘Goldilock’, ‘Phlashback’, and show more ‘Placenta’ — are published for the first time in this collection.

The stories in this collection, while having a very consistent setting, have a variety of different themes and premises. There are stories of survival, peer pressure and criminal activity. Some of the characters are trying to get by, or to make the best of a bad situation, or to solve their problems before time runs out. My favourites — which shouldn't surprise anyone — were those stories where the characters had to solve some sort of technical problem, possibly with life-or-death stakes. The final story in the collection "Placenta" was a most memorable example of one of these.

As well as more sciencey stories (for lack of a better word), there were also several tense and action-based stories. Some of these involved "pharmhands", mostly as antagonists. After several stories with pharmhands as a more nebulous threat, I was very interested to learn more about who they actually were in "Phlashback". Another very tense, but not strictly action-packed, story was "Hatchway". It was a memorable story about the very real dangers of teenage peer pressure when living in a hostile environment.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read with a good variety of stories in a meticulously realised setting. They're hard science fiction but most of the stories are character-driven to varying degrees. As usual, comments on each individual story are included below. I highly recommend this collection to fans of science fiction, especially those intrigued by human life on Titan, the most-hydrocarbon-soaked of Saturn's moons.

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“Storm in a T-Suit” was an interesting story. A storm on Titan, a rescue mission, a tragic backstory and a crazy theory, all made for a thoughtful and engaging read.

“Hatchway” is a story about peer pressure as well as the pressure of Titan’s atmosphere, with chilling elements for both the protagonist and the reader.

“Broadwing” is about a crash landing and a long wait for rescue. It felt like a scene-setting piece to give us a good feel for Titan and a bit of background on flight and the landscape.

“Emptying Roesler” is about an inspector, a man in an abandoned building (yes, on Titan) and illegal activities. I feel like we’re only getting hints of what the “pharmhands” are really up to (in this story and in “Hatchway”) and I want to know more. Also, this story ended abruptly, albeit in a logical place. I would not have minded finding out what happened next to the characters.

“CREVjack” — previously read. I came back to reread it after I started “Goldilock”, however, since that story felt like a sequel and I couldn’t remember the specifics of this earlier one. The ending remains emotionally difficult to read.

“Lakeside” revisits the protagonist of “Broadwing”, an adult now and dealing with different life issues. After spotting something strange from his plane, he has a bit of a run in with some criminals.

“Erebor” seems to be about it the protagonist of Matters Arising... a look at her earlier life and a mildly unlucky climbing expedition.

“Goldilock” is a direct sequel to “CREVjack”, picking up moments after that story left off. It continues in a similarly tense and action-packed vein with another very dramatic ending.

“Fixing a Hole” — previously read.

“Phlashback” is a third story in the “CREVjack” and “Goldilock” sequence, this time picking up shortly after the previous story left off and shifting point of view characters (again). Finally we get to learn more about pharmhands and their place in the scheme of things on Titan. Another tense story.

“Placenta” is about a pregnant woman who suddenly finds herself in a life- and baby-threatening situation and must do a bit of sciencey problem-solving to survive. It also gives us a snapshot of an abandoned part of Titan, which strongly reminded me of an Abandoned Photography blog I’ve followed.

4.5 / 5 stars

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Difficult Second Album by Simon Petrie is the author's second collection of mostly science fiction stories. I've previously reviewed his first collection Rare Unsigned Copy. I enjoyed Difficult Second Album a lot and found it overall a tighter collection than the first.

The main aspect that set Difficult Second Album above Rare Unsigned Copy is that it's a bit shorter and, more crucially, less overpopulated with flash and drabble stories. It's not that I dislike either of those, but too many show more can make for a more difficult read. The mix of story lengths/types in Difficult Second Album makes it rather not difficult to read.

I came to a realisation while I was reading this book: Simon Petrie is my favourite (and hence best) living science fiction short story writer. Those stories which are science fiction (not quite all of them) deftly weave accurate science into their tapestries. Of course accurate science shouldn't come as a surprise from someone whose day job is computational quantum chemistry, but I still found it enjoyable enough as to be notable. (And let's face it, how much scientific accuracy is there in the combined science fictional oeuvre? Not enough.)

Petrie switches between comedic stories and more serious pieces with ease. The opening The Fridge Whisperer had be in stitches, while some most of the flash stories had be groaning at puns. On the serious side there are a lot of excellent stories to choose from. The two tales set on Titan (same universe, I think but unrelated to each other), "CREVjack" and "Fixing a Hole" were excellent. The first was a crushing action yarn and the latter a story about a problem that needed fixing lest the characters all die. I very much enjoyed both of them. "Latency" is a story that starts off following a scientific expedition and ends up with a surprising discovery. "Elevator Pitch", the only novella in the collection, is a Gordon Mammon story revisiting space elevator hotel employee who solves crimes on the side. It's a nice blend of humour (and puns) and serious murder-solving business. I should also note that while I say it's a Gordon Mammon story, all such stories that I've read have completely stood alone, so don't worry if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Difficult Second Album is an excellent varied read. I highly recommend it to fans of Petrie's work and newcomers alike. It's a good starting point to sample his story-telling range. I would particularly recommend it to fans of hard SF (although, again, not all the stories are SF). I, for one, am looking forward to finding out what clever title Petrie comes up with for his next collection.

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Introduction, by Über-Professor Arrrrarrrgghl Schlurpmftxpftpfl — Lol. Again, worth not skipping over.

The Fridge Whisperer — Hilarious. Writer attempts to write (what seems to be The Hitchhiker's a Guide to the Galaxy) while his fridge gains sentience and wreaks havoc. Awesome.

Dark Rendezvous — A space explorer comes across a derelict ship drifting in a favourable direction for rendezvous. Where did it come from? Ominous. I particularly liked the attention to dust particle detail in the nebulous setting of the story.

Florence, 1504, Late Winter — Drabble

Dream(TM) — Flash

Things YOU Can Do To Defend Yourself … — Er... Heh.

The Speed of Heavy — An amusing space cargo caper involving an exchange student, some crickets and some bats. I lol'd.

London, 1666, Springtime — Drabble (So shaggy. Much dog. Wow.)

Latency — A really solid hard SF story. A research team on another planet studying it's only life form. Solid science, interesting concepts played with.

Moonlight — a haiku.

Because We’re Living In A Material World — Amusing and also bittersweet short story about a CERN experiment/accident.

Cruisy — Alien abduction story with a twist. The title makes more sense in retrospect.

CREVjack — A Titan story, full of action and danger and rather riveting for it. A difficult ending to read.

You Said ‘Two Of Each’, Right? — Biblically amusing flash

Fixing a Hole — Another Titian story, very exciting. Definite problem-solving hard science fiction.

21st Century Nursery Rhymes, #126: I Had A Little Nut Tree — poem

Buying a Ray Gun — Amusing story told in a script-like format and set in a ray gun store. Pretty sure there was a stylistically similar one in the first collection (but completely different plot).

X-Factor — An usual story set on Mars and involving genetics. I was left wanting to know more.

Elevator Pitch — A novella length story about our favourite space elevator detective, Gordon Mammon. I had thought the concept might start to get repetitive but it really doesn't. I enjoyed this story a lot, with its double mystery and firm grip of science (and sometimes cheesy humour). It was nice to have something lengthy to really sink my teeth into.

Lithophiles — Lovers turned to stone. An original idea.

Next! — Flash

The Man Who … — Written in a more flowery style than most of the other stories, this is another solid hard SF tale. The story of comet hunters looking to send water to Mars.

Must’ve Been While You Were Kissing Me — Zombie speed-dating noir shaggy dog story.

The Assault Goes Ever On — Weird flash.

Suckers For Love — Alien mating romance. An ultimately disconcerting story. Squidlike.

5 / 5 stars

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