Short Story Sunday,
thirteenth edition, brings you rock ‘n’ roll dinosaurs, first contact with an
alien civilization, and murderous house. Let’s get started.
“At Budokan” by Alastair Reynolds
Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by
David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Originally published
in Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF
(2010), edited by Jetse de Vries
One of the tricky
things about reviewing short stories is that your enjoyment of some of them
depends on a twist or reveal toward the end of the story. It makes it difficult
to write about it in a critical way because part of your review is simply
dancing around the plot reveal. “At Budokan” is one of those stories. It’s good
enough that it will still be a good read upon rereading and that’s due to the
fact that the overall story and thematic elements are more important than the
plot twist. That’s something that lesser writers struggle with but Reynolds has
a firm grasp on his story from the very first page.
Fox and Jake used
to be partners in managing rock bands. Their bands weren’t conventional bands
though. Their first big success was a band of revived corpses. There second
success a band of robots which replicated famous bands during their peak years
with such precision that you wouldn’t know they were robots. They’ve had a few
rough years because each band ends up falling apart in the same way. The talent
gets ideas. They’re not just performers, they start to improvise and branch out
in new musical directions eventually leading to the breakup of the band for the
sake of solo careers.
Jake is tired of
this and he develops a new kind of band. He’s asked Fox to come visit him so
that he can introduce him to the frontman, Derek. Derek is like nothing you’ve
ever seen. Better than undead musicians and robots, I can promise you that.
You’ll have to read the story for yourself to find out about him as I don’t
want to ruin anything for you.
Ranking: 4 stars
This story is quite
imaginative. Not only in the tightly constructed story or the ridiculousness of
its plot (and it is ridiculous, in an enjoyable and gleeful way), but also in
its unusual combination of ideas. Science fiction and rock ‘n’ roll work
surprisingly well together in this story. I’m guess it’s a hard mix to get
right and that most stories trying to combine the two probably fall flat.
Reynolds gives himself an advantage by adding a humorously deadpan tone. It
helps ease the reader into the ridiculousness of it all but the story ends with
a punch. It’s both emotionally poignant while also being uplifting. In this
twisted version of the entertainment industry, science is cruel but rock ‘n’
roll is radically liberating.
“Graffiti in the Library of Babel” by David
Langford
Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David
G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Originally
published in Is Anybody Out There? (2010),
edited by Marty Halpern and Nick Gevers
Surprising no one,
this is my first story by David Langford. Apparently he’s one of the most
popular and most successful comedic science fiction writers. I’ve never even
heard of him. Shows you just how well I know my science fiction. “Graffiti in
the Library of Babel” is a first contact story. Aliens are scribbling in the
books of the Total Library, an archival project collecting all the writings of
Earth.
Ceri Evans is hired
to decode the notes scribbled in books of classic literature and physics. The
aliens aren’t present other than in their words. While deciphering the notes Evans
comes to the realization that the aliens aren’t writing anything new, they’re
highlighting or confirming knowledge and universal truths already written in
the books of the Total Library. By looking at known knowledge in the sequence suggested
by the alien tags, Evans discovers dangerous ideas.
Ranking: 3 stars
The best things
about this short story are the ideas. It’s a neat way for first contact to
occur and it makes sense that the initial “encounter” would be via long
distance communication. I also like the idea that he aliens could be testing
humanity’s ability to solve the puzzle of the graffiti and figure out the
message. What doesn’t work well is the execution. The characters converse like
robots, their speech fully saturated with references, and feeling very unnatural.
I think Langford was more concerned with presenting a couple good ideas than he
was in developing them. At ten pages in length, I would have like something a
little longer and with more depth.
“Steadfast Castle” by Michael Swanwick
Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by
David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Originally
published in F&SF (Sept/Oct
2010), edited by Gordon Van Gelder
A very short two
person conversation, “Steadfast Castle” is a futuristic murder mystery. It
takes place entirely inside a house; an automated and murderous house. The
story’s structure is that of a dialogue, it’s essentially a two man play. As a
police officer and a house converse, the story develops quickly, revealing
plenty of intrigue and a believable look at life in the near future.
Ranking: 4 stars
I don’t want to
reveal much about this story. It’s very short (under 8 pages) and it’s quick on
its feet. I’m rather impressed with Swanwick’s ability to condense so much
story and moderate world building into so few pages. There is one thing that
holds it back from being truly great, and it’s that Swanwick’s characters are able
to make deductions the reader can’t make based on the characters’ knowledge of
the futuristic world in which the story takes place. Often times the world building
information comes with the officer’s deductions. I think it’s a result of the
story’s compression, but aside from that this is a very enjoyable story.
Next week we take a break from short story
reviews as I count down my favourite comic book and novels read in 2015.
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