Musings of a Wannabe Speculative Fiction Writer
Posts that have a speculative fiction angle (should be almost everything on the site)
Antipodean SF editor and radio show host Nuke starts giving some background on me at about the 2 minute mark, with the story itself starting at 3 minutes.
For a full list of my published stories, see my bibliography.
The First Boat by Sean McMullen was an interesting take on how quickly Australia might collapse if some of our basic utilities (in this case electricity) were taken from us. The choice of the main point of view character was good, a young perspective mirroring the confusion of the time. McMullen’s characters are taking action when the rest of us would just be faffing around, and the twist at the end will resonate with Australian readers.
I am a big and growing fan of Jason Fischer‘s work, and Rolling for Fetch did not disappoint. Fischer describes a dystopian world of energy shortages and reverted transportation where some gangs have their feet replaced with wheels and perform couriering services. It is an excellent dissection of a transient subculture and the impact of what is essentially a fad where radical surgery is an option (and you thought you might regret that tattoo you got at university – at least you didn’t replace your feet with wheels!). The good news – Mr Fischer has a new short story collection coming out from Ticonderoga Publications called Everything is a Graveyard. The bad news – it isn’t due out until October 2013!
As always Carissa’s Weblog providing a round up of some of the more interesting articles around on the web in the area of Australian speculative fiction. I’d particularly recommend watching the video of Neil Gaimen’s recent event at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne (mentioned in a previous new article on this site).
This issue also contained a very interesting interview of Greig Beck by Crisetta MacLeod, titled E-publishing: An Hour with Greig Beck. I do the bulk of my reading electronically these days, and as one of the inaugural authors picked up by the new Pan Macmillan all-digital imprint Momentum Mr Beck has some interesting insight into that rapidly evolving scene.
Michael Pryor’s short editorial talks about the importance of getting young people into science fiction, although I wish it had been just a slightly longer piece that talked about how we could achieve that worthy goal!
The What do you Think? section of the magazine contains a link to my review of issue #48. They are also running another online survey to get feedback on this month’s issue.
This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.
The Way of the Needle by Derek Künsken was a superb rendition of a completely alien culture with humanity nowhere to be seen. The beings described are made up of metal spike and spines that absorb energy from a nearby pulsar. The society that was sketched through the novelette was original and the development of the main character, Mok, was well handled. There was even alien martial arts – an excellent story all round.
Golva’s Ascent by Tom Purdom was another story told from an alien perspective, albeit this one with human involvement. The exploration of a different evolutionary stream was interesting – intelligence evolving without tool making capacity. There was enough action and adventure to keep the plot moving along and the main character, Golva, was sympathetically sketched. Another good story.
The Pass by Benjamin Crowell explores the somewhat primitive remains of a society where most people upload themselves into “the Cloud”. The idea behind this story was very engaging and it was an interesting exploration of the limitations of a virtual existence when viewed from the outside.
Nanny’s Day by Leah Cypess was another interesting premise – where society has reached the point where “parenthood” was defined as the person with the strongest emotional connection with a child rather than a biological connection. It was a very well written story, but I had trouble drawing a line between our current society and this potential society of the future and my inability to willingly suspend disbelief kept pulling me out of the story.
Also in this issue:
As usual, Asimov’s also contains some poetry including:
This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.
The Ediacarian Machine by Craig DeLancey was a well written piece exploring the means by which an ancient, alien civilisation might explore the galaxy. The idea behind the story was interesting and some of the ideas around future technology trends were engaging.
Mother’s Tattoos by Richard A. Lovett contained an interesting exploration of where government surveillance and advertising might go into the future. The body as a billboard seems to be a bit of a theme in a few short stories I’ve read lately. The main character in this story was a bit irritating, but then I suspect he was supposed to be.
Upon Their Backs by Kyle Kirkland also had a big brother theme. I particularly liked the conceit of “just in time” identity creation – the idea that government surveillance is so ubiquitous that an agent can just mention some details and government computers will automatically fill in the blanks and create a full identity on the fly.
Also in this issue:
This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.
Many thanks again to Nuke and the group of people that volunteer to help out with Antipodean SF for being such great supporters of my work.
The more recent novels have given some background regarding a “reformed” Spock and his attempts to take over of the Terran Empire and the planning he goes through to create something more like the Star Trek universe we know and love. There are (very faint) shades of Asimov’s Foundation series in the grand plan that Spock puts together to drive the old empire into the ground (including his own death) and then put events in motion to see a version of the Federation eventually arise out of the ashes (albeit over a couple of hundred years rather than the thousands of years in the Foundation universe). Rise Like Lions focuses on the end game, where all the threads come together.
From the TV series the impression is given that in this universe people are fundamentally bad – almost genetically pre-disposed towards evil instead of good. Interestingly, the books imply that that isn’t the case, but it is more a case of the cultures in the mirror universe being more martial – change the culture and you “fix” the universe. From a story writing perspective this makes sense – if everyone was intrinsically evil you wouldn’t really have anyone to feel sympathy for, which might make the narrative hard to sustain.
The book itself is solid and workman-like. There was a lot of ground being covered in a relatively short number of words and the book felt rushed as a result. Enjoyment of the novel certainly rested on the assumption that the reader had consumed some of the previous novels, especially The Sorrows of Empire (also by David Mack). There is some character development, particularly of Miles O’Brien, but not a lot. It ties a lot of threads together, and this should be the end of the mirror universe series (but it probably won’t be!).
Very enjoyable romp – add a star if you really like Star Trek.
I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.
This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.
Also in this edition of Antipodean SF I have a very short 50 word story called Beware Antipodean Shores. This was inspired by a recent email exchange with Paul Cole, the man behind the Beam Me Up podcast over in the US, where we discussed the Drop Bear phenomenon. I penned Beware Antipodean Shores soon afterwards.
I also recorded readings of Make Mine a Macchiato and Beware Antipodean Shores for the AntiSF radio show, which will be broadcast some time in April. I’ll post again once I know exactly which episode.
Showtime by Narrelle M Harris is one of the Twelve Planets series published by Twelfth Planet Press (12 boutique collections of stories by Australian women writers). It is made up of four shorter stories, including:
Continuing the Twelve Planets trend of very differently themed collections, Showtime uses traditional horror characters (ghosts, zombies and vampires) to tell this set of stories.
The prose of this collection is clean, with appealingly streamlined language and deceptively simple plot lines. This was one of the more satisfying parts of the book, good stories clearly told with enough interesting ideas to remain thought provoking.
While there is some violence in the stories, it is incidental and not the focus of the collection. The collection should appeal to those that like the concepts of horror, but aren’t attracted to over the top gore-fests that sometimes make their way into horror movies and books. Indeed, at least two of the stories had more of an urban fantasy feel than horror.
Stalemate is set in a typical Australian suburban kitchen, and starts off with what seems like a very un-speculative and often repeated airing of issues between a woman and her ageing mother. The pacing of this story was very good, with the gradual slide into the speculative aspects of the story handled particularly well. The ending was particularly satisfying.
Thrall tells the story of an ancient vampire, Dragomir, and his failed attempts to deal with modern society, including issues like every bozo with a mobile phone being able to video your attempts to lure a victim to their doom. The rendition of an old vampire, yearning for the world of their undead youth and deploring the trappings of the 21st century, was refreshing. The story revolves around Dragomir’s views of the world around him and decision to retreat to home soil in Hungary to wait out these irritating trends.
The other main character in the story is Erzsebet, a woman in her late middle age whose family has been enthralled to the vampire throughout the generations. The interplay between the two forms the core of the story. Both characters were interesting for different reasons, and this was probably my favourite story in the collection.
The Truth About Brains is a suburban zombie story. While I found this story the most difficult to relate to (the age of the protagonists and the suburban setting weren’t really my cup of tea), the writing was very good. There was a backstory that was hinted at in this book, regarding the parents of the protagonist and their own zombie experiences, that caught my interest. That would be a story I wouldn’t mind reading if Ms Harris ever writes it.
Showtime, the last story in the collection, tells the story of Gary and LIssa, two characters from Ms Harris’ previous book The Opposite of Life. Gary is a vampire and Lissa is human, and they work together as an investigative team. The story is set at the Melbourne Show, which makes an interesting setting. This story has the most urban fantasy feel of the collection.
Again Showtime gave a good take on a vampire character. I particularly liked the concept that becoming undead made the brain slow down a little, reducing intuition and making it harder to learn things.
While Ms Harris does a good job sketching in enough background that those new to Gary and Lissa can follow along, I suspect that those that have read The Opposite of Life would get more out of this story. However, there was enough in this to make me want to read more, so I’ll be tracking down a copy of The Opposite of Life in the near future.
I’ve been impressed with the whole Twelve Planets collection so far, and Showtime continues that trend. A highly recommended (and very quick) read.
I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.
This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.
The only downside to this quarter’s edition was the very few Australian stories that made it through to print. I know ASIM use a blind review process and take only the best stories, but for an Australian publication to have so few Australian authors featured was a bit disappointing (if only American publications were so accepting of stories from other countries!).
Still there were a lot of fun pieces in this issue. Ms Jansen has a good eye for humorous stories (or perhaps just finds the same things amusing as I do) and I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times.
With that in mind, On the Train to Cairo by Gary Cuba represented a perfectly whimsical opening. This very short story, while not having a plot as such, was very well written and had an amusing concept (a gazelle and a tiger meeting in the first class compartment of a train to Cairo).
The idea behind Blood Man Calls the Whale by Marissa Lingen was interesting, with traditional tribal magic adapting to modern life and even chasing the tourist dollar. Ms Lingen captured a sense of place and characters very well in such a short story.
The style of writing in Marianne and the Mushroom Man by Lee Blevins was very clever. The story was fun and moved along at a good pace. Very entertaining read.
The Riddle of Svinn by Krista Hoeppner Leahy was also very entertaining. The main character, the not-sphinx, was well drawn and the sadness of the creature captured quite acutely.
The Nine Billion Pixels of Samsara by Gary Cuba was a good story, with a “have you really thought what would happen if the world was returned to a sublime state” concept making the ending quite strong. This was Mr Cuba’s second story for this edition, so the editor must really like his work!
Gauntlet by Barton Paul Levenson was a nice little space adventure romp. The characters and the setting were very good, resulting in a story that was a lot of fun.
How to Run a Five Star Restaurant in the Capital of the Elf Kingdom by R H Culp was also a lot of fun to read. Given Australia’s seeming obsession with food celebrity, the rise and fall of a fantasy celebrity chef was particularly apt for an antipodean publication.
Riding the Eye by J F Keeping was a nice little space mystery, and while Jupiter storm jumping as an extreme sport strained credulity a little, the good writing and characters in this story soon had me saying “sure, what the hell” as the protagonist launched himself towards Jupiter with only a spacesuit between him and certain death.
The Realm of Lost Things by Murray Ewing spoke to the lazy slob that lurks at the heart of my being (although hopefully I’m not as far gone as the protagonist).
I recently reviewed Debris by Jo Anderton so I was quite looking forward to reading the final story in this edition High Density. This story was the most moving of the issue. The premise was a very literal version of urban renewal gone mad, but it is the characters and the prose that really draw the reader in. An excellent piece of fiction. The story was followed up by an interview with Ms Anderton which was very interesting – if you’ve read and enjoyed Debris you’ll want to take a look.
Also included in this edition were other excellent stories:
Poetry:
This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.
Episode 165 alpha was just released and contains a couple of my pieces. First up is my narration of The Gloriously Cunning Plan, my second story published by Antipodean SF. Nuke starts the introduction at about the 2 minute mark, with the story itself starting at about 3 minutes.
Also in this edition is my narration of Has Your Reading Circle Shrunk?, an article about my participation in the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading Challenge (AWWC). Nuke starts his introduction about 36 minutes and 40 seconds into the podcast and the article itself starts just a tad over the 37 minute mark.
Nuke and Antipodean SF have been very supportive of my work. The flash fiction format of the site means that you can get across a lot of authors for a relatively small investment of time, so I’d encourage everyone to support the antipodean speculative fiction community and visit Antipodean SF!