Asimov's SF, September 2010 (26 page)

So, where does that leave interstitial fiction, and this volume? “Merely” as a splendid assortment of excellent stories with an outmoded, extraneous critical apparatus surrounding it. (Although the lucid postscripted conversation among the editors and interviewer Colleen Mondor
almost
convinces me of the utility of the label.)

Some standouts:

Jeffrey Ford turns two actual dreams from his daily life into a meditation on religion ("The War Between Heaven and Hell Wallpaper"). Will Ludwigsen postulates a sentient house that goes a-traveling ("Rembrance Is Something Like a House"). Ray Vukcevich gives us a young man with a woman growing out of his shoulder ("The Two of Me"). Brian Francis Slattery chronicles the intersection of First World sybarism and Third World social justice politics ("Interviews After the Revolution"). And Theodora Goss spins out a strange homage/pastiche of Burroughs's Mars tales ("Child-Empress of Mars"). Throughout, formalistic experimentation alternates with old-school narration, and every trope is deliberately refurbished and thoughtfully showcased for maximum effect. A winning anthology, whatever its wrapper.

One final thought experiment. The interstices explored in this volume are exclusively those between literary fiction and SF/Fantasy. Where are the stories that lie in the uncanny valleys between, say, the espionage and nurse genres, the western and the paranormal romance?

Put Some Pepper On It

I originally took notice of the nameGeraldine McCaughrean in 2006, when some significant publicity surrounded her writing of the first authorized sequel to Peter Pan,
Peter Pan in Scarlet
. I bought the book, but you know of course that I have not yet read it, no more than I have read the majority of the several thousand other books I have impulsively purchased.

So when McCaughrean's latest book,
The Death-Defying Pepper Roux
(Harper, hardcover, $16.99, 328 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-183665-7), wafted over my transom, courtesy of a generous publicist, I resolved to remedy that earlier sin of omission. And am I glad I did! This novel, ostensibly a YA for the “10-and-up” crowd, is deep, fun, engaging, gorgeously written, un-preachy, un-condescending, subversive, and a simple joy to read. If you can conceive of a humor-laden, adventure-stuffed cross between Mark Helprin's
Refiner's Fire
(1977) and John Barth's
The Sot-Weed Factor
(1960) slanted for adolescents, you might get a notion of the novel. Or, to put it more simply, take the wacky work of Walter Moers and subtract the overtly supernatural.

Our locale is France, sometime (it seems from context) at the interface of nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (Automobiles exist, but so do old-fashioned commercial sailing ships.) Our hero is Paul “Pepper” Roux. Nerve-wracked, eccentric, superstitious Paul has had the misfortune of laboring under a curse since birth. The curse relates to a prediction of his premature death at age fourteen, and was delivered by his live-in Aunt Mireille, who had the pronouncement of doom personally from the apparition of Saint Constance. Naturally, as the day of Pepper's fourteenth birthday dawns, he wakens and continues somewhat anxious. His anxiety finds relief in spontaneously running away from home. He ends up aboard a merchant ship sailing that day—not as stowaway or cabin boy, but as Captain! How that happens, you must see for yourself. Suffice it to repeat McCaughrean's cynical refrain: “Well, people see what they expect. Don't they? Or do they see what they choose?"

Pepper's outrageous adventures subsequent to his Captain's stint, as he continually imagines the Lord's Angels of Death pursuing him, begin to assume the dimensions of Chauncey Gardineer's in Jerzy Kosinski's
Being There
(1971). He is a malleable blank upon which the adult world impresses its desires and preconceptions. The irony and satire is palpable without being heavy-handed.

Pepper is hardly your ordinary hero, YA or otherwise: a bit of a nervous nelly and neurotic. But his strong powers of imagination, his good-heartedness, his sheer desire to outfox the curse of dying young, to
live
, and his willingness to turn his hand to any trade, make him ultimately endearing and emblematic.

McCaughrean's chromatically vivid prose is worthy of being rolled around on your palate, of being savored. Try this: “In the trees—in every tree—the rooks were stirring, rising into the sky, but sinking back again onto their roosts. It was still too early for them to venture out onto the flat fields. So the sunny, clumping crowns of the elms swarmed with blackness, like heads teeming with lice.” Or this: “Roche had mopped up death like a lump of bread mopping a greasy plate."

Always surprising and touching, Pepper's bildungsroman odyssey, while eschewing the fantastical, assumes the proportions of legend, as entertaining as some fable of Parsifal or the Brave Little Tailor.

Picto-novelties

The fine folks at First Second Books continue to put out an amazing array of non-super hero graphic novels (admit it: don't you get a little tired now and then of the cape-and-cowl crowd?), calculated to appeal to all ages of reader. Here's the rundown on three recent titles.

Richard Sala's art manages to be simultaneously light-hearted and grim, whimsical and gruesome, sexy yet clinical, juvenile yet adult. I'm not quite sure how he achieves this unique combination, but I find it enchanting. And his story-telling abilities are top-notch as well, always delivering narratives that are twisty and engrossing, full of unexpected detours and denouements.
Cat Burglar Black
(trade paper, $16.99, 126 pages, ISBN 978-1-59643-144-7) is no exception.

Our protagonist is teenager Katherine “K.” Westree, an orphan sent to live with her aunt at a mysterious boarding school. K. has previously been in the clutches of a female Fagin who raised her up as an unwilling criminal. Having been rescued by the authorities, she seeks to put all that sordid past behind her. But when she meets the headmistress of the school, a certain Mrs. Turtledove, she finds herself plunged once more into a nighttime life of sneaking and robbery, also learning that she is heir to an ancient conspiracy. Along with three other girls, K. is dispatched to retrieve some ancient paintings that will lead to a longlost pirate treasure. Needless to say, all does not go well.

Sala's depiction of the girls—both visually and verbally—rings vibrant and authentic. Their athleticism and grace are beautifully limned, and their talk among themselves is pure gold. K. receives the most fleshing-out, naturally, and her spunk and bravery is top-notch.

Sala brings this episode to a resonant conclusion—but leaves open enough hooks for a sequel, which I can only hope is imminent.

Is it possible to convey with fresh images and text the prelapsarian wonders of ancient Greek mythology, after so many re-tellings of the legends? Artist and scripter George O'Connor thinks so—and with good reason, as exhibited in his
Zeus: King of the Gods
(trade paper, $9.99, 78 pages, ISBN 978-1-59643-431-8), the first in the
Olympians
series projected to fill twelve volumes. (We last saw O'Connor's art, you might recall, in the dystopian
Ball Peen Hammer
.) Starting with the cosmogonic myths, all stark landscapes, O'Connor introduces gods and titans, humans, and demigods in colorful profusion, as the younger generation vies with their elders for a place in the sun. There's a whiff of Zelazny about this version—not that the gods speak in slang, or reference technology. But the youthful Zeus with his hip facial hair is more than a little slacker-looking, and his rebellion has some John Hughes attitude about it. But this version manages to conjure up some real grandeur, in a way that should appeal to all fledgling gods and goddesses of the twenty-first century.

It is hard to know which to praise more in
City of Spies
(trade paper, $16.99, 172 pages, ISBN 978-1-59643-262-8): the grand, old-fashioned story crafted by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan, or the enchanting artwork by Pascal Dizin. Let's start arbitrarily with the art. Dizin employs the sanctified “clear line” style of Herge and others, but never in shameless pastiche fashion. He has made this methodology all his own, and it's a powerful tool for conveying the realistic adventure script. The period architecture and clothing and interiors (the tale takes place in 1942) are impeccable, sucking the reader right in. And Dizin's character designs are sharp and memorable, distinctive and easy on the eye. Page compositions are a geometrical delight as well.

As for K & K's narrative, they have fashioned a charming and fully human cast, starting with the juvenile leads, Evelyn and Tony, and extending through all the adults and incidental characters. The tale of Nazi spies in New York is full of a Golden-Age Hollywood ambiance, like some lost Hitchcock or Hawks film. Mixing romance, humor, suspense, and pathos, this graphic novel should be handed out to every young reader you know—after you've enjoyed it yourself.

Good-Luck Tidings

Did I say, when I reviewed Jack Vance's recent autobiography, that, per his own ukase, there would be no more words flowing from his lapidary pen? Well, I was wrong. Oh, Vance has not recanted on his vow to refrain from writing any more fiction. (Curses!) But he has actually penned some entertaining new afterwords to his beginner's stories collected in
Hard-Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance
(Subterranean, hardcover, $40.00, 296 pages, ISBN 978-1-59606-301-3). And in combination with these little-seen fictions—all of them as diverting as hell, despite any occasional journeyman infelicities—the afterwords summon up the very face and soul of the Master.

A precis of some of the selections:

We meet Magnus Ridolph in his first appearance in the title story. “The Temple of Han” reminds me of Dunsany's “Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller.” Vance surely had a twist on Hemingway in mind with “The Masquerade on Dicantropus.” “Abercrombie Station” features decadence galore, and Vance's trademark spunky, amoral heroine. Two mineral hunters encounter a bizarre alien in “Three-Legged Joe.” In an anomalous-for-Vance story, “DP!,” a subterranean invasion on contemporary Earth ends badly for the intruders. “Shape-Up” is a revenge tale among some hardcase types. And finally, we finish with a remarkably sardonic 1959 story identified by Vance as one of his own favorites, “Dodkin's Job,” a tale of the little man versus the establishment.

By consenting to this volume of his tyro stories, Vance not only entertains us immensely, but offers valuable insight into how his final polished style grew and perfected itself. We owe him a debt.

And of course, besides thanking Vance himself, we need to offer a tip of the hat to the hard-working editors who assembled this necessary compilation, Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan. Job well done!

Copyright © 2010 Paul Di Filippo

[Back to Table of Contents]

PiCon, BuboniCon, and ConText are good bets for Asimovians in the coming month, or DragonCon for a big 3-ring show. Plan now for social weekends with your favorite SF authors, editors, artists, and fellow fans. For an explanation of con(vention)s, a sample of SF folksongs, and info on fanzines and clubs, send me a SASE (self-addressed, stamped #10 [business] envelope) at 10 Hill #22-L, Newark NJ 07102. The hot line is (973) 242-5999. If a machine answers (with a list of the week's cons), leave a message and I'll call back on my nickel. When writing cons, send a SASE. For free listings, tell me of your con 5 months out. Look for me at cons behind the Filthy Pierre badge, playing a musical keyboard.—Erwin S. Strauss

JULY 2010

30-Aug. 1—
PulpFest.
For info, write:
c/o Jack Cullers, 1272 Cheatham Way, Bellbrook OH 45305.
Or phone:
(973) 242-5999
(10 am to 10 pm, not collect).
(Web) pulpfest.com. (E-mail) [email protected].
Con will be held in: Columbus OH (if city omitted, same as in address) at the Ramada Plaza. Guests will include: William F. Nolan. For fans of old pulp magazines.

30-Aug. 1—
Otakon. (484) 223-6086. otakon.com.
Convention Center, Baltimore MD. Yoshida Bros., hNaoto. Anime.

AUGUST 2010

5-8—
ReConStruction. reconstructionsf.org.
Raleigh NC. The North American Science Fiction Convention. $110+ at door.

5-8—
GenCon. (206) 957-3976. gencon.com.
Convention Center, Indianapolis IN. One of the year's biggest gaming cons.

7-8—
Japan National Con. tokon10.net. [email protected].
Hunabori (Tokyo) Japan. SF & fantasy; much anime & manga.

12-15—
Star Wars Celebration. starwarscelebration.com.
Orlando FL. Carrie Fisher, Jay Laga'aia. Lucasfilm sanctioned.

13-15—
Philip K. Dick Festival. philipkdickfestival.com. [email protected].
“In the foothills of the Rockies."

13-15—
SETICon. seticon.com.
Santa Clara CA. Astronaut Rusty Schweihart, many others. Search for ET Intelligence.

13-15—
AmeCon. amecon.org. [email protected].
Keele University, Leicester UK. Anime, manga, and cosplay.

20-22—
PiCon, Box 400, Sunderland MA 01375. pi-con.org.
Enfield CT (Springfield/Hartford). Sawyer, Balder, H. Carey.

27-29—
BuboniCon, Box 37257, Albuquerque NM 87176. (505) 266-8905. bubonicon.com.
Peter David. SF and fantasy.

27-29—
ConText, c/o FANACO, Box 163391, Columbus OH 43216. contextsf.org.
Buckell, Massie. Written SF & fantasy.

27-29—
New Zealand Nat'l. Con, Box 10104, Wellington 6143, NZ. aucontraire.org.nz.
Sean Williams, Paul Mannering.

27-29—
DiscWorldCon, Box 4101, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 9J, UK. dwcon.org.
Hilton Metropole. Terry Pratchett.

SEPTEMBER 2010

2-6—
Aussiecon 4, GPO Box 1212, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia. aussiecon4.org.au.
World SF Con. US$225+ at door.

3-6—
DragonCon, Box 16459, Atlanta GA 30321. dragoncon.org.
“Classic comic books, low-brow pop art, designer toys."