Reviews in Review

[leahbobet]

I am just recovering from the utter exhaustion that is my Readercon sleep debt (tm), so for now I cannily throw you this bone! Ha-HA!

Clockwork Phoenix 2 is getting a bunch of awesome reviews, including:

From Library Journal (via experimeditor),

In this anthology of 15 original tales by some of fantasy's most imaginative voices, Tanith Lee returns to her remarkable Flat Earth setting for a poignant and cutting tale of love, fate, and misfortune in "The Pain of Glass." Other contributors include veteran and newer writers Foster Aguirre, Steve Rasnic Tem, Joanna Galbraith, Saladin Ahmed, and others, each chosen for their unique perspective and stylistic grace.
VERDICT This second volume in a new annual anthology series will appeal to fantasy readers who enjoy short stories.

From Locus there's a double-shot (via several sources). From Rich Horton:

Clockwork Phoenix is the most experimental and often the most interesting of the impressive stable of four anthologies published by Norilana. The second outing has a lot of strong work, including a nice ultra-romantic tale of a woman of glass by Tanith Lee ("The Pain of Glass"), a moving fairly traditional ghost story from Kelly Barnhill ("Open the Door and the Light Pours Through"), and a story I frankly didn't think I'd like, but which seduced me, Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer's "each thing i show you is a piece of my death", about experimental film makers creating a sort of collage film, including what seems a very old clip of a man committing suicide. It's queasy-making, odd, yet compelling. My favorite story is Ann Leckie's "The Endangered Camp", which she says resulted from a sort of
challenge to combine dinosaurs, post-apocalyptic fiction, and Mars -- and does so beautifully as the crew of the first spaceship to Mars witnesses the asteroid striking Earth and wonders what to do.

--and from Gardner Dozois:

Another good but not exceptional collection is Clockwork Phoenix 2, edited by Mike Allen. Last year's Clockwork Phoenix was divided between science fiction and fantasy/slipstream, but there's little science fiction in Clockwork Phoenix 2, which has more fantasy, and a lot more slipstream, which makes it less substantial for me than its predecessor. Science fiction is limited to two nicely done but not really major stories: Leah Bobet's "Six," a post-apocalyptic story set in a ruined urban future but with a nicely hopeful ending to cut the gloom, and "The Endangered Camp" by Ann Leckie, in which velociraptors set off on a heroic quest and are faced with a difficult choice that may decide whether their race survives or not. Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer's technohorror piece "each thing i show you is a piece of my death" is a sort of computer age version of Fritz Leiber's "Midnight in the Mirror World," and could be considered to be SF, I guess, but since there's no non-supernatural explanation ultimately offered for the phenomenon described in the story, I think it falls more into the horror camp instead, in spite of all the computer-graphics expertise. The best of the fantasy stories is Tanith Lee's bitterly melancholy "The Pain of Glass," which ends happily for no one, but Marie Brennan's "Once a Goddess" (sort of a fantasy version of Ian McDonald's "The Little Goddess") is also good, as is Mary Robinette Kowal's tale of dueling wizards, "At the Edge of Dying," and two Bradburyesque stories of subtle translations between life and death, Kelly Barnhill's "Open the Door and the Light Pours Through" and Barbara Krasnoff's "Rosemary, That's For Remembrance."

An installments-review with the first two stories (mine and Claude Lalumiere's) from findabair:

"Six" is about Six, a kid who is the sixth son of a seventh son and 'bad news'. He lives with his huge family on their farm. What I particularly like about this story is how I'm never sure of what kind of character Six is: is he bad news, or is he in fact a good boy? This question is never unambiguously answered - thankfully.

I think that's it so far for that one, although time_shark has made an offer of free anthologies in some fashion to those willing to review, so there's likely to be more.

"Parable of the Shower" has gone a little viral, getting linked by people I don't know (and there's more where that came from). Also there's a mention by someone I do know over on Geekachicas in a Friday roundup earlier last month. I can express little but surprise over this, but there's a lesson in that: you never know how something's going to hit.

---

And now that I have wodged all that in the doorway to hold you off just a little longer, I must get back to work. ;)

Comments

[csecooney.livejournal.com]

Your "Six" is getting a lot of attention. Makes me want to read it! Will keep an eye out for it.

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

Like you don't know where it is.

[csecooney.livejournal.com]

Dear Property of Goblin Fruit,

Perhaps I ought to have said, "I shall keep an eye on my bank account until the numerical value of my very discreet discretionary income matches the list price on the back of Clockwork Phoenix II," but that would have taken EVER so long to type out.

In the meantime, I shall keep my eye out, in general.

Very Sincerely,

C.S.E. Cooney

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

Dear Ms. Cooney,

My current status as property does nothing whatsoever to restrict my dark-and-twistiness. Don't you forget it.

Yr obt servt.

Queens' Imp

[csecooney.livejournal.com]

Dear Mr. Imp,

Now I am very scared. Of course.

- csec

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

Dang, I had no clue about the Library Journal review! So much can happen when one is disconnected from teh Internet!

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Forrest had it; otherwise I wouldn't have either.

(He is sad because they got his name wrong.)

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

I don't blame him for that.