Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: May 2007

Despite the fact I was actually looking forward to this issue thanks to the Bacigalupi story, I put off reading it. The past couple issues have been big misses for me, so I'd worked myself into a kind of dread. Unfortunate, but true. Thankfully, this issue had more hits than misses.



"The Master Miller's Tale"
by Ian R. MacLeod

I have an immediate fondness for any title that brings to mind Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, odd as it sounds. So seeing this tale gave me an immediate glee, because it set me up for the style of story I'd be reading. I was also excited when the story's intro reminded me that MacLeod wrote The Light of Ages, a book I've been meaning to read for a while. This tale is set in the same world, which would normally annoy me, but in this case, I didn't feel too left out of the author's world.

The story, for all its length, is a relatively simple one: it's a tale of the old giving way to the new, and the lengths people will go to just to hold on. It's a romance in a way, and it's bittersweet by the end. MacLeod's prose is paced just right, letting the tale unfold on its own accord, and the sprinkles of magic and spells in this otherwise realistic piece just enhanced my enjoyment of it. Nathan and Fiona were certainly tragic characters, and each too stubborn to truly make amends to the other. And the wind-seller and his knots were the highlight of the piece: this bit of magic was truly wondrous for me, and the language used to describe this and everything to do with the wind felt just right.

Any confusion, and in this case, confusion is really curiosity, came with the wind-seller, the ending, and what exactly happened. I know this is the kind of tale that doesn't need answers (where does the wind REALLY come from, and how does that work?), as answers would deflate the piece of all their magic, but by the end, I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps Nathan had walked himself to death's door, and that death wasn't the fiery nor heavenly images so commonly imagined, but rather, the place where, in this case, all things begin? The lack of cardinal points, the fact that the wind came from everywhere, and of course, the wind-seller's uncanny resemblance to the Grim Reaper itself (that may not have been MacLeod's intent, but that's the impression I got from the cover). I don't know. I think that I may have had a better appreciation for this final setting had I been familiar with Light of Ages, but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the story. Rather, it just makes me want to read said book in order to find out.

But it's a rich world, told with a careful, unhurried touch, and the magic is enchanting. A good read.





"The Tamarisk Hunter"
by Paolo Bacigalupi

One thing I love about Bacigalupi's work is his ability to spin realistic and frightening near-futures with such telling detail. He seems to take an issue and run with it, pushing extrapolation to its limit, and the tales he comes up with always strike a chord with me. I guess it's because I don't see others writing about the same kinds of issues Bacigalupi does, and if they do, they're no where close. But I don't want to completely eat my own foot: it may just be that I haven't read them.

At any rate, Bacigalupi is still a favorite, and only helps solidify his standing in my ranks. A tale that examines the harshness of the American West in a near-future where Big Daddy Drought has put water in short supply, and people are suffering because of it. It's only too fitting, in my eyes, that the rivers of the deserts are being diverted to California, and while Guardies claim California is hurting just as much as every one else (they need water too!***), there's still the fact that water is taken away from farms, families, and cities that need it in order to pacify one state. Oh, how wonderfully chilling. I love the concept of the Tamarisk hunter, who gets paid a measly amount of money but gets a water bounty, which is more important, and I love, though it chills me, how people in desert move to different parts of the country where rivers are still for public use. It's a great story overall, with issues chilling as they are disturbing. The end is also an unexpected and saddening twist. It almost happened too quickly, but given the circumstances, the story ended on just the right note.

***I decided this is a bunch of crap: the western side of the state is, you know, right on the ocean. Sure, it's salt water, but it's the future too, and I think desalination plants would be imperative in this future. I'm positive this is intentional, because frankly, I'm content to think that Calies are just being THAT selfish: they have a whole ocean, but they still gank the rivers from the deserts. The idea just makes the story even MORE chilling.





"Kaleidoscope"
by K.D. Wentworth

What a fabulous concept for a story! A woman in her early fifties discovers she's experience multiple versions of the same events, which makes thing complicated when she meets the love of her life, only to find she can't hold on to the right version, and struggles to find the Barry she fell in love with.

Very cute story. I was curious though what caused this sudden "kaleidoscope" of events, and even though the ending gives us a sense of how she's able to put a stop to it, I wondered if it would really work. I should just be happy with the happy ending, right? :) Still, it seemed like an impossible situation, and I was really intrigued when we learn that Barry is also experiencing the same effect in his life. One would think that of the two of them would mention it, especially after Barry finally comes clean. But oh well. It's a cute piece, and the various versions of reality (yay for parallel universes!) were quite fun to experience from the reader's POV.





"The Great White Bed"
by Don Webb

A thirteen year old boy had to take care of his ailing grandfather, a man who lost his wife—the boy's grandmother—two years previous. The boy sleeps in the guest bedroom, on a king-sized bed with a white comforter. This guest room also used to be his grandmother's sewing room.

This is an odd little story. Not as creepy as it could have been: it starts out realistic enough, with the grandfather slowing losing his mind, forgetting things, taking naps in the middle of the day. But when the grandfather starts reading THE BOOK (nameless, barely described because our first person narrator can't bring himself to talk about it), he starts getting better. Suddenly, it's the boy who has to take naps in the middle of the day, the grandfather cooking for HIM, and the boy starts dreaming of sinking into whiteness.

When the grandfather talks about exchanges and how they aren't fair, I thought perhaps that reading this book, whatever it is, was somehow sucking the life out of the boy and into the grandfather. It's a logical conclusion. But the grandfather also talks about books reading people, instead of people reading books, and then states in the middle of the night he won't do it, how it's not a fair exchange.

But the story doesn't follow the logic, well, it doesn't follow MY logic. And I'm still trying to figure out why the story took the turn that it did. I think it would've been more powerful if the reader had a greater sense of what the grandfather wanted, because the climax of the story would've been more satisfying and more revealing. I also think the first person POV undermined the power of the story, as I found the teenage voice to be a bit forced and not totally believable. There were a lot of symbols in this piece (the book, the great white bed, the geraniums) that didn't feel fully explored, but then again, maybe they were, and I was just too dense to figure it out?

It could've been creepier. The events don't bother me so much as the fact that I don't know why they happened. I can come up with a pat answer of the grandfather missing his wife, but really, if that's what the story was about, then shouldn't it have been told from the point of view of the grandfather, and explore the choices he had to make? Talk about a potentially powerful story. Too bad it didn't go there.





"Telefunken Remix"
by A.A. Attanasio

There's lots to love in this story: lovely descriptions, great worldbuilding, and a compelling conflict, which centers on a man who lives two million years in the future, cloned from a human in the here and now. Turns out, there's far more intelligent life in the galaxy, but thanks to a cosmic malfunction in the Milky Way, the intelligent life didn't discover mankind existed until it was already extinct. The protagonist, Noel, wants to change history, and give his dopel (his original) a chance at the pure happiness he's enjoyed his whole life.

Very interesting stuff. I love the parallel between Noel and his doppel, Leon. The women are also very well characterized, and there's just a LOT of goodness in this story. HOWEVER, I had to read the ending twice, and by ending, I had to start back where Noel decides to search for the "strongman." What threw me were the scene breaks, because I got very confused with the timeline of it all, lost my sense of setting, and therefore had a difficult time swimming through to the end of the piece. The explanation for it all is in the text, even if it is a little muddled and wordy, but during my first read, I missed all of it. And I'm still not sure of the motives behind Ny'a's sacrifice, and if my read of her motives is correct, and it was to fix the various mucked up planes of existence thanks to hers and Noel's tampering, how does her sacrifice right all that? That was my one question, especially in light of the feeling that Noel and Ny'a were going to continue their crusade, which will further muck up the timeline.

Still, a good story. I wish the ending had been a bit tighter is all.



I'm going to be difficult: I liked 3.75/5 stories. Attanasio's (can that guy HAVE any more A's in his name?!?!?) gets 3/4 credit, because the story held until the very end, for me anyway. But the issue shone with MacLeod's quiet but determined industrial fantasy, Wentworth's tale of finding love in parallel realities, and Bacigalupi's chilling future of a nation with little water. It's an issue definitely worth picking up, if you can find it.

Next up: Hyperion by Dan Simmons