Story of the week: "An Ocean of Eyes" by Cassandra Khaw (with a few words about Lovecraft's influence)

My new story of the week is "An Ocean of Eyes" by Cassandra Khaw from The Dark, an excellent magazine of subtle horror and dark fantasy. Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's famous short story "The Cats of Ulthar," Khaw's story explores the modern town of Ulthar as seen through the interactions between an obnoxious womanizing tourist and Sigrid, a local woman he desperately wants to claim as his own.

The story is disturbing even if you aren't familiar with Lovecraft's original tale. Khaw's story is also an excellent exploration of obsession and how far too many people are willing to go to force their desires onto others — even when that desire is neither wanted nor reciprocated. As the tourist says in explanation of his increasingly desperate actions, “All maybes become a yes."

Except they don't. Or they shouldn't. As Khaw showcases so perfectly.

On a side note, there has been a lot of silly commentary lately about the decision to remove Lovecraft's image from the World Fantasy Award statue, with a few extreme critics like S. T. Joshi even saying that the "changing of the award is an implicit rejection of Lovecraft’s literary status." Which is, of course, nonsense. Lovecraft's influence on dark fantasy and horror isn't going to disappear merely because his likeness no longer resides on an award which makes a claim to represent the entire world of fantasy literature. 

Lovecraft's influence derives directly from the many authors over the decades who have done like Cassandra Khaw and written and played in his world. Lovecraft was not a great literary wordsmith — as proof, read "The Cats of Ulthar," which is more an idea of a story, a summary of a story, than a true story with fleshed-out characters, a developed plot, and rising and falling action. But his legacy is secure because of all the authors and creators who took his ideas and ran with them.

Despite what critics like Joshi say, most people are able to appreciate Lovecraft's influence on horror and fantasy while also knowing that Lovecraft is not an appropriate figure to represent all that horror and fantasy can be in this day and age.

No matter the desire of these critics to force the world to stay the same, change has happened. And that is good.

Story of the week: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

I've been reading lots of excellent novellas lately and my new story of the week — Binti by Nnedi Okorafor — continues this trend. This futuristic story follows Binti, a sixteen-year-old woman of the Himba people in Namibia, as she leaves Earth to study at a university on a distant planet.

Binti is conflicted about her choice to leave her homeland because leaving is almost taboo among her people. This conflict intensifies when Binti's spaceship is attacked by hostile aliens, an attack that forces her to make decisions which will affect the entire future of not only humanity but countless other alien races.

Binti is an exciting science fiction story set in a future like nothing I've ever read in the SF genre. And to tie in with the comments I made a few days ago about gateway stories for bringing new readers to science fiction, Binti is just such a story. Binti can be read and enjoyed by both people who haven't previously read science fiction and by long-time genre readers.

That's a very difficult feat to pull off, but Nnedi Okorafor succeeds perfectly with Binti.

Novel of the week: Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman

The Devil sent me Silver on the Road, the new novel by Laura Anne Gilman. The book appeared on my doorstep one day in a nondescript brown envelope (suggesting the Postal Service might be in league with said Devil, but that's a exploration for another time).

I opened the envelope, wondered who sent me the book, then tossed it onto my to-read pile. Maybe, I thought, reacting as I do to any strange book which shows up unannounced in my life. Maybe I'll read it.

Glad I did. And bless the Devil or whoever sent the book to me because my new novel of the week is this captivating rewriting of the history of the American West.

Except in Gilman's reimagined mix of fantasy and history, the United States — which is only a generation away from independence — doesn't hold sway over the lands west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rockies. Instead, the West is ruled by a mystical creature the rest of the world curses as the Devil.

Except rules is the wrong word because the Devil doesn't rule. He simply keeps the Americans, English, French and Spanish from moving into the West. The Devil has also set a few simple rules which keep the peace among the West's various residents, including the different Native American nations, settler groups, demons, mystical creatures and wandering magicians.

The Devil's most important rule is to not give offense to others, meaning stay out of others' affairs unless asked. But telling the rest of the world to leave the West alone doesn't fit with ideas of manifest destiny and a duty to convert the heathens, so the West is under constant threat of invasion and destruction.

Silver on the Road is told through the eyes of Isobel, a sixteen-year-old human girl raised in the Devil's household. Isobel is sent across the West to learn about the land and to be the Devil's Left Hand, his eyes and out-reached power keeping at bay the world powers who covet this magical land. But as she travels Isobel can't help but question the deal she's made with the Devil and wonder what it will do to both her life and the lands and people around her.

I've enjoyed Laura Anne Gilman's previous novels and stories but with Silver on the Road she creates an entirely different level of fiction, an exciting mix of world creation and character study and realignment of fantasy and history. Part road novel and part coming of age story, Silver on the Road is well written and insightful.

Even though Silver on the Road is the first part of a series — the novel's subtitle is The Devil's West, Book 1 — I found this story as satisfying as a stand-alone tale. I look forward to the sequels and highly recommend this novel to others.

Story of the week: The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson

Novellas are back and hotter than ever. Not that they ever truly went away. Rather, publishers simply avoided novellas, saying it wasn't economical to release print editions of tales which were longer than short stories yet far shorter than full-length novels.

Thanks to e-publishing, that view has changed and novellas are booming. One of the best I've read so far this year is The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson.

This story follows the life of Demane as he leads a caravan across the magic-infused wildeeps. As a descendent of god-like beings who once lived on this perhaps-futuristic planet, Demane has powers and abilities beyond regular humans, who label him a sorcerer.

Except that things are not what they seem with Demane. Instead, the world Demane experiences may be merely proof that Arthur C. Clarke was correct and any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. But that hardly reassures the people in the caravan, who both trust their lives to what they see as Demane's magic and are uneasy at the events around them which can't be explained.

That is the strength of Wilson's story — the things we can't explain. Wilson does an amazing job using his beautiful language to open up an ambiguous world for readers where what we believe to know isn't always what truly exists. Yet the powerful characters and world-building in Sorcerer of the Wildeeps pulls you through this uncertainty until you have no choice but to accept that in fiction, as in life, we often only learn what happens in hindsight.

Highly recommended. You can read an except of Sorcerer of the Wildeeps here.

Novel of the week: Lightless by C.A. Higgins

I have a love/hate relationship with most hard science fiction. I love scientific accuracy and insight in the stories I read, but I despise how many hard SF authors falsely believe a focus on accuracy and technical details are more important than fleshed-out human characters which whom the reader relates.

There's a reason most people don't read technical manuals for amusement. That's because a story without humanity is not a story. Without realistic characters and drama, all the SF hardness and softness and everything in between matters not a bit.

Thankfully, this is a truth which author C.A. Higgins knows full-well because her debut hard science fiction novel Lightless is the perfect melding of hard science fiction and human drama. Lightless is, in fact, one of those rare hard science fiction novels which even people who don't like hard SF will enjoy.

Lightless is set on the experimental spaceship Ananke, launched by the all-knowing System government to test a new propulsion drive. On board is computer scientist Althea, who, in her love of computers and programming, has learned to ignore the oppressive political system she works for. However, when a pair of fugitives gains access to the Ananke, Althea is pulled out of her computer-focused world and must deal with a series of human and scientific conflicts which could completely destroy everything she knows.

Lightlight has something to satisfy all fans of science fiction, with plenty of action, big ideas, and characters you can relate to. And as a sidenote, Lightlight would make a mind-blowing film if the right director optioned the story. Hollywood, take note.

Lightless is highly recommended.