Here’s another nice, fresh, and brand new slice of Speculative Fiction from the booming South African SF scene, this time in the shape of Charlie Human’s debut novel; a high-octane Urban Fantasy story called Apocalypse Now Now.
“I love the smell of parallel dimensions in the morning”
Baxter Zevcenko is a student at Westside High School in Cape Town. He’s the head of the Spider, as the syndicate dealing in pornography calls itself. The flavours in what pornography is in demand is changing, and the wares are getting weirder; ‘Creature Porn’ is the current hot thing.
Besides being a businessman and entrepreneur in his role for the Spider his life is not going all that well – he has got family problems, his parents are more or less constantly fighting, and he has a disabled brother who is doing a great job in driving him mad; and now Esmé, his girlfriend has disappeared.
You need know that there is a serial killer on the loose, and now Baxter is a suspect himself, at least for one police officer who investigates him.
The only person he can find who wants to help him find her, and who claims to be able to, is a ‚Supernatural Bounty Hunter‘ called Jackson Ronin. And with him Bax now learns about all the hidden things in his world which he was not aware of, or didn’t believe in – magic, parallel dimentions, ancient creatures and their gods – it’s all real, it’s all here, and if you know how then you can see it, access it, explore it. You can also, quite easily, end up dead, of course. Or bring about the Apocalypse...
Pádraig Ó Méalóid has very kindly been given permission by Alan Moore to post online an essay/article which for various reasons never made it to print: “Fossil Angels was written by Alan Moore in December 2002, and was to appear in KAOS #15. KAOS #15 never actually appeared, and the piece has been without a home since then. I was lucky enough to be given a number of Alan Moore’s scripts by Alan himself a few years ago, and this was amongst them. I asked if I could publish it and, when another publication which it was slated to appear in folded, Alan told me I was free to go ahead. So, I am very proud to be allowed to present this piece on Glycon for its first publication anywhere.”
Here are my impressions on The Fallen Country, a really dark Fantasy tale for younger readers by Somtow Sucharitkul (also known as S.P. Somtow, for that part of the audience who has problems spelling/pronouncing Sucharitkul) - a story playing against a background of Child Abuse, with the title referring to the parallel universe the protagonist moves to and fro during the story. Fascinating, and impressive, like a punch to the stomach…
The story starts with Charlie, after having smoked dope in the Belfry with his friends, sees snow around the Church steeple, and a boy frozen to it. On a sweltering hot summer’s day. No wonder he thinks he’s hallucinating… but he’s not. The boy on the steeple is Billy Binder, and the mystery of how he got there brings together Charlie, Billy, and Dora, the 22 years old School Councillor.
One of the key elements is “Stark”, the drug-peddling, motorcycle-driving lion tamer, and boyfriend of Billy’s foster mother, who considers himself Billy’s father. Which entitles him (in his opinion) to ‘tame’ Billy by beating and sexually abusing him, the same way he’d break a lion cub.
Billy’s reaction is to escape into the ‘Fallen Country’ of the title, a fantasy world where there’s eternal snow, where he can ride a dragon, fight monsters, rescue Princesses, and which is ruled by the evil and omnipresent ‘Ringmaster’ with his whip. In the Fallen Country Billy feels no pain – there is no emotion except for anger, which equals power in this world. And Billy has lots and lots of anger.
Mirrorshades is an Anthology, edited by Bruce Sterling, with the hottest and most relevant (from his point of view in the midst of the vortex) Cyberpunk stories; all of which were originally published between 81 and 86. It's a good collection, but it reads differently nearly 20 years into the future. Hindsight is a lovely thing...
The book kicks off with an essay by Sterling, displaying the history, influences, and forefathers of Cyberpunk, and his own definition of the genre. I beg to differ, but again, that's from a different, i.e. historical perspective. Still, if nothing else, this essay proves that I much prefer his fiction to his non-fiction.
After the introduction the book contains the following stories:
William Gibson – The Gernsback Continuum
This is, on the one hand, a classic. On the other it never struck me as Cyberpunk. It's also not Gibson's strongest short story, in my opinion; but still an interesting treatise on a future which never was, except maybe in the common subconscious.
Tom Maddox – Snake-Eyes
George Jordan was supposed to be the human part of a war plane in the war in Thailand. A war which never happened, in the end. And now his Effective Human Interface Technology, which he was discharged with as it is non-removable, is acting up.
Essentially it's the older parts of his brain taking over – something he calls “the snake”. He is taken to a space station, where he interfaces with Aleph, an AI. But Aleph's motives are not entirely clear, either...
This, in turn, is classic Cyberpunk in the vein of Gibson's Hinterlands.
Wintersmith is the 3rd book in the Tiffany Aching arc, and the 31st overall Discworld book by Terry Pratchett. I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the suspicion that there would have been a 2nd book in the story. And no, I'm not tired of Tiffany Aching yet, and neither seems Terry; to the contrary, he seems to enjoy himself writing more of her story!
The story starts with a bang, in the form of a flash-forward. Tiffany Aching takes on the Wintersmith, who endangers her Lambs (“Granny Aching never lost any lamb!”) with his late-Spring snowfall, and loses. The impression given is that Tiffany dies… or is it?
The story then takes a big step back in time, but stays as fascinating as the introduction promises. Tiffany is an understudy of Miss Treason now, who is deaf, blind, and uses Ravens and small furry animals as eyes and ears. Where other witches take the biscuit for being weird, Miss Treason takes the cake, too, and the tin, and… Most understudy witches run away from hers after the first night. If they make it that far. Tiffany has been here for 3 months. She has, unwittingly, learned Miss Treason’s secret of ‘Boffo’ – her own, psychology-based, take on Granny Weatherwax’s ‘headology’.
During the story Miss Treason dies. No surprise, she saw it coming, and had time to put her things in order, and have a grave dug…! What she could not settle, would not settle, was the matter of her successor on her ‘stead’ (more than a cottage… we’re learning more about how witches are working and are organized… except they are not, of course! Just ask Granny Weatherwax!). There is a contest over who should take over – and the task is given to Annagramma, the understudy of Mrs Earwig, who specializes in ‘Magick’, and is the bane of Granny’s life. This is the first time this new, wizardy, booky, strand of Witchdom is put to the test. Or was this what Granny wanted?
Mirrorshades
