GRAB A STORY

Happy Holidays Firebrand Fiction fans! This time of year finds us feasting and celebrating, so it's only fitting we bring the fictional equivalent to you. In keeping with great holiday traditions like ripping open gifts and stuffing ourselves full of treats, this column offers a cornucopia of grab-as-you-like SF, all free of charge and instantly accessible on the World Wide Web.

But before you dump out the contents of this literary grab-bag, please take a moment to follow this link www.swordandsorcery.org The new e-zine at this site Flashing Swords will soon launch its debut issue and there is a call for submissions posted on the site for prospective contributors. Due to my affiliation with the site, (which is sponsored by Pitch-Black, LLC) it's unlikely that Flashing Swords will be reviewed in this column. Nevertheless, I wanted to give a shout-out for what looks to be a promising new SF site and a shout-out, also, about the call for submissions.

The overall quality of any given SF venue is dependant upon the submissions it receives. That's not to say that editors of particular magazines don't ultimately shape the content and feel of their pubs, but that even a hypothetically "perfect" editor, meaning one who always chose the hypothetically best stories submitted to their pub, would have only the submissions that came to them to exert perfect judgment over. Even so, clearly, the responsibility for finding and publishing quality fiction rests upon the editors of any particular publication.

In the case of SCIFICTION one of the web's most heralded and well-known venues for SF, there's no disputing the intensity or the power of the editorial vision that makes this pub consistently outstanding. In a recent interview with this columnist, Ellen Datlow offered some insightful remarks on how she chooses stories for inclusion on the site. Interested parties can also get Datlow's comments on discovering unknown writers through unsolicited submissions, the much debated schism between literary and speculative fiction, and her thoughts on speculative poetry in an upcoming interview in Prism Quarterly.

SCIFICTION updates weekly with an original work and a classic reprint. Firebrand Fiction updates monthly or at worst, irregularly, so - you do the math - how well can we keep up with the excellent fare posting at Ellen Datlow's site? If it's easy enough to occasionally miss a good story or two due to a hectic schedule, it's even easier to kick yourself when you read the latest offerings and realize just what you've missing.

The latest original story (for the week of December 1st), "The Dragons of Summer Gulch" by Robert Reed is a good case in point. In addition to ingenious world-building and a suspenseful plot, Reed's finely crafted tale radiates with a genuine "sense of wonder,"as well as keen, one might say "classical," character studies. This tale twines a Treasure of the Sierra Madre feel to a once dragon-drenched, near-earth frontier, and with great skill and narrative precision, creates a plausible and verisimilar setting wherein archeology, evolution, religion, aesthetics, economics, religion - in short all the major components of civilization - function in harmonious and logical relationship to one another and, also, to the story's theme.

Reed's storytelling techniques are worthy of the highest praise. Rather than "info-dump" most (or any) of his complex exposition for this tale, Reed weaves his very complete alternate-earth setting into the minutiae of his characters' vividly described, and diverse POVs. The reader is privileged to perceive Reed's intimately portrayed world through the eyes of a grizzled prospector, a whore, a rich collector of dragon remains and as each of the characters blends their avarice to the rich textures of Reed's alternate-reality "Karma," the thoroughness of the story's world-building takes on allegorical (or at least symbolic) connotations, elevating the piece to excellence.

Through cutaway scenes and a shifting narrative POV, Reed reveals his intricate and masterfully drawn setting one piece at a time, like uncovering or reconstructing a huge relic, an expressive extension of the story's own setting and action. This column simply lacks the space to adequately praise "The Dragons of Summer Gulch." My advice is that you read the story yourself and see why they put the "S" in Speculative Fiction. A story that shines both technically and conceptually, and should be mandatory reading for any writer looking for insight into how to construct a SF-nal mythos in short fiction.

"Super 8" by Terry Bisson is one of the less-successful pieces I've encountered at SCIFICTION recently, but by "less-successful,"I mean, merely, that the story failed to reach the superlative level of articulation described in the above review of Robert Reed's story. In Bisson's piece, the cast of characters also spans a diverse group (think: The Big Chill or The Return of the Secuacus Seven) and the narrative POV likewise shifts back and forth, this time to create a narrative effect that mimics clips of Super-8 film, the jerky, out-of-rhythm feeling of spliced together "home movies."

The main weaknesses of the story spring from the less-than-verisimilar central conceit: that a group of sixties-era radicals, now middle-aged and confronting various levels of repentance for their collective past, have somehow got their communal memories and dreams entangled and somehow also, all of this has to do with some Super 8 film clips that have created a "hive mind" from their intense, past association.

All of this veers toward eloquence, in that the "hive mind," and, indeed, the "sold-out" stature of the now mostly-gainfully-employed and law-abiding ex-radicals present wonderful ironic devices that ply thematic inquiry against notions of individuality and the nature of political activism. On the other hand, Bisson's potentially innovative and original conceit of the "hive mind" as applied to a "Big Chill" cast of characters suffers from precisely the pitfalls that Reed's story so adroitly hurdled: Bisson's exposition often intrudes upon his dialogue, the characters narrowly miss being sympathetic - and the underlying themes of responsibility and individualism in the story never seem adequately married to the story's events or symbols. That said, "Super 8" is an innovative and creatively constructed piece - also an entertaining one. I recommend it with the caveat that reading the story feels, whether by authorial design or not, an awful lot like watching Super 8 footage. If you can stand (or prefer) that "handheld" vibe, then this story should suit you fine.

Surfing through the archives of originals and classics at SCIFICTION is easy and fun. The stories load quick as lightning and most can be read in a short window of time, though I guarantee the stories will stay with you after you click off the site.

From 10-6-04, "Ruby, in the Storm" by A.M. Dellamonica offers a sophisticated look at aliens in Academia. This story is funny, wise, and stylistically sharp; I especially appreciated the witty dialogue and the story's spirited and absurd sexual situations. Mocking everything from club-dancing to extraterrestrial ennui, Dellamonica lures the reader through an increasingly "deconstructed" future-campus where her professorial protagonist, Helena, attains heroic stature, merely by maintaining her humanity in the face of ever-less-human circumstances. In this sense the aliens of the story are symbols of alienation and the increasing fragmentation of human society. In searching for identity and moral bearing, many are apt to stray to bigotry and moral tyranny. "Ruby, In the Strom," posits as many questions moral and philosophical questions as it answers - though the denouement and strong arc of character development in this piece point toward an ethical dynamic that recalls Carol Gillgan's "Ethic of Care." Lest any of this intellectual meandering bias you against the story, let me hastily add, that the tale is quite reader-friendly, funny in many places, and doesn't require that you be as smart (or as philosophically motivated) as its characters.

"Beautiful Stuff" by Susan Palwick (posted 8-18-04) is a marvelous piece, which puts an essentially poetic "moral"through some sublimely macabre paces, all the while mingling humor, absurdity, and wry social commentary in a hauntingly resonate narrative brew. Ask yourself: why do the dead love shiny things? And imagine a world where, when the dead are resurrected, they act literally like rotten (and rotting) children, having little or no interest in their former selves or former occupations. Palwick's emotional range in this piece would make Hitchcock proud; that is, her ability to manipulate reader emotion with such aplomb, first chilling them with her descriptions of the living dead, then puzzling with her suspenseful, Machiavellian plot, then bringing laughter, sadness and existential illumination all in rapid succession. Former con-man and womanizer Rusty Kerfuffle is as charming a dead person as you're ever liable to meet and this story with its lacings of beauty and empathy under an absurdist armor, is simply unforgettable. Without question, the best living-dead story I've read this year.

So, there you have it: four stories reviewed and three of them earn unqualified praise. The least of the four is a great read, so it's obvious that SCIFICTION publishes more dynamite fiction than I can keep track of, so you'll have to bookmark the site and adventure on your own! Truly, I say, visit the site as soon as you possibly can; you won't regret a minute spent there.

In a different corner of the World Wide Web is Ralan's Spectravaganza an e-zine that features the winners and honorable mentions of Ralan.com's annual "Grabber Contest" - with winners selected based on the first five hundred words of a story. This year's contest featured a slimmed down judging panel, consisting of Ralan Conley and mega-popular SF writer Piers Anthony. Unfortunately, this year's "Grabber Contest" also netted a slim harvest of entries: sixty total in contrast to the previous year's eighty-two.

The response to the contest had little to do with the contest's entry-fee - as is explained quite well by Ralan in his introduction to the winning stories. Those of you who are curious about the inner-workings and thought-processes of this contest (and writing contests in general) will find some good insight in Ralan's well-written intro and in Piers Anthony's account of the judging experience.

The Spectravaganza is very nicely put together and supremely reader-friendly. The stories are quite short and very entertaining; the kind of fare that I feel is a good fit for fiction-on-the-go. Reading through the winning entries won't take up much of your time or challenge your cranial capacities in any distracting way, yet each of the stories carries considerable suspense.

There's something remarkable about this year's winners in that the First and Second place honors were nabbed by prolific SF scribe Robert J. Santa. In a "blind-entry" contest where no byline appears on the submitted entries, this one heck of an achievement; when you factor in Piers Anthony as arbiter, it becomes even more astounding. It would appear that Santa has good instincts for commercial SF and, to borrow a chess analogy, has honed his "opening" skills very well, indeed.

The First place winner, "The Tiniest Dragonslayer," opens with the following paragraph: "When the laughter died, Karlson rocked forward so that all four legs of his chair touched the floor. He leaned over, rubbing the tears from is eyes, unable to erase the smile from his face."

The next five-hundred words reveal the root of Karlson's laughter: that Bryon, an eight year old boy, has offered himself up as dragonslayer. He has, in fact, brought the required fee for a challenger to request a bout against the dragon. The village of Dewbury has made a deal with the dragon where they let braggarts in armor go after the dragon and thus supply the beast with a steady supply of food. The village also makes a tidy profit by charging the challengers a fee and then salvaging their armor after the dragon eats them (and presumably spits out the metal).

Typically Santa-esque, the story concept seems precarious: why on earth would anybody really pay to fight a dragon? The generic medieval European setting veers toward RPG-inspired visions, and there is nothing really very new or surprising about the set-up and backdrop other than the twist of the kiddie-protag. Nevertheless, Santa possesses an amazing ability to make such generic conceits function marvelously.

As the tale develops, character conflict and subplot feed nicely into an explosive climax that illuminates plot and theme. Santa is able to invest his playing-card setting, his toll-booth dragon and pint-sized would-be-slayer with solid socio-allegorical resonance.

It's hard to knock a story that improves with each paragraph and hooks the reader with suspenseful plot-twists, one after another, and culminates in a satisfying climax ... but such criticisms that can be easily made of "The Tiniest Dragonslayer" refer to its plot and setting and hold little sway over any final verdict on the story's overall merit. My opinion is that Santa's "The Tiniest Dragonslayer" is a gem of a contest-winner and a mini-epic of sorts with enough color and action to satisfy any reader. Highly recommended.

Santa's Second place winner "Princess Lily's Wedding" follows the same template as "The Tiniest Dragonslayer" - taking a classical "fairy tale" and twisting it around a bit. This story impressed me less than "The Tiniest Dragonslayer" seeming, as it were, to be a one-trick pony, that is the twist-ending which is a humorous twist-on-a-twist that makes a comment I'm sure many married women will unfortunately well-understand! Check this one out if you appreciate a good joke or like seeing fairy tales revamped and dementedly re-angled for maximum hilarity. Santa's prose, here, is again very strong and easy-to-read without stylistic complication or boring, extraneous verbiage.

"Stealing Faith" is Eric M. Witchey's Third place prize-winning story. This piece utilizes the rather well-traveled conceit of a first-person demon narrator whose a working-stiff, rather than an arch-demon overlord. Take a hard-working salesman, say a Willie Loman type demon and you'll have Witchey's narrator, whose insufferable rival, Boseman, is able to consistently upstage him by stealing more faith from the human masses. How? Well, "Broadcast a videotape of the faith-healing Reverend Jimmy-Bob Glory in his birthday suit boffin' the right and righteous Miss Virginia Pure Voice in all her leather and handcuffed beauty..."

For example.

The inversions and social ironies here of demons exposing human hypocrisy are humorous but dulled through too much literal extension and not enough narrative verisimilitude. It's as though the story is an expanded short-joke "Two demons walk into a bar" stretched too-thin and layered over with a not-quite-right stylistic voice. The demon's first-person narrative voice is over-the-top "working stiff" and the whole story seems to plod rather than sail. On the other hand, there are some nice changes-of-pace and unexpected turns near the close of the tale which help pull it out of its more predictable patterns.

Both of the Honorable Mentions: "Mandrake in Motion" by Kim Zimring, and "Halfway to Hell" by Robert Moriyama employ likewise demonic/undead flavors. I see a lot of these "life in/Hell/Purgatory/demons-as-workers stories" in my submissions readings for SFReader and Pitch-Black Books. I'm not sure why there is such a current fascination with these stories, but I'll confess to enjoying a very few of them when they are well doneand often, when they are humorous.

Weirdly enough, Zimring's story features another protagonist named Bryon (as in Santa's Dragonslayer) - and weirder yet, at least from my POV, a zombie hitchhiker named Daniel. This little story is a labyrinthine tangle of inter-planar classic cars and Japanese poltergeists. I found the twists and turns more than a little confusing, but any soul-stealing tree story is worth at least a read-through.

Moriyama's story takes place in a bar, "The Halfway House" in Purgatory. Enter a tax-auditor who smells like Hell, literally, and a conundrum: what happens when a bureaucrat is promoted from Hell to Purgatory ... and misses Hell? You can imagine why - the absolute hierarchy, the billions of nagging forms and paper-trails. In other words, one man's Hell is another's Paradise. This is a cute, but quite slight, little tale that earns my thumb's up for a chuckle or two.

Each of the stories at the Spectravaganza features a quick-loading illustration and all of the illos are exceptional, though I particularly enjoyed Teresa Tunaley's work. The stories offer highly entertaining, diversionary fare, with Santa's work, particularly, of interest. The site is fast, fun, and helps contribute to the longevity of www.ralan.com - the most dependable and indispensable SF market resource site on the planet. Click over, read the tales, and make a contribution to keep Ralan's Webstravaganza, and Spectravaganza in business.

This month's GF Award for Great Fiction goes to Robert Reed for "The Dragons of Summer Gulch," an excellent story that proves conclusively there is always something new to be had in short SF, and, also, that SCIFICTION continues to deserve your faithful attention. To Mr. Reed, a thunderous round of applause and many thanks for his wonderful story.

Once again, we've left ourselves too little space to discuss Deep Magic - but we will return to this online 'zine with deserved column-space next month. Meanwhile check out the latest issue, which posted on December 1st and let us know what you think of the 'zine.

Stop by our discussion forums to keep up on the latest SF happenings and offer your own thoughts, questions, and views!

Until Next Time,

Daniel E. Blackston

Firebrand Fiction Reviews: all content © 2004, Dan Blackston