Product Description
Rebelling against her fashion drug designer father, freelance journalist and troubled clone Wynne Cage covers a data-heist that places her in the rank of a thief and must confront the forces of a world with unlimited bio-technological advantages. Reprint. AB. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Like a breath of fresh air
Great characterization, well written.Explores what it means to be alive and human, particularly in terms of artificial intelligence. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

More Literary Than Science Fiction
This book has a very literary feel about it.James Patrick Kelly has some quite wonderful, evocative passages, some intricate, subtle, and flawed characters, and a topic that resonates both with current events and with lovers of Thoreau.As an exercise in science fiction world-building (both political and geographical), however, there is a lack of complexity and reality that I think many scifi readers will find disappointing.Add in a few jumpy plot conveniences and a fairly silly and non-credible major character (The High Gregory) and you end up being vaguely dissatisfied.You may have gotten some extremely rich and tasty literary calories, but at the end you are still hungry.Donald J. Bingle, Author of Forced Conversion.

I think I was missing 100 pages
Well, it looks like I am in the minority here.I read this book in an evening and wasn't impressed.I understand what the author was trying to do, but when I read Sci Fi I want SCI FI.I want to know more!It seems like I was missing a ton of pages that explained or at least described things more.I'd like to hear back from anyone that feels the same.

Painfully Good
Mr. Kelly's descriptions of burning and being burned, and the interactions between all his characters are really well done.And some are really painful.Spur and his relationship with his soon-to-be ex-wife Comfort, the pain of his memories of the death of Comfort's brother in a self-immolation that did so much destruction, I felt them all.

The relationship of Walden with The Thousand Worlds is intricate and interestingly flawed.And the characters of Spur, High Gregory and the others of his band, and the various villagers and "government" people are very well done.

"Burn" is a very fine multilayered book that reads quickly, like a simple adventure, but will cause you to come back and think about the many philosophical questions that JPK raises.

Read this book.You'll like it!

A personal Walden is threatened by defensive fires
James Patrick Kelly's BURNtells of a small planet whose new owner has his dreams of building his personal Walden from scratch - where voluntary simplicity is the rule. Unfortunately its existing inhabitants have other ideas - and they are capable of using fire to defend their own freedoms. Compromises, conflicts, and conflagrations evolve in a satisfying, changing plot that never fails to surprise.

A terrorist war fought with forest fires
I read this short novel on a long AMTRAK trip and imagine my surprise when part of the story took place on. . . a train! The setting is a planet that has been turned into a social experiment where the residents live in the sort of simple, utopian, agrarian society advocated by Henry David Thoreau. Unfortunately, their ideal world has displaced the planet's original residents, the Pukpuks, who retaliate by setting fires in the forests planted by the utopians.

The science fiction element of the novel felt subtle and as a reader I was instead drawn in by the character of Spur, a firefighter wounded while battling the fires, and the rural community that could be anyone's hometown. This is very much a novel about a damaged man trying to do the right thing, with a good mix of humor, action and thought-provoking moral questions that mirror those of our own 21st century world.

Good stuff. And who knew Thoreau was so fascinated by fire?
... Read more

Product Description
A Handful of Pearls & Other Stories showcases author Beth Bernobich's versatile talent. Quoted as offering the following advice to writers:

Mix characters and plot. Blend well and set aside to rise. Stir together equal helpings of confl ict and tension. Remember that the pacing used to stir will affect the story's consistency and flavor. When characters and plot are ready, layer these with backstory, setting, and description. For a fuller heavier story, fortify with theme, subtext, and allusion. Add whimsy and logic to taste. Top with a climax and resolution. Sprinkle with surprises. (Do not overdo.) Beat prose until smooth.

Bernobich follows that perfect recipe to the letter and offers fantastical and otherworldly stories that will linger in the imagination of readers. Inside these pages are tales of talented painters, tween arthropod aliens, bitter explorers, and a wistful Medusa. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Delivered Straight to the Land of Emotion
A Handful of Pearls
Beth Bernobich
©2010
Lethe Press




'Lo Peoples,


I am rather fond of short story collections. So it was no struggle at all to read Beth Bernobich's A Handful of Pearls. I finished it in two sittings which is one of the wondrous things about short stories. For a reader with plenty of time, there is the fun of plunging into a fully-formed world, and then coaxing oneself onwards for a few pages more until one has missed one's bus stop, or the phone rings, or one can't keep one's eyes open any longer.

First, as a writer I must appreciate James Patrick's Kelly's Preface. He makes some observations about the themes Bernobich deals with in her work, namely, secrecy. He has "called it" as some Black people say in urban circles, so I almost have nothing to add there.

I will turn my attention to what I felt were the strongest of the nine stories. Five times, I found myself swept past my critical purview and delivered straight to the land of emotion. And that is simply what memorable stories do. They drop you somewhere and the rest of the world vanishes save for what comes next upon the page. Poison, Remembrance, Marsdog, the title story, A Handful of Pearls, and Jump to Zion paraded characters struggling with the weight of their desires. Daksa, a true hermaphrodite, and Kate, a soon-to-be grieving lover, could have been crushed by theirs but find new beginnings. Jimmy AKA Danu-vil-fa (the Talëdi spiderchild) starts with one desire and ends with another desire he had not given much thought to. Yan Dei moves from desire to desire to desire in his relentlessly self-absorbed manner. The herbalist Adjua desires to save her child, meet the demands of a former lover and a secret benefactor and to pay the price that the god of La Trinète requires from her.

I am delighted when a writer whom I do not know to be a lesbian, a devotee of the Orisha, nor a child molester, nor an alien from Jafal can write a character who is lesbian, or a child-molester, or an Orisha devotee, or an alien, and none of the characters can be stacked upon another the way one might do with Russian nesting dolls. I am as testy as one can get about the portrayals of People of Color and the LGBTQ communities. As ambivalent as I am about someone who is not from the Orisha tradition writing about my religious beliefs, I bristled and prepared to find something in Bernobich's work to grate on my nerves. I found only the word Orisha itself used in a milleu where the word Loa would have served more specifically. It is with great relief that I report this.

On an ending note, I am very much for inclusion of the erotic amongst the experiences characters and readers might share in the course of any fiction. I am grateful that Bernobich carries on the fine tradition of including sex (however delicately) in her work.


Note: This copy of A Handful of Pearls was an electronic ARC acquired from the editor upon the reviewer's request. Her Tangh-i-ness reviews on a for-the-love basis. No lucre has been involved.
A Handful of Pearls & Other Stories

A Bookful of Gems (and other treasures)
In A Handful of Pearls & Other Stories we are treated to nine stories -- eight reprints, originally published between 2001 and 2008, and one story original to this volume -- from the pen of talented new fantasy writer Beth Bernobich. Her stories are, for the most part, lovely and exquisite creations dealing with themes of love and loss, of the connections that make us human and the choices that reveal us to be (only) human. Bernobich is a passionate, sensual writer -- this book is more sensually evocative than any other I've read in some time, which helps both to keep the fantasies grounded and to set them aloft -- whose stories read like colorful prose paintings that at their best are as ravishing as they are painful.

Of the nine stories collected in this book, two of them, "Watercolors in the Rain" and "Marsdog", take familiar stories and repackage them in new settings and to new purposes. The former is quite good; the latter, to my taste, is a bit too precious and familiar to work. The other seven stories are all very original. Two of them, "Poison" and "A Handful of Pearls", are set in the same world, although they share no characters or settings; given that they are two of the most powerful stories in the book, I would love to see more stories set in this world. While I enjoyed every story (with the partial exception of "Marsdog"), I found that the best stories are weighted toward the front of the book, meaning that for readers like me who read collections front to back, the book may make for a slightly unbalanced reading experience, starting on a stronger note than that on which it ends.

Overall, the stories are very good: many of them feel to me like they are verging on, just a nudge away from, excellence. I can't decide whether that's a matter of craft, and Bernobich is just a step away from honing her writing to a level that would push her fiction to the next level, or whether it's a matter of taste that left me feeling oh-so-close to being completely absorbed by a number of these stories without quite getting there. Either way, this is a very strong debut collection from a promising writer whose work I'm looking forward to exploring more in the future. And if you enjoy these stories, or if you think you might but prefer novels to short fiction, be sure to keep an eye out for Bernobich's debut novel Passion Play in a couple months. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Beyond Cyberpunk
So the editors of this SF anothology seem to believe that cyberpunk became, after more than twenty years, too much of a popular cliche, or brand, to continue as a useful SF subgenre, and present these stories as stories that move beyond it to a new paradigm.They feel pretty much like cyberpunk to me, but perhaps a bit off-beat.There are some very memorable stories by famous and less-noted authors,I especially enjoyed Swanwick's "The Dog Said Bow-Wow", Bagigalupi's "The Calorie Man", and Doctorow's "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth".Even the stories that started out slowly and were hard to relate to for a while ended up being very interesting by their ends.I'll definitely hope for a second anthology from these editors.

Recycled indeed
I was suckered into buying this by the 'Top' writers in this anthology, Paul di Filippo, Sterling, Gibson, Cadigan.., but I already own all these stories in other collections.
Even the work of most of the lesser known writer I already knew.
The remaining stories were good and enjoyable, but I would not label them cyberpunk or even 'post' cyberpunk in any way.

I should have known from the title (REwired...)that it's trying to ride the long-broken remains of the cyberpunk wave.
Some excellent writing in there, but still flogging a dead horse, IMHO.

Thrilling, Engaging, Challenging
I only occasionally dip into science-fiction and when I do I'm looking for things that stretch my head, that challenge my world-view and that open realms of possibility.This anthology met those needs and more.

Every story was well worth reading (no duds) and several were excellent.

Admittedly the anthology has a rather dark cast (as expected, given the cyberpunk focus) and some of the auxiliary material has a bit of an attitude (again, a cp staple), but the stories were wholly engrossing.

This is one of the best anthologies I've read in years

Good parts, but inconsistent
I found this an enjoyable collection, but the quality was a bit inconsistent. One story, in particular, was knock-your-socks-off fantastic: "The Wedding Album" by Marusek. Wow!

Charles Stross' "Lobsters" is also here, but so far I've found it in two anthologies, published online, and of course, as part of Accelerando. I'm getting a bit tired of seeing it reproduced everywhere, despite it being very good.

Recycled
I would recommend this book to anyone who was not an avid fan of the "cyberpunk" genre.Stories were okay, most were fairly depressing, no surprise there, but they covered a wide range of representative authors, and the book was good value for the money.Paper quality isn't great: smells funny and feels like newsprint, but maybe its made from recycled paper, so that's just an aside, not a complaint.

Anyway, if you are an avid fan of this sort of science fiction, I'd pass on this one.I love anthologies, have read lots of short stories by these authors, and realize that the editors didn't make any promises about all first-time appearances for the collected stories.However, I was disappointed as I realized that I'd read almost all of them, despite the fact that I took a break from literacy for the past two years. Overall, between the media and the content.... well, you saw my review title..... ... Read more

Product Description
The 16 stories in this collection run the gamut from cyber adventure and a ghostly haunting to chemically modified romance and a time travel mission to save the world. The Hugo Award winner, "10(to the 16th) to 1," tells the story of a boy in the 1960s who gets caught up in a spirited adventure that becomes a desperate attempt to prevent a nuclear holocaust. In "The Cruelest Month," a grieving mother is haunted both by the past and a ghost. "The Prisoner of Chillon" presents a radioactive Lake Geneva overrun with cyberpunks seeking fame and fortune through software piracy. By turns humorous and harrowing, this collection highlights the short fiction of a lauded author at his best. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not Free SF Reader
This is definitely a good collection of stories, having no less than three with a 4.5 rating, and a 3.60 average overall.Golden Gryphon have a pretty nifty logo, too.It has an intro by Connie Willis, and a reasonably detailed afterword where Kelly describes the genesis of each of the stories.

Strange But Not a Stranger : 1016 to 1 - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Lovestory - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Feel the Zaz - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Unique Visitors - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : The Prisoner of Chillon - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Candy Art - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Hubris - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Glass Cloud - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Proof of the Existence of God - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : The Cruelest Month - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Chemistry - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : The Pyramid of Amirah - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Fruitcake Theory - James Patrick Kelly
Strange But Not a Stranger : Undone - James Patrick Kelly


Time traveler wants kid to save the world, at least with Galaxy and Green Lantern preparation he has a decent shot at it

4.5 out of 5


Alien baby changes.

3.5 out of 5


Schizo CAT woman has old time star turns Down.

4.5 out of 5


Upload immortality, longtime.

3.5 out of 5


Spook journalist thinks spiders and snakes is WILDLIFE overload.

4 out of 5


Ancestral timeshare problems.

3 out of 5


Lightspeed not at all lucid loopy love.

3 out of 5


History never repeats, I tell myself before I read a heap.

3.5 out of 5


Alien architecture requirements are quite whacky.

3.5 out of 5


Multiversal self-belief can be shocking.

3.5 out of 5


Ghost phone release.

3.5 out of 5


Lack of hormones gambler.

3.5 out of 5


Structural belief is slow.

3 out of 5


Alien bloody xmas incident.

3 out of 5


Future escape a problem of many dimensions.

4.5 out of 5

One of the Best Single-Author-Collections of the Year.
James Patrick Kelly's second collection of stories (published by Golden Gryphon, a fine publisher) is a treasury of superbly crafted gems. 15 of them, actually, with a foreword by Connie Willis and an afterword by the author himself.

Highlights are 1016 to 1 (Hugo Winner, novelette category), Undone (Nebula nominee, Novelette category), and Glass Cloud. But nearly each story is insightful.

Contents follow:

Lovestory, Feel the Zaz, Unique Visitors, The Prisoner of Chillon, Candy Art, The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum, Hubris, Proof of the Existence of God, The Cruelest Month, Chemistry, The Pyramid of Amirah, Fruitcake Theory, and the above 3 mentioned.

A marvelous book
Why has James Patrick Kelly not reached a mass-market audience? Why have his two short story collections been published by small print houses? "Why" has always been a difficult question to answer, but I believe there are two reasons for this. The first, of course, is his relatively slow writing pace. American audiences demand things that are NEW; new films, new books, new television shows. As Charles Dickens said, any book you haven't read before is new. If you've never read The Pearl by John Steinbeck, or Animal Farm by George Orwell, why aren't they considered new?

And so, ranting aside, I present unto you my review of James Patrick Kelly's wonderful collection of short stories, Strange but Not a Stranger. By turns witty, funny, insightful, frightening, and intense, the word that practically springs to mind that describes the collection is entertaining. Your attention quotient, as Connie Willis duly noted in the introduction, will be at a constant peak. Thus, I present as evidence for my cause: "Hubris," "The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum," "10^16 to 1," "Undone."

But where is the description of these aforementioned stories, you ask? Where are the cleverly placed lines of wit, the insightful comments? As with all James Patrick Kelly stories, you have to read it to believe it. But be forewarned: reading these stories is merely half of the journey, for the stories have hidden meanings that will haunt you until you're sure you've figured them out, sure that you've gotten your full money's worth out of them, and suddenly, without warning, they come at you again with another viewpoint or idea for consideration. To put it succinctly, and to practically make the rest of this review obsolete, this book is worthy of a spot on your bookshelf. Enough said. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Personal Classic
Considering that this book has gone out of print and nobody else has posted any reviews, I guess it won't stand the test of time. Nevertheless, it struck a special chord, and it stays in my mind. It's a fantasy in which a man named Shaun Reed finds himself trapped at an Eden-like resort. He has no memories of his past, and the only clue as to why he's there is a cryptic plaque signed by "The Dreamers". Is this a vacation? A radical form of therapy? An experiment? Brainwashing? As Shaun wrestles against the limits of his paradise/prison, he drives towards an understanding that remains just out of reach, while his sleep is flooded with troubled memories and eerie fantasies. The essential appeal is not the mystery of "The Dreamers" who did this to him (although that's certainly an intriguing question), but rather in Shaun's struggle with himself; a psychological struggle. I'm drawn to novels with a psychological edge, and these two writers, early in their careers, came together to do a superb job with this one. It touched me and continues to touch me. Am I the only one? ... Read more

Product Description
Kelly, the author of "Planet of Whispers" and the co-author with John Kessel of "Freedom Beach" has been nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo awards for his short fiction. This is a fable about a dissatisfied architect who travels "up-time" and changes shape to design a temple for a goddess. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Disappointing effort - a few effective moments, many more are dull
Phillip Wing is a supposed genius architect on earth. His first effort made him famous, but the random inspiration for it has always left him doubting his own abilities. A mundane career has followed, leaving him unfulfilled. He is also restless and lonely. He has "learned how to fit in anywhere but not how to belong". When his wife becomes involved in the cause of the Messengers, aliens who have come to earth with a new religious philosophy, it separates the two of them. She leaves for another man, leaving Wing with very little meaning in his now solitary life on earth.

Wing is approached by the Messengers, who want his help to design a grand tomb for a dying priestess on Aseneshesh.They have studied Wing and his best known work, and believe his ability and personality are ideal for the job. He is told the lengthy trip across space will be one way for him, with no possibility for return to earth. He reluctantly agrees to the job. During the trip there, he is genetically altered so that he can survive the new planet's atmosphere. The changes are profound, and Wing wages a continual struggle to retain some humanity afterward. The story follows his new life on the new planet, and his physical and psychological struggles to find contentment and love. Much time is devoted to the aliens, their culture, religion, and politics.

There seems, at first, to be plenty of detail. But as the book goes on, the information alone is just not enough to create interest in the aliens, who are hard to connect with. Wing's character seems to grow a little bit, but there are no great transformations in his character, and his struggles on his new planet are simply extensions of those he endured on earth. The views of the aliens are never revealed fully enough to understand, and so their various motives and personal drives provide little meaningful effect. Basically, when the story leaves earth and arrives at Aseneshesh, the story seems to have been in progress there long before the reader is introduced, and I felt like I never caught up. It was like eavesdropping - a few details overheard here and there, but not enough to know the whole story or care.

Not Free SF Reader
Look into the Sun is an expansion of an earlier short story.

A human architect who does rather ambitious work is desired by a group of aliens to do a job for them.

This involves leaving his family, and a lot of physical and mental changes, along with getting stuck in the middle of at times incomprehensible alien politics.

A decent book, overall.


3.5 out of 5

Wonderful Descriptiveness, Flat Characters
Overall, I found I disliked and could not identify with the majority of the characters.I could not relate to their emotional states, nor did I find the picture painted of civilization(s) at all coherent.

Two things rescued the novel for me:the inspiring descriptions of the Phillip Wing's two master works -- the Tomb of the Goddess and the Glass Cloud, and one passage.

This is the distilled and brilliant passage from p238:

"Immortality was simple... Essence consisted of viewpoint and structural memory. Viewpoint was each individual's unique style of processing experience; structural memories were those that composed viewpoint.All other memories were trivial, extraneous to existence....Only structural memory, overwhelmingly the result of genetics and environment, was essential."

Never before I had I thought of self redux in such a fashion, though I found the author's embrace of behavioralism over free will annoying.It made the characters less real.

An earnest muddle
I really like Kelly's short stories, and I badly wanted to like this novel, but it just doesn't work. Two main problems: first, the protagonist is far too passive and mealy-mouthed, and an utterly unconvincing portrayal of a supposedly brilliant artist. And second, the alien civilization that he visits is very confusing, and facts about it are revelaed piecemeal and without enough context for the reader to be able to tell what really makes these creatures tick. Overall it reads like the first effort of a guy who might one day produce something really good - read Kelly's other stuff and ask for yourself if that promise has been fulfilled.

Great book
This is a great book. I loved it. James Patrick Kelly has written a book that's facinating. How do I know this? I met James Patrick Kelly and had him autograph my copies of Look Into The Sun and Planet of Whispers. This is the story
of Philip Wing, an architect who'd built the New Wonder of the World. However, the aliens who'd provided the technology, the Messengers, have returned to Earth with a
new message of "religious" significance. It saps the human
aggressiveness and Philip loses his wife, Daisy, to the Messengers. In the process, he meets Haruman, a Chani,
from a planet around 82 Eridani. When he loses Daisy to the Messengers, he turns to Harumen. ... Read more

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Product Description
Word count: 1053. ... Read more

Product Description
It was while he was developing Focus that the famous drug artist, Cage, decided he needed someone to help him spend his money. He felt no particular urge to contract a marriage. None of the women he was sleeping with at the time mattered to him. He knew that they had been drawn by that irresistible pheromone: the smell of success. He wanted to share his life with someone who would be bound to him by ties no lawyer could break. Someone who would be uniquely his. Forever. Or so he imagined. Wynne was carried in an artificial womb. All it took was a tissue culture from a few of Cage's intestinal epithelial cells and some gene sculpturing to change the "Y" chromosome to an "X." This and one-point-two-million new dollars. She was not his daughter. Nor was she exactly his clone. This story is a cyberpunk classic on two audio CDs. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A Wonderful Collection
Overall, I'm impressed by The Secret History of Science Fiction.The editors have done a good job of selecting stories that touch on the border between genre science fiction and "literary" fiction.Of the nineteen stories included, five were truly impressive works of brilliance, ten were well written and entertaining, two were confusing, and two were disappointing.I should add that the ten I describe as "entertaining" would appear more impressive in a more common collection.Their light is only dimmed slightly by the incredible creativity of the five standouts in the collection.

The most impressive in the collection:
"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", by Ursula K. Le Guin, is a story set in a utopia with a dark secret.Le Guin draws us to question the price of our happiness.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, This is Your Crisis", by Kate Wilhelm, presents the future of "reality" television and the role it and other media may (or has) come to play in shaping human interaction in our safely cushioned civilization.

"The Nine Billion Names of God", by Carter Scholz, is a game of symbol and meaning played between a "writer" and an editor.

"Interlocking Pieces", by Molly Gloss, is a beautiful story about personal disaster, understanding, and acceptance.

"Buddha Nostril Bird", by John Kessel, is an adventure and a koan on identify and what it means to know.

I should add that I've only just finished the collection so it is more than likely that my understanding of these stories will grow as they continue to unfold in my mind.Several stories in this collection are truly works of genius and I probably don't do them justice with the descriptions above.I hope I've said enough that you'll give the collection a chance.If you're looking for stories that take risks and follow creativity wherever it leads, you won't be disappointed.

Two stories I found to be confusing:
"Standing Room Only", by Karen Joy Fowler, seems to be a simple story centering on a background character to Lincoln's assassination.I don't see anything in it that would cause me to label it "science fiction".It's well written but I just don't understand its inclusion in the collection.If you can tell me what I've missed I would be very grateful.

"93990", by George Saunders, is also well told but also left me suspecting I'd missed something.The author definitely succeeds at making me feel something and I think I understand the comment he's making about certain kinds of experiments.I'm just wondering if there's more to it, maybe something I'm missing.

The rest:
Most of the other stories in the collection are very well written but seem to lack that indescribable element that elevates the merely creative and clever to something more meaningful.For instance, "1016 to 1", by James Patrick Kelly, is well written and fun but reminds me too much of a childhood fantasy.Don't get me wrong, my interest did not waiver for a second as I read it.It's just that the ending left me wanting the something more that I found in the stories listed above.It's a fun story but looks less impressive beside "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and "Interlocking Pieces".

I hope you'll get yourself a copy of this wonderful collection of some of the best fiction I've read in quite a while.I also hope Kelly and Kessel put together a second volume (they could start with something by Nancy Kress and go from there). ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it
After reading this anthology, I'm still not sure what qualifies as "slipstream".This puts me in good company, I suppose. The book features some interstitial discussion among authors in the genre, who can't seem agree on what is or isn't slipstream, or whether they want themselves or others to be included.This discussion didn't help me warm to the genre, unfortunately. I'd rather just enjoy the stories, without having the curtain pulled back to expose insiders reveling in their obscurity and pontificating on the importance of "SFnal tropes".

I found the stories themselves to be of mixed quality.Rather, they're all high quality writing, but most of them just didn't do much for me as stories.A few of them are very enjoyable. Some because they're wittily written and vividly painted (Sea Oak, Light and the Sufferer) and others because they stay just far enough out of reach to force you to stop reading and let the story sink in before moving on (Lieserl, You Have Never Been Here Before).But many of them seemed to me like well-executed creative writing exercises.The author has come up with a twist on reality and explored some interesting consequences, but that's as far as it goes. It's mildly entertaining, but without much point. (The Healer, The Lions Are Asleep This Night). And some of them are self-consciously postmodern, caught somewhere between fiction, autobiography and intellectual self-gratification.(Bright Morning, Biographical Notes...) If that's your thing, then you'll find them worthwhile.But like with some modern art, I just can't get over the feeling that the artist/author is laughing at me, along with the rest of the world.

Hilarious and disturbing stories
Themed anthologies are usually put together by people who pay pennies and earn nickels -- if they're lucky.Under such conditions, it's pretty unusual that every story is worth reading.This book is one of those rare exceptions.There are enough reliable names here -- M. Rickert, Jeffrey Ford, Ted Chiang, Kelly Link -- that anyone who pays attention to speculative fiction will have already identified this book as worth reading.

But for those of you who are poking your heads in from the world of mainstream literature, please come in!This book is a warm and welcoming place for you pale things -- strange and thrilling, but not formulaically so.Really, please come in.

I'm serious.

Highly recommended anthology, with involving cross-genre stories from all sources
Feeling Very Strange was one of the most celebrated anthologies of last year. It took me a while to get around to reading it, partly because I had read most of the stories already. But I finally did read it. I reread the stories I had already read, and was darned happy to do so. It really is an outstanding book.

It includes some surprising and very effective pieces from outside the core SF/Fantasy genre -- notably Michael Chabon's "The God of Dark Laughter" and George Saunders's "Sea Oak". It includes some stories from within the genre that I had liked a lot (and praised highly in public) but that I didn't really see as slipstream -- though I see the editors' point in including them now I think -- stuff like Benjamin Rosenbaum's "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Airplanes', by Benjamin Rosenbaum", and Theodora Goss's "The Rose in Twelve Petals", and Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God". It includes Kelly Link's magnificent "The Specialist's Hat", easily one of the spookiest stories I have ever read. It includes Howard Waldrop's Alternate History of an ascendant Africa, "The Lions are Asleep This Night" -- another story I wouldn't have at first blush called slipstream (and it does seem that the editors consider certain types of AH slipstream (the Rosenbaum story being another example), but that works that way, and reads a bit differently in that context.) There is also a fine new story by M. Rickert, "You Have Never Been Here", and good stories by Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Aimee Bender, Bruce Sterling, Jeff VanderMeer, Karen Joy Fowler, and Jeffrey Ford. Highly recommended.

better than expected
If you like 'gothic' this is the book for you - an excellent book

A collection which helps define and identify the genre of fiction known as 'slipstream'
Advanced review galleys are not typically featured - we usually only review from finished books - but FEELING VERY STRANGE: THE SLIPSTREAM ANTHOLOGY is something unusual to watch for: a collection which helps define and identify the genre of fiction known as 'slipstream'. This category has long defied easy definition: blend literary avant garde elements with science and you begin to realize its boundaries. It embraces cognitive dissonance, ambiguity, and visionary oddities and the short stories by Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Bruce Sterling and others provide diverse satisfying examples of how this is accomplished.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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Product Description
With introductions by Harlan Ellison, this collection features "Three Odd Comedies" by Terry Bisson; "Into the Sun" by Brian Smith; "Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly; "The Death of Captain Future" by Allen Steele and Brian Smith; "A Clean Escape" by John Kessel; and "The Bigger One" by Gregory Benford. Unabridged. November '98 publication date. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Terrific science fiction
I absolutely love these productions, and it's a terrible shame that Sci-Fi no longers makes these available through their website.

Seeing Ear Theatre is a much mourned loss.

Into the Sun!
WOW what a story! Brian Smith could sell this as a short story by itself it is so good IMO. I just wish they sold a hard copy of these writings--not just audio! I have been reading Sci Fi for a long time. This guy is great!Reminds me of 2001, a space odyssey a bit. Worth the price just for thisone folks!I noticed there are no other books by Brian Smith for sale onAmazon. What's up with that? He needs to write books, and Amazon needs tosell them--geez, do I make myself clear?

Very compelling stories
This tape is well done.The sound effects create an atmosphere that draws in the listener.The actors are dramatic, but not overly so.The short stories themselves are well written, delivering edge-of-the-chair suspense(or knee-slapping comedy, as the case may be).

It's finally here....and worth the wait!
As most net surfers are aware the Sci-Fi Channel's web site has included a section devoted to science fiction radio drama...Seeing Ear Theatre. One aspect of which includes originally producedproductions ceratedespecially for the site and which has featured performances by manywell-known SF actors as Micheal O'Hare,Mark Hamill,Marina Sirtis,andothers. With a few exceptions, a lot of the dramas are based on recentshort stories by SF writers such as Terry Bisson, Allen Steele, John Kesseland Gergory Benford. With the release of this audiobook editon(whichincludes introductions by SF's resident angry young{sic}man HarlanEllison)now one can listen to these stories anytime you want. The beststories(IMO)are the Three Odd Comedies and The Death of Captain Future(which despite the pulpish-sounding title is a darkly humorous tale set inthe future history of Steele's previous works such as Orbital Decay andClarke County,Space). If you like audio drama-- especially newly producedaudio drama...you'll love this collection and you may also want to checkout Vol. 2 which should be on sale soon(I know I can't wait). ... Read more