Outrider Review -- Sample

Outrider Review

Title Starlight 3, a Tor Book Editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden Publisher Tom Doherty Associates, LLC ISBN 0-312-86780-8 (hardcover, July 2001) 86779-4 (trade paperback, July 2002) Price $US15.95 pbk Web-site main pitch + brag

Note to those
who don't write
Science Fiction or Fantasy

I tend to write genre fiction, though I do break into mainstream (i.e., anything not claimed by a genre) on occasion (see my Hank Schliemann stories). However, storytelling, wordsmithing, and the ways of publishing apply no matter the audience or content. I promise to focus on such matters, although you may have to extrapolate. For instance, if I write about specific SF tropes, you'll have to substitute tropes from the branch(s) of fiction that you prefer, but you can infer that the approach to the trope, leveraging it or working against it, should play across the profession.

     I'm reviewing S3 1½ years after its release in hardback mainly because I promised Nova Express (see it here, a rather "straight" review constrained by word count) that I would, but it's not altogether convenience. After all:

• fans gave one of the stories top honors (called a "Hugo," presented at the World Convention, specifically ConJosé)
• more stories have been nominated for other awards
• and annual anthologies have seconded some of the selections

Plus, S3 is considered the flagship of a dying breed, the original anthology, and such a showcase, plus the payscale, probably gives Editor Hayden the pick of the litters. So S3 provides fair game for an Outrider Review.
     As I noted in the other review, Editor Hayden expressed no apparent theme through the stories; he spreads them across SF&F (see table) with a slight preference for that staple of SF "If this keeps going," followed by aliens; and he showed no great preference for established writers (see table).
     So, I arranged these dissections in the order of my preference for the stories, figuring that it'll be easier to explain why Editor Hayden bought stories if I like them too. Of course, the further down the list we go, the skimpier the explanation & it may not always be based on the quality of the story. I include a Précis, an Opinion, Why He Bought It, & Basics (the hook, point-of-view, length, &c) section for each story, plus this hypertext index to the list:

Note

This sample includes reviews of just two stories.

1. "The Sea Wind Offers Little Relief" by Alex Irvine
2. "Hell Is The Absence of God" by Ted Chiang

1. "The Sea Wind Offers Little Relief" by Alex Irvine
   Précis
   Mankind has eliminated literacy and stories on Earth by greatly enhancing interpersonal communication, though its colonies have not. A poem comes out of one of those colonies, & the authorities must bring a rebel back from a century & half of solitary confinement to read & translate the poem. At the same time, a modern scholar, who cannot read, watches the process, admiring the ancient renegade as well as the message carried by the poem. A story far more than its plot.
   Opinion
   As other reviewers noted, "Sea Wind" presents a considerable challenge, though it's well worth the effort. It's both elaborate & dense in concept as well as obscure in plot, i.e., what's going on. Even the reviewers who liked the story did not grasp its essence: it's a story that tackles the time when people move beyond their need for storytelling … or think they have. Not "hard" SF in that it takes awhile to get around to the enabling technology & then never explains it. Still, Irvine cannot avoid including a spaceship & a tip-of-the-hat to Star Trek (V'ger in Movie 1), all as part of his turning this story & the concept of Story three ways from Sunday. This story about people giving up stories violates its own archetype, discussing itself, engaging The Reader directly about that archetype. For instance, "I take my place in what seems an endlessly receding spiral of inter-reflecting intelligence. Minds gazing back at what other minds have thought, and leaning forward to imagine what later minds might make of their ruminations. An imitative epic." And as the final touch: "Here there are oceans, and I have had occasion to feel the sea wind. It seems to gentle me, and in its briny breath I scent the real distance between the experience of my life and the experience of writing about, and trying to understand, [the rebel]. On a strip of sand separating thousands of miles of land from thousands of miles of water, I understand distance." Which is the essence of storytelling. Surprisingly, writers overlooked this story for their Nebula nominations because it's one of the rare ones about the business itself.
   Why He Bought It
   The brashness & depth of the concept: a story about when people tell stories no more. Irvine, with whom I have a passing acquaintance¹, can really twist words, though in this case, he turns them more & less away from the light, so it's hard to tell what he's talking about. The many layers of the story: the scholar's own tale, the rebel's, the poem itself, the scholar's view of the rebel, the rebel's view of the poem & the change in humanity that brought him to that point. Woven through all this, paragraphs break the "fourth wall," as the film people put it, speaking directly to The Reader not only about the story, but the implications of Humanity setting aside storytellers. Too bad others didn't see all that, like Editor Hayden & I did. ______________________ ¹Literally: I knew Alex's name from an email discussion we share as members of the Northern Colorado Writers Workshop, then just after I checked in at ConJosé, I headed for the Volunteer booth & noticed the name hanging off a bright, young man. I stopped & introduced myself. Later, I also took the chance to offer condolences when Alex lost the Campbell Award to Jo Walton.
   Basics
   The Hook: "He looked up when his jailers entered the cell, imagining the aether pouring in around them, lifted in Coriolis swirls by the passage of their bodies. It was a moment of fantasy; the aether had been there before their entrance, monitoring him, streaming into his lungs with each steady inhalation, transmitting information about his vital functions. He imagined despite this a purity in his solitude, a purity at least partially real, and the presence of his jailers fractured this dear illusion. Their entrance bludgeoned him with the Assimilated world that had excommunicated him at his sentencing, one hundred and forty-seven years ago. One hundred forty-seven years. He had become an old man." Irvine punches several SF buttons here, with "aether" & "Coriolis" & "Assimilated world" & a 147-year-old man with healthy lungs, cascading off familiar tropes, but by combination, promising something fresh. He also gives fair warning about the challenge he's presenting to The Reader by the way he immediately starts wielding words like ornate broadswords. Point-of-View: Third-person for the rebel. First-person for the scholar. Length: 31 pages, ~11,100 words (though the poem throws that calculation off)

2. "Hell Is The Absence of God" by Ted Chiang
   Précis
   Angelic visitations bring disaster as well as miracles. Heaven & Hell are explicit, but the means to get to either place aren't any clearer than they are now. In this revised world, Neil tries to re-unite with his dead wife who went to Heaven, but the precise path to salvation evades him. A couple of other characters provide different means of exploring the situation.
   Opinion
   From the life-sucks-then-you-die-who-can-say-where-you'll-wind-up school of fiction, this story takes even that nihilistic notion a step further by collapsing all potential religious states down to the prevalent Christian one, then shows it to be beyond our control or comprehension. No joy from characters, story, words, or result. In fact, it's downright depressing since it "clarifies" all ambiguity about the Afterlife except the most important one: the meaning of life & its consequences. Even the basic concept just emulates religious tracts that most of you wouldn't normally read.
   Why He Bought It
   Chiang is a big name now; he had established himself as an artist & was making the move as an author by the time Editor Hayden started reading for S3. Chiang had contributed to S2 & received good press (Hugo finalist & a couple of Best anthologies). So that was a factor, maybe even the deciding one. Also, on the face of it, the story bravely takes a position on religion & morality, even copping from tracts that normally repel SF&F readers, & it concludes in a very liberal fashion with the ultimate moral ambiguity. All enough to overlook the poor art & craft. Hey, the story did do quite well for itself (see next paragraph) & probably, for the sales of S3, so maybe, editorial instincts can into play here. Good call, Patrick! So, why did it win the Hugo and make several other award ballots? In that other review, I hinted societal subtext has been powerful before in making stories popular. The original Invasion of the Body-Snatchers rode the backlash during the McCarthy era; other examples don't come easily to mind, but they happened. In the aftermath of 9-11, moral questions hung over the world, particularly the U.S.A., home of most SF&F fans. A story that said basically "you can't figure out life" fit the mood very well. Being the first story in the book didn't hurt.
   Basics
   The Hook: "This is the story of a man named Neil Fisk, and how he came to love God. The pivotal event in Neil's life was an occurrence both terrible and ordinary: the death of his wife Sarah. Neil was consumed with grief after she died ..." See what I mean? Two uses of the weak verb "was" in 3 sentences. "came to love God" might prick an editor's interest because it is so counter-genre, but how many readers will go past that? (Plenty, as it turns out.) Give Chiang credit for letting us know right off what kind of story it is & how he'll tell it, distant & clumsy. Point-of-View: Omniscient with the remoteness & unevenness of penetration endemic to that perspecctive. Length: 46 pages, ~16,500 words