RT Rating 4-1/2 Star Top Pick

If Jane Austen had written a fantasy novel, Shades of Milk and Honey would have been the result. Written with painstaking attention to detail, Kowal’s prose is serenely evocative of the time period, and the fantastic elements are a seamless fit. The characterization is extremely well done and Jane is a sympathetic, strong and intelligent heroine whose devotion to her family trumps nearly every other concern. Give this one a try!

In an alternate Regency England where magic exists, young women practice manipulating glamour in their quests to land eligible bachelors. Both Jane and her sister Melody are well-practiced in this womanly art, and Jane’s ability in particular is remarkable. However, it is Melody who is fair of face and who gets most of the masculine attention while Jane, at the age of 28, is on the shelf.

When Jane realizes that one of Melody’s suitors is up to no good and is getting into position to take advantage of her, she pushes her skills to their very limits and, quite accidentally, finds her very own happy ever after. (TOR, Aug., 304 pp., $24.99)

Reviewed By: Natalie A. Luhr

Readers will be disappointed only when they finish this enchanting story, which is suffused with genteel charm. The author’s judicious and effective changes to aspects of daily life clearly communicate how similar but different this world is from ours. With the grace of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, a touch of classic fairy tale magic, and an action-packed ending, this debut novel by an award-winning short story writer will appeal to fans of Jane Austen, Jane Yolen, Patricia Wrede, Susannah Clarke, and even Jasper Fforde.

Here’s the problem: Mary Robinette Kowal is too good. Not only is she famous, and gorgeous, and brilliant, she’s also a really good writer. This cannot be allowed. I tolerated it before, when it was just award-winning short stories, but her new book Shades of Milk and Honey is too much: clever and simple at the same time, with an unerring sense of historical yes-that’s-exactly-right-ness, and a mastery of craft and form belying the fact that she, like her characters, pretty much created the form out of nothing. To write a book I enjoyed this much, in a manner so talented I could never hope to recreate it, can only be considered a personal insult. Next time I see you, Mary, you’re dead.

He goes on with the review which, besides being very funny, exactly gets what I was trying to do with the novel. The quibbles that he has are, I think, perfectly fair which also pleases me.

Go read his review Shade of Milk and Honey, or, Why I’m going to murder Mary Robinette Kowal.

Oh, and you should buy I Am Not A Serial Killer which will hopefully mitigate his anger and allow me to live. Also, it’s really good.

No matter whether one comes into Shades of Milk and Honey as an unabashed fan of Jane Austen or, like me, avoids the stuff like the plague, Mary Robinette Kowal has delivered a debut novel to satisfy any and everyone. Shades of Milk and Honey is silky smooth and beautifully written. Kowal uses, on occasional, the style, spelling, and formality of Austen-era fiction, but does so in a modern manner to ease the reader through the novel. It works and works to the point that not only can I recommend Shades of Milk and Honey to readers who would never otherwise pick up this book, but I can also state that after finishing Shades of Milk and Honey readers will be ready for Glamour in Glass now and won’t want to wait for next year.

This is the first of what I hope to be a regular feature called Getting to Know. The goal will be to give a brief overview of an author that is new to me and some of their short work while also mentioning what novel length works they have in the pipeline. This also plays in to my reading resolution of getting to more short fiction this year. First to fall victim is Mary Robinette Kowal.

via GETTING TO KNOW | Mary Robinette Kowal’s Evil Robot Monkey & More ~ Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf & Book Review.

Kowal has created not only one fascinatingly alien society, but two, based on the same physiology. Pimi and her family don't quite seem human, but they are convincingly people, and not particularly ant-like.

via Locus Online Reviews: Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, #3.

First, let’s discuss short stories a bit. Short fiction is hard for me to review. Simply put, I don’t care too much for it.

Okay, he really does say that, but then! Then he goes on to say a whole bunch of nice things and wraps up with:

High-five, Mary. You made me like short stories again.

Whew.

All in all, Scenting the Dark makes it clear that Kowal can do in 5 pages what other authors can’t do in 50. It’s going to be interesting to see what she does with 300 or so pages to play with in her debut novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, due out from Tor this summer. I expect huge things.

via Stomping on Yeti: YetiReview: Scenting the Dark and Other Stories.

Scenting the Dark and Other Stories is notable, compared to other first books I’ve seen, for its brevity — only 8 short stories, some 80 pages. I rather think this is a wise choice — start with something of a taster, a sample. It’s not that she has used up all the good stuff either — for instance, neither of the stories I've reprinted is included here. The book does represent her style and concerns very well. It’s also representative temporally — a couple of her earliest stories are included, and a couple from 2009, including one new to this book. On the evidence of this book (and, I will add, her other work that I’ve seen) Kowal is a writer interested to a great extent in the characters behind her stories.

You can read the rest at The SF Site Featured Review: Scenting the Dark and Other Stories.  Needless to say, I am very, very pleased.

Scenting the Dark and Other Stories Mary Robinette Kowal. Subterranean (<http://www.subterraneanpress.com>www.subterraneanpress.com), $25 (80p) ISBN 978-1-59606-267-2

Campbell Award–winner Kowal presents a broad spectrum of stories in her chapbook-slim first collection. The heartbreaking “Just Right,” in which a family struggles with a child’s strange behavior, isn’t speculative at all. “Death Comes but Twice” edges into dark fantasy, while blind perfumer Penn is stalked by an enormous predator in SF horror story “Scenting the Dark.” The deepest tale is “Some Other Day,” in which a young scientist struggles to undo the terrible consequences of her father’s well-meant work, while “Jaiden’s Weaver” is a sweet story about nurturing and caring for a creature others think deformed. Kowal’s stories don’t always plumb the depths of speculation or characters, but when they do the results are often stirring. This excellent introduction to her work is likely to make her new fans. (Nov.)

What we tried to do with this was to put together a miniature collection of the stories which are hard to find or have never been printed in physical form.  Which means that you are getting my very first published story, ever, “Just Right” all the way up through “Jaiden’s Weaver” which came out online earlier this year.

Oh, and an intro by John Scalzi.

IROSF gives our cover story, Caitlyn Paxson’s “Carnivale of Abandoned Tales” a Recommended as well as Becca De La Rosa’s “River Water.” Lois Tilton says,  “highly imaginative look at love and death and storytelling,”

Sam Tomaino at SF Review weighs in:

The stories in Shimmer are like pieces of rich fudge, all very different but quite delicious. It is worthy of our support.

Grab your copy of Issue 10 today: you can download the electronic edition for free, or subscribe. Delicious stories waiting to be read!

I’m looking forward to Issue 11, which will be the first with the wonderful Steven Stanley as art director.

Allen finds his groove for this second annual anthology of weird stories, selecting 16 wonderfully evocative, well-written tales. Marie Brennan’s thought-provoking “Once a Goddess” considers the fate of a goddess abruptly returned to mortality. Tanith Lee puts a stunning twist in the story of a morose prince in “The Pain of Glass.” Mary Robinette Kowal’s “At the Edge of Dying” describes a world where magic comes only to those at death’s door. In “Hooves and the Hovelof Abdel Jameela,” Saladin Ahmed tellsof a small village on the edge of a desert, a hermit and a woman who may be a witch. Each story fits neatly alongside the next, and the diversity of topics, perspectives and authors makes this cosmopolitan anthology a winner. (July)

via Fiction – 5/25/2009 – Publishers Weekly. (Scroll to the bottom)

I haven’t run across this site before, but I like the way it’s laid out. It gives a non-spoiler summary, plus trivia about the author, where to find the story and says “if you like this then you’ll like…”

Anyway, I thought it was a nifty site and worth pointing out.

“Evil Robot Monkey” is a heartbreaking and surprising story. The title might suggest a little robot monkey being destructive and nasty, but Mary Kowal tells a different and unexpected story. The titular monkey is introduced working a potter’s wheel, making a vase. Then…

via Adventures in Reading: Hugo Award Nominee: “Evil Robot Monkey”.

It’s a great examination of art and the creative process, and what it feels like to be an artist who’s looked at merely as a curiosity or as a momentary amusement for child barbarians. And art as a containment device for impotent rage.

Also, you have to check out the illustration that goes with the review.

via Afternoon Listening: The Evil Robot Monkey Just Wants To Create.

In a future world where the weather is controlled, vineyard owner Bharat Mundari is unable to pay his weather bill after spending too much on his daughter’s wedding. The grapes are suffering in the resulting drought, and he is afraid to tell his wife about the trouble they are in; she knows, however, that he is keeping a secret from her and imagines the worse.

Although it gets a bit sappy towards the end, this one is enhanced by the viniculture neep, and the wine-review epigraphs opening each section are a nice touch:
Mundari Vineyard 2045, Nashik (India), Shiraz

Black cherry, plum, and currant flavors mingle with aromas of sweet tobacco and sage in this dependable offering from India.

I have to give credit to Rob for the wine-review epigraphs. He wrote them. I cut them down to manageable lengths.

via IRoSF: Short Fiction, January 2009.

A teaser:

The editors of Shimmer have put together another fine issue, well worth your support.

Here’s a teaser:

Beneath the glossy cover art by Aunia Kahn, the 2008 Spring issue of Shimmer is filled with illustrated stories loosely based on relationships, and how the power of love or the lack of it influences people’s lives. This issue will satisfy the widely diverse palates of fantasy readers.

Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Scenting the Dark” (Apex Online-Aug. 24) is enchanting, if not for the story itself, then for the intriguing use of a blind main character. An apt metaphor for a human exploring a new planet with only a few supports, this tale of space tragedy is textually vibrant, all without using the sense of sight.

The chickadee hatches a plot with the live mouse, but it’s hard to believe that the sparrow would have been so foolish as to fall for their trick. I don’t think the chickadee is very nice.

Hee hee. I don’t think the chickadee is very nice either.

…don’t let the surface innocence of the story fool you. Kowal delves into shades of gray and exposes the grayness in a fairy-tale style trapping often used (at least in modern times) to compare the usual black-and-white view of morality. All these reasons and more make this story well worth reading.

This is a fun little steampunk parable whose apparent moral lesson (pride comes before the fall) is somewhat subverted by the cold, calculated nature of Chickadee’s schemes.

What’s interesting to me is that I thought about putting an actual moral at the end, but decided not to because it defused the story. I asked some early readers what moral they would put and they all said, “Well clearly it’s [x].” Except [x] was different for every one of them.

So, now I’m curious. What do you think the moral of the story is?

Then Tor solved my problem by releasing it as a free ebook. I downloaded that sucker faster than you can say download and have to wonder why I waited so long to read it. Granted, my family is from Chattanooga, so there’s an immediate connection there, but more importantly, the story and characters are compelling.

How compelling you might ask? When Eden was — no spoilers, suffice to say she was in deep, I went an extra stop on the train and then walked back READING. You think walking while reading a book makes you look nerdy? Walking while reading a palm pilot… now that’s dedication.

If you haven’t read it, and the idea of Southern Gothic horror sounds appealing, let me recommend Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I’ve got a copy of the next book on order. I just wish I could get it as an ebook.

Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Bound Man” was another favorite, everything from its Asian flavor, strong protagonist, and the enjoyable fight scene.

The story is, in turn, playful and charming, well thought out and deliberate, and Kowal appears to have written her own version of an O Henry story.

It works.

O’Henry was really my first love in the world of short stories. Sure, I’d read others and enjoyed them. Really, my first love should have been Ray Bradbury, but I think O’Henry captured me because his stories were deceptively simple. There were no elements of wonder, like Martians or rocket ships, just people living ordinary lives. And then, with one turn of phrase, he could change the entire meaning of everything you’ve read. When people want to write twist endings, what they really want is to write an O. Henry story.

Take a moment and go read “The Skylight Room.”

Last Thursday, you may recall, I posted a bunch of my one-star Amazon reviews and challenged other authors to do the same, the idea being, you know, that there are worse things in life than a negative Amazon review. And what do you know, authors have begun taking me up on the challenge, posting choice one and two star reviews they have received. How very healthy of them.

I thought I wouldn’t get to play along, not having any novels out, but, behold! One of the anthologies I’m in has a one star-review.

The title of this book clearly tries to capitualize on the popular sci-fi motion picture “Solaris” and the underlying work, but nothing could be further from the truth. These stories at are best second rate, and most are third rate. The plots are often interesting but the prose is pedestrian, the charaters are wooden, and the outcomes are guessed a mile in advance. Save your money for the Tessaracts series

Wooden characters! Pedestrian prose! Predictable!

Scalzi was right, you can take a certain amount of joy from a negative review.

Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Evil Robot Monkey” is an affecting snapshot in the life of a chimp with an implant in his head that increases his intelligence. Unfortunately for him, that lands him in the “hellish limbo” of being “too smart to be with other chimps, but too much of an animal to be with humans.” He becomes the subject of ridicule of children in what is presumably a school where he spends his time behind a pottery wheel. The interesting premise is delicately overlaid with emotion by having a single human show the chimp some compassion, resulting in a quick-and-dirty sf short story that is both charming and memorable.

Mary Robinette Kowal is better than you.

No, she doesn’t think this. And she’ll kill me for making such a statement. But I stand by the assertion.

She’s the female equivalent of MacGuyver, able to build anything from a paper clip and the remains of a crappy late 90s horror chapbook.

A word of fair warning if you click through. It’s all lies.

Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Evil Robot Monkey,” the shortest piece in this anthology, is a smart tale about monkeys with implants and a cautionary tale of how intelligence can sometimes be very lonely.

Save for the first story, which was written based on the cover illustration, the art and the stories they inspired are printed together. Unfortunately, this means the art is printed in black and white on plain paper stock, often resized to accommodate text on the same page and apparently printed with a standard printer. Given the detailed linework that features in so many of the pieces, this isn’t the best approach. Images are blurred and details are lost, and while this is likely the result of budget constraints, when the art is the purpose of the publication, it can’t help but have a negative impact. Only the illustration on the cover, “Penny’s Grave” by John Picacio, is printed on heavier paper stock, sized so that the details are fully visible.

Ow. I have two reactions to that, one is that we used our regular printer, which I believe is offset. And two, that the reviewer is right. Some of the images are not as crisp as I would like. This has been a problem in previous issues, but one that I thought only bothered me or at least, no one else seems to notice it. And that, is the value of a good negative review when they say something that can make you acknowledge a flaw.

Now, there are also things in there that just make me giggle. Like the reviewer wishing that Chrissy Ellsworth artwork had been printed in color. It’s funny because the original image is black and white. Only one was created in color and that’s Carie Ann Baade’s beautiful artwork in Kuzhali Manickavel’s story. Nor did I resize anything to accommodate the text. The half page images were horizontals, so they don’t fill a full page when their width is the same as a vertical. But, the point is taken that it would be nice for our next art issue to have bigger pictures and to really talk to our printer about the importance of clean images.

Fortunately, the reviewer loves our fiction. Here’s the last line of the review.

Despite the formatting problems with the featured art, this is a solid example of good fantastical short fiction, and an issue of Shimmer well worth acquiring.

Early in 2007 the science-fiction imprint Solaris marked its launch with The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction. A year later, editor George Mann returns with a follow-up, this time featuring strong stories from Kay Kenyon, Michael Moorcock, Mary Robinette Kowal, Eric Brown and others.

I’m so stunned that all I can see is “stories from celebrity, celebrity, me, celebrity…”

I started jotting down favorite parts but then got caught up in the story and forgot to keep doing it. So here are two from close to the beginning.

He knew she couldn’t see what he was seeing. Because he was going crazy and that’s not really a team sport.

When Bridget picks up her only Barbie (she doesn’t normally pay with “such girlie things” and had given it a makeover) we get this fabulous bit.

This was Malibu Death Barbie. A fashion-conscious dealer of justice. The last thing her enemies saw before their horrible dismemberment was a flash of pink lipstick and a really big knife.

If you’ve got a teen reader in your life, look for Gods of Manhattan when it comes out. History, adventure and magic! What more can you ask for?

All of us agreed that this was the best production of Macbeth we’d ever seen. Start with a good strong cast. Then, my god, give them a production design that is about as close to perfect as anything I’ve seen. Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s sharpest plays and this dives right in and cuts.

It’s hard to explain why it’s so good, without spoiling some surprises for people who are planning on seeing this production. So — don’t click on the cut if you don’t want to know. Before I get all private on you…

Thank you Mom and Dad!!!

So. The whole thing was set in an institution, complete with nuns, tile walls and a freight elevator. The stage was largely bare, with some institutional tables that rolled on and a few chairs. Otherwise, bleak.

The first scene is in an operating room, with a dying soldier. The nuns are trying to help the doctor work on him. Scene ends. One of the nuns injects the soldier and he dies. She pulls her operating mask down and says, “When shall we three meet again…”

!!! The three weird sisters !!! I got chills. Emily gasped.

They appeared later as servers in the castle and they almost always had a knife or other blade in their hand. All the way through, it was like that. Simple, beautiful uses of staging and actors to provide sudden moments of chilling horror. Gorgeously done.

The highlight though was Banquo’s death. It happened on a train, created by simply having the actors sit in seats facing each other, within a rectangle of light making the footprint of a railway car. Banquo’s throat is cut and he collapses on the floor.

The scene freezes. Slowly, very deliberately. He stands up, turns, walks through the railway car and disappears into the freight elevator while the cast on the train sings a kyrie. Still singing, they move about onstage, remove their coats and Macbeth is front and center and we’re at his castle preparing for a banquet. He’s not in Banquo’s death scene, but by having him appear out of it, makes you feel his hand on the events so strongly.

They sit, they eat.

The elevator descends. The walls start bleeding (projections) and Banquo is standing there. He comes out of the elevator, walks the length of the table and Macbeth screams. He jumps up, knocking his chair over and– blackout.

Intermission.

My god. I keep saying that. We were all saying that. It was such a powerful, visceral moment.

We return from intermission. The play starts at the top of the banquet scene. They play through all the moments, but play sections of it silently. It worked, you’ll have to trust me. MacBeth sits down, as he did before.

The elevator descends. The walls don’t bleed, Banquo doesn’t walk. But when MacBeth stands up and screams about the vision he’s having– you know. You know exactly what horror he is seeing.

It was amazing. Best vision of Banquo scene I’ve ever witnessed.

The whole play was like that. Surprising, inventing. Using the stage and technology and actors to shake you. Have I mentioned that I loved it?

Estimated Time Required: 10-30 hours per month, (Variable depending on time of year. Heaviest commitment: March, April, and May)

Job Description:
1. Advise the Board on the nebulaawards.com web presence, set priorities for nebulaawards.com consistent with the overall goal of promoting the Nebula and Norton Awards, the nominees, the winners, the Awards weekend, SFWA anthologies, and through them all, the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Assist in recruiting, training, and coordinating volunteers as needed.

2. Review existing Nebula-related and other genre promotional material and its organization to remove extraneous and confusing material and create an organizational map that is easily navigable and makes relevant material easily discoverable.

3. Suggest, gather, organize, and provide content to the Nebula webmaster, including interviews, opinion essays, images, and bios/essays from Nebula and Norton Award winners.

4. Serve as liaison between the sfwa.org webmaster, Nebula webmaster, Bulletin and NAR editors, Executive Director, and SFWA members.

5. Create press releases regarding important Nebula website updates and work with media representatives as necessary to publicize the website.

Benefits: Extensive networking, connection with the redesign of a high-profile website suitable for resume mention, and increased visibility in SFWA.

Skills required: A high level of organization, ability to lead a team, editing and document management experience, experience with content management systems, blogs, and making video/audio material web accessible. Any level of SFWA membership

If you are interested, send a brief introductory letter to sfwavolunteer@gmail.com

In the writing arena, I quote reviews and mentions here, and yeah, usually focus on the juicy stuff. For instance,

Gardner Dozois talked about his picks for the Nebula short story categories, saying:

My vote would go to Andy Duncan’s “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse,” … My next choice, I guess, would be “For Solo Cello, op. 12,” by Mary Robinette Kowal … followed by “Titanium Mike Saves the Day,” by David D. Levine…

Woot! Gardner Dozois puts me in the number two position! Except… if you read the whole quote.

This is the weakest of the categories.

My vote would go to Andy Duncan’s “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse,” although it’s not even really a fantasy let alone SF–what it is is an Andy Duncan story, who’s a genre to himself, much like Howard Waldrop. Since Duncan is popular with the membership, it might have a chance, although it did appear in an expensive hardcover anthology from a small press.

Not much else here I’m really enthusiastic about. My next choice, I guess, would be “For Solo Cello, op. 12,” by Mary Robinette Kowal, which is SF (but which is probably unlikely to win), followed by …

Ow. Gardner Dozois says, “Not really enthusiastic!” and “Unlikely to win!”

Ah, context… Think I can put that on a poster?

Baby steps to regain musical ability.

4 out of 5

The final story in the book, Mary Robinette Kowal’s Tomorrow And Tomorrow is yet another strong tale, concerning both a mother’s love and a husband’s hate. It is also a timely look at the idea of class systems and those who come from elsewhere; where, though being well educated and even well respected in their places or countries of origin, are forced to take menial jobs and face constant ridicule to survive in their new environment.

The review closes with this line, “Certainly one of 2007’s best anthology titles, it receives my highest recommendation.”

Once they post the official preliminary ballot, I’ll share it here, because a couple of my favorites have made it as well. I’m tremendously excited for the authors and want to see them make it to the final ballot.

I am so, very, very excited and pleased today.

HorrorScope did a review of Horror in 2007

To see out the death of 2007, HorrorScope assembled a team of experts within the field of horror and dark fantasy to compile an experts’ choice recommended reading list.

If you click through and scroll down to “International authors to watch in 2008,” somehow, my name wound up on the list. This is funny because I don’t think of myself as a horror writer. I know I write it sometimes, but I have a different picture in my head of myself. One with less blood and pain.

Still, I’m awfully flattered and pleased.

The strongest stories this year were probably Geoffrey Girard’s multi-part Cain xp11 (not for the squeamish) and Mary Robinette Kowal’s Horizontal Rain.

I’m stunned. It’s not even a story that was in the magazine; it was in the online version.

The highlight for me was, of course, this:

The illustrations throughout this issue were very well done. They had detail and connected very well with the stories. The cover was appropriate and appealing, with a simple graphic design that grabbed the eye without shouting too loud. Inside, the layout was excellent, the stories very readable and the binding solid (it had a graphic novel sort of binding). It was held easier in the hand than a mass market paperback, and each story is just the right length to get you through lunch at the office.

Way to go James and Jeremy Owen, to whom we owe all the art.

Concluding the anthology is Mary Robinette Kowal’s futuristic “Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, the tale of Tuyet, a cleaning woman working on a space station hoping to earn enough money to buy her ailing son a new set of lungs. A tale of the desperate things people do for the sake of others, this story presents a sympathetic character who is sucked into a murder plot after the fact, and is too deeply involved by the time she realizes it to change the outcome. With more than just her own life at stake, Tuyet is tragically doomed by either path she takes.

The pacing is really atrocious and the movie skips from one action scene to the next. I do not remember the book feeling so full of lucky coincidences. This really felt like “And Lyra gets into trouble! Look! Someone saves her in the nick of time! And Lyra gets into trouble! Look! etc!!!”

I was sad. But I’ll still go see the second one, hoping that they get a handle on the pacing next time. It’s still worth seeing, mind you, because it is very, very pretty.

The rest of my complaints are spoilers.

I watched a preview last night and am delighted to let you know that the hearts I made and the twenty tiny ladders make total sense within the context of the play.

Check out their blurb.

Jeff and George, mourning the death of their mother, struggle to make ends meet at the family ladder store, which George also utilizes as a front for the black market sale of human hearts, hearts bought and sold for people who either feel nothing or too damn much!

Previews Begin: November 14
Special Preview Benefit: November 19
For benefit information and tickets, click this link
Opening Night: November 20
Runs through December 16
Wed – Sat at 8pm, Sun at 5pm
For tickets, call 212-868-4444 or click this link

Two further Summer issues from the small press: both from magazines distinguished both by longevity and attractiveness. Talebones’ 35th issue has perhaps slightly more of a horror focus than usual–at any rate, my favorite story is a clever horror piece, Mary Robinette Kowal’s ‘Death Comes But Twice,’ in which a man finds a way to be revived from death, hopefully to live forever–but there is a terrible catch.

This is my favorite story of this issue. I just love science fiction when it treats science honestly and with heart.

The puppets, designed by Mary Robinette Kowall [sic] , are detailed, lifelike and sometimes capable of expressing quite nuanced emotions.

The highlights:

For this latest Short Trips anthology the editor, Steven Savlie, has roped in an experienced group of writers to create a more self-consciously literary collection than usual, one that suggests voguish, city-themed short story compilations rather than the esoteric, sci-fi themes of past Short Trip collections. As a result, and by locating all of the stories in Prague of the past, present and future as opposed to the rather wider canvases of other Short Trips, Destination Prague succeeds in feeling quite different from its predecessors, with a consistency of quality and stylishness that has not always been evident.

…

There are some very fine entries here. The opening story Midnight in the Cafe of the Black Madonna with its alien elephant trying to prevent genocide, sets the bar high, while the funny Dogs of War, spooky Spoilsport and haunting Suspension and Disbelief stand out.

I thought I couldn’t get any more tickled about this sale, but, yowza! my story is “haunting” and among those that “stand out.”

And yes, after hearing a rumor that my story was mentioned, I did troop down to the closest book store and pick up a copy of the magazine. I mean, Doctor Who!

Mary Robinette Kowal gives us Death Comes But Twice. Finally, a story I thoroughly enjoyed. I really appreciated her grasp of time/style and how much her story built upon other stories I have loved from the past. I enjoyed her attention to detail, her ability to bring me into her world and I cared about what happened to her characters. For me, this is a double thumbs up! Kudos!

Yay!

Other stories do in fact meet many of the criteria listed in my opening paragraph. Mary Robinette Kowal’s ‘Bound Man’ – one of the longer pieces in the anthology – goes for an epic scale in both space and time, having her warrior heroine Li Reiko summoned across the ages, by means of a magical Sword, to aid a beleaguered village community in a harsh northern land. Both Li Reiko’s sophisticated Japan-esque homeland and the Viking-era Iceland analogue to which she travels are nicely evoked – and the heightened, the-fate-of-all-depends-on-this register of epic is captured well: