Spec Fic Recs From July
10 Aug
Hello, other internet people. I come to you with a very short, but super rad list from the month of July– all Sci-Fi all the time. I’ve been trying to make a particular Science Fiction idea happen for me, so I’ve been inundating my brain with the magical stuff to see if it takes. Between these things, a re-read of the Vonnegut collection Welcome to the Monkey House (Amazing. Amazing every time, all the time), and a late-night attempt at watching the Dune miniseries you’d think I’d have something. But really all I had was a good time.
Leaves little room for complaint, though.
Two things:
1. July saw the happy return of Apex Magazine. Happy not just because it returned, but because it returned with gems like Glenn Lewis Gillette‘s She Called Me Sweetie.
I’m not going to lie: this will screw with your head. It’s one of those stories that feels a little bit like you’re being rubbed with sandpaper in the beginning, but it makes you like it. And by the end you’re pretty worn down and it hurts, but you want more so you read even faster. And two days later you still have oddly-shaped sore spots, uncomfortable and kind of guilty, so that you almost want to go back and read it again to figure out why the hell you can’t get rid of it.
Hm, belabored that metaphor a bit, didn’t I? Honestly though, it’s gorgeous. If you dig it, you can support the Apex Resurrection by buying a digital copy, and feel like you did a good thing (and got something really good out of it. Because yes, I’m one of those jerks that believes that human beings can never be genuinely altruistic).
2. Last month, AtomJack ran By the Dawn’s Early Light by Bruce Boston. It’s a weird one in that it’s not so much a story as a sort of psychological trip through an era. But, like most excellent Sci-Fi, it provides a pseudo-objective method of looking inward that is pretty important these days. (I keep hearing The Clash’s Clampdown now that I typed that…)
I like that it has this vein of recognizable propaganda running through it, just enough to let me think it’s my world that’s come to this. Because that’s the point, isn’t it? Well I also like that it dragged me right through to the end– possibly through the power of some hook in my stomach. Or maybe just good timing and pretty prose.
And as a final semi-related note, I just want to say how excited I am that the Semi-Prozine Hugo category was saved. Weird Tales got a fabulous win. (If you go over there, check out Steven Archer’s Lovecraft-inspired paintings. I so need one.)
ETA: Hey! I just noticed I’ve been doing this for a year now, as the first one was in July of last year. So, erm, not sure what that signifies except that I still like reading things. But it seems cool somehow.
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Now playing: The Horrors – Death at the Chapel
via FoxyTunes
Happy Belated Birthday, Spec Fic Recs! : )
And a big happy birthday from me too, Spec Fic et al.
My weird obsessive tendencies for cataloging stuff thank you both!
Doesn’t time fly. I have an image in my head that wants to be part of a sci-fi novel, but I keep pushing it away.
That’s exactly where I am! I have the voice of a nameless MC and this image. And a call for submissions I desperately want to answer. GRAH!
Thank you. I needed the empathy
It’s official. I understand nothing you say anymore. I will congratulate you though on staying in one place for entire year!
Dana, I call shenanigans on you!
I just discovered your review; sorry to come to it late. Thank you! I shall mention at my web-site, if that’s OK with you.
Sure thing Glenn! I ought to have looked you up and told you about it– don’t know what I was thinking. Thanks for the story!