AndyHat (andyhat) wrote,
AndyHat
andyhat

Weekend Reading

So, this weekend I broke with my usual system (that is, alphabetical by author's name on my consolidated list of recommended stories), and instead went through the three 2002 issues of Rosebud. Rosebud is a mainstream literary journal, so it's mostly ignored/unknown by the genre press. However, unlike most literary journals, Rosebud does publish a fair number of stories that could be considered SF or fantasy. Heck, they even sponsor a prize for it, the Ursula K. LeGuin Prize for Imaginative Fiction, the winner of which was published in issue 23 ("Mississipeans" by John E. Branseum). The winner and runners up (by Nisi Shawl, William Grallo, Douglas Warshow, and Ramón Garcia) were all the sort of stories that LeGuin herself mostly writes: brief studies of alien cultures (whether human or extraterrestrial). And, as with LeGuin's own stories, I found them interesting reads, though without the sort of engaging characters that I feel a story needs to make it to the top of my rankings.

Of course, Rosebud isn't the only literary journal to have included genre fiction in 2002. Bard College's journal Conjunctions had a special speculative fiction issue in 2002, guest edited by Peter Straub. Of course, they couldn't hint that it contained SF or fantasy. No, they subtitled it, "The New Wave Fabulists", whatever the heck that's supposed to mean. I have heard that is has quite a few good stories in it, though, which I'll be getting to eventually.

The best short story so far in this year's reading was "A Book, By Its Cover" by P.D. Cacek in Dreamhaven Books' 25th anniversary anthology Shelf Life. Set three months after Kristallnacht, it's a story about a young Jewish boy, an enigmatic bookstore owner, and some strange things going on at his shop. Can't really say more without spoilers, but it's an extremely well-written little tale.

On to the summary:

  • Excellent
  • Very Good
    • Tempchin, Sheryl. "The Japanese Fan". Rosebud #24.
  • Good
    • Branseum, John E. "Mississipeans". Rosebud #23.
    • Grallo, William. "Tangled Up in Blue". Rosebud #23.
    • Ramasastry, Saira. "Two Dreams and One Fate". Rosebud #24.
    • Shawl, Nisi. "The Beads of Ku". Rosebud #23.
    • Warshow, Douglas. "Surrogate". Rosebud #24.
  • Average
    • Elliot, Kandis. "Cross of Eve". Rosebud #23.
    • Garcia, Ramón. "La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities". Rosebud #24.
    • Goldstein, Hilary. "Even Swamp Creatures Get the Blues". Rosebud #24.
    • Vukcevich, Ray. "Dead Girlfriend". Rosebud #23.
Subscribe

  • (no subject)

    The Hilliard Ensemble concert tonight was excellent, and definitely worth the drive to Duke Chapel in the snow. Turns out that this 40th anniversary…

  • (no subject)

    The past few weeks have been spent playing entirely too much Lego Marvel Super Heroes and Assassin's Creed IV (finished the main story in both,…

  • Hobbitting

    Tonight was Part 2 of the Hobbit at Marbles Imax in 3D, the 3D being entirely unnecessary for this film but the Imax being quite necessary to fully…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    Help
  • 0 comments