Video Game Madness

Hola Readers.  Time for another ramble.  Today let's change our pace a bit and ramble on a short story collection shall we?  The book is Press Start to Play edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams.  I picked it up because I was in the mood for something technological and nerdy AND I am pretty much trying to collect all of the collections that John Joseph Adams has a hand in 'cause he tends to have collections I love.  In this anthology every story is based on the concept of a video game.  How did this work out?  Some worked better then others, here are some of my favorites.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Respawn by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, translated by Nathan Allan Collins - An average guy is working in a beef bowl joint when he is killed in a botched robbery.  How surprised is he when he wakes up in his killers body.  He, in the killers body is sent to jail for his own murder and while there is killed again...and respawns into another body.  This continues as he realizes that he is pretty much immortal and respawns into another body every time he dies.  His thought process on this new power is really what makes this story, I found my self enjoying it very very much.

1UP by Holly Black - A group of gamer friends who have never met in person gather at the funeral of one of their own.  Sorry's last request after a long illness was that they attend his funeral.  As the group examines Sorry's room after the funeral they discover a game.  Following the game reveals a story of horrific origins and reveals how and why Sorry died.  In true video game fashion, when the friends follow the game to the end it leads to Sorry's actual grave, where upon digging him up he "comes back to life" as he only faked his death in a last ditch desperate bid at freedom.  This was a great read on games, friendship and their connection.

Survival Horror by Seanan McGuire - One of my favorite authors writing a story featuring one of my favorite characters...of course it is gonna end up on my favorites list.  Antimony, the youngest Price girl from the InCryptid series is chilling with her super nerdy cousin Artie when they are both sucked into an evil video game that if they lose, results in the freedom of a potentially world ending monster.  We watch them play through, all while bantering with their signature snark of awesome.  This was a perfect blend of my favorite type of puzzle video games and one of my favorite series.  Pretty much all a girl could ask for.

Save Me Plz by David Barr Kirtley - Meg hasn't heard from Devon in four months.  They had dated for a while but his obsession with the computer game Realmso  Eldritch eventually ended their relationship.  So Meg grabs her sword and set's off to buy the game to try and reconnect with him.  As soon as she logs on Devon sends her a message "Save Me Plz"  Of she sets to find a gnome to help her on her quest which he does by giving her the Wand of Reification.  She goes through the quest and ends up at a castle where Devon is working on his computer.  He tells her he found a loophole that allows him to collect extra Wand's and he is using them to slowly morph the "real world" into a world resembling the game.  He tells Meg that she has voluntarily done the mission multiple times and she finally agrees to continue.  Really cool story.

The Relive Box by T.C. Boyle - A new game console has come out called the Relive Box.  The purpose of this is to allow the user to relive their own memories in real time.  In our story Katie and her father fight over the use of the box.  Katie who is a young 15 wants to go back and relive before her mother left.  Her father just want's to relive his younger day's, trying to find what went wrong with his life.  This reliving essentially takes over his life to the point of losing his daughter.  I think what really hits me about this story is all the thinking it made me do.  If people are constantly reliving the past, how do you make new memories?  What happens when younger users with limited memories spend their whole life fixated on a single memory?  So much to think about!  I love it!

Gamer's End by Yoon Ha Lee - In the distant future where things are done on a galactic level, realistic immersive games are used to train soldiers.  A soldier who is up for a promotion is sent up to a space station to be put through a simulation.  At this time the bulk of the government is at war with a group called the Taurag Republic who while willing to wage war, do everything in their power to not hurt civilians and non-combatants.  After a few minutes into the simulation he is pulled out when the station he is on is invaded by the Taurag Republic.  He is directed by voice to fight his way to the core and use the stabilizer as a weapon against them.  He is forced to kill a couple of the enemy on his way, which disturbs him more then he thought it would.  Once he gets their and get's directions he realizes that while using the station as a weapon would stall the enemy and buy them some time, it would also kill millions of people on the planet surface.  He refuses to do it.  He wakes up and is told that the whole thing was a real scenario designed to test his empathy and willingness to kill civilians.  He has "passed" and the promotion is his.  Great thinking story, loved it.

Killswitch by Catherynne M. Valente - I love this author, mostly because of the imagery she can evoke while still telling a fairly cohesive story and this story is no exception.  The game is called Killswitch and it can only be played once then the game deletes itself, it cannot be copied, it cannot be saved, it cannot be shared. This drives people crazy because there are two different playable characters to choose from the impossible, invisible Ghast that nobody has ever been able to play past the first level and Porto, a human female who the game is about.  The maker of the game has hinted at all kinds of secrets...but nobody can find them all because of it's unreplayability.  The story ends with the last of the limited game being bought by a player who has vowed to play it on a live stream, but the only footage is a minute of him starting the game and crying...

This collection as with all anthologies was a bit hit or miss.  Some of the stories felt a bit generic or flat, but over all I enjoyed the majority of the stories and will definitely be reading many of them again.  There were a lot of familiar authors that did not disappoint, and I got to read some great stories from writers I have never heard of, which to me is an awesome perk of short story collections. I give this book 7 out of 10 game controllers and recommend it to anybody who has enjoyed any sort of video or computer game.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Epic

Ok so I have FINALLY started to catch up on my reading.  After apx 200 hours spent on an ambulance or in a fire station I desperately needed the reading time.  One of the books that got me through the epic shift of crazy was Epic: Legends of Fantasy edited by John Joseph Adams.  It is a short story collection featuring authors who have set these stories in their previously written epic, sweeping worlds and it hit the spot. Here are a few of my favorite.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

 Homecoming by Robin Hobb - I was totally stoked to see the first story was by one of my current favorite authors AND set in my favorite world that this author writes in.  The story is a pre-qual to her Rain Wilds world and gives readers of her books a bit of a glimpse into how this harsh land was settled.  The author brings her signature in depth characters and an amazing ability to paint a world that feels real and complete with out over explaining things.

The Alchemist by Paolo Bacciglupi - This was a complete story with a beginning, middle and end...which is usually very hard to do in a short story format.  The story is about a man who risks everything to save his small family.  When he comes up with a solution to save his world, it is taken by the government and used to control what is left of the population.  The world was inventive and complete, the characters detailed and realistic and the story was both entertaining and nuanced.  I loved every page of this story and am now inspired to pick up a book by this guy as I have never read him before...I love it when that happens.

The Road to Levinshire by Patrick Rothfuss - This story set in a world I now want to go read about is both sad and very very good.  It shows what happens when people make assumptions, especially about whole groups of people.  There is trauma, violence and hopefully a change of thinking when a man goes through some pretty extreme measures to change peoples perspective on pre conceived notions.  This is a story of ideas, which I always find the short story format is perfect for.  This is another author I am now going to look up.

Bound Man by Mary Robinette Kowal - Two different worlds and two different times define this story.  A warrior woman is called from her time and world against her will by a man who considers her a god.  She goes through many emotions trying to figure out why everything happened the way it did.  I love stories like this that essentially turn inside out on themselves.  The contrast between the two characters, what they knew and how they felt about the current situation made for plenty to think about and was a fantastic read.

The Mystery Knight by George R. R. Martin - At this point I am sure the majority of fantasy fans have at least heard of The Song of Ice and Fire series and this entry into that universe is pretty much perfect.  It sets the story in a bit of history of the world of the Seven Kingdoms, but it is not required for a person to have read the series to enjoy it.  It is the quintessential jousting tournament/wedding/knights tale that seems to be the basis for what one would consider "classical" fantasy and it delivers every bit of castlely goodness one could want.

One of my favorite things about this collection was actually the introduction that FINALLY summed up what it is that I love about epic fantasy...seriously go read it.  The only real flaw I could come up with is that several of these stories...while they can be read and enjoyed by anybody...probably are most fully appreciated if the reader has read other books that set up the world the stories are set in...does that make any sense at all?  Anyways, this collection lived up to it's promise of EPIC.  I loved the stories set in the worlds I know and now have a couple of new authors to look up.  I give this collection 7 out of 10 demonic swords and recommend it to anybody who loves a well built world and epic fantasy!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Sherlock Everywhere And Everything And Everybody Holmes

Hola readers!  How are you all doing this week?  Ready for a rambling?  Cool.  Today I'm gonna ramble about The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes a short story collection edited by John Joseph Adams, a favorite of mine in the short story world.  This collection features stories about my favorite detective set in every style of writing you can imagine.  We've got fantasy, we've got scifi. we've got traditional, we've got alternate history, alternate reality and any and all mix of the above that one can imagine.  I would thing that this would cause the collection to be a mess, but the editor once again manages to get a sort of flow to the whole thing.  Here are some of my favorites out of the many many amazing stories within this book.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Doctor's Case by Stephen King - This story, besides reminding me how much I like Stephen King in short story form is the perfect tale to set off the collection.  Here we have a fairly straight forward Holmsian tale...but solved by Watson, who has begun to think like the famous detective after so much time spent in his company.  This story makes me smile every time I read it, I just really love every word of it.

The Adventure of the Other Detective by Bradley H. Sinor - We go off the traditional track a bit in this alternate reality story.  Dr. Watson stumbles quit by accident into a world where Moriarty is the good guy, chasing down the notorious Sherlock Holmes.  Watching Watson try and work out this world that feels turned topsy turvey, all the while seeing where it would make sense to have a place where the two master minds switch places makes one want to go back and reread a couple of the original stories.  I love how the author dealt with both worlds, and the eventual acceptance of all parties of situation.

The Adventure of the Field Theorems by Vonda N. McIntyre - The author of this story get's a bit meta on us, introducing Conan Doyle (the original Holmes author) as a character.  The author uses the well known, and slightly odd fact that Sir Doyle, while writing the coldly logical Sherlock Holmes, was actually an avid Spiritualist who was more then willing to believe anything.  This story capitalizes on this fact with a mystery set in the fields in the form of crop circles and possibly aliens.  It is hard to describe the appeal of this story other then to compare it to an almost X-files style story with the added bonus of making me want to study Conan Doyle.

Dynamics of a Hanging by Tony Pi- Another Moriarty story, and again going meta with the inclusion of authors as characters.  This time the focus is on Moriarty's early years and the discovery of an almost impossible cipher.  I think what I really liked about this story was the duel focus on music and math as a way to write a code.  It also inspired me to go find some awesome cipher's to brush up on my code breaking.

The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey by Peter Tremayne - Here we get a glimpse of Holmes younger days.  He is portrayed as a smart young man, perhaps lacking the cold logic of his older self, but brilliant none the less.  He investigates a mystery at an old friends house with the hopes of gaining the friend's sisters affection.  This turns out to be hopeless as she is engaged to a wealthy man.  Holmes does his best to solve the case, but eventually sums it up to "darker powers"  which is not the Holmes we know.  Watson however figures out what young Holmes cannot admit to himself, giving us a satisfying conclusion.

The Adventure of the Lost World by Dominic Green - Sherlock Holmes and Dinosaurs...need I say more?

The Adventure of the Pirates of Devil's Cape - Pirates!  I love pirates!  This tale takes us to the sultry swamps of New Orleans, introducing our proper London gents to the sweat and swizzle of the Big Easy.  I like this story 'cause it has just the right amount of swashbuckling, a handful of Holmsian logic and just a smidge of potential super natural.  Also there is an albino alligator, Siamese twins and bit of awesome swordplay.

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman - Another author whose short stories make me happy.  This tale is in a weird way the most traditional, yet most twisted tale in the collection.  We get a new take on a very traditional case...but in this one we get a Cthulhu alien royalty, an alternate reality and a twist ending that makes one want to go reread the story over to get every nuance.  I think that this story really sums up what the editor wanted this collection to be.  A very good entry to a very good collection.

These are just a few of the numerous and varied stories in this collection.  A few thoughts on the book as a whole.  I found an interesting pervalance of  Moriarty, Irene Adler and oddly enough H.P. Lovecraft style monsters making numerous appearances.  I noted that Watson was the most popular narration and that the authors usually used either the name of a case that was mentioned but not told in the original stories, or a twist on the title of the original stories.  I found that it took me some time to get through this book, mostly because every story had the basic element of a Holmes mystery so I had to take time to digest and think through every story as I read it...and a few I had to read twice.  Overall I loved the weird combination of the tried and true and creativity that was present in EVERY story.  I will be reading most of the stories in this collection again and recommend it to anybody who loves Holmes and just about any other genre of books.  I give it 8 out of 10 deer stalking hats.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Space Faring Bureaucracy

To appease my summer SciFi appetite I finally finished reading the short story collection Federations edited by John Joseph Adams.  The editor says he took the inspiration for this collection from watching shows like Star Trek and Star Wars and reading book like those in the Dune series.  The common theme in all of the above mentioned is the interstellar government that spans the stars.  This inspiration has lead to book chock full of a myriad different stories, governments, worlds and organizations that come together to make for a very though provoking, page turning collection that makes me want even more stories.  Here are just a few of the stellar stories in this anthology.

Carthago Delenda Est by Genevieve Valentine - A being from deep space has sent out a vision to a select member of every race in the known galaxy.  The vision is powerful enough that when the being states it will only come if all the races stop warring with each other they all comply.  The story is set many many years after the initial contact and leaves one wondering if the fact that the wars have stopped is the whole point of the secret glorious mission.  Good story, very good story.

Terra-Exulta by S.L. Gilbow - This may be one of my favorite short stories of all time.  It explores the use of language and how labeling something in a certain way can change ones perception completely.  We get a quick glimpse of a man who using only words changes a galaxy's perception of a planet form thinking it is the most beautiful paradise to being disgusted with the whole endeavor.  The story is short, sweet, to the point and really gets the point of the power of words across in a direct and entertaining manner.

Twilight of the Gods by John C. Wright - Imagine a ship so large it feels like a world.  Now imaging the people on it have lived there for so many generations that the newest ones think Earth and any other planet is nothing more then a myth or fantasy.  This story turns our pre-conceived notion of a space ship and it's inhabitants on its head.  I love the idea that this decrepit space is all these people know and how it has shaped their culture and mind set.

Pardon our Conquest by Alan Den Foster - An entire empire is conquered with out so much as a shot being fired.  The premise of this story is made even more interesting by the perspective that it is told in.  Instead of the grand hero's swooping in and gallantly helping a backwards race, we see the story from the conquered empires point of view and understand their confusion when this new alliance actually seeks to integrate them into their federation (but only if they want to) while giving them complete freedom and autonomy.  This is a great story that gets you thinking long after you have finished it.

My She by Mary Rosenblum - This is the kind of short story I love.  A to the point, thought provoking tale about the line between an individual person and a tool.  The story is about clones of a very specific pair of humans that serve as an invaluable communication tool in the future.  The tale if further enriched by the presence of a anthropomorphic dog character that acts as a servant/guide.  If this story does not get you thinking about a myriad of different things...then I don't know what will.

The Shoulders of Giants by Robert J. Sawyer - A look at what happens when the present catches up to the future.  This story is another thought provoking look at life and what happens when the continues experimentation and exploration comes to a critical mass and all converges on one point.  I also like how this story in a very concise manner manages to convoy a story, characters, humor and a thought provoking premise all in a very limited amount of pages.

Golubash, or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy by Catherynne M. Valente - Imagine my surprise, consternation and eventual delight when I discovered the author of my beloved September stories had contributed to what was an already awesome collection.  This super visual story was focused on interstellar wine as a way to convoy a story, a history, and a universe.  This story had all the trademarks of this authors insanely awesome image driven story telling with an adult twist...and wine...'cause wine is awesome...just go read the story.

In case you haven't figured it out I loved this collection.  One of the unique things about this collection is the little bit of editor commentary at the beginning of each story.  He obviously really enjoys the subject matter and has an enthusiastic and fairly concise insight into each story.  I enjoyed this collection immensely, it was varied, well edited and yet stayed easily within the identifiable confines of the theme.  I still keep picking it up, hoping more stories will magically appear because I just don't want to stop reading!  I recommend it to anybody who likes sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Wars or well written, varied, thought provoking stories.  I give it 8 out of 10 Galactic Senates and am going to go find ALL the collections edited by this guy 'cause seriously awesome stuff here.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!!