An uneven anthology that nevertheless contains some fascinatingly thought-provoking stories.
In an anthology of stories by Latino and Latina authors based in the United States, Goodwin presents a diverse group of voices working in the realm of speculative fiction.
The term “Latin@” is a gender-neutral alternative to the traditionally gendered conventions of the Spanish language. The choice to use it in the title of this anthology is a reflection of its inclusive and broad-ranging table of contents. With 24 pieces that include short stories, poems, and a photo sequence of a fictionalized moon landing, this book offers readers an enthusiastic introduction to “Latin@ authors from both coasts and from eight different national traditions.” The individual works explore various genres of speculative fiction, from creeping psychological disturbance to alien invasions to noir-tinged romps in a New York City infested by ghosts, and while some of them have been previously published, many are original to this anthology. Each story receives a brief introduction that notes the author’s other works and, perhaps, reveals a preoccupation with his or her academic credentials. While a number of the stories are unfortunately insubstantial, lacking a sense of wholeness or feeling like wisps of ideas that have yet to be vividly imagined, there are several standout selections. In “Sin Embargo,” by Sabrina Vourvoulias, the psychology of immigration and asylum collides with inhuman transformation. Junot Díaz’s stunning “Monstro” offers a terrifying vision of an outbreak of a disease with zombielike horrors in Haiti. “Caridad,” by Alex Hernandez, reimagines a girl’s coming-of-age party as the forcible bestowal of a networked brain. The deeply upsetting and disorienting “Difficult at Parties” displays Carmen Maria Machado’s virtuosic ability to carve truth out of strangeness. These stories alone affirm Goodwin’s assertion that, despite their differences in viewpoint or subject matter, the stories “maintain the wonder and astonishment that only science fiction and fantasy can offer.”
An uneven anthology that nevertheless contains some fascinatingly thought-provoking stories.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-60940-524-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Wings Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
One small step, no giant leaps.
Weir (The Martian, 2014) returns with another off-world tale, this time set on a lunar colony several decades in the future.
Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara is a 20-something deliveryperson, or “porter,” whose welder father brought her up on Artemis, a small multidomed city on Earth’s moon. She has dreams of becoming a member of the Extravehicular Activity Guild so she’ll be able to get better work, such as leading tours on the moon’s surface, and pay off a substantial personal debt. For now, though, she has a thriving side business procuring low-end black-market items to people in the colony. One of her best customers is Trond Landvik, a wealthy businessman who, one day, offers her a lucrative deal to sabotage some of Sanchez Aluminum’s automated lunar-mining equipment. Jazz agrees and comes up with a complicated scheme that involves an extended outing on the lunar surface. Things don’t go as planned, though, and afterward, she finds Landvik murdered. Soon, Jazz is in the middle of a conspiracy involving a Brazilian crime syndicate and revolutionary technology. Only by teaming up with friends and family, including electronics scientist Martin Svoboda, EVA expert Dale Shapiro, and her father, will she be able to finish the job she started. Readers expecting The Martian’s smart math-and-science problem-solving will only find a smattering here, as when Jazz figures out how to ignite an acetylene torch during a moonwalk. Strip away the sci-fi trappings, though, and this is a by-the-numbers caper novel with predictable beats and little suspense. The worldbuilding is mostly bland and unimaginative (Artemis apartments are cramped; everyone uses smartphonelike “Gizmos”), although intriguing elements—such as the fact that space travel is controlled by Kenya instead of the United States or Russia—do show up occasionally. In the acknowledgements, Weir thanks six women, including his publisher and U.K. editor, “for helping me tackle the challenge of writing a female narrator”—as if women were an alien species. Even so, Jazz is given such forced lines as “I giggled like a little girl. Hey, I’m a girl, so I’m allowed.”
One small step, no giant leaps.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-44812-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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