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Christmas Countdown Day 12

THE ENCLAVE by Anne Charnock

NewCon Press / 72 pgs / £6.99 paperback / ISBN 978-1910935347

Reviewed by Carol Goodwin.

In this novella, Anne Charnock returns to the near future United Kingdom of her first novel, A CALCULATED LIFE (which was a finalist for the Philip K Dick Award). In that novel genetic engineering was aiding the establishment of an elite, with access to upgrades for intelligence, antisocial behaviour etc. whilst the majority are denied these and form a struggling underclass. Whilst A CALCULATED LIFE looked mainly at the privileged through the eyes of a naïve “simulant” Jayna, this novella looks in more detail at the general population, living on minimal support and surviving on a mixture of wits and intimidation.

            The story is told mainly from the viewpoint of two characters who live in an “enclave” outside the city, where like a shanty town most of the available jobs are menial or dirty, and people are constantly scrabbling to make a living. These two characters are Caleb, a bright and enterprising twelve-year old refugee and Ma Lexie, a young widow who is barely tolerated by her husband’s gang family and surviving by using young children without parents as child labour to recycle thrown-away clothes and scraps to eke out a living. Caleb was “recruited” by a scout for the gangs from a travelling refugee group after he lost his mother and he now works in Ma Lexie’s group. When Caleb manages to catch Ma Lexie’s attention with his designs for improving clothes, she promotes him and this allows him a little more freedom to plot an escape. Both characters are simultaneously victims and manipulators. Ma Lexie may control the children’s lives but she is in turn controlled by the gang who at any time could take away her “business”. She promotes Caleb for her own advantage but also in a desire for company and someone to look after her. This is a society where everyone uses everyone. 

            In a short 59 pages, Anne Charnock constructs a very believable world which could easily be extrapolated from current events. This is an excellent example of “show not tell” – it touches on many serious issues whilst still keeping the story paramount and is more effective for leaving the reader to think and draw their own parallels. The characterisation is superb – one is both sympathetic and repulsed by the actions of the characters. The prose is first-rate – precise and sharply accurate, building up a wealth of detail via small observations. It is not a work where the technology is at the forefront, or with a large amount of “action” (although events do happen and there is a very definite plot). and thus, may not suit fans of more traditional SF. However, in my opinion, Anne Charnock in this novella has shown yet again that she can write extremely intelligent and thought-provoking SF.

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Christmas Countdown Day 11

Fave Five Anthologies

Jenny Barber

Anthologies are the best gift a fiction fanatic can receive, so if you’re looking for something a bit special to buy this holiday season, check out some of these and treat your friends, treat your family, and most especially, treat yo’self!

Defying Doomsday, edited by Tsana Dolichva & Holly Kench

Defying Doomsday collects together stories about how to survive in the apocalypse if you’re disabled, chronically ill or neuro-divergent. It addresses questions of what to do when the life saving devices have been shut down and your medication has run out, or how you can turn who you are into an advantage in a destroyed world where everything is so much harder to cope with. It’s a simply stunning anthology with a heavy focus on hope, representation, and how people can come together to survive and thrive, and is most definitely a must read.

Chicks in Chainmail, edited by Esther Friesner

This is one of my foundational anthologies and I will gleefully recommend it to anyone who passes within squee-ing distance.  It’s the first in a series of very feminist, very funny, comic-fantasy anthologies with similarly punny titles, and is positively overflowing with the love of nerdy things.  In this volume, as with the series at large, you’ll find a multitude of stories that wink at how female characters traditionally appear in media-wide SFF, and pushes hard against all the sexist clichés by twisting them around in stories that amuse and amaze. 

And for bonus reading fun, check out the Chicks Ahoy box set that includes Chainmail and the next two Chicks in the series!

The Underwater Ballroom Society, edited by Tiffany Trent & Stephanie Burgis

The Underwater Ballroom Society is a fun, and rather wonderful, anthology inspired by the underwater ballroom at Witley Park in Surrey, and has stories that cover fable and fairytale, murder and mystery, the dark and the weird, and the light hearted and fantastic.  My particular favourite stories are ‘Twelve Sisters’ by Y.S. Lee, Stephanie Burgis’ ‘Spellswept’, ‘The Queen of Life’ by Ysabeau S. Wilce, Patrick Samphire’s ‘A Spy in the Deep’ and Iona Datt Sharma’s ‘Penhallow Amid Passing Things’ but in all honesty, there’s stories to suit all tastes here so add it to Santa’s list!

She Walks in Shadows, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia & Paula R. Stiles

For those of you who like horror, particularly of the Lovecraftian variety, you’ll want to get your eyeballs around She Walks in Shadows! Shadows takes the Lovecraftian genre and brings you an illustrated volume brimming over with women and their deliciously dark and dangerous tales.   There are tales of dread and humour, weirdness and grotesqueries, with cosmic horrors and old gods, dark deals, false faces, and the overwhelming sensation that your reality cannot be trusted.  Let these ladies of horror walk you through the shadows!

Glitter and Mayhem, edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas

Glitter and Mayhem makes my urban fantasy loving heart explode with glee as I was forged in the fires of the fantastic intruding on real life; and there is much glee to be had in this anthology. There’s also fun with fairytales, interstellar roller derby, myth and magic, dancing with aliens and clubbing with cryptids, glamour and, yes, glitter and mayhem aplenty. As anthologies go, this is just crammed with unrelenting joy and it’s utterly glorious!

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Countdown to Christmas Day 10

Today we are recommending another Fox Spirit skulk member, but not our own publications. That is because in addition to some incredible short stories with us, in the last few years James Bennett has been writing novels. Awesome novels with DRAGONS. 

James is interviewed in two parts on Damien Seaman’s blog where he talks about his writing, his travels, the need for representation and getting his book deal

series image from Orbit.

:

Part 1 is here 

Part 2 is here

I have read the first two books in the Ben Garston trilogy and am very excited to get my foxy paws on the third.

And as we are reviewing this month here are my super quick reviews of the first two:

Chasing Embers
James Bennett takes myth, fairy tale, history and the almost real world and expertly pulls the threads together to weave a tale of dragons, daring adventures and ancient foes.
It’s also the heartbreaking and powerful story of a young girl’s desperation, betrayal and hope.
A fantastic story and a complete tale, with the promise of more to come.

Raising Fire
The first novel in this series created a rich world where history, myth and fairy tale blend together and offered us a protagonist driven by duty more than heroism as it built towards a climax. This second volume picks up with the fallout of the previous years events, dropping the reader straight into the action as we discover that far from being allowed to fade back into the background, Red Ben is going to be fighting for his life.
The focus in the second novel is on the eastern and western guardians of the remnants and the lore and the machinations of the Envoy, leading us through Xanadu in the past, Paris in the present and of course, a little bit of London among others. The threads of loss, betrayal, longing and survival weave throughout the fantastic story telling and compelling characters. It’s faster paced than the first, full of visceral battle scenes, with the occasional potent moment of sorrow or despair, rooting it deeply in the readers heart.
James Bennett is a superb storyteller and this series is a must read for fans of knightly adventures, dragons or fantasy, or pretty much anyone who reads fiction really.
I would recommend reading the first, but technically I think you could dip straight in at book 2, Bennett drops just enough breadcrumbs to follow the plot without the full background, although I think it is a shame to miss out on book 1 personally.

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Christmas Countdown Day 9

“New Music for Old Rituals” by Tracy Fahey
Review by Penny Jones

To say I was excited to get my hands on my copy of Tracy Fahey’s collection “New Music for Old Rituals” would be an understatement. I was pestering the publisher so I could pre-order my copy from the moment it was announced – and was even able to sneakily get my hands on it, the day before it was officially released – And was it worth the wait? Of course it was.

“New Music for Old Rituals” is primarily a folk horror collection, but it is far more than that. Tracy Fahey takes the legends, rituals and superstitions of her homeland and interweaves them into new tales which reflect the horrors, anxieties and sadness that can plague our modern lives. Each tale is prefixed with a photograph taken by Tracy to reflect the concept of the following story. The photographs have a beautiful haunting imagery, and as all of them have been taken within a thirty minute drive of her home, so they truly reflect the hidden magic which can still be found in Ireland. Following each of her tales is a succinct explanation of the history and mythology which has inspired each tale.

The stories that make up “New Music for Old Rituals” are both beautifully written and varied in style. My own personal favourite “The Changeling” was one of the best short stories I have read this year. The story is quietly unveiled by the elderly narrator, making the ending even more horrific and visceral when revealed. Tracy Fahey is a master at lulling you into a false sense of security before revealing the horror beneath. So much so, that by the end of the book, you’re read the stories as if you are in some kind of uncanny valley, everything looks normal, it all seems fine; but you just know that it isn’t quiet right, that everything is just off kilter.

As well as the stories in “New Music for Old Rituals” being beautiful, the book as a whole is a thing of beauty. Black Shuck Books have managed to impart a feeling that the tales you are reading have been handed to you personally, that the book you hold in your hands, may have been someone’s diary or memoir. The Polaroid snaps (with their curling sellotaped edges) and the careful use of the handwritten and Dymo fonts really adds to the feeling that what you have in your hands is a personal retelling of someone’s life events.

The main warning though that this collection imparts, is that it doesn’t matter who you are, or where you live, the horrors and fears which infect us never change. Humanity fears change, it fears the outsider; and you – whoever you are – will always be an outsider.

Tracy Fahey is an Irish writer of Gothic fiction.  In 2017, her debut collection “The Unheimlich Manoeuvre” was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award. Two of her short stories were long listed by Ellen Datlow for Honourable Mentions in The Best Horror of the Year Volume 8. She is published in over twenty Irish, US and UK anthologies and her work has been reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. Her first novel, “The Girl in the Fort”, was released in 2017 by the Fennec imprint of Fox Spirit Books. And her new collection, “New Music for Old Rituals” was released in November 2018 by Black Shuck Books.

 

 

 

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Countdown to Christmas Day 8

Five Books That’ll Keep You Warm in Winter

by Lynn E. O’Connacht

For many of us in the northern hemisphere, December is often cold and dreary.
Personally I always feel that there’s too little snow to make suffering through the cold worth it, but at least we always have books. December is a great month to read books and I wanted to share some of my favourite December reads with you all. Hopefully they’ll lead you on to discover some fantastic new-to-you authors!

These five books are in no particular order, although there’s a definite ‘includes snow’ theme going on, but I hope you’ll find at least one that makes a great present for yourself or others this month.

Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis

Speaking of snow, this is a delightful wintery novella set in an alternate Earth setting where fairies and magic are real. This is a light read, perfect for those days when you don’t want to go out. Though it’s a gentle story with a strong romance, it also tackles some deep topics, such as the way women are often treated in academia. It’s a perfect balance, ensuring a lot of reread value.

As a bonus, it’s the first in a series, so if you enjoy it, there’s more to explore!

The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher

We’re not done with the combination of winter settings and utterly warm writing yet. The Raven and the Reindeer is a brilliant retelling of The Snow Queen. Unlike some of Kingfisher’s other retellings, this one stays fairly traditional and, in doing so, enhances the smaller ways in which the story subverts the original tale. This story is worth it just for Mousebones alone. Add in a discussion about abuse and depression as well as a cute f/f romance and it’s sure to brighten up any dark December day.

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

Set in the heart of winter, this is the darkest book on the list, dealing as it does with mental illness, but the prose is so lush and pitch-perfect. I couldn’t imagine a better time to read Wintersong than in the heart of winter, which is currently is where I’m  located. Liesl is a powerful protagonist, determined to save her sister from the Goblin King.

This is the first in a duology, so if you reach the end desperate for more Jae-Jones has got you covered!

Wingborn by Becca Lusher

What’s this? A book with no snow?! Well, there may be some, but there are certainly plenty of clouds. Reminiscent of Tamora Pierce’s Tortall novels, Lusher deftly weaves a narrative of girls joining a previously male-only institution (yes, plural) with a Regency-inspired setting as Lady Mhysra struggles against social norms to follow her heart and care for her feathered companion. It’s lush and gorgeous and this series will make you long for the open skies.

Wingborn is the first in a series – and there’s a companion series – so readers who love getting stuck into a setting will find plenty to enjoy. (Lastly, this book also contains winged puppy antics and TEAM BUMBLE FOREVER.)

A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams by Dax Murray

From clouds back to forests in this queer retelling of Swan Lake where nothing is exactly what it seems. If you’re looking for something to accompany Disney’s The nutcracker and the Four Realms as a seasonal fairy tale, do check this out. It’s very different, but touches on similar themes. The characters in this book were a delight, especially Princen Alexis and their relationship with their best friend, Tatiana. It’s a very sweet polyamorous story with some great twists on the original tale.

And that’s it. Five books that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and find comforting in months when the days are short, the wind is howling and there’s just not enough snow to make all this cold worth dealing with. If gifting any of these to yourself, add in a nice hot beverage of your choice, snuggle up in your favourite reading spot and enjoy!

Happy holidays!

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Countdown to Christmas Day 7

Please send in your reviews to submissions@foxspirit.co.uk for inclusion in our Christmas Countdown. 

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“All the Fabulous Beasts” by Priya Sharma

I first had the pleasure of reading Priya Sharma’s work when I was a judge for the British Fantasy Awards in 2016, where she won Best short story for her tale “Fabulous Beasts” and I’ve been hooked ever since. So it was with bated breath that I waited for my copy of her debut collection “All the Fabulous Beasts”, and it was well worth the wait. Alongside the beautiful artwork, which Undertow Publications is renowned for, Priya’s stories manage to weave the mundane with the magical, the ethereal with the horrifying, and she has managed to produce an unnerving collection of some of the most exquisite literary horror to date.

Priya’s writing focuses on the uncanny in everyday situations, revealing the darkness and beauty that are so intrinsically a part of life, and showing us that in order to live we inevitably have to die. From the unbreakable bond between a mother and her child in “Egg”, to the heartbreaking story of loss and bereavement within “The Sunflower Seed Man”, Priya shows us the wondrous which lingers underneath the veneer of our humdrum lives.

Identity and family also plays a huge part in Priya’s stories, her best known piece within the anthology “Fabulous Beasts” is a poignant and hard hitting story which grabs you by the throat and makes you look at the horror that can occur to those who live just round the corner; whilst other tales are set in more exotic locales such as India “The Englishman”, Hong Kong “The Absent Shade”, or even in an alternate history of Liverpool “Rag and Bone”, this distance from the horror doesn’t allow you any moment of reassurance, or an opportunity to think of her protagonists as an “other” someone far-away, different, troubled by issues that would never affect yourself. As Priya paints such a vivid imagery of the place that you see the colours that her characters see, and smell the fetid dirt under their fingernails, as cobbles form under your feet and dust prickles at your nose.  

The strength of Priya’s writing and the beauty of the tales transgresses all boundaries, she manages to convey a depth of emotion and understanding for her characters no matter how flawed they may be and it’s that understanding of humanity and all its intrinsic strengths and flaws which make this such a well rounded book. Because it isn’t just a collection of horror stories, or a debut of literary delights; it is much more than that, it’s a book about life; our life, the lives of those who mean so much to us, and the lives of those that we may wish in our weaker moments were dead. An exquisite collection that will delight all readers.

By Penny Jones

 

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Countdown to Christmas Day 6

by Michele Fry

I love The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. I’ve never read a novel written wholly in verse before, so that was a treat, as was Xiomara’s strong, fierce, and powerful voice. I fell in love with Xiomara from the very beginning and was willing her on, wanting her to find a way to voice her feelings and questions, her fears and her experiences of being a young black woman who’s talked over, talked down to, or simply ignored at every turn. This book made me cry, made me cheer, and made me happy to have met Xiomara, a beautiful, brave, black girl. I cannot
recommend it highly enough.

I extra love (!) Passing Strange by Ellen Klages a fascinating and compelling historical love story with supernatural/fantastical elements about a bisexual artist and a lesbian singer. Set in San
Francisco in 1940, it looks at the ways in which queer cis and enby women try to express their queerness and/or nonconformity to the gender binary [sic] while still complying with the law. It’s a tragedy with a happy ending.

The Green Man’s Heir is EVERYTHING I love about Juliet McKenna’s work:
a skilful, careful, and seamless blend of folklore, mythology, and fantasy sensibilities with a modern setting and modern concerns regarding ecological & environmental issues, masculinity, news reporting, and policing, but without a single moment of hectoring or lecturing. And all wrapped up in a compelling tale that will make you want to read all night.

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark is totally immersive (I read it in less than a day), full of well-crafted worldbuilding (of the alternate Black history kind), intriguing mythology, engaging and well-rounded characters whom I found utterly fascinating, and it was at once exactly the right length (for the story it told), but far too bloody short (because I need more, more, MORE (please!) about Jacqueline and Captain Ann-Marie of the airship Midnight Robber.

When the Letter Comes by Mx Sara Fox is a story about magic, growing up, being left behind, becoming someone different, with a transgender protagonist whose younger sister gets invited to go to magical school while Henry (she hasn’t decided on a new name yet, but she will one
day) is left behind. Then a war comes, and Henry meets Caden, who’s non-binary and who brings Henry to where her sister Gabrielle is involved in a war between those who think technology is destroying magic, and those who don’t. And all the time Henry is struggling to feel comfortable in her skin, to accept who she is, and struggling with others, particularly her parents’, difficulties with accepting who she is. This is a beautiful, compelling short story that gripped me from the first line.

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Countdown to Christmas Day 5

We are going to blow our own wind instruments a little today. My personal preference would have to be the Sax, but you may be more into the Oboe or French Horn. All welcome here. 

Danie Ware, author of the blindingly excellent urban alchemical fairy tale ‘Children of Artifice’ has been featuring heavily over at Damien Seaman’s blog this week with an Interview about her writing career and dayjob and the juggling act many of you raising kids on top of work and writing will be familiar with.

Then there was an in depth review which looked at the prologue debate, the core of family drama in the book and how Danie is a master craftsman when it comes to using description to move things forward and world build at the same time. 

From the review
The book is heartfelt and emotional, authentic and musical, a new mythology that draws its power from the old.

Maybe add this one to your Christmas reading list and don’t forget to drop us a line at submissions@foxspirit.co.uk if you want to share some of your own favourites on the blog this December. 

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Countdown to Christmas Day 4

The Motion of Light in Water 
review by Adrian Reynolds

There came a point after devouring much of what was on the science fiction shelves at the local library from the age of 8 that I started to get a sense of who some of the writers were beyond their books. When I came across Samuel R Delany’s The Motion Of Light On Water as a 17 year old I was ready for it in ways I hadn’t anticipated. It was an immersion not just in the mind of a luminary talent, an African-American seeking to discover who he was not just through experimental prose but in every other way. Early sixties New York is brought to vivid life in the text, Delany one of the singers on the folk scene that spawned Dylan. That fusion of art and politics runs through his work and life, and the way Delany seeks to find and assert himself as a black gay man, at that point married to poet Marilyn Hacker, is a life-affirming and chaotic adventure. It dissolved many of the limiting ideas I’d acquired though schooling and the local norms that prevailed, and helped make me aware what’s out there if you’re determined to discover for sure who you are and what you’re capable of. A magical text.

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Christmas Countdown Day 3

Christmas Books reviewed by Anna Thomas

Of all the books I’ve read this year, I was particularly impressed with the novels by Japanese authors. Here are four of my favourites.

  1. Yoko Tawada, and Margaret Mitsutani (Trans.), The Last Children of Tokyo, (Portobello Books, 2018).

The Last Children of Tokyo is set in a post-apocalyptic future where Japan has isolated itself from the rest of the world. Vividly imagined, disturbingly so at times, it is the elderly, now long lived and healthier, who are tasked with the responsibility of looking after their fragile children, who often die in their youth. I was taken by the relationship of Yoshiro and his great grandson, Mumei, and the everyday struggle to survive. It’s a short book at 138 pages, but the brevity lends additional weight to the dark undertones. Perfect for those who enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction and feel like branching out.

2) Hiro Arakawa, and Philip Gabriel (Trans.), The Travelling Cat Chronicles, (Doubleday, 2017).

I love cats, and while I primarily bought this book because the protagonist is a cat, the novel is both delightful and heart wrenching. Found as a stray by Satoru Miyawaki, Nana lives with him for five years. When Satoru is then faced with the awful prospect of having to rehouse Nana, a road-trip ensues, as he tries to find a suitable candidate. I enjoyed Nana’s snark and his generally pragmatic personality, which succeeded in being rather endearing at the same time. It was interesting to view a person, or several people’s lives from the perspective of the cat, and see how deeply animals can be affected by their owners.

3) Sayaka Murata, and Ginny Tapley Takemori (Trans.), Convenience Store Woman, (Portobello Books, 2018).

Convenience Store Woman examines the life of Keiko, a thirty six year old convenience store worker, trying to get by when others’ wants for her life do not match the life she wants to lead. Societal expectation is the main theme here, as an unmarried thirty-something is pressurised to give up the thing she loves. The author is a convenience store worker herself, and this intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the store shines throughout; you can almost smell the coffee. The writing is excellent, presented in an uncluttered manner. I read this book in an afternoon, and like good chocolate cake, it was rich, satisfying and I know I will come back for more from this author!

4) Hiromi Kawakami, and Allison Markin Powell (Trans.), The Nakano Thrift Shop, (Portobello Books, 2016).

Ostensibly, this a love story, but there is little caveat in this tale. A happy ending is not a given, and all the characters have to work at their respective relationships. Set against the backdrop of the Nakano Thrift Shop, Hitomi and Takeo struggle from the beginning. They struggle to understand one another, and sometimes fail completely, hurting one or the other without quite knowing what it was they did wrong. It is a human tale, and its human fragility is what stands out; the idea of love or being in love, not being as transformative as it is often made out to be. Sometimes the grass doesn’t look greener, nor the sky bluer. Sometimes, you still feel lonely, or misunderstood. I did get a sense of hope as I finished this book though, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to read an unconventional story.

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