| Title | : | The Apex Book of World SF 3 (Apex Book of World SF #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1937009246 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781937009243 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 282 |
| Publication | : | First published June 15, 2014 |
The Apex Book of World SF 3 (Apex Book of World SF #3) Reviews
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A worthy entry in the series, but I enjoyed the previous two more.
Impressions:
https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop... -
This book has fewer stories than the first and second installments, but as Tidhar said in the introduction, he was able to include some longer stories this time. The book is a bit longer, and women dominate with twelve stories to five written by men (isn't that a change for Speculative Fiction!). For some reason when I finished the book I had the feeling that I hadn't enjoyed it as much as I had the second one, which I loved. But as I was editing this review I saw that I did like quite a few of the stories. So it wasn't the huge hit that book two was (or book four, which I finished a few days ago as well), but it was good, more in the normal anthology hit-or-miss range.
Benjanun Sriduangkaew - Courtship in the Country of Machine Gods - 2012 - Thai - Nominated for the Campbell Award in 2014. I looked her up because I was trying to remember if she was the same author who's stories I had but hadn't read yet. She is. This may be her first published story, according to what Wikipedia says. But…continuing on down the article I saw the controversy about the alternate identities that the author used online to bully, stalk and threaten people she didn't agree with and suddenly I didn't want to read any more of her work after all. Laura J. Mixon's exhaustive blog report on Sriduangkaew's behavior won the Hugo Award in 2015 for Best Fan Writer, so this story isn't just gossip. What a shame to see that a rising star in the community crashed and burned so spectacularly and in such a hurtful manner. I remember well how great the buzz about her was, she could have had a wonderful career. I feel like I just saw the entirely of it, beginning with this short story and ending with everyone finding out what she'd been up to anonymously for a decade. But that's not what this book is about, so moving on.
Xia Jia - A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight - 2010, translated by Ken Liu in 2012 - China - This story won the prestigious Chinese Galaxy Award, as have several other of the author's stories. Here's a
link to this story in Clarkesworld Magazine with a very nice About the Author in the sidebar and links to several more of her stories as well. This story was a mix of a haunting ghost story, charming mythology, and a painful growing up tale. It had a sort of a YA Chinese Gaiman feeling. An orphaned boy was being raised by the ghosts who occupied mechanical bodies on the tourist destination Ghost Street, but tourists no longer come, making the boy the only living person there and the total focus on all of the ghosts' affections and attentions. But what happens to Ghost Street when it's no longer bringing in any money at all? What happens to the ghosts, and to the boy? It was quite an interesting setting and mythology, but an eh ending, as so often happens with short stories. I'd still recommend trying the story, it's haunting (ha, ha) in many ways. Fantasy? It has sci-fi elements too because the ghosts were housed in robot bodies.
Fadzlishah Johanabas - Act of Faith - 2010 - Malaysia - The author is a doctor too. This was a very good story about one possible aspect of what a juxtaposition of AI and religion might bring about. An older Muslim man's son got him an android as a home health aide. The man treated the android like a person who was able to learn and feel, often like a second son. He was a retired ustaz , a teacher of Islamic lessons to children. When he realized that the android had the ability to feel emotions, which was a step beyond free will, he wondered if perhaps he was a child of G-d as well. He began to teach the android the Quran and to take him to the mosque with him. The question then became whether he was mimicking or truly converted. And how did the man's community and his son feel about all of this? It was a lovely, thoughtful story. It was nice to read a positive science fiction story for once, I haven't seen many of them lately with so much dystopian doom and gloom in fashion. Faith isn't my cup of tea most days, but this story rang true. And it did what sci-fi should, followed the tech or concept into the future and extrapolated how an issue could play out.
Uko Bendi Udo - The Foreigner - 2012 - Originally from Nigeria, lives in the U.S. now - From Afro SF. The story was OK. It was kind of typical, a greedy uncle tried to take advantage of an unwanted nephew, the twist being that the nephew was the offspring of a skirt chasing Nigerian astronaut and an alien from the planet Milina. And the nephew wasn't the only one, NiMi mixes were common enough for NiMi to be a term. It was a cute little sci-fi story, not super memorable but fun.
Ma Boyong - The City of Silence - 2005, translated by Ken Liu in 2011 for Clarkesworld - China - This was a truly depressing view of a repressive and controlling society. I don't mind not leaving my house for long periods of time (because I can't due to chronic health issues) but only because I have books, TV, and when I'm up to it, FREEDOM of the Internet. The way this guy lived was worse than jail in some ways. At least they can say what they want in jail, express themselves in whatever words they want, and they have more contact with the world too in many parts of the world. The air they breathe is probably better in some places too. Parallels were drawn to
Nineteen Eighty-Four in this story and it was explained that the difference between them is the levels of technology. In this place and time no notes could be passed, no books could be shared, Find and Replace easily changed any online documents to edit out "unhealthy" words or ideas. The people in this society were forced to live as much as possible on the Web where all could be monitored and nothing could be hidden. "To put it simply: technology is neutral. But the progress of technology will cause a free world to become ever freer, and a totalitarian world to become ever more repressive."
Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in 1949 and it still has so much to say and is able to inspire so much thought and, I hope, will to fight against this kind of repression or the kind of apathy that lets that kind of power take over. That kind of power moves in slowly, it isn't a violent overnight coup, not usually. People are giving their power away, we're all doing it every day when we don't fight for our freedoms of speech and privacy and so much more. It isn't black and white, until it is. This story felt like a worth successor to the classic novel, the ideas were well developed but didn't neglect the human element. It was compelling for something so grey and purposefully leached of passion for the majority of it. It was very good work that should feel relevant to people from many cultures, as characters were either hard to place or from several places. The State was somewhat anonymous, either a bit of a melting pot based on the names of the characters, or the author just chose those names so that many readers would connect to it and not disconnect if it seemed like a Chinese or Japanese or American or Cuban or Greek or Danish story. It was quite straight-forward for a story by a Chinese (or Japanese) author, which tend in my somewhat limited experience to be complex and somewhat confusing. I'm very glad it was included in this book.
Athena Andreadis - Planetfall - 2009 - a Greek resident of the U.S. - She's also a researcher in neurobiology. It was interesting, but confusing and hard to follow. It skipped around in time, which I don't usually mind, but there was too much going on to be able to make sense of it all even after the end, should have pulled it together. It mostly did but by then I was disenchanted. I don't know why the back and forth was supposed to help instead of just obscure. I just read an article last night
on SF Signal by Sean Danker about how much a book or movie should be accessible to the audience, how much obscurity is too much. To me, this was too much. She has more stories in this universe, which would normally really intrigue me, but I can't, it's too purposefully complex. I like cool and complicated but she's trying too hard to be smart and clever, it's too much for a short story. It was sci-fi with some elements that seem fantasy-like but are used in a sci-fi setting (telepathy, precog, etc.).
Ika Koeck - Jungle Fever - 2014 - Malaysia - Original to this anthology. A quick, short horror story about what happens when a kind of a plant infected zombie-ism takes over a teenager. It was fine, another that wasn't memorable except for the location. A zombie turning on people she knows isn't original. The plant causing the infection was, the uncle being a medicine man of some kind was different than what we usually see in the West, as was the jungle setting, but does that alone make it a creative story? It was fine.
Amal El-Mohtar - To Follow the Waves - 2011 - 1st generation Lebanese-Canadian, was living in Glasgow at the time of the book. I thought it was fantasy when it started because it talked about dream-weaving, but then the language turned technical and it seemed more like a science. The MC's mother being a mathematician renown for her theorems could have gone either way. It could also have easily been historical in a story about a woman who sounded like an Arab, they were tremendous math scholars, though not the women. I guess it was in between, a bit historical with automatons and airships, maybe a little steampunk if she'd taken it farther in that direction. I liked it, though I didn't love it. She always writes a good story.
Nelly Geraldine Garcia-Rosas - Ahuizotl - 2011 - Mexico - Translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A historical religious horror story, a nun traveled south to reclaim the body of her brother, who's body was recovered under suspicious circumstances. It was eh. The atmosphere was pretty good.
Biram Mboob - The Rare Earth - 2012 - Gambia, living in the UK - Another Afro SF story. This took place in the Congo. And my cynicism was rewarded, just as it seemed like maybe the supposed Redeemer might have some actual powers, it turned out he was using tech to fake it. Or supplement it? Of course it didn't mean he didn't believe his own calling, somehow these guys usually do. Even the ones who are bilking their congregants for private airplane money might believe their own press for all I know. The descriptions of the military camp, the PR cameramen, the slave women, sick people with no antibiotics that worked anymore, and the knights with the crosses chiseled into their armor, all painted quite a picture. And zumbi, horrible. What was The Emergency? Some sort of post-apocalypse situation. How did Gideon knowing about Beijing and speaking Mandarin fit in? And the guy they were looking for was Chinese or at least spoke Mandarin too. Is it just a small world now? Did the communists sponsor the PLA or the conflict somehow? It didn't say. It was easy to see how current conflicts could be projected into this near-future world where people are even more desperate for any kind of hope. I liked much about it except some bits of confusion. I didn't get the end, why they searched for the guy who supposedly had the secret information about antibiotics, then killed him after he sent a signal to a buyer. So they'd get money but not the info? What did he need the buyer for? He seemed to want drugs, he had his secret stash of microzymic therapy shots. And he saved the dad so he could go tell people what a great Redeemer he was but then at the end he said he couldn't let him go because he'd tell people about the Legion and what he'd seen, a direct contradiction of what he said earlier. But maybe crazy, power mad messiahs are just like that. There was a lot to like about this story, despite it being a bit unfocused and having some loose ends.
Myra Çakan - Spider's Nest - 2002 - Germany - This had a very contemporary feeling to it. For the time anyway, it's an old story. (When it comes to technology the fifteen years since this was written is a LONG time.) Street life and drug addicts and artsy people and call names (Spider and Geigercounter, and Eiscream for the drug). It was much less formal than most of the stories in the book, a little grungy and a little gross. It was weird and kind of confusing but at least it was different, I thought it was a good editing choice. That's what I wanted from this book, to read stories from authors I'd never encounter in any other way and to experience different styles and perspectives. (It's what I didn't get as much as I'd hoped in the fourth book in this series, though it's terrific, where a large number of the stories were originally published in popular U.S. magazines.)
Crystal Koo - Waiting with Mortals - 2012 - born and raised in the Philippines, living in Hong Kong - Opening line: "The neon in Hong Kong is like the past: an image of blurred points of light and haste and shallow focus where the only certainty is a vivid experience eventually misremembered." A very good (non-spooky) urban fantasy/ghost story about what keeps some people here and what allows them to move on. And addictive personalities and enablers, or maybe just a very sad girl and the boy who loved her. And fathers and sons. With a nice dash on what felt like Chinese ghoastiness.
Ange - Three Little Children - 1998, translated in 2010 - France - Ange = Anne and Gérard Guero. Things are not what they first seem in this very good dark urban fairy tale. Or what they seem at all. I would definitely read more by them if I could.
Karin Tidbeck - Brita's Holiday Village - 2010, 2012 English translation - Swedish - I remember the buzz when her collection with this story in it, Jagannath came out. It won the Crawford Award. The story was a little too weird for me. Not super weird or anything. Just a quick little tale about a writer's odd summer full of dreams.
Swapna Kishore - Regressions - 2012 - India - A lovely sci-fi time travel story about truth and myth, what we've been told and what we choose to believe, and the power of story to shape the truth. Really lovely.
Berit Ellingsen - Dancing on the Red Planet - 2012 - Korean-Norwegian - Opening line: "'We want to dance when we go out the airlock,' the Belgian said." A super cute science fiction Mars landing story, I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. It was a good way to end the book, a very nice editing choice. It was lighthearted but it still had a heart. -
My appreciation for short fiction has been growing pretty steadily lately, and a lot of that is down to the work being published by Apex. Whether in their monthly magazine or in these anthologies, I’ve yet to find a real dud anywhere. In some cases, I’ve even found stories that I’ve fallen in love with. One of them was in this book. Below the cut, I’ll highlight a few stories from this anthology that have stood out in my mind.
The first of them is in fact the first story in this collection – “Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. I noted, when this story came up as a reprint in the latest issue of Apex Magazine, that Sriduangkaew is making quite a name for herself this year as one of the nominees for the Campbell Award at this year’s Hugos. This story is the one that got me sitting up and paying attention. It’s a strange little tale, but a fascinating and warm-hearted one. It’s certainly unlike anything I’ve read before, and I definitely want to read more from her.
“Act of Faith” by Fadzlishah Johanabas is another one that stands out. In it, we meet an android who learns to become a Muslim, first at the encouragement of its owner, then later of its own volition. The notion of artificial intelligence learning human traits isn’t a new one in science fiction, but this story takes it a little further, literally out of the hands of any controlling human influence (the android’s owner) and giving the android itself (himself) autonomy of a sort. Rather than turn this scenario into one that’s threatening to humans, however, it results in something far more peaceful, more unifying than horrific. It’s another story that touched me, and definitely one that should not be missed.
“The City of Silence” by Ma Boyong is less uplifting, but no less affecting. The similarity to 1984 takes care of that – this is an unflinchingly dystopian take on the future. It’s also not violent by any means, which is one of the reasons it impressed me. Good writing doesn’t need shock factors to affect the reader; this story got under my skin with its themes of paranoia and oppression. Trying to imagine the kind of future depicted here left me genuinely uncomfortable at the thought. The kicker of a twist in the end was also nicely effective, if not perhaps particularly surprising. All in all it was incredibly well done.
“Planetfall” by Athena Andreadis is wildly different yet again from the rest of my favourite stories here. It feels as much like a fairytale as a science fiction story, and the blending of these elements is wonderfully done. It’s a beautifully written story, and as much as I love the story itself, sometimes it’s the way that a story is told that can affect me the most. This is one of those; Andreadis has a way with words that’s nothing short of a pleasure to read. She’s definitely one whose other work I’ll have to get my hands on.
My absolute favourite of these stories, however, is without a doubt “To Follow the Waves” by Amal El-Mohtar. I stopped reading immediately after finishing this story just to geek out about it online for a bit, and seriously. I need more of her work. I need it. I’ve honestly never enjoyed a single short story quite so thoroughly before – this one instantly captured my imagination and would not let it go until it was done. And even then… I’m still getting chills when I think about it now. Enough said!
So, Apex have done it again. Whether you’re a fan of short fiction or you’re new to it, and especially if you need an injection of new and diverse SFF in your life, pick up this anthology. Heck, pick up any anthology they’ve published. I would bet good money that you won’t regret it – not everything here was my cup of tea, I will admit that quite freely, but there is, I’m damn near certain, something here for everyone. That alone is enough to keep me coming back to them. -
As a showcase of diverse authors from around the world, this short story anthology succeeds in spades. In fact, its diversity is the single unifying thread. But the coherence of the stories was a mixed bag. Some really communicated across cultural divides; others were more esoteric, making me feel I'd lost something in the translation. With no perceptible theme to critique, I've chosen to offer my thoughts on a per story basis.
"Courtship in the Country of Machine–Gods" left me cold with its confusing first person viewpoint, dizzying flashbacks jumping forward and backward in time, and the finale's lack of emotional connection from the opening. I'd recommend future anthologies begin with a shorter, easier story to hook readers, as this one dampened my enthusiasm for the book as a whole.
"A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" was an intriguing glimpse into a different mythological setting, an inversion of the Pinocchio premise as a young boy grappled with the rules of reality amongst an actual ghost town. The ending veered in a tangential direction, in a way I didn't fully understand, but the strong narrative voice kept me engaged.
"Act of Faith" was a beautiful story about the intersection of faith, family, and technology, with an android servant becoming so much more for an aging man, helping to bridge the gap between the old and the new.
"The Foreigner," like all great science fiction, had new tech but old problems. The plight of a boy seeking asylum from war in a place where he's doomed not to belong felt especially apropos of current events, and the futuristic elements were cleverly deployed.
I'd rank "The City of Silence" highest: it was a complete narrative technically and emotionally, with a clear voice and a well-crafted illumination of the current world through a projection of one potential future. The protagonist offered the reader a haunting look at a world poisoned by thought control. While it educated me about what life under the Great Firewall might inspire, it offered cautionary warnings for the Western mediascape as well. It concluded in true distopian style, with just a trace of hope, reminiscent of the Pandora myth.
"Planetfall" had a great premise, but the scope of this tale strained against its structural limits. Any one of the stories would have been fine on their own: together they pushed against each other, distracting me with a need to create connections that proved tenuous or even nonexistent.
"Jungle Fever" was a welcome departure from the normal monster tale, perhaps proving better than any of the other stories what a different viewpoint can bring to the genre as a whole. Rather than show a traditional (read Western) horror at the grotesque, or the reactionary love of it, the protagonist subtly but surely showed that when the world around one is mad, monstrosity may be a welcome escape.
"To Follow the Waves" ventured into the most fertile imaginary world invention: hand-crafted dream stones. The fear of losing one's innate self is timeless, cross-cultural, and rich with possibility: I wish the author had explored more than just the obvious erotic implications. A character who began rich with promise tragically shrunk to someone whose sole purpose is tied up in another (the fact that this other is a woman doesn't make it any less depowering).
"Ahuizotl" went back in time and mined the Spanish colonization era for a macabre little tale that felt like it was missing something. The story itself was fairly straightforward, but I couldn't quite grasp the emotional or character landscape, or appreciate the stakes involved.
"The Rare Earth" had all the ingredients of a successful post-apocalyptic narrative, complete with a messiah in the wildness. The story picked up once this character really came into prominence, but suffered from a lack of focus amongst competing story ideas.
"Spider's Nest" was by far the weakest story of the anthology. The plot and characters proved incoherent to me, and I found myself skimming to be done with such a determinedly nihilistic world.
"Waiting with Mortals" was hauntingly beautiful in its description of how ghosts might long for real life. Both the mundane and the sublime needs of living were explored, anchored by the narrator's opposing personal connections. The story neatly turned the concept of "crossing over" on its head, subverting the opening act with a great conclusion.
"Three Little Children" hearkens back to the dark world of Grimm, delving the depths of what I assume to be a well-known French nursery song for all its unvarnished realities. The style was beguiling and the story entrancing, bringing me to the edge of tragedy before gracefully allowing the heroes to step back into the light, albeit forever changed.
"Brita's Holiday Village" was surreal, a writer writing about writing (written by a writer), more interested in the journey than the small plot. It reads like a Nordic travelogue, entertaining with flashes of subtle comedy, but I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I left the story feeling like I'd chewed on a stick of gum: not completely unsatisfying, but not very substantial either.
"Regressions" took what could have been a very simplistic premise and pushed deeper, provoking questions about how we determine value and worth: is it against our opponents? Ourselves? Or something even more? The narrator underwent a remarkably vivid journey in a short amount of words, creating a life for herself that defied everyone's expectations (including her own).
"Dancing on the Red Planet" proved a brilliant grand finale to this anthology, not only summarizing mankind's expectations for landing on Mars but also the entire book's varying threads. I loved the surly mission commander's reactions to his crewmmates' desire to dance their way off the Mars lander (and I defy anyone not to laugh when one of them imitates Europop vocally). In a metanarrative, I enjoyed reading this book in electronic format so that when confronted with a piece of music so integral to the story I could immediately find it online and listen. I encourage even readers of traditional paper to do the same: you'll get a sense of the fantastic and the familiar, which I believe is the entire point of the anthology.
One final note: I've described some of my objections above, but it should be understood that this anthology is not appropriate for young readers in terms of content or language. I enjoyed many of the stories, and found some lovely new authors to follow, but I would not recommend or endorse this anthology in total. -
Review Copy
The Apex Book of World SF 3 is a solid collection of sixteen stories from around the world. These are writers and stories I would have never been exposed to outside of this format and that would have been a shame as there are some exceptional stories in this volume.
All of the stories are held to a higher literary standard than what I usually read, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy them. For example, the first tale, "Courtship In the Country of Machine--Gods," by Benjanun Sriduangkaew, was a beautifully constructed view of alien ways and wars. I can't say I fully understood it, but it was intriguing.
More to my liking was "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" by Xia Jia, a charming story of the ghosts who live on Ghost Street waiting to cross over.
One of my favorites was the tale of an android who becomes a Muslim in "Act of Faith," written by Fadzlishah Johanabas. A very clever and enjoyable story.
Other favorites include, "City of Silence" by Ma Boyong, where the "appropriate authorities" are endeavoring to make life on the web and in the physical world equally healthy by restricting the words you can say and write and the lengths some people will go to to exercise some freedom of speech.
There's a terrific horror story called, "Jungle Fever" by Ika Koeck, about a young girl who gets a scratch in the forest and what she becomes. And another horror tale of "Three Little Children" from Ange, about the abduction of three little children told to other children as a bedtime story. Cool.
There were a few stories that did not appeal to me, but that's likely just me. The Apex Book of World SF 3 is certainly worth your time and a few dollars and is available now as a paperback and for the Kindle through Amazon.com from Apex Books.
Recommended. -
A lot has changed in genre fiction since the appearance of the first volume of
The Apex Book of World SF in 2009. A discussion about a more inclusive genre in terms of culture, gender and sexual orientation has been raging for quite a while now and progress on this front is clearly being made. Where Tidhar probably had to work very hard to get access to enough material to fill the first volume, nowadays more and more material is being published by writers form outside the English speaking world and western culture. It's a development that can't be completely laid at the feet of this series of anthologies of course, but it does offer a platform for such works and shows that there is a market for it. In other words, there is more than enough reason to keep the momentum going and release a third volume...
Full Random Comments review -
In theory, the theme of this anthology was international science-fiction, meaning that the authors of these stories came from all over the world and that every story was supposed to have a sci-fi twist. The first part of the theme is accurate. There are stories from all over the globe in this anthology and that simple fact gave the collection an interesting flavor and lead me to be more forgiving of grammatical errors than I normally am (not that there were many errors. Most of the stories were essentially flawless, but some of the translated works had odd phrasing, unusual punctuation, or missing words and I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not.)
The second part of that theme, the science fiction bit, is less accurate. The anthology's description claims that the stories "run the gamut from science fiction, to fantasy, to horror" and it's not kidding! Though the majority of the stories have an element of science-fiction, there were a few that were supposed to take place in universes where magic exists. In light of that, I'd actually label most of these stories as "fantasy" or "sci-fi fantasy."
Now that I've given those little disclaimers, let's talk about the stories. All sixteen of them. With that kind of range, I don't think that you'll be surprised to hear that there were stories that I found boring, stories that I loved, and stories that I just couldn't follow.
Since I have such a wide range of feelings about these stories, it seems unfair to just rate the anthology as a whole, so I’m going to go through and give each story a mini-review and its own rating in addition to the overall rating that I've already given the anthology. Hopefully this will allow you to have a better idea of whether or not this is a collection that’s worth your time. I think that it is, especially if you normally stick to reading authors from your own country as this collection really does give the reader an interesting look into the minds of several individuals whose culture is strikingly different from what I consider to be the norm of mainstream media.
Enough about the book as a whole, let's talk about the stories:
Courtship in the Country of Machine Gods – I’m not sure why this was chosen as the first story because it made me dread reading the rest of the anthology. It’s not that the story is bad, I actually really wanted to like it, it’s just that it’s a very long and confusing short story that was not meant to be a short story. It was meant to be a novel. If the author had just taken everything that was written here, expanded on it a bit, added a little more detail, and actually explained what was going on, then the story would probably be a 200 page novel. Still, if you don’t mind a the idea of a vague story that just gives you glimpses into a math-worshiping, futuristic society, then you’ll probably enjoy this story and walk away with something to think about. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either, so it gets 3/5.
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight – This second story should have been the one that opened the anthology. Though it starts off slowly and leaves the reader thinking that it’s just a story about a young boy growing up in futuristic China, it soon changes into something more complex and beautifully haunting that asks the reader what it means to be alive. Can you manufacture life and is someone still alive if you take away their body? It asks these questions without ever actually stating them, too, and for that it gets 5/5.
Act of Faith – If a computer can think and feel, then can it have a soul? Can it become a Muslim? It’s an interesting idea, but the story that presents this idea fell short. It didn't present any arguments that a robot could be religious, it just took a robot and had its owner teach it the Muslim faith. A faith that the robot accepted without question. I think that one of the main reason this story fell short was that the robot was too human in its mannerisms. It forgets things, it takes too long to learn things, and it has a wide range of emotions such as fear and love seemingly from day one. Computers function off of logic and this one never seemed to, so it read like a story about a human learning to be a Muslim instead of the story of a robot developing a soul. In spite of the story's flaws, it was an interesting look into the Muslim faith (something that I know very little about) and that made it worth the read for me, even if the sci-fi elements fell short, so it gets a 3/5.
The Foreigner – This is an interesting little story about a half-human boy who’s trying to prove his citizenship and it did exactly what it needed to. Not a word was wasted and even though it was very light on the details, I didn't care. I just wanted to find out what happened and my heart was pounding as I read it. It gets 5/5 for being just as thrilling as an action movie and for all of the cool gadgets that it introduces.
The City of Silence – This one certainly hits home in today’s world of debates surrounding internet censorship. When the government begins to control the web, just how far can they take it? What if, instead of banned words, we had “healthy words,” the sacred few things that people were allowed to type or even say. This is the story of one man’s existence in such a world and it gets 5/5 for being a fascinating read and for using the word “technocrat,” which is such a cool twist on the word bureaucrat that I instantly fell in love with it.
Planetfall - I'm not sure what to say about this one. It's very unique, but I also found it near impossible to follow due to all of the strange names that were used in the story and I don't mean names from another culture. The story uses common, English words to refer to people's positions and fates, but doesn't explain these terms. It just uses them as if I should already know what they mean and, by end, I sort of did, but it made for a confusing read and I still don't understand why these people were stuck on a strange planet or why some men were considered "wanderers" or even how the merpeople of this alien world worked. I'm not sure that I was supposed to, though. It felt as if the author was trying to write a story from a dream. Something ethereal and half-formed, but captivating none the less. I'll give it 4/5 for being interesting and I'm sure that there are readers out there who will really enjoy this piece as it certainly feels like reading something from another world.
Jungle Fever - The anthology's description claims that the stories "run the gamut from science fiction, to fantasy, to horror" and this story is a full-on horror. In it, a young woman encounters a strange plant and it's poison changes her into something that is terrifying and gruesome. Since I don't know how squeamish my readers are, I'm going to give you my rating, 5/5, and leave my review at that. If you are squeamish and you choose to check out this anthology, please be aware that you may want to skip this story as it's not for the faint of heart.
To Follow The Waves - I liked this one. I started off thinking that it was interesting, then it got slightly creepy and I thought that I was going to end up hating it, but the ending... Oh that sweet, sweet ending just made everything okay again. This one gets 5/5. "To Follow The Waves" is about a world in which skilled artisans can craft dreams and what happens when one artisan becomes obsessed with a person that she sees only once and then begins to fantasize about that person when she sculpts dreams. Anyone who's ever known someone who fell in love with his or her idea of a person instead of the actual person will enjoy this one.
Ahuizotl - Another entry in the horror/suspense genre, though I didn't find it overly frightening and I don't think that it would leave the average reader shaken. It's a pretty standard horror/suspense story. So standard that I think that any discussion of the plot would let you know exactly what was coming. Let's just say it involves a young woman traveling to the new world to pay her last respects to her deceased brother. A man who died under mysterious circumstances. It's certainly not a bad story, but it was underwhelming and far from original, so I'm giving it 3/5.
The Rare Earth - This was my least favorite of all of the stories in this anthology. My first issue was that the story had some minor formatting problems when it came to paragraph breaks. Sometimes a sentence would be randomly broken between two paragraphs and there were a few times when the dialog of multiple characters was crammed into a single paragraph, making it hard to follow the conversations. Then there were my issues with the plot. The story starts off following a young woman named Dora for about 5 pages and then we follow another character for a couple of pages and then yet another character for the rest of it. None of these characters have a full arc and, when a new character is given the stage, the old one is mostly ignored. There's also the fact that the author never explains what's going on. I still don't understand how the character Gidion did all of the things he did or why he thought/claimed that he was The Redeemer (as in Jesus Christ, the son of God, returned). That's another issue, if you're at all religious, or even if you just have a healthy respect for the belief's of others, you will probably find this story offensive or uncomfortable to read. Given all of these issues, I'm going to have to give this one 2/5.
Spider's Nest - I have no idea what this story is about. I know that the main character is named Spider and that he talks about drugs and getting high, but I'm not sure what the drugs are or if he actually does them and, well, this is just one of those stories that you have to read to get it. Words can't describe it. Still, I need to give it a rating and I'm giving it 3/5 simply because I have no idea if I liked it or not.
Waiting with Mortals - Ghosts come to be when a mortal dies unfulfilled. It's an old legend: to remove a ghost, you have to bring its soul to rest. You have to right the wrong done to it or help it finish a task that it never got to complete while alive. Only then will the ghost "cross over" into the next world, life, whatever. Another tale, lest often told, is that ghosts can possess mortals. These two legends blend together to make the premise of "Walking with Mortals," the story of a boy who died at 16 and has been around ever since. It's a story about accepting your flaws and about realizing that you can't let others control your life (or afterlife). I'm giving it 4/5 for presenting a rather unique look into the world of ghosts and for the lesson that it tells, if you care to listen.
Three Little Children - This is another horror story and certainly not for the faint of heart. Now that I've given that disclaimer, onto the real review. "Three Little Children" is a story told by a grandfather to his grandchildren and there's a certain air of mystery and whimsy to the whole thing. While it clearly takes place in a modern city, there are times when the storyteller switches things up and tells the story as if it were taking place in a fairytale world. The odd mixture of reality and fantasy makes what would otherwise be a terrifying and sad story a lot easier to read. There's also the interesting "twist" that comes at the ending, but I can't reveal that without ruining the story. Let's just say that it was interesting enough to earn this story a 5/5.
Brita's Holiday Village - This one was, well, it wasn't boring, but it wasn't interesting either. It honestly failed to leave any lasting impression on me because there wasn't anything unique about it. It's the story of a 32-year-old woman who goes to live at her aunt's cabin so that she can be "away from it all." The main reason for this self-imposed isolation is so that she can write a novel. While there, she begins having strange dreams. All of these things are very common story elements, but that's okay. You can take a common story and still make it interesting if you've got good characters or a unique twist. This story didn't have any of that, so it gets 3/5.
Regressions - This is one of those stories that has a lot of complex elements and ideas, but it presents them in a way that's relatively easy to follow. It's also a story with a very complicated plot, as is true for most stories about time travel. So, why is the main character time traveling? Well, in a distant future, India has been segregated into separate nations. One is ruled by men who treat women as a servant class and the other is ruled by women. The women's nation has no men and all of its people are clones. This girls only nation sends out time-traveling agents to endeavor to bring about a gender-equal society and, well, you'll have to read the story to see what happens in this interesting little tale that I'm giving 5/5. The one thing that I should note about this story is that it presents the men in it in a very negative light. However, this does not appear to be due to any hatred of men, but more due to the cultural climate surrounding the treatment of women and girls in India.
Dancing on the Red Planet - What a lovely way to end the anthology! In a not so distant future, a team of astronauts is on their way to Mars to make the first human landing on the red planet. The only problem is that several members of the team have decided that this momentous occasion should be done in style. In other words, they don't want to walk onto this new world, they want to dance onto it. The amusing tale that surrounds the team's dancing debate was fun and lighthearted, but still strangely powerful, making this my #1 story in the anthology and earning it a 5/5. -
As we pass the halfway mark of the year, we find the first of the new 'best of' anthologies flooding the market. Currently I have 4 monster tomes that I've been reading through, jumping around between favorite authors and intriguing titles. I'm not one to read an anthology from cover-to-cover, but I try to give the bulk of the stories a fair shot.
First up was Space Opera from Rich Horton; The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year #8 from Jonathan Strahan; and The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Volume 2) edited by Gordon Van Gelder.
Lastly, we have The Apex Book of World SF Volume 3, edited by Lavie Tidhar, which collects 282 pages of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. This is a collection where, to be honest, I didn't recognize a single author from the table of contents. Instead, the appeal for me was in the quality of work that I've known Apex put out in the past - yes, I'd be going in blind, but I also knew I'd find some gems.
“Courtship in the Country of Machine–Gods” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew was an odd choice to lead things off with, being a bit confusing and hard to grasp, but it reminds us that good science fiction isn't always immediately accessible. “A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight” by Xia Jia was a more entertaining follow-up, exploring the streets walked by the dead, but even it strayed a bit into confusion towards the end.
The next few tales I didn't care for at all, but “The City of Silence” by Ma Boyong may very well be the smartest, more entertaining story in the collection. “Planetfall” by Athena Andreadis was interesting, but tried to do too much, while “Jungle Fever” by Zulaikha Nurain Mudzar surprised me with how well it worked as a monsters-among-us sort of tale. The next few stories fell flat for me, although I may go back and give “Ahuizotl” by Nelly Geraldine García–Rosas another read when I get the chance, as I fear I may have missed something that would deliver on its initial promise.
“Waiting with Mortals” by Crystal Koo was another twist on the traditional ghost story, offering something different yet again from that of Xia Jia. While Ma Boyong may have the smartest tale in the collection, Ange has the most imaginative in “Three Little Children” - a very dark twist on faery tales and their role in society. “Brita’s Holiday Village” by Karin Tidbeck is one of those stories about writing stories, which rarely ever work for me, but “Regressions” by Swapna Kishore was surprisingly deep and thoughtful, with some really interesting conclusions to be found.
Finally, if Benjanun Sriduangkaew was an odd choice with which to open the collection, Berit Ellingsen is absolutely perfect to close things out. On the surface, “Dancing on the Red Planet” seems like the most traditional story in the collection, but like Mars itself it has layers to its narrative, all of them musically inclined. Odd, and somewhat disjointed, but entertaining as a while - much like the collection itself.
If you're open to new authors, and are open to the challenge of exploring new ways of telling a story, then The Apex Book of World SF Volume 3 is worth checking out. So many of this year's anthologies have been about revisiting favorite authors and familiar stories, it's important to remember that they were all unknown to us at one point . . . and the thrill of discovery is as important in the reader's mind as it is on the page.
Originally reviewed at
Beauty in Ruins -
* Just a friendly heads up I received a free digital copy of this anthology from Apex in exchange for a fair and honest review.*
Overall this is a solid collection of science fiction short and novelette stories. As Tidhar says in the introduction, there are a few longer stories than in the previous anthologies, and while that doesn't mean that I liked (or preferred) one length over the other, I did notice that the balance and flow of the anthology of a whole felt a little cumbersome at times. A good example would be the opening story "Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods"--a fantastic story--but a bit heavy as the very first thing that the reader encounters when starting the book. I don't mind reading longer novelette sized stories, but sometimes it is nice to get warmed up before diving into such a rich and complex story.
Something that I enjoyed was that, although there wasn't a defined theme for this anthology, I did find that a lot of the stories tended to lean in a more cyber/technology heavy and dark fiction direction which, to me at least, was a fun thread to follow throughout. I think one of the reasons that I find this book (and the Book of World SF series) so compelling and enjoyable is because of the varied nature of perspective that I get. While not every story was a favorite of mine, all of them felt in some way new and fresh because I do not come from the same cultures or influences that the writers in this collection do. It is always so much fun to finish a story and feel a sense of awe and wonder because it never occurred to me to even think of telling a story about that particular thing or in that way. I really do recommend this book (and series) to any lover of science fiction and strongly suggest writers in the genre or its sisters (fantasy, dark, speculative, etc.) to pick it up because, at the very least, it will be something that you hadn't expected.
Now to my favorite part of every review, my favorites:
- "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" by Xia Jia and translated by Ken Liu
- "The City of Silence" by Ma Boyong and translated by Ken Liu
- "Planetfall" by Athena Andreadis
- "To Follow the Waves" by Amal El-Mohtar
- "Waiting with Mortals" by Crystal Koo
- "Three Little Children" by Ange and translated by Tom Clegg -
This collection doesn't quite manage to round up to four. It was a mixed bag, but nothing was bad and there were a few gems included. My favorites turned out to be the last two: "Regressions" by Swapna Kishore and short and funny "Dancing on the Red Planet" by Berit Ellingsen.
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The nitty-gritty: A tasty buffet of choice stories from all over the world, some stronger than others, but all of them great examples of diversity and imagination.
Before she became a ghost, Xiao Qian tells me, she had lived a very full life. She had been married twice, gave birth to seven children, and raised them all.
And then her children got sick, one after another. In order to raise the money to pay the doctors, Xiao Qian sold herself off in pieces: teeth, eyes, breasts, heart, liver, lungs, bone marrow, and finally, her soul. Her soul was sold to Ghost Street, where it was sealed inside a female ghost’s body. Her children died anyway.
Apex Books continues to delight me with the way they stretch the boundaries of what science fiction and fantasy can be. In this collection, the third in a series, editor Lavie Tidhar has collected sixteen stories from many countries, including China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Nigeria, Greece, Mexico, Germany, France, Sweden and India. I was thrilled to discover some new favorite writers, and I intend to keep them on my radar. Some of the stories are translated into English, others are written in English, but all of them have not only an other-worldliness about them, but at the heart of each one, you'll recognize the ups and downs of simply being human. For the most part, it was a very strong mix, and while not every story grabbed me, there were two or three that either made me cry or left me speechless.
As is my habit when I review anthologies, I would like to highlight my top five favorites. All five of these have everything I look for in a short story: lovely writing, an engaging story, characters who change and grow during the course of the tale, and emotional impact at the end. Imagine how hard it must be to achieve all these things in only a handful of pages! And yet these writers managed to do so:
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight by Xia Jia. Translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu. A young boy named Ning lives in an odd family of ghosts, mechanical creatures with a human soul trapped inside them. But what happens when Ning finds out he’s not exactly who he thought he was? This heartbreaking tale had me bawling at the end.
Waiting with Mortals by Crystal Koo.
The neon in Hong Kong is like the past: an image of blurred points of light, and haste and shallow focus where the only certainty is a vivid experience eventually misremembered.
Koo’s writing is so beautiful, and this strange ghost story tells the tale of a group of ghosts who have not yet “crossed over,” but instead spend their days inhabiting the bodies of the living. Ben is a ghost who still pines for his friend J.G., a girl who is slowly losing herself by letting ghosts take over her body. A powerful and emotional story.
To Follow the Waves by Amal El-Mohtar. This author is truly metropolitan: she is a Lebanese-Canadian who lives in Glasgow, Scotland, so I’m not really sure how to categorize her story! This tale was particularly sneaky. It begins as a dreamy story about a woman who has been taught to weave dreams into stones for profit. But when she spies an intriguing and beautiful woman in a café, and begins to use her image as a catalyst for some very erotic dreams, the story suddenly turns dangerous.
Regressions by Swapna Kishore. A gorgeous story about time travel, as a group of “futurists”—women who are tasked with travelling back into India’s past and gently changing the tide of the Indian woman’s lot in life—must make sacrifices in order to improve the lives of women. I loved this story!
The City of Silence by Ma Boyong. Translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu. Just like George Orwell’s dystopian future, this 1984-esque story describes a future where the “appropriate authorities” control all language and publish a daily “List of Healthy Words” that citizens are allowed to use. When one man discovers a secret “Talking Club,” where one can speak whatever words he wants to, life becomes brighter—for a little while, at least. As with any dystopian, this is a chilling look at how dangerous government control can be.
Four other stories that nearly made this list are: Act of Faith by Fadzlishah Johanabas. A lonely man named Daud decides to teach his only companion, an android, the ways of his faith; The Foreigner by Uko Bendi Udo. A Nigerian boy seeks acceptance in a world filled with hate and mistrust. Jungle Fever by Zulaikha Nurain Mudzar. One of the few horror stories in the bunch, a girl contracts a nasty scratch while in the jungle, a scratch that changes her life forever. And Dancing on the Red Planet by Berit Ellingsen. An international group of astronauts, about to set foot on Mars for the first time, decide to make that special moment memorable.
So do yourself a favor and check out this anthology. I guarantee it will make you look at the world a little differently. Big thanks to Apex Books for providing a review copy.
This review originally appeared on
Books, Bones & Buffy. -
Nice variety of world science fiction. Liked some better than others, but that is typical of anthologies. This collection was enjoyable.
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This was a nicely balanced collection, with all but one of the stories being good. Slightly more horror themed stories than in previous volumes and the longer inclusions were well chosen.
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"The Apex Book of World SF 3"... *sigh*
Before I start off on the review I just want to say that one thing I love about short stories is that they leave me with questions. Some people would be driven nuts to be left with endless amounts of questions, but I find it as an opportunity to let my mind go wild. I love asking myself, "What if..." and make up answers from there. It's like putting together a puzzle- you have the picture, the pieces, now all that's left is to solve the trickiness and piece that puzzle back together, which gives hours of entertainment, but the joy of completing it and the feeling of accomplishment is the most exciting part and totally worth it. To me, these are the feelings I get from short stories such as, mainly Sci-fi, along with Fantasy.
With that said, let's go over the review. As always, I like to start with positives first. The front cover was really unique and a lot of talent and hard work went into creating it...
As for the MAJORITY (no joke) of the short stories... way too much "fan service" going on in most stories (if you are not use to hearing the term "fan service", I am basically saying too much sex/description of nudity/perversion). If I wanted this then I would just be reading short story romance novels instead. But this is NOT what I wanted or thought I was going to get! I just wanted the unique Sci-fi/Fantasy stories that are creative and fill you with awe because the author's imagination is just that great. Instead I find that I am reading short stories that start with what I desire, but then turns into disgust. "Fan service" may win the heart of teenage boys hitting puberty, but not for someone who just desires to read a creative story, filled with fascinating things...
In the end, I am highly disappointed. A few good stories thrown in the mix of many, many bad ones is not worth the investment in this book. I have ready many other short story Sci-fi/Fantasy collections and I must say, I have never been as disappointed as I am now.
2 stars. I am honestly being generous with even that many. -
This is the second Apex anthology I’ve read in 2014, thanks to LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program; the first was The Book of Apex: Volume 4 of Apex Magazine. The set-up for both collections is similar: a gorgeous cover and a powerful gathering of recent science fiction, fantasy and horror stories. The one big difference, as you might guess, is that the majority of the contributors to The Apex Book of World SF 3 don’t live in the U.S. They hail from more than a dozen countries ranging from Europe to Africa to Asia to North America.
Their contributions to this book are equally diverse. Sadly, there are no Pandas of Dread (RIP Eugie Foster), but there are dancing astronauts; zombies; and beautiful translations by Ken Liu, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Jim Young, and Tom Clegg.
My favorite stories in this collection of sixteen include Xia Hia’s “A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight” (100 ghosts and one living boy), Ika Koeck’s “Jungle Fever” (a zombie’s firsthand tale on becoming one), Amal El-Mohtar’s “To Follow the Waves” (be careful what you weave into your dreams), and Ange’s “Three Little Children” (a nice and creepy bedtime story). There are many more I like, as well, and the weaker stories are still decent, just not necessarily my cup of tea.
There’s something for everyone in The Apex Book of World SF 3 (fabulously assembled by editor Lavie Tidhar) if you enjoy speculative fiction and want to experience stories not always easy to find or expected to be in the U.S. I was really pleased to see that this collection made NPR’s best book list for 2014. -
Anthologies usually gather stories with different kind of writing style. This is good and bad the same time. Good, because I can read stories written with different authentic voices. It's an experience like going to another country with unique culture. Bad, because some of the authors' voices I find so strange that sometimes I give up on the story. It was so with this anthology too.
I liked several stories. The City of Silence was interesting to read, it allowed me a glimpse into the spirit of the government censure, and it projected what could happen if it goes wild. Brita's Holiday village was also an interesting piece, which made me think. And I enjoyed the funny story about landing on the Mars and coming out of the ship dancing.
However, there were stories I started to read, but couldn't finish. Some of them was written on a strange voice, it was hard to read them, so I gave up. Other stories lead nowhere. Maybe it's only me, because I like fast paced stories and ones with twists, so a story about a drug addict trying to find his way in the world doesn't appeal to me. And I don't like horror, so I skipped a few stories.
The Apex Book of World SF 3 is an interesting anthology, bringing together non-native English writers from all around the world. -
In summary: while there are a couple of duds, there are more than enough jewels, and I definitely recommend this collection.
As the title says, this is a collection of SF short stories from around the world. There is a mix of cultures and writing styles, and 'SF' is defined rather loosely - overall it is a carefully chosen collection with a number of interesting takes on humanity and our relationship with our world, each other, and our technology and creations.
I enjoyed all the stories to a degree, but unsurprisingly in such a diverse set of stories some resonated with me much more than others. Act of Faith i found to be beautiful, and leant me a view on faith I have trouble accessing on my own. Planetfall was a curious journey backwards through a planet's colonisation history, To Follow the Waves a look into dreams and consequences I very much enjoyed. Regessions I found absolutely fascinating, making me consider all kinds of things about how history and culture form, and I think is the one story that is going to stay with me going forward.
fyi: I received this book in exchange for an honest review as part of the librarything early reviewers programme. -
This is not only the third in the series, but also the third collection of World Speculative Fiction I've read in the series.
Thus far this is my favorite collection in the series. Favorite stories include:
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight by Xia Jia (China)
Act of Faith by Fadzlishah Johanabas (Malaysia)
Jungle Fever by Ika Koeck (Malaysia) perhaps my favorite
Three Little Children by Ange (France)
Regressions by Swapna Kishore (India)
Dancing on the Red Planet by Berit Ellingsen (Korean-Norwegian)
Although I mentioned 6 favorites all 16 stories were enjoyable. They included works from Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Thailand), Uko Bendi Udo (Nigeria), Ma Boyong (China), Athena Andreadis (Greece), Amir El-Mohtar (Canada), Nelly Geraldine Garcia-Rosas (Spain), Biram Mboob (Gambia), Myra Cakan (Germany), Crystal Koo (The Philippines), Brita's Holiday Village (Sweden).
This collection is highly recommended. -
This is the 3rd volume in a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by authors not from America. This is a nice glimpse into the much larger world of sci-fi/fantasy authors from around the world and gives you a look at how other cultures influence the stories and concepts explored by these authors. I enjoyed several of the stories, although a few were a bit outside of my preferred style. I truly enjoyed some of the Asian style sci-fi and will look for more to explore. After having the opportunity to read this volume I may go back and get the previous two volumes to see what I've missed.
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A fantastic array of stories by writers from around the world. A must-read for readers of Apex Magazine, Lightspeed, Shimmer, and the like.
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Just finished reading Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods from this collection. I deduced references to colonialists (or should I say attempted colonialism), (genocide/mass killings with gas/chemicals?), race (my guess is Caucasian versus Asian), and identity comparisons. Parts of it read like a story based on a revenge fantasy; ...could be real life too. Who knows? Writers, right? The language was excellent, but overall, the characters were not memorable. I felt something was missing. You know, that magic element great writers have which allows their art to age in the reader's mind like fine wine? Yeah, this story didn't have it. It lacked some degree of soul. More to come when I finish the rest of the stories.
