How Long 'til Black Future Month

 

by N. K. Jemisin

I read Jemisin’s excellent essay of the same name online in 2013 (http://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-month/), so when I picked up this book I was expecting a collection of essays, but was surprised (and pleased) when it turned out to be a collection of short stories instead. And what a collection it is!

 There is Stone Hunger, an exploration of the ideas that would become The Broken Earth trilogy, and The City Born Great, which I believe is a similar exploration of an idea that became The City We Became, the first of Jemisin’s trilogy-in-progress. These are interesting stories on their own, but also give insight into how the author builds from short story to long, intricate novels, a peek behind the curtains that we as readers don’t often get to see.

The emotions of these stories run a wide gamut. There is the fairly grim, but ultimately optimistic opening tale, The Ones Who Stay and Fight, to the bittersweet story of power and race and history told in Red Dirt Witch. Then there is the playful magic realism of L’Alchemista.

One of my favourites was the final, longer story of magic and survival in New Orleans post-Katrina: Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters, with its layers of relationships between the survivors in the flooded city, who they once were, who they were in the aftermath, and who they could become.

There are 22 stories, all magical, sometimes veering closer to science fiction, sometimes further into fantasy, occasionally hewing next to realism. But regardless of the genre, all are stories about people and their relationships, whether between a mother and a daughter coming of age (and of responsibility) in Red Dirt Witch, or strangers becoming friends, allies, and more in The Effluent Engine, or striving to be the best even when everyone around tries to hold back in The Valedictorian, or missing someone so badly it becomes addictive in Cuisine des Memoires.

And, ultimately, it is those relationships that make the stories, and the book, so compelling.

 

Strange Practice

Vivian Shaw

Dr. Greta Helsing has the most unusual medical practice in modern London: most of her patients are dead. But if you are a banshee with laryngitis, a vampire with a head cold, or a mummy slowly succumbing to the ravages of time, who else are you going to call. Her family has had this practice for generations, and some of her family friends date back that long too. And she will need to learn to rely on those friends for help when a cult begins killing both her beloved monsters and humans across London.

So with her gang Edmund Ruthven (vampire), Sir Francis Varney (vampyre, with a ‘y’), Fastidocalon (ancient and inhuman, but not even Greta is quite sure what he is), August Cranswell (human, working at the British Museum), Greta finds herself unwilling drawn into both the serial killing the newspapers refer to as the Rosary Ripper, whose victims are found eyeless and naked with cheap rosaries stuffed in their mouths, and an attack on Varney by people dressed like monks, using garlic and a dagger poisoned specifically against the undead. And she can’t help but feel there is a connection between the two cases.

As the bodies pile up and Greta gets more involved in the cases, the danger ramps up for herself and her friends, becoming a race to solve the case or die trying. But whoever is behind this has been covering their tracks very well, and it doesn’t leave her, or the police, much to go on. Fortunately, Greta has some very talented and resourceful friends, because it will take all of their combined wits and courage to see this through. After all, it can be helpful to have friends who can become invisible or bend steel bars sometimes.

Through it all she has to maintain those friendships, run her business, and resist the powerful attraction she’s beginning to feel for one of her patients.

This is a good edge-of-your-seat mystery with likeable characters and unexpected twists and turns. This is the first Dr. Greta Helsing novel, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the author, Vivian Shaw, takes these characters next. The mix of action, locations, fantastic situations, mystery, and a hint of romance is a very pleasant combination.

Dethe Elza is a Digital Services Technician at the Brighouse Branch of the Richmond Public Library, where he helps kids learn to write their own computer games.

The Library of the Unwritten

 

By A.J. Hackwith

Join the Library. Raise Hell!

Stories are powerful things. As such, they must be contained.  All unfinished stories go to the Library of the Unwritten, a neutral space in Hell overseen by a Head Librarian.  The Head Librarian is responsible for organizing and repairing the books, keeping them safe, and most importantly, keeping restless stories from manifesting into their characters and escaping! 

Claire, a human soul doing penance for her life on earth and the current Head Librarian, is very good at her job.  She’s cool, works well under pressure, and has a no-nonsense attitude when it comes to rebellious stories.  When Leto, a courier demon, visits the library to inform Claire of an escaped character, Claire, Leto, and her Muse assistant Brevity go to modern day Seattle to retrieve the wayward book.  

Meanwhile, Ramiel, a disgraced angel has been tasked with a mission in order to re-enter Heaven.  He is searching Earth for a book written by Lucifer and, mistaking the escaped character for Lucifer’s book, attempts to reclaim the book by force.  After barely escaping with their lives, Claire, Brevity, and Leto must figure out how to retrieve the actual copy of Lucifer’s book before the angels get to it in order to prevent Armageddon.  

  

What proceeds is a wonderful adventure through the underworlds of different mythologies with a gaggle of interesting, complex characters.  Claire, Leto, and Brevity, are accompanied by a disgraced demon archivist, and an unwritten book in character form.   All these characters fit into the world Hackwith has created and add context to the main concept of the novel – stories have power.  

I am a sucker for stories about books or libraries; however, this one felt particularly unique. I absolutely love the idea that unwritten and unfinished stories have power.  The entire world in which this story is set is by far the best thing about it. While I will say the main plot can be a bit shaky at times, I loved the concept and really enjoyed exploring this world Hackwith had created. Tons of fun to read, The Library of the Unwritten is a great armchair adventure into a magical world adjacent to our own!