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A review by daveversace
Light Touch Paper Stand Clear by Simon Petrie, Edwina Harvey
4.0
This is a more or less unthemed anthology of mostly Australian speculative fiction short stories from Peggy Bright Books. First of all, while this is a collection of thirteen very interesting and well written stories - not one of them is a dud - it's a total mixed bag. There's no evident interconnection or sense that these stories form a greater whole. If there's an editorial hand at work, it's largely invisible. It's just a group of spec fic from across the wide range that the term implies.
The pick of the bunch is probably Joanne Anderton's 'The Bone Chime Song', in which a necromancer calls in an old lover to help him solve a grisly massacre. I reviewed Jo Anderton's Debris in June and with this story I've added her to my list of writers to follow. It's gruesome, tense and aches with the sadness of lost romance.
Others that appealed to me were Adam Browne's 'The D_____d', about the British Empire's military campaign into Hell, which twists Dante in a fun direction; Katherine Cummings' 'The Travelling Salesman and the Farmer's Daughter', which is a remarkably old-fashioned interplanetary SF yarn, told with such breezy confidence that I didn't mind that I guessed the ending; 'Mary had a Unicorn' by Ripley Patton, a brutal story of drug abuse and resentment whose core absurdity in no way diminishes its impact; 'The Godbreaker and Unggubudh the Mountain' by Ian McHugh, in which old enemies ally against a greater threat; and 'The Subjunctive Case' by Rob Porteous, a murder mystery featuring a private investigator with an extremely unusual advantage. Of the rest there are time travellers, conspiracies, robots, aliens and matchmaking bar wenches. Something for everyone, I guess.
Like I said, it's a collection of solid stories. I expect another reader might have a completely different subset of favourites, though I would be surprised at any top five that didn't include the Anderton. The implied world building in her story (and McHugh's, as well) is outstanding. Both could clearly bear further exploration. Overall I would recommend the collection for anyone interested in a pleasant variety of appetising spec fic.
The pick of the bunch is probably Joanne Anderton's 'The Bone Chime Song', in which a necromancer calls in an old lover to help him solve a grisly massacre. I reviewed Jo Anderton's Debris in June and with this story I've added her to my list of writers to follow. It's gruesome, tense and aches with the sadness of lost romance.
Others that appealed to me were Adam Browne's 'The D_____d', about the British Empire's military campaign into Hell, which twists Dante in a fun direction; Katherine Cummings' 'The Travelling Salesman and the Farmer's Daughter', which is a remarkably old-fashioned interplanetary SF yarn, told with such breezy confidence that I didn't mind that I guessed the ending; 'Mary had a Unicorn' by Ripley Patton, a brutal story of drug abuse and resentment whose core absurdity in no way diminishes its impact; 'The Godbreaker and Unggubudh the Mountain' by Ian McHugh, in which old enemies ally against a greater threat; and 'The Subjunctive Case' by Rob Porteous, a murder mystery featuring a private investigator with an extremely unusual advantage. Of the rest there are time travellers, conspiracies, robots, aliens and matchmaking bar wenches. Something for everyone, I guess.
Like I said, it's a collection of solid stories. I expect another reader might have a completely different subset of favourites, though I would be surprised at any top five that didn't include the Anderton. The implied world building in her story (and McHugh's, as well) is outstanding. Both could clearly bear further exploration. Overall I would recommend the collection for anyone interested in a pleasant variety of appetising spec fic.