The follow
up to Ian Whates’ solid Solaris Rising
anthology is, surprisingly, not Solaris
Rising 2. Something possible only in
the modern era, Solaris decided to publish a mini-anthology e-book as both a
bridge and precursor to the second entry.
Solaris Rising 1.5 (2012) is,
as far as I know, the only anthology bearing a decimal. Whates himself admitting it was a surprise
affair, the overall quality of the stories belies mediocre preparation, and
ultimately does not meet the standard set by the first volume. The authors apparently contacted at short
notice to see what they had available, the resulting rush means that not all of
the nine stories are up to snuff. There
are a couple, however, which may be worth it.
The first
story in Solaris Rising 1.5 is Adam
Roberts’ “What Did Tessimond Tell You?”
A single concept stretched thin—almost to the point of snapping, the
story is science fiction as it once was: a grand idea populated by two
dimensional characters. Roberts builds
suspense admirably, and the ultimate payoff will cause every reader to pause
and think. But it is not enough to
prevent proceedings from being an idea indelicately injected into the lives of
standby characters. Apparently part of
Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya Universe, “Two Sisters in Exile” is the story of a unfortunate incident between galactic adversaries. When a Northerner mindship is accidentally
killed, the Nam attempt to forestall vengeance by returning the metal corpse
under a white flag. Featuring a
Vietnamese galactic empire filled with Vietnamese cooking (yet again), de
Bodard is up to her old tricks on the surface.
But at the story’s core, the human elements (despite the death being a
mindship) speak more to cultural relations and the ensuing difficulties, and as
a result is one of the better stories in this mini-anthology.
After the
first two offerings, the quality of Solaris
Rising 1.5 lags through the middle.
“Another Apocalypse” by Gareth L. Powell has the voice of an innate
storyteller (his imagery is comic book crisp).
The story told, however, entirely lacks depth or context. Perhaps a
window into a larger universe he has created in other novels, as a standalone
short it just doesn’t cohere. On the run in a futuristic flavela from a gang
who wants their debt paid in blood or money, a young man is rescued by a space
trader armed to the teeth. Action
ensues, and goes many places save anywhere with underlying purpose. “The Second Civil War” by Mike Resnick, is,
well, how to describe it… like a highschooler theorizing on what the US would
be like were the Confederacy to have defeated the Union in the Civil War. Napkin scribblings better, I’m hard-pressed
to think how this back drawer material made its way into any anthology. Thankfully, it is a scant few pages. (See
Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee for a
more effective civil war alternate history.) “Charlotte” by Sarah Lotz can be summed up in
an even shorter span: spider guard dog with melodrama. No more, no less. The oddest in the anthology, “The Gift” by
Phillip Vine is the story of a writer in a hospital bed who makes a deal with
the devil to acquire a certain something that will allow him to become the Next
Big Thing, and one day the Great American Writer. Relevant to today’s publishing, indeed one
may need to lop off a part of their soul to get their first novel published,
intentions thwarted by commercialism and big publishers. (Vine’s story is a significantly better way
to sound off at the state of publishing than Peter Hamilton’s story in Solaris Rising 1.)
Tanith Lee
is a good writer, and the story she contributes to Solaris Rising 1.5 is well-written.
But it’s empty, oh so empty.
Alien contact reduced to a simple joke, Lee is apparently old enough not
to give a damn. “A New Arrival at the
House of Love” by Paul Cornell is an obtuse romance of science fiction
dimension: vis a vis, not your
standard Jane Austen novel—though Cornell does reference the British belle of
lettres. Virtual fantasy, post-humanism,
however you want to look at it, Cornell’s story is out there. The best saved for last, “A Palazzo in the
Stars” by Paul Di Filippo closes the anthology with an homage to H.G. Wells’ The First
Men in the Moon and a fantastical mid-19 th century imagination. The story of an American artist hired by an
eccentric Italian Duke to capture the images of a journey he plans to the moon,
romance ensues with the Duke’s beautifully ugly daughter on their way to the
superbly imagined palace of the moon. Di
Filippo’s pen sharper than usual (which is saying something in Di Filippo’s
case), the images he concocts do indeed pay homage to yesteryear while
injecting something fresh into the scene. Without this story, the anthology
would essentially be a failure.
In the
end, Solaris Rising 1.5 feels like an
anthology just hoping to cash in quick—on luck, it would seem. A little money
came available to Solaris, and they decided to whip together what is
essentially half an anthology. Not that
the nine stories are spectacularly bad, but certainly Solaris did not get lucky
and capture lightning in a bottle. Di
Filippo’s story is worth notice, Roberts and de Bodard’s can be read again,
Vines and Cornell’s are fair, but the remainder are mindless,
cutting-room-floor material. Unless any
of the writers are a particular favorite, the reader would be better off
investing in the whole numbers of Solaris
Rising.
The
following is the table of contents for the anthology:
Bulding
Bridges: An Introduction by Ian Whates
“What Did
Tessimond Tell You?” by Adam Roberts
“Two
Sisters in Exile” by Aliette de Bodard
“Another
Apocalypse” by Gareth L. Powell
“The
Second Civil War” by Mike Resnick
“Charlotte”
by Sarah Lotz
“The Gift”
by Phillip Vine
“IT” by
Tanith Lee
“A New
Arrival at the House of Love” by Paul Cornell
“A Palazzo
in the Stars” by Paul Di Filippo
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