There
is, or at least once was, a lot humming and hawing about the
differences between science fiction and fantasy. One is about the
“impossible” and the other the “yet possible” I can even hear
myself saying. But the subjective truth takes over: there is not
always a clear line between the two. Sometimes it's just fantastika.
But Paul Di Filippo already knew that. Enter his eighteenth
collection of short—fantastikal—fiction, Infinite Fantastika
(2018).
In
a kind of self-rediscovery, the story kicking off the collection is
one of the first Di Filippo had published and thought he'd lost
forever after the manuscript disappeared, it wasn't until a scanned
fanzine later appeared online that “Before and After Science” saw
the virtual light of day, again. Lacking a compass, the story (if it
can be called such) has a kind of inchoate brilliance that floats in
interesting fashion. Seeming personal, it tells, as the title
states, of a man’s life transformed by science, but in less than
scientific
fashion. Turning
the dial up to eleven, “The Trail of the Creator, The Trial of
Creation” by the below-the-genre-radar Paul di Filippo is the story
of a motley crue of post humans who hunt the god that seeded the
universe with their perverse variety. Add a mad scientist with a
barrel of urschleim to the mix, and they’re off.
Flash
fiction, “Domotica Berserker!” tells of a new neighborhood of
homes being 3D printed, and the trouble had by activists. A time
travel story (that could have fit neatly in Lost Pages), “I'll
Follow the Sun” is about a guy who twists his life into a pretzel
trying to get rich in the future selling an old comic book. Beer
muscles and crabs on steroids, yes—oh, and romance, betrayal, and
drama at the ballgame, such are the pieces of “A Faster, Deeper
Now”. A vast spread of vignettes, “Thirteen Ways of Being Looked
at by a Blackbird SR-71” tackles the idea of information protection
from some very broad angles (and may have spawned a movie Downsized
in the process) in funnily imaginative and seriously imaginative
fashion.
Biopunked
wild west, “The Herple Is a Happy Beast or, "Neighbors Are
Delicious!" tells of a future “cowboy” that touches upon
both man and beast, with a light wafting of rotten fish. “The
Horror At Gancio Rosso” is Lovecraftania, and while politically
revised Lovecraftania, is still Lovecraftania, and a lot of
which comes with such a label. Tongue in cheek pastiche of golden age
sf, “Airboy and Vooda Visit the Jungles of the Moon” story tells
of the unlikely duo’s trip to the moon and the strange war they
encounter between white apes and black leopards. Di Filipinos fully
conscious of his medium, no opportunity is wasted amplifying the
juvenile nature of the story in humorous fashion. In “Antikhthon”,
Di Filippo’s attempt at explaining why ordinary people snap and
perform great human injustices is as much classic sf as it is murky
in the area of due respect paid to the victims of the world’s
greatest crimes against humanity. Jack Vance did it, and now Di
Filippo has done it again in “The Bartered Planet”. Like Vance,
you'll like this one.
There
is a whole lot of gushing on this blog about Paul Di Filippo, and
while this particular collection may not have an overwhelming number
of reasons to let the flood waters flow, it does still have a handful
of strong picks, and remains an example of what makes Di Filippo, Di
Filippo. Best part: it throws the taxonomy of genre out the window
to be creative in a number of ways. Whether those ways are engaging
depends on the reader. The only thing certain is that the collection
is not realist...
The
following are the twelve stories collected in Infinite Fantastika:
Before
and After Science
The
Trail of the Creator, the Trial of Creation
Domotica
Berserker!
I'll
Follow the Sun
A
Faster, Deeper Now
Thirteen
Ways of Being Looked at by a Blackbird SR-71
The
Herple Is a Happy Beast or, "Neighbors Are Delicious!"
The
Horror at Gancio Rosso
Airboy
and Vooda Visit the Jungles of the Moon
Antikhthon
The
Bartered Planet
Devils
at Play
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