Like No Place Else
Grit, Grime, Place and Attitude in the Best of 2002
When sailing the Sea of Story, it is best to keep watch for strange, fabulous harbors that may appear on the horizon.
While it is true that a journey is rarely about the destination, and more about the getting there, it is equally true that there are usually compelling stops along the way. And in literature, sometimes the places are as interesting and fascinating as the locals.
Developing my list for the Best of 2002, I realized that many of the novels and stories I considered had one thread binding them together—the thread of setting.
Magical worlds. Strange worlds. Familiar worlds. Eerie worlds. All fabulous harbors on the Sea of Story.
Place isn’t the only thing to seek out on a journey, though. As I mentioned above, the locals are pretty fascinating in their own right… and they’re better when they’ve got attitude. Who wants boring old fuddy-duddies when you can find people with flair, with joie de vivre? Who wants Mel the frycook when you can find Dante the radical anarchist? Attitude challenges perception, and finely-displayed attitude is as worthy a trait as any.
That said, I’d like to point out that this is the best work I’ve encountered this year. Not all of the works are from 2002; some are older, some will be out in 2003. Some were out in the UK this year, but not in the US —and vice versa. Some are out of print, and for that, you’ll just have to forgive me…
A Year in the Linear City
Paul Di Filippo does it again. It’s the marvelous story of Cosmogonic Fiction writer Diego, set in the city that squats between The Other Shore and The Wrong Side Of The Tracks, infinitely long and only one street-block wide. This is one of the most off-handedly bizarre, unique world creations to come along since Gormenghast, and it’s all wrapped in shiny, delightful prose from a punk stylist that has no equal. For sheer invention and power, this novella from PS Publishing wins my highest recommendation.
The Scar
China Miéville is one of those people. You know them. The ones that effortlessly churn out blatantly weird, provocatively surreal, off-kilter madness at the drop of a hat. Don’t believe me? Just visit New Crobuzon. Or, better still, journey into the lands beyond by reading The Scar. If Tolkien had dropped enough acid, he could have written about Armada and its inhabitants… but he could never match Miéville’s razor-keen writing. If you demand more than McEpics from your fantasy, Miéville is your man.
City of Saints and Madmen
Jeff VanderMeer likes squid too much, but that doesn’t detract from his wonderfully warped perspective of life and (un)reality. This collection, centering on the city of Ambergris and its menagerie of inhabitants, is truly a unique experience in fantastic fiction. The stories here straddle all genres, all styles; from baroque weirdness to magical whimsy, VanderMeer brings Ambergris to tangible life for the reader, an unsettling sense of place that disturbs reader convention as deftly as M John Harrison’s Viriconium sequence does. City of Saints and Madmen is a must-read collection.
Heroes Die
Matthew Stover is the writer that brought me back to reading fantasy, and Heroes Die is the novel that did it. A compelling, dangerous tale of love and murder in two different worlds, it’s an absolutely essential novel for anyone that likes their fantastic fiction hard-edged. Stover is the John Woo of fantasy, cramming his work with nonstop action, hyper-realistic violence, and gritty realism that lets you smell the shit stench in the air. Underneath is the heart of a philosopher, though, and characterization that singes the mind. Two fully-realized worlds make this novel unique in fantastic fiction, and Stover unique in the field.
