This is a 28 pages long short-story that was newly published in the “Solaris Book of New Fantasy”, a short-story collection edited by George Mann that surely contains all sorts of tasty treats. I, however, was only interested in it for the story written by one of my favourite fantasy authors, Steven Erikson. Here’s what I thought of it:
“Quashie Trapp Blacklight” is a very weird story that is perhaps best compared to his brilliant Malaz novella, “The Healthy Dead”. I got the feeling that this had been written a long time ago, before the Malazan-era, when he was writing fiction inspired by archeology under the name of Stephen Lundin, but I have no grounds for that statement except a feeling in my gut.
Amongst other things, this story contains a literal flying Irishman named Mowbry, an undercover Tarantula spy, a hairless feline wearing a factor’s wig, an invisible Mayan god, a ocean-crossing elephant and a whore named Red who’s in love with her bathtub. I can’t say anything else than that I loved reading this short; but then again I kinda adore everything this man has done so far…
My favourite passage from the short is to be found on page 491:
“I know all about cats, Mowbry, cause I’m a woman, see? There ain’t nothing poor about ‘em. Now dogs, Mowbry, dogs is the poor ones. You ever see a toy French poodle?” She shook her head. “Sorriest sight ye’d ever see. Even the rats laugh at ‘em, and they’re from Norway! Since when did anyone from Norway laugh at a Frenchie, Mowbry? Answer me that!”
“I ain’t no good on history,” Mowbry mumbled, discomfited bye Red’s evidently prodigious education.”
At the end of the short (SPOILER!), Red ends up sailing her bathtub from the Caribbean to Norway, where she eventually becomes a god for our famous rats. There are funnier quotes to be found in this short, but I picked this one because, hey - I’m from Norway and I can’t help getting excited when cool people like Erikson acknowledge our existence, even when it’s because of rats…
All in all I thought this was worth the 99 kroner (20 USD) I could have spent on this collection if I had indeed paid for it. As things are I got it for free on a gift-certificate and I haven’t any plans on reading the whole collection, even though it’s probably really good. I just don’t have the time, nor the will to read a lot of shorts by unknown authors right now. But this was fun and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat to any Erikson fan. You’ll just have to decide for yourself if you can afford the fun.
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I saw this one reviewed in the last SFX, and they gave it a 4/5, if my memory serves me right. So you probably wouldn’t risk much by reading some of the rest of it, too. Except a lot of valuable hours which could be better spent on stuff you know more about the quality of, of course, but that kinda goes without saying, doesn’t it?
13. December 2007 @ 15:46 ( Permalink )
As I said in the post; it’s probably a good collection, but I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of short-story collections lately, and if I were to read another one I’d probably prioritize GRRM’s “Dreamsongs” (but that one is about 1200 pages long in hc so I’m saving it for some time after christmas.)
14. December 2007 @ 08:44 ( Permalink )
Ah, yes, I see. Makes sense, that.
Although I must say, Amras, I never figured you for a sensible bloke.
14. December 2007 @ 15:41 ( Permalink )
The things I do make a lot of sense to me and absolutely no sense whatsoever to other people. I’m pretty o.k. with that arrangement.
And if there’s one thing that I put a lot thought into, it’s what books to read next. I usually spend the entire week I normally use on finishing one book to pick out the next one.
15. December 2007 @ 07:53 ( Permalink )
Really?
Personally, I go for the more spontaneous method: picking up whatever the hell I feel most like reading right there. Of course, I don’t always do this. Sometimes I have to read a book that’s next in line, so to say, because I’m reading a series, and other times I’ve done what you do, decided what to read before I finished the last one. That’s what I did this week; on Monday I decided to read Johan Harstads Hässelby after I finished with Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but that was mostly because I started reading the former on this Monday, and so I thought I had better finish it as soon as possible…
15. December 2007 @ 10:58 ( Permalink )