Summary: "Novella Chapbooks", 2008

This year I saw an twelve books that fit my definition of "novella chapbook", by which I really mean single-story chapbooks, because the stories are sometimes shorts or novelettes, and even though in general they aren't really chapbooks but slim trade paperbacks (or sometimes these days e-books).
A total of 12 stories, 8 novellas, 3 novelettes, and one short story. About 265,000 words.

6 of the stories (50%) are SF, and 2 (17%) are by women.

The books, in rough order of length:

Vandana Singh, Distances (Aqueduct)
Vera Nazarian, The Duke in His Castle (Norilana)
Paul G. Tremblay, The Harlequin and the Train (Necropolitan)
John Grant, The City in These Pages (PS Publishing)
James Barclay, The Vault of Deeds (PS Publishing)
Joe Hill, Gunpowder (PS Publishing)
Dirk Flinthart, Angel Rising (Twelfth Planet Press)
David J. Schwartz, The Sun Inside (Rabid Transit Press)
Michael Hemmingson, In the Background is a Walled City (Borgo)
Jeff VanderMeer, The Situation (PS Publishing)
John Crowley, Conversation Hearts (Subterranean)
Christopher Golden, The Hiss of Escaping Air (PS Publishing)

The last and shortest of these stories is my favorite: "The Hiss of Escaping Air" is a sharp horror story about an actress who insists on taking a prized red balloon from her director husband in their divorce ... it has particular powers, and particular vulnerabilities that are revealed in an inexorably logical and dark conclusion. Other strong pieces included Vandana Singh's "Distances", Jeff VanderMeer's "The Situation", and David J. Schwartz's "The Sun Inside". "Distances" mixes mathematics with gender issues with an exotic look at human colonization of the galaxy, and hints at a really fascinating backstory that could imply future independent stories in the same milieu. "The Situation" is, it seems to me, quite Newly Weird, as it were, a workplace horror-comedy featuring coworkers variably human, part-animal, part-machine, a job making wonderful beetles, an office building with mysterious floors of differing accessibility and further weirdness. "The Sun Inside" is a bit of a surprise -- one of the best novellas of the year that not many people saw -- a Pellucidar story, in which the hero, an Iraq War vet with an artificial leg, falls for a woman he meets online who turns out to live in the center of the Earth. The story begins as an examination of the wonders of this world (the dinosaurs and all) but turns into a mature exploration of the political realities implied. Very fine work.

I also quite enjoyed Dirk Flinthart's "Angel Rising", neat spyish adventure in the New Ceres shared world. Joe Hill's "Gunpowder" is SF with horror aspects, pretty good stuff, about boys genetically engineered to help terraform a new world, until the military thinks of better uses for their powers. John Crowley's "Conversation Hearts" is beautifully written but a bit too programmatic, almost silly in spots. Paul G. Tremblay's "The Harlequin and the Train" is horror about a train driver who becomes obsessed with a group that seem to get their jollies from leaving dummies on train tracks to scare the drivers -- but things are worse than that. Decent work. Vera Nazarian's "The Duke in His Castle" has an interesting hyper romantic setup (with hints of Vance) but seemed too overwrought to me by the end. John Grant's "The City in These Pages" is a sort of McBain style police procedural, with some fascinating main characters, that I thought got a bit out of hand with its philosophical conclusion, but that was fun to read on the way. James Barclay's "The Vault of Deeds" is fantasy making fun of fantasy, a dark comic look at heroes failing because the villains have unexpected help -- really, minor work, I thought. And, finally, Michael Hemmingson's "In the Background is a Walled City" is way too silly and disjointed for my taste, about a dwarf and Santa saving the world and who cares.

Tags: 2008, yearly summaries