Microreview [book]: Ignorance is Strength, edited by John Joseph Adams, Christine Yant, and Hugh Howey

This is is science fiction shining a light on the world around us. The heart of these stories is in the lives lived through the adversity of a failing society.

Six years ago John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey edited the ambitious Apocalypse Triptych, three anthologies taking readers into stories set before, during, and after the apocalypse in their relative anthologies. It was a spectacular reading experience. Now, with Christine Yant this triptych of editors has an intensely (and sometimes uncomfortably) timely set of anthologies following the same model, focused on the idea of dystopia.

Ignorance is Strength is the first volume of the Dystopia Triptych, borrows its name from George Orwell, and is damned uncomfortable reading. This isn't prescient science fiction, this is is science fiction shining a light on the world around us. It feels particularly American, but the United States is in the midst of a dystopian fall and the best of these stories come across as oh too real. This isn't an anthology of despair, however.  These heart of these stories is in the lives lived through the adversity of a failing society - though everything fails in a different way.

One especially poignant story is "The Truth About the Boy", by Adam Troy-Castro - which has powerful echoes of the response to the elementary school shooting at Newton, Connecticut and the vile denials by some that the shooting even happened and the claims that those children were actors. Adam Troy-Castro takes that idea farther with active campaigns and harassment against the parents of such murdered children, though perhaps he also reflects reality.

Many of those same themes are worked with in Merc Fenn Wolfmoor's anthology closing story "Trust in the Law, For the Law Trusts in You" - which is similar only to a point. Wolfmoor's story takes the (likely) idea that the United States will do nothing to actually curb school shootings or to address gun violence in any meaningful manner but instead will introduce virtual reality to school because maybe there can't be a school shooting if there is no in person school. That's a nightmare idea on the surface, but Wolfmoor extends that idea further and it's a chilling tale, though at least for me Troy-Castro's story is the more effective one.

My initial focus on the two school shooting related stories and the different descents that brings to America is not reflective of the rest of the anthology, at least in terms of story content. Seanan McGuire's "Opt-In" tackles the social economics of human organ harvesting and the effects of poverty on the desperation to earn enough money to take care of one's family when there are functionally no legal options. There's a slight distinction, but I'm a little surprised this isn't a Mira Grant story but then it doesn't veer into the horror that Seanan McGuire does when writing as Mira Grant. As with the best of McGuire's stories, "Opt-In" is a punch in the gut.

Other stories work with the prison economy, employment, artificial intelligence, the future of learning, climate change, and all the ways we can fuck up our world and our society and just make things worse. Not every story works perfectly and I fully recognize stories that don't work as well for me (Violet Allen's "Mister Dawn, How Can You Be So Cruel?", for example) might well be the favorites of other readers. The best stories for me are the ones that punch me right in the heart, so Adam Troy-Castro and Seanan McGuire earn those honors as well as stories by Tobias Buckell, Darcie Little Badger, and Karin Lowachee. When Ignorance is Strength is humming, there is nothing better.

Since this is a triptych of anthologies with linked stories, I'm afraid of where some of these stories will go in Burn the Ashes and deeper into the heart of the despair of dystopia. The best of the stories here are so searing that taking the next step is a frightening proposition. I can't wait.

The Math

Baseline Score: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 I'm a sucker for dystopian stories. +1 That Adam Troy-Castro story was soooo good (and uncomfortable)

Penalties: -1 There are always stories which don't land. -1 One story only tenuously fit the theme (it fit, but aliens)

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10 - well worth your time and attention

Reference: Adams, John Joseph, Christine Yant, and Hugh Howey. Ignorance is Strength [Adamant Press]

POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 4x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan. He / Him.

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about? Is there something we should consider spotlighting in the future? Let us know in the comments!

Adams, John Joseph. Wastelands: The New Apocalypse [Titan]
Publisher's Description

The new post-apocalyptic collection by master anthologist John Joseph Adams, featuring never-before-published stories and curated reprints by some of the genre’s most popular and critically-acclaimed authors.

In WASTELANDS: THE NEW APOCALYPSE, veteran anthology editor John Joseph Adams is once again our guide through the wastelands using his genre and editorial expertise to curate his finest collection of post-apocalyptic short fiction yet. Whether the end comes via nuclear war, pandemic, climate change, or cosmological disaster, these stories explore the extraordinary trials and tribulations of those who survive.

Featuring never-before-published tales by: Veronica Roth, Hugh Howey, Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Richard Kadrey, Scott Sigler, Elizabeth Bear, Tobias S. Buckell, Meg Elison, Greg van Eekhout, Wendy N. Wagner, Jeremiah Tolbert, and Violet Allen—plus, recent reprints by: Carmen Maria Machado, Carrie Vaughn, Ken Liu, Paolo Bacigalupi, Kami Garcia, Charlie Jane Anders, Catherynne M. Valente, Jack Skillingstead, Sofia Samatar, Maureen F. McHugh, Nisi Shawl, Adam-Troy Castro, Dale Bailey, Susan Jane Bigelow, Corinne Duyvis, Shaenon K. Garrity, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Darcie Little Badger, Timothy Mudie, and Emma Osborne.

Continuing in the tradition of WASTELANDS: STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE, these 34 stories ask: What would life be like after the end of the world as we know it? 

Why We Want It: The first two volumes of John Joseph Adams' Wastelands anthologies brought together classic stories of apocalypse, legendary stories of the field. Both volumes were spectacular. I love apocalyptic fiction, and John Joseph Adams is a master anthologist. This third Wastelands volume brings together brand new apocalyptic stories as well some more recent stories that may well stand the test of time. 

Brooks, Terry. The Stiehl Assassin [Del Rey]
Publisher's Description

After The Black Elfstone and The Skaar Invasion comes the next chapter in the Fall of Shannara, a saga more than four decades in the making. 

The Skaar have arrived in the Four Lands, determined to stop at nothing less than all-out conquest. They badly need a new home, but peaceful coexistence is not a concept they have ever understood. An advance force under the command of the mercurial princess Ajin has already established a foothold, but now the full Skaar army is on the march—and woe betide any who stand in its way.

But perhaps the Skaar victory is not quite the foregone conclusion everyone assumes. The Druid Drisker Arc has freed both himself and Paranor from their involuntary exile. Drisker’s student, Tarsha Kaynin, has been reunited with Dar, chief defender of what is left of the Druid order, and is learning to control her powerful wishsong magic. If they can only survive Tarsha’s brother, Tavo, and the Druid who betrayed Drisker Arc, they might stand a chance of defeating the Skaar. But that is a very big if . . . as Tavo now carries the Stiehl—one of the most powerful weapons in all the Four Lands—and is hellbent on taking his revenge on everyone he feels has wronged him. 

Why We Want It: I've been a Terry Brooks reader from my earliest days of being a fantasy reader and though the novels have gone through various peaks and valleys in terms of quality and also of my engagement, but we're in the final push to the end of the Shannara chronology. There is only one more novel after The Stiehl Assassin and I am on board for this journey.

Ford, Jackson. The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind [Orbit]
Publisher's Description

Full of imagination, wit, and random sh*t flying through the air, this insane adventure from an irreverent new voice will blow your tiny mind. 

For Teagan Frost, sh*t just got real. 

Teagan Frost is having a hard time keeping it together. Sure, she’s got telekinetic powers — a skill that the government is all too happy to make use of, sending her on secret break-in missions that no ordinary human could carry out. But all she really wants to do is kick back, have a beer, and pretend she’s normal for once.

But then a body turns up at the site of her last job — murdered in a way that only someone like Teagan could have pulled off. She’s got 24 hours to clear her name – and it’s not just her life at stake. If she can’t unravel the conspiracy in time, her hometown of Los Angeles will be in the crosshairs of an underground battle that’s on the brink of exploding . . . 

Why We Want It: The title. Honestly, it's just the title.

Gailey, Sarah. Magic for Liars [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Sharp, mainstream fantasy meets compelling thrills of investigative noir in Magic for Liars, a fantasy debut by rising star Sarah Gailey. 

Ivy Gamble was born without magic and never wanted it. 

Ivy Gamble is perfectly happy with her life – or at least, she’s perfectly fine. 

She doesn't in any way wish she was like Tabitha, her estranged, gifted twin sister. 

Ivy Gamble is a liar. 

When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister—without losing herself. 

Why We Want It: Gailey's debut novellas (River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow) were delights, riffing of the real world idea of bringing hippopotamuses to America and taking it much farther so that feral hippos are extremely dangerous and "tame" hippos can be used for transport like horses. After those novellas, we were always on board for whatever she did next.

Lord, Karen. Unraveling [DAW]
Publisher's Description

In this standalone fantasy novel by an award-winning author, the dark truth behind a string of unusual murders leads to an otherworldly exploration of spirits, myth, and memory, steeped in Caribbean storytelling. 

Dr. Miranda Ecouvo, forensic therapist of the City, just helped put a serial killer behind bars. But she soon discovers that her investigation into seven unusual murders is not yet complete. A near-death experience throws her out of time and into a realm of labyrinths and spirits. There, she encounters brothers Chance and the Trickster, who have an otherworldly interest in the seemingly mundane crimes from her files.

It appears the true mastermind behind the murders is still on the loose, chasing a myth to achieve immortality. Together, Miranda, Chance, and the Trickster must travel through conjured mazes, following threads of memory to locate the shadowy killer. As they journey deeper, they discover even more questions that will take pain and patience to answer. What is the price of power? Where is the path to redemption? And how can they stop the man—or monster—who would kill the innocent to live forever? 

Why We Want It: Each of Karen Lord's three previous novels have been very highly regarded, but for no particular reason, I haven't read any of them. It's past time to rectify that.

Solomon, Rivers. The Deep [Saga]
Publisher's Description

The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’ rap group Clipping. 

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting. 

Why We Want It: After the absolutely searing debut of An Unkindness of Ghosts it was clear Rivers Solomon was an important writer and that we needed to be there for whatever they did next. While we didn't expect that "expanding Clipping's song into a novel" was what was next, we're down for this.


Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 3x Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.

New Books Spotlight

Welcome to another edition of the New Books Spotlight, where each month or so we curate a selection of 6 forthcoming books we find notable, interesting, and intriguing. It gives us the opportunity to shine a brief spotlight on some stuff we're itching to get our hands on.

It's been a couple of months since our last New Books Spotlight. December was a bit spare with new releases and with last month's mega "24 Books" looking at some of the major books for the full year we needed to take a small break to refresh ourselves. For this month (and probably only this month), I'm also not going to include any books mentioned on that 24 Books list - so just know that there are some other impressive novels coming out.

What are you looking forward to? Anything you want to argue with us about? Is there something we should consider spotlighting in the future? Let us know in the comments!

Anders, Charlie Jane. City in the Middle of the Night [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Charlie Jane Anders, the nationally bestselling author of All the Birds in the Sky delivers a brilliant new novel set in a hauntingly strange future with The City in the Middle of the Night. 

"If you control our sleep, then you can own our dreams... And from there, it's easy to control our entire lives."

January is a dying planet--divided between a permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Humanity clings to life, spread across two archaic cities built in the sliver of habitable dusk.

But life inside the cities is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside.

Sophie, a student and reluctant revolutionary, is supposed to be dead, after being exiled into the night. Saved only by forming an unusual bond with the enigmatic beasts who roam the ice, Sophie vows to stay hidden from the world, hoping she can heal.

But fate has other plans--and Sophie's ensuing odyssey and the ragtag family she finds will change the entire world. 

Why We Want It: We've followed the short fiction of Charlie Jane Anders for a number of years now, but she burst on the scene with her debut novel All the Birds in the Sky and it was a raw delight. The City in the Middle of the Night promises to be as different from All the Birds in the Sky as can be, and that is all the more exciting.

Gloss, Molly. Outside the Gates [Saga]
Publisher's Description

Villagers were always warned that monsters live outside the gates, but when a young boy named Vren is cast out, he finds a home in the world beyond, in Whiting Award winner Molly Gloss’s classic fantasy novel. 

Vren has always been told that the world beyond the gates of his village is one filled with monsters, giants, and other terrifying creatures. But when he confides with his family about his ability to talk to animals, he’s outcast to the very world he’s been taught to fear his whole life. He expects to die alone, lost and confused, but he finds something different altogether—refuge in a community of shadowed people with extraordinary powers.

Thirty years later, Molly Gloss’s dystopian fantasy novel is just as timely, poignant, and stirring as ever, in a brand-new edition! 

Why We Want It: We've long been a fan of Gloss's novel The Dazzle of Day and have meant to read her other work. Saga is bringing back three of Gloss's older novels this year and it's the perfect time to fulfill that goal. Outside the Gates is the novel Ursula K. Le Guin told Saga Press's editor Joe Monti, "if you brought it back into print, I’d blurb the shit out of that.” There is no higher recommendation.

LaValle, Victor and John Joseph Adams. A People's Future of the United States [Random House]
Publisher's Description

A glittering landscape of twenty-five speculative stories that challenge oppression and envision new futures for America—from N. K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, G. Willow Wilson, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey, and more. 

In these tumultuous times, in our deeply divided country, many people are angry, frightened, and hurting. Knowing that imagining a brighter tomorrow has always been an act of resistance, editors Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams invited an extraordinarily talented group of writers to share stories that explore new forms of freedom, love, and justice. They asked for narratives that would challenge oppressive American myths, release us from the chokehold of our history, and give us new futures to believe in.

They also asked that the stories be badass.

The result is this spectacular collection of twenty-five tales that blend the dark and the light, the dystopian and the utopian. These tales are vivid with struggle and hardship—whether it’s the othered and the terrorized, or dragonriders and covert commandos—but these characters don’t flee, they fight. Thrilling, inspiring, and a sheer joy to read, A People’s Future of the United States is a gift for anyone who believes in our power to dream a just world.

Featuring stories by Violet Allen • Charlie Jane Anders • Lesley Nneka Arimah • Ashok K. Banker • Tobias S. Buckell • Tananarive Due • Omar El Akkad • Jamie Ford • Maria Dahvana Headley • Hugh Howey • Lizz Huerta • Justina Ireland • N. K. Jemisin • Alice Sola Kim • Seanan McGuire • Sam J. Miller • Daniel José Older • Malka Older • Gabby Rivera • A. Merc Rustad • Kai Cheng Thom • Catherynne M. Valente • Daniel H. Wilson • G. Willow Wilson • Charles Yu 

Why We Want It: These are the days we're looking for alternate visions of America's future because its present doesn't offer a whole lot of promise. Badass stories dreaming a better world edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams? Sign us up!

Lee, Yoon Ha. Dragon Pearl [Rick Riordan]
Publisher's Description

Rick Riordan Presents Yoon Ha Lee’s space opera about thirteen-year-old Min, who comes from a long line of fox spirits. But you’d never know it by looking at her. To keep the family safe, Min’s mother insists that none of them use any fox-magic, such as Charm or shape-shifting. They must appear human at all times. Min feels hemmed in by the household rules and resents the endless chores, the cousins who crowd her, and the aunties who judge her. She would like nothing more than to escape Jinju, her neglected, dust-ridden, and impoverished planet. She’s counting the days until she can follow her older brother, Jun, into the Space Forces and see more of the Thousand Worlds. When word arrives that Jun is suspected of leaving his post to go in search of the Dragon Pearl, Min knows that something is wrong. Jun would never desert his battle cruiser, even for a mystical object rumored to have tremendous power. She decides to run away to find him and clear his name. Min’s quest will have her meeting gamblers, pirates, and vengeful ghosts. It will involve deception, lies, and sabotage. She will be forced to use more fox-magic than ever before, and to rely on all of her cleverness and bravery. The outcome may not be what she had hoped, but it has the potential to exceed her wildest dreams. This sci-fi adventure with the underpinnings of Korean mythology will transport you to a world far beyond your imagination. 

Why We Want It: Simply put, it's a new Yoon Ha Lee space adventure. This time, a YA space adventure, but after the Machineries of Empire trilogy, Yoon has earned our trust.

Liu, Ken. Broken Stars [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Broken Stars, edited by multi award-winning writer Ken Liu--translator of the bestselling and Hugo Award-winning novel The Three Body Problem by acclaimed Chinese author Cixin Liu-- is his second thought-provoking anthology of Chinese short speculative fiction. Following Invisible Planets, Liu has now assembled the most comprehensive collection yet available in the English language, sure to thrill and gratify readers developing a taste and excitement for Chinese SF. 

Some of the included authors are already familiar to readers in the West (Liu Cixin and Hao Jingfang, both Hugo winners); some are publishing in English for the first time. Because of the growing interest in newer SFF from China, virtually every story here was first published in Chinese in the 2010s.

The stories span the range from short-shorts to novellas, and evoke every hue on the emotional spectrum. Besides stories firmly entrenched in subgenres familiar to Western SFF readers such as hard SF, cyberpunk, science fantasy, and space opera, the anthology also includes stories that showcase deeper ties to Chinese culture: alternate Chinese history, chuanyue time travel, satire with historical and contemporary allusions that are likely unknown to the average Western reader. While the anthology makes no claim or attempt to be "representative" or “comprehensive," it demonstrates the vibrancy and diversity of science fiction being written in China at this moment.

In addition, three essays at the end of the book explore the history of Chinese science fiction publishing, the state of contemporary Chinese fandom, and how the growing interest in science fiction in China has impacted writers who had long labored in obscurity. 

Why We Want It: It might be a bit of a stretch to give Ken Liu credit for the flowering of Chinese science fiction in the United States, but it was his translation of Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem (winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel) that seemed to be the watershed publication that brought wider attention and certainly acclaim to Chinese science fiction. Broken Stars is Liu's second anthology of translated short fiction.

Modesitt, Jr, L.E. Endgames [Tor]
Publisher's Description

Endgames is the stunning final volume in L. E. Modesitt, Jr's, New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series the Imager Portfolio, and the third book in the story arc that began with Treachery's Tools and Assassin's Price. 

Solidar is in chaos.

Charyn, the young and untested ruler of Solidar, has survived assassination, and he struggles to gain control of a realm in the grip of social upheaval, war, and rioting. Solidar cannot be allowed to slide into social and political turmoil that will leave the High Holders with their ancient power and privilege, and the common people with nothing.

But the stakes are even higher than he realizes. 

Why We Want It: Modesitt is my definition of a comfort read. I know exactly what I'm going to get, and I appreciate the slow ramping up of tension through the mundanity of every day tasks before chaos (so to speak) breaks out. I'm a book behind on this story arc, still needing to read Assassin's Price, but every Modesitt novel has been a pleasure to read. I have no doubt this will be the same. Also, much to my surprise (and despite the title), Endgames is purported to be the final Imager Portfolio novel - which really means that it is time to catch up.



POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.

6 Books With Editor John Joseph Adams

Photo Credit: Beth Gwinn

John Joseph Adams is the editor of John Joseph Adams Books, a science fiction/fantasy imprint from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He is also the series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, as well as the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, including Wastelands and The Living Dead. Recent and forthcoming books include Cosmic Powers, What the #@&% Is That?, Operation Arcana, Press Start to Play, Loosed Upon the World, and The Apocalypse Triptych. Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been a finalist ten times) and a seven-time World Fantasy Award finalist. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare, and is a producer for WIRED’s The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. He also served as a judge for the 2015 National Book Award. Find him online at johnjosephadams.com and @johnjosephadams.

1. What book are you currently reading?

Aside from manuscript reading, which wouldn’t mean anything to anyone else, since by definition no one else can go read it yet, I don’t have a ton of time to read just purely for pleasure. But I’ve been doing a lot of walking recently—doing about two miles a day to exercise my dogs and also to help myself get fitter as well—and on those walks I listen to audiobooks, so I’ve been getting some reading done that isn’t strictly work-related (it’s still kind of work-related, because it’s “keeping up with the field” reading).

So, I most recently finished listening to Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, which was great, and now I’m turning my attention to the current Hugo Award finalists, so I just started Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee.

2. What upcoming book you are really excited about? 

Aside from novels I acquired for my John Joseph Adams Books imprint at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I’m super excited about Ka by John Crowley. Here’s the blurb I gave him for it:

“Unquestionably one of the finest works of fiction I’ve ever read. A monumental achievement of modern mythmaking, Ka shows us the heights that fantasy is capable of."

Otherwise, Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory and Autonomous by Annalee Newitz are both really great.

So is The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel H. Wilson. I also provided a blurb for that: "Action-packed and uniquely imagined with robots--and history!--like you've never seen before, The Clockwork Dynasty is a thrilling ride from start to finish."

For stuff that isn’t released yet that I haven’t read, I’m really excited to see Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy, which has been described as an “African Game of Thrones.”

3. Is there a book you're currently itching to re-read?

You’re talking to an editor, man—I don’t have time to re-read anything! :) Hell, it’s hard enough keeping up with all the unpublished manuscripts I have to read, let alone, you know, reading pretty much every piece of short fiction published in the field over the course of the year, as necessitated by my role as series editor for Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy! That said, I’ve never been much of a re-reader. I think I’ve only ever re-read a handful of books in my life, including my favorite book, The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Though I guess that count will be increasing now that I’m editing novels, because during the course of editing any of the novels I acquire for my imprint, I’ve had to re-read those multiple times each.

But itching to…I’m not sure. There’s so much I haven’t read that I feel like I should have, it’s really hard to justify. But given current events, I’ve been thinking if I had time I would revisit Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, because looking back on it now it was frighteningly prescient.


4. How about a book you've changed your mind about over time--either positively or negatively? 

I don’t know about a book I changed my mind about per se, but I was a huge fan of Michael Crichton in my late teens, and his work really helped get me into science fiction. He was my primary gateway for sure. I still remember a lot of his books fondly—particularly Jurassic Park and Sphere—but I’ve kind of soured on him in retrospect when it was pointed out to me that his works—though they employ a lot of the trappings of science fiction—are kind of anti-science fiction in a way because science is always the “bad guy” in his books. Which is not to say science can never be depicted as a source of strife or drama, but when you look at an author’s entire oeuvre and all of it is geared that way it’s not a good look. Always seemed to me like a really strange outlook for a medical doctor to have.

5. What's one book, which you read as a child or young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your editing?

The main thing that comes to mine is the abovementioned The Stars My Destination. That’s the book that when I read it, it just blew my mind and really re-shaped how I read. Basically after reading that, I had a new goal: to find something else that hits me upside the head the way The Stars My Destination did. Which, essentially, is what lead to me becoming an editor; it’s a straight line from there to here.

Here’s how random life can be, though. I worked at this small Waldenbooks in a small town in Florida. We didn’t have much of a science fiction/fantasy section, and I had no idea who Alfred Bester was—I hadn’t read a ton in the genre at that time. But then Vintage released a new edition of The Stars My Destination, and a bunch of people were special ordering it. (This was before Amazon, so people special ordered books at brick-and-mortar stores a lot.) When the special orders came in, I was really intrigued by the title and cover and the back cover copy. It had a foreword by Neil Gaiman, but I didn’t even know who he was at that time. So the only reason I discovered the book is because all those people were ordering it, and the only reason all those people were ordering it is because when Bester died he left his literary estate to his bartender, who didn’t know what to do with it and thus most of Bester’s work had gone out of print; thankfully, someone—I believe it was Byron Preiss—rescued Bester’s backlist from obscurity and got several new editions released. So if the world had been just and Bester’s work had stayed in print all these years, would I have still discovered him right at the right time? Who knows!

6. And speaking of that, what's *your* latest book, and why is it awesome? 

My latest book is my anthology Cosmic Powers. It’s awesome because its primary sources of inspiration are the huge-canvas space operaesque comics like Guardians of the Galaxy and Silver Surfer and the like—and takes all that sensawunda and distills it into prose-form. I think editing Cosmic Powers is the most fun I’ve ever had assembling an anthology.




POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Writer / Editor of the mostly defunct Adventures in Reading since 2004. Minnesotan.