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![book cover]()
Sunvault
Phoebe Wagner
This is such a varied anthology, I have to think there'll be something here for nearly every reader of speculative fiction. Some of the stories--most notably those by A.C. Wise, T.X. Watson, Daniel Jose Older, and Lev Mirov--are ones which I believe I'll be thinking about well into the future, and re-reading. Others were less to my taste, but I think that's a given in a strong anthology; my hope for an anthology is always that I'll at least be engaged and glad to have read half the stories, and will also find a few stand-out favorites, which is certainly the case here. Truly, if I have one complaint, it's that with too many of the stories I loved here, I went searching afterward to see if I could hunt down more work by the authors in question, and there wasn't much to be found!
You might be wondering why this only got a four-star rating, and I admit that's because I didn't enjoy the poetry or the artwork in the anthology nearly as much as the short stories. I'm not sure if the poetry, in particular, just wasn't to my taste, or if the editors had less to choose from in comparison to the fiction, but as much as I love poetry, the poems here didn't really engage me. There was nothing wrong with the art, but it felt a little less inspired than I would have expected for an anthology that's otherwise brimming with incredibly creative work.
All told, I'd certainly read more works put together by these editors, and this anthology does a gorgeous job of showing the variation that can be found in solarpunk and what the subgenre is capable of even in its beginnings.
Definitely recommended.
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Soft Targets
Carson Winter
This is unquestionably one of the darker books I've read, in mindset as well as action, and Winter's talent for bringing scenes and psychology to life makes it feel all the darker. Short as it is, I got a few chapters in and had to put it aside for a while, which rarely happens for me, but drifting into the mind of someone who'd commit gun violence of any sort--let alone like this--is a tough thing, and Winter does it horrifying justice.
This read won't be for everyone, and I hazard to say that it would be dangerous in some people's hands, if they were in a particular mental state already--which I don't say lightly--but it's a reminder of the power of art to bring every facet of thought and reality to vivid life through the written word, and I applaud the publisher and writer for donating some of the proceeds of the book to Sandy Hook Promise.
I'm not entirely sure this is a book I'm comfortable recommending to others, it's so dark, but it is the best I've read from Tenebrous Press, without a doubt.
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Summer of Hamn
Chuck D.
As a chronicle of a summer of violence and injustice, Chuck D's Summer of Hamn brims with horror, anger, and indignity, with his signature artwork and deceptively quiet sarcasm showcasing the horrors that have recently become all too common in America if not the world (though here, America is without doubt the focus). From gun violence to wrongful imprisonment and outright hatred, each page of art brings to life a new moment and/or victim.
I suspect that most readers who find their way into this book will be of the same way of thinking of Chuck D., and so he's ultimately preaching to the choir, but as an expression of rage and a showcase of his art, the book is powerful in its own right and worth exploring, despite the pain and the emotion involved in this collage-like exploration of one brief summer that carried far too much bloodshed and injustice.
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