[On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]
Strange Horizons, January 20, 2025
“A Charm to Keep the Evil Eye Away From Your Campervan; or, Roamin’ Rights” by Christopher R. Muscato
“Crisis Actors” by Maddison Stoff and Corey Jae White
“Curlews” by Cecilia Ananías Soto
“Murder in the Clavist Autonomous Zone” by Rich Larson
“Taking Back the City” by Christine Phan
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
This special issue features the five winners of the Stop Copaganda short story contest. The intent is to prompt writers to create fiction that deals with the misuse of surveillance. More information can be found here:
“A Charm to Keep the Evil Eye Away From Your Campervan; or, Roamin’ Rights” by Christopher R. Muscato is set in Italy in the near future. The protagonist is one of many nomads who wander the nation in manually controlled vehicles, rejecting the autonomous cars used by others. He assists a woman who is being sought by police who enforce the oppressive rules of an environmentalist government that is closely allied with a company that manufactures the autonomous cars. With the help of an elderly woman whose home was wrecked by fanatical supporters of the government, they try to find a way to outwit the constant surveillance by the authorities and the corporation.
The author’s biography makes it clear that he is involved with climate activism and often writes climate-related fiction. Given this, the fact that the story’s oppressive government excuses its excesses in the name of protecting the environment is quite interesting. The point would seem to be that surveillance can be abused for any cause.
The story’s high-tech future is richly imagined. The characters are appealing, and the author balances suspense with social commentary in a graceful way that adds a touch of wit.
“Crisis Actors” by Maddison Stoff and Corey Jae White features activists who use advanced technology to disrupt constant surveillance by the far-right wing government of a future United States. At first, they stage fake acts of violence. Later, their tactics become more violent.
The story’s version of tomorrow’s USA is one that severely represses immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans, and members of the LBGTQ+ community. This is taken to an extreme, notably when The Turner Diaries, an infamously racist and antisemitic work of fiction advocating the extermination of minority groups, is said to be a Broadway show. This exaggerated extrapolation of right-wing trends reflects the authors’ passion for their cause, but weakens the story’s plausibility. Many readers may be alarmed by the work’s apparent approval of violent revolution against a repressive government, even if it risks the lives of innocents.
“Curlews” by Cecilia Ananías Soto takes place in a depopulated Chile in the near future. The government forces every woman of childbearing age without a genetic disorder to have her menstrual cycle monitored. When she is most fertile, she must either select a man to have intercourse with or have one selected for her. Some women find a way around the system.
The author creates a tale of a disturbing antifeminist dystopia with great emotional power. The story contains ten footnotes, which are distracting. Some of these may be useful to readers unfamiliar with South American culture and ecology, but others are arbitrary. There is little need to define “tinnitus” for most readers, for example, nor is it helpful to give the scientific name for the plant species rue, which plays an important part in the plot.
The area mentioned in the title of “Murder in the Clavist Autonomous Zone” by Rich Larson is a region that is free from the surveillance that goes on in the city that surrounds it. It can be thought of as an anarchist communal society, more or less. The main character is about to leave the enclave to live in the city for a year, but is forced to remain when she finds a murdered woman. The city police, in the form of a drone, investigate the crime, with the possibility of taking away the enclave’s freedom from surveillance. The members of the enclave are nearly certain they know the identity of the killer, and try to get him to confess before the police act.
Despite the basic plot, this is not simply a crime story, but a thoughtful examination of guilt and responsibility. The enclave is not a utopia, but a place with its own demands on its inhabitants. The city is not a dystopia, given that it allows the enclave to exist and that people are free to enter or leave as they please. The characters are complex, and the killer is more of a tragic figure than a complete villain.
In “Taking Back the City” by Christine Phan, four friends participate in a complex plan to erase data from the Seattle Police Department database. The story is borderline science fiction, as it makes use of technology that exists today. It has something of the flavor of a heist story, but with the thieves as the heroes.
Like a previous story in this issue, it contains several footnotes. These mostly deal with real events in Seattle and other places, and they take the reader out of the story. The piece ends just before the plan takes place, as if half the text is missing. Readers are likely to be disappointed by this omission.
Victoria Silverwolf has never been to Italy or Chile.