Strange Horizons
September 2010
“And She Shall Be Crowned According to Her Station” by Genevieve Valentine
“Iteration” by John Kessel
“Over My Shoulder” by David Sklar
Reviewed by Bob Blough
Strange Horizons for September has three stories –two short stories and a novelette in two parts. They are slipstream/horror stories and a varied bunch.
In “And She Shall Be Crowned According to Her Station,” Genevieve Valentine tells the story of a young girl named Jessie who has recently moved on her own into an apartment in New York City. The first sentence sets the tone and theme of the story.
“The first roach appears in the sink, mahogany dark and glossy against the stainless steel.”
The story involves an invasion of roaches into Jessie’s apartment and thus her life. She telephones her father with whom she has a difficult relationship and speaks to her friend Bridget seeking their advice. Bridget suggests an exterminator who gets involved, but the roaches continue to proliferate as the story progresses. Whether they are truly cockroaches or an outer manifestation of Jessie’s fears and psychosis is left for the reader to decide. It is creepy and subtle.
Next is a little gem of a short story by John Kessel called “Iteration.” This is a variation on the theme of the ability to change the world by wishing for it along the lines of Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven, but the parameters are different in Kessel’s imaginings. Instead of dreaming or wishing, the method is available through an internet website called “Iteration.”
“At home that night Enzo received an anonymous e-mail, headlined ‘Reinvent the World’… You could alter any element of the simulation. The function page read: 1) You may change one small thing per session. 2) One session per 24 hour period.”
If you had the chance to change the world for the better one small change at a time, what would you do? And what happens if everyone has the same opportunity to make small changes each day as you do? Kessel examines this from one man’s perspective. What the majority wish may not be the same as what the minority choice. The story is an interesting re-evaluation of these themes and lingers in the mind.
The final story this month is a novelette by David Sklar called “Over My Shoulder.” This story feels like a sequel in a series of stories about the protagonist, Spider. However, if this is the case one need not have read the previous entries to enjoy this one.
In this dark and sobering story about selling part of your destiny to the devil (or someone who is very similar), Spider is a musician who has made a deal with a man called Vespers to give up part of his destiny in order to have the woman he loves. Spider is often referred to as Orpheus, which reveals the mythological inspiration. How Spider/Orpheus uses his street smarts and his past drug addiction to work out the specific destiny he prefers to give Vespers is clever. I’ll be looking forward to more work by this author.
Altogether a fine month of fiction at Strange Horizons.