"Ghost of a Hedgehog" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Appeared in Tor.com

11-year-old Jack doesn't just see ghosts, they attach themselves to him.  When his teacher, Mrs. Jernigan, "dies of meanness" in class, she attaches to him, which isn't too cool until she slaughters a dream monster that leaves real bruises on his arms.  She gets nicer, though, because Jack gives her silent treatment whenever she insults his intelligence for something he did.  Roger, a ghost who'd been murdered by the 7-11, uses Roger to make sure his mother is still taken care of.

Jack loses one ghost and gains another.  Mrs. Jernigan introduces the new ghost and promises to teach him her skills.

Feels like the opening to a longer story, or maybe a series of stories.

"Maddy Dune's First and Only Spelling Bee" by Patrick O'Sullivan

Appeared in Writers of the Future 28

This isn't your ordinary Spelling Bee--spelling not words but spells. Maddy not only can make galloping horses, but she also turns it into a hunt that scares the audience.  Maddy, as an alien though, faces prejudice.  Worse, the bee is attacked by a sorcerer, caging Maddy and contests.

Fun with some charm.  Patrick O'Sullivan just won the Jim Baen Memorial Contest.

Review: Make a Splash! A Kid's Guide to Protecting Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands by Cathryn Berger Kaye and Philippe Cousteau

Make a Splash! A Kid's Guide to Protecting Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands Cathryn Berger Kaye and Philippe Cousteau Free Spirit Publishing, Inc.

Make a Splash is an environmentalist primer about the world’s water for the grade-school (and junior-high) set.  It teaches young people about aquifers, wetlands, coral reefs, and the connectivity of the water that young people use and the water that travels out to the ocean, 

Water affects humans ostensibly in the water we use, but also indirectly in the foods we eat.  It also impacts animals in oceans and out, such as birds which eat plastics, thinking them food.  Make a Splash sounds a warning bell for youth who can sometimes effect changes that adults cannot.  The text shows examples of young people already making changes within their communities:  

• Outlawing shark fins (Japan)
• Using less energy
• Composting
• Using less water
• Creating zero waste
• Eating all food
• Recycling plastics like water bottles

It’s exciting to see a book that encourages new environmentalists.  It even closes with ways to plan for environmental action.  Much of the information is useful and helpful.  But a few issues are problematic.  For instance, the book suggests that desalination of water--probably definite future necessity--will affect ocean animals.  There are many problems with this.  We might choose to keep the salt, or throw it back into the ocean,  It should not really matter (except locally) in the grand scheme, because the salt and water that came from the ocean will return. The changes should be minimal.  Another problem is the blanket of items such as straws.  True, if you don’t need it, why grab (or offer) it?  On the other hand, straws can be a health.   

The environmentalist book I’d like to see is one that encourages investigation before advocacy:  Before we ban something like forest fires, let’s ask

1. What are the pros and cons?  Weigh the words of those you disagree with?
2. What are the costs?  Immediate and future 
3. What is the feasibility of implementing changes?
4. Why these changes instead of some other?
5. etc.

Since young people are the future, let’s make them smarter, not merely advocates but wise consumers of information.  In fact, even this review may be inaccurate.  Investigate!

"The Unreachable Voices of Ghosts" by Jeffrey Lyman

Appeared in Writers of the Future 28

Max Getty speeds away from Earth on one of many sail-ships out beyond the Kuiper Belt, hunting baby black holes in a search for energy for transportation to the stars.  When his water reclamation unit goes out of whack, Maureen in a different ship walks him through the process.  They become friends, perhaps more.  They kept getting further until they approach the radius of no return.  When Max finds a baby hole, he wants to share it with Maureen.  Can he reach yet make it back in time to live on Earth?

Touching.  Lyman has had stories in several other anthologies.

Review: Justin Cronin's The Passage

The Passage  

A Novel  

Justin Cronin  

Random House Publishing Group

It appears some reviewers received ration packets.  I did not, alas, but I am a bit slow out of the gate.

The book can broken into thirds.  The first--the favorite of many readers, including myself--is preapocalyptic.  For a bit, I wondered if I'd misunderstood what people had been saying about the book.  In Bolivia, ostensibly, a new virus is found that cures all diseases and extends life although the cured all died.  To test this, a branch of the government is gathering strays--lost people.  Most are criminals, but not the especially dangerous or at least those who have since been tamed.  There's Carter, a homeless man who accidentally drowned the woman who had been helping him. There are pedophiles who have drugged their illegal passions into abeyance.  And there's Amy Harper Bellafonte  a completely innocent girl, whose single mother is forced by circumstances beyond her control (prostitution and murder) to give Amy to a convent, where nun Lacy falls for the girl and lies to keep her at the convent. Amy strangely also comes to the attention of the government.  Strange things happen with Amy at the zoo.  And two FBI agents pick her up.  Special agent Brad Wolgast, like Lacy, falls for her.  He lost his own child earlier--and consequently his wife--so Amy represents the child he's always wanted.  Worse, though, Amy becomes involved in a nationwide hunt, the agents considered kidnapping suspects.  

They arrive in Colorado, but events fall out differently than intended.  An apocalypse of vampires occurs.  Brad and Amy are left to survive.  Amy is somehow a part of the vampires as she seems able to communicate, but her role is not clarified in this book.  

The vampires are old-school vampires.  They kill.  They're dangerous.  They move fast and can't  be killed unless you hit them in the chest.  You get one shot.  If you miss, you're dead.  

The vampires are also new school:  Cronin develops these creatures as if they were biological organisms--much in the same way that any genre novel might do.  Throughout the novel, he reveals more and more of their biological and social behaviors.

In the second third of the book, the narrative flounders. We are introduced to a brand new set of characters.  Survivors are trying to squeak by, using light or highly fortified dwellings to protect themselves.  Unlike the first section where we come to care about nearly every character, these feel less important until Peter stumbles across Amy when escaping vampires.  Also, when we become invested in Galen Strauss and Maus's plight.  Maus merely married Galen to get at Theo.  In the final third, something touching occurs because of this rift.


The final third is a journey.  The group has found an computer device, embedded in Amy, that says to bring her to a location in Colorado.  So they take on this journey, thinking it will lead them to their long-awaited saviors, the army.

This book of apocalyptic vampires did impact me, but not from its literary perspective on the genre--rather more of a well-written genre work (although Tanya Huff disagrees).  This had plenty of speculative reveals.  Reminiscent in some ways of Walter M. Miller's classic A Canticle for Leibowitz--particularly in how it leaps ahead a century in story time.

The novel gets readers--or at least this reader--to cogitate on the nature of apocalypses, the love of a father figure for his adopted daughter, and what it takes to make a strong community, especially during hardships.  It's well worth the read if you can make it through the middle.  I suspect I will be looking to read the next in the series, The Twelve.

"Vampire Shortstop" by Scott Nicholson

Originally appeared in WOTF XV.
Collected in Flowers.

Jerry is a vampire and a bit shy.  He comes to play little league and is fantastic.  The other teams, including the parents, are derisive to the point that during the championship the parents chant derogatory comments.  When the other team pulls a dirty trick, the unthinkable happens.

The title sounds like YA humor and/or something corny, but this one's surprisingly good.  What wins the story is the narrator's folksy voice.  The plot feels typical, but it hits you between the eyes, all the same.

"Into the Gardens of Sweet Night" by Jay Lake

Originally appeared in WOTF XIX
Nominated for the Hugo 

This has the feel of Lake's Mainspring-universe novels (Mainspring, Escapement, and Pinion) although not as inventive considering it's a novelette.  On an alternate Earth, Elroy joins Wiggle, a well-dressed dog, on his journey in order to get back into the Gardens of Sweet Night, in orbit around the world--even though he doesn't believe the myth of Sweet Night.  Security wolves attack and dog their every step because former-gardener Wiggles ate the apples of Lord Liasis.  They stow away on a dirigible and attend their own sky burial.  Finally, they make it up into orbit, where they meet Lord Liasis himself.

The opening title "Chance Meeting" describes Lake's modus operandi in his early work often nigh-picaresque although here it merely ambles to its beginning.  Lake's labors focus on the strong narrative voice and evocation of a new world.  This particular tale thumbs its nose at a literalized God who lives in the sky, making people play games with life.  Everyman Elroy chooses, instead of a lord of space, an ordinary life.

Great line of dialogue:

"Trust us, you'll feel like a new man after the funeral."