"Come One, Come All" by Gahan Wilson

First appeared in John Skipp and Craig Spector's Still Dead, reprinted by Otto Penzler, and up for a Bram Stoker award.

 

Summary:

A circus barker, with an unusual invention, invites his unusual clientelle to sample his singular delights in order to serve others.

Discussion:

This is Wilson's only story ever up for an award. In a way, it's unsurprising yet in another, it is. The set-up is so brilliant, the author rides it through the entire story to arrive at its punch.

What's amazing is not how well it draws us in but how well it maintains our interest. There's just enough to keep the reader tantalized. It's amazing how little plot and character are involved.

The story--its illusion of speculative reality--upon further thought, falls apart. Why is he doing this? For whom? Who buys his product, given the state of the source material? Why should the character care about what enters more than what he sells? 

But to focus on the flaws misses the miracle that this story works as powerfully as it does. Read it anyway.

"Kitsune" by Devon Bohn

Appeared in Writers of the Future 39

 

Summary:

Women in New Mexico are obsessed with foxes. A young woman is running a shop and contemplates the changes in her world.

This is a lit light story of young women in search of their identity.

Sweet, a little sad, simple.

Discussion:

Women become foxes to get away from bad men.

Lit light is the lack of focus on developing a major speculative conceit. Nothing wrong with that. This just means we should expect to read deeper psychological insight into the characters.

The strength of the tale is two-fold: 1) an awareness of the pleasures of words (not heavy handed in its sound albeit a bit repetitious) and 2) its capturing the indecision and fear of the future that most new adults experience, trying to find their way in the world. Perhaps it captures the lost feeling of a generation--at least the feeling of a younger female side, if not others. A lot of young adults today are expressing discouragement about the opposite sex--which is as it's always been, but the barriers now seem insurmountable to some--and we see one-half of that equation in this tale.

There's a moment where the mother contacts her daughter and the daughter spins the mother's comment into something negative, possibly unintended. There's not enough evidence not to accept the mother's comment at face value. So is the daughter an unreliable narrator? Then there's the roommate who has been waiting too long to be proposed to and is eager--perhaps foolishly too eager--that tonight's the night, and the narrator leads us to believe he never will because he's that kind of slime.

Except he does ask the roommate to marry him. And except she turns him down. And this spear-carrying character, about whom we know nothing, has slapped her for rejected him. Then there's a cab driver whom we're supposed to see as a lecher or criminal. But again we don't get enough insight into this character either. Are all men bad in this universe? Even though we never get evidence of James's (or anyone else's) badness, she seems to look on him as suspect as well not only refuses to answer his calls, but also flees from him. Why? We don't have enough textual evidence to judge these men.

The character changes are abrupt, sharp left turns that are too easily packaged. It isn't clear that the story or the narrator is aware of missing the other side of the people equation. While there's nothing wrong with flawed perception, the text needs to clue us in to the character's lack of awareness.

Maybe it does. Maybe we are meant to discount everything the character perceives. But then what is the story? That everyone deserves their day in court? That's not in the text. But maybe it's just the opening of a larger work of psychological self-discovery.

Still, the story has things to appreciate. With an increased focus on character or speculative conceit, this may be a decent leap into a fine career.

The Day the Martians Came (novel) by Frederik Pohl

Up for the Locus award. This book could be considered a loose novel, story collection, or fix-up/suite.

We were wrong to think nothing was up on Mars. Aliens are found in a small pocket inside Mars's crust. To survive, they need a new place to stay. Earth, it is. While we're waiting for this arrival, anticipation stirs up a number of consequences.

A minor novel, this has good moments. It tosses out a nuts of our familiarity with aliens and gives them a quick twist, reinvigorating the genre with a light but shifting perspective. James Frenkel recommends it. Aliens seem to be a lens to refocus our understanding of ourselves. Nothing earth shaking. Just tiny shifts. Tremors beneath one's feet.

It's an unusual book. It may be his attempt at writing the SF literary story, connected like the first stories in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, which feels closely if loosely connected (Bradbury's later stories seem to have less in common with the first group). In Pohl's story suite, imagine the connections continue. Pohl's collection is better connected but not better written. 

 

While I've heard his speeches and interviews and exchanged a handful of words with him, I don't recall ever hearing Pohl talk about stories in a way that unveils more about his or any writing process or dissects how story works or doesn't. He was a well-respected editor and penned some fantastic stories But his talks and writing about writing seem not all that useful. For instance, he wrote about "style" in some stories that do have a strong sense of style, but his comments seemed to have little bearing on the issue at hand. He must have been a gut writer--one whose understanding of stories was more intuitive than explicit.

 

Although none of the stories are power houses, several are subtle, minor masterworks worth reading.

Probably if one did not want to read the whole novel, one could dip into a few sections. Probably taking in the first two and last two sections, and a handful between. The only must-reads are the last two, but one should have at least a little context. Perhaps because of the small shifts, the shorter tales seem to be the more effective.

 

One possible list of stories to linger on:

• Extract From the Congressional Record • (1988) • (for the set-up)

• A Martian Christmas • (1987) •

• Sad Screenwriter Sam • (1972) •

• Saucery • (1986) •

• The Day After the Day the Martians Came • (1967) •

• Huddling • (1988) • (see comment below)

 

Ending with Spoilers:

"Huddling" provides a new facet by Pohl's forever focusing on the shape of aliens casting a shadow on our own humanity. In this case, the aliens, which some humans have been looking down on, feel sorry for humans not being able to huddle and communicate like they do. A rich irony.

"Saucery" by Frederik Pohl

First appeared in Edward L Ferman's F&SF. James Frenkel considered it one of Pohl's best.

Summary:

Once life is found on Mars, two hucksters of UFOs (who once considered themselves enemies) find themselves unwanted by the media. They have to come up with a way to remain relevant to the "current" day fascination with true aliens.

Discussion:

The pair team up to uncover how what was discovered on Mars isn't the real deep mystery. They will provide that with their unfalsifiable evidence. 

What makes this story work is less the story than how Pohl gets us to care about two men we might not otherwise care about. The shysters gain our empathy and perhaps our cheering on their "fake news" even if we don't agree with what they are doing. 

A fine example of Pohl's ability to characterize his people--getting us to savor the more unsavory. 

The title may be meant for us to connect what these charalatans do to "sorcery" as Terry Pratchett wanted us to do with his book title Sourcery. However, it is a word for where sauces are made, but this doesn't seem to add much to the tale. Perhaps a sense of this could be stretched to fit the tale.

One weird connection between this story and the "Oprah" vignette in the novel to the story "Sad Screenwriter Sam" is that he refers to the "Great Galactics." Could these be the same characters except made fictionizedz? Or perhaps that Pohl deleted the section is the true conspiracy.

^ joke

 

 For links to other stories in this series/novel and comments on the novel they make, follow this link.

"Adeste Fideles" or "A Martian Christmas" by Frederik Pohl

First appeared in Ellen Datlow's Omni. Up for a Locus. Reprinted by Datlow and David Hartwell. The title is Latin for “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

 

Summary:

 Henry Steegman is a construction engineer--that is, he drove tractors that bore holes through the deep rock of Mars. He and the Mars colonists have accidentally imbibed water contaminated with radioactive products so that they are all dying off. Meanwhile, it's Christmas and the inhabitants are celebrating. Steegman drives off on his tractor to make a number of discoveries.

 

Discussion with Spoilers and analysis:

 The first discovery is what appears to be a department store. Of course, everyone back on Earth is excited about Mars again. After people try to take credit and keep Henry from exploring his discovery for himself, presumably due to the advanced state of his illness, he goes on a second expedition, this time presumably finding the Martians himself where no one else can take credit.

The story defies any wisdom about writing I've heard. First, the character's goal is submerged (not fully conscious) and, if anything, is more ours than his. Second, the plot doesn't follow anything that plotters would say is a good plot--following no real established patterns that I can see. I can't see any literary writers finding it a knockout--and the majority of SF readers probably wouldn't either. It is a kind of literary SF, thought-provoking in a subtle manner. The thought provoked (or theme) is actually far outside whatever goals or conclusion the character himself may have come up with.

But it satisfies, in a few ways that stories have--one of the best of that collection. If I had to throw it against most SF stories, it would be at least in the top 10%. We need a definition of story the encompasses this kind of work.

There is, what may be, a flaw here in the main plot. Why a department store? Maybe because humanity at least used to flock to department stores during Christmas? Or is it because these aliens are just pets of another species? This is a minor blemish and doesn't much distract from the work as a whole.

My own idea about how the story satisfies: 1) mystery. Pohl has mined this territory in the Heechee series. 2) We are affronted on the character's behalf since he doesn't seem to care himself, but clearly Pohl knew we'd feel that way and had a road named after him.

Now the theme--the third way the story satisfies--is weird in that it is not so much connected to the character or our feelings about the character. This theme comes from the title--at least this is my reading. It's the opening story in the collection and the final vignette "The Huddling" (discussed here in a week, more or less) seem to confirm this (the two most important spots in any fiction): We now have a new savior whose ways are superior to ours. We need to learn their ways.

That may be, to wrestle with Pohl's theme, but if one savior failed to convert the masses toward his superior ways, why should we suspect these aliens to be any better at improving humanity?

 

 For links to other stories in this series/novel and comments on the novel they make, follow this link.

"Sad Screenwriter Sam" vs. "Sad Solarian Screenwriter Sam" by Frederik Pohl

First appeared in Edward L. Ferman's F&SF.

Summary:

Sam is a screenwriter. After the discovery of the Martians, he wants to capitalize on this and make a new movie, which is essentially Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars. He has to get past his agent's and director's reluctance to sell it.

Discussion with Spoilers:

All is for naught. The aliens look nothing like those of the real Martians once the photos come out--more like seals. They can't even be made sexy.

Like Pohl's tribute to Doc Smith in "The High Test" or to Jack Williamson in "The Mayor of Mare Tranq," here is a tribute here to Burroughs--the popular appeal, its power. But also it bears a critique to the aliens in Burroughs' Mars, their realistic possibilities (perceived, of course, since we have no aliens to compare to).

Side-bar: This story may prove interesting to compare and contrast against Geoff Ryman's "The Film-makers of Mars" (audio link).

What's interesting about the story's appearance in the novel, The Day the Martians Came, is that the story is streamlined just to this bit of narrative, which is interesting but not necessarily profound. What it loses in profundity, it gains in a smoother narrative that works better in this novel atmosphere.

This spurred me to speculate that this may have been Pohl's original core of the story--a narrative he found compelling, but missing the necessary piece to elevate it from the ordinary. Here it is one example among several of the impact of species of creatures that impacts without ever having set foot on planet Earth, as yet. A rather intriguing prospect in that light.

While we don't other possibilities that Pohl may have tried, we do have the original publication, which has our protagonist, Sam, being studied by aliens who will use his character to decide whether humans are worth saving or destroying. Once our alien protagonist knows Sam and his fellow Earth inhabitants are doomed, he wants a different Earthling to examine, but he cannot. Earth is doomed. 

But the interesting bit is that the death ray won't arrive for 64,000 years. (If that information that was beamed to them also took 64,000 years, then that would mean Earth has 128,000 years to prepare after Sam's departure. So a story that began, announcing humanity's doom actually ends in the possibility of hope. This is fascinating, but it does bog the narrative down.

One suspects that this core of the story was looking for another part to give it significance. The original is in some sense the more powerful, but also perhaps a swamp of narrative.

While the great-aliens (who seem to be in the same galaxy but maybe on the opposite side) part of the story seems not to be wholly lost. It survives in a few conspiratorial mentions. See the comments on the story "Saucery" for more on this.

 

For links to other stories in this series/novel and comments on the novel they make, follow this link. 

5 Stories: The Confluence of "Best of Frederick Pohl"s

Here are the five stories that Lester del Rey and James Frenkel agreed were among Pohl's best.  Of course, del Rey did not have the advantage of knowing Frenkel's choicees and Frenkel did. So del Rey may have influenced Frenkel to one degree or another, but it's hard to say. Frenkel seemed to have wise things to say about some of these, so it seems not necessarily a compulsion or influence but a selection.  

What's interesting is finding great works of SF that other editors missed.

• Let the Ants Try • (1949) • 

This is a solid story if problematic. Still interesting. I suspect that Pohl's saying this was his first good story may have influenced the editors' choice.

• The Day the Icicle Works Closed • (1960) •  

Creative pyromania. Perhaps a little messy, coloring outside the lines. But perhaps charming because of this. Influenced a minor pop/synth/alternative band who had a handful of international hits. One would want to reread out of sheer pleasure of its inventive spree.

• Speed Trap • (1967) • 

• The Day the Martians Came • (1967) • 

While I can see why some editors and award-voters might have passed on these, the above two works are truly great works of SF that require careful reading. Not to be missed, just because others may not have been paying attention.  

• Day Million • (1966) •

Pohl's most lauded work. Perhaps overrated (a perspective dependent on aesthetics over politics). Thought-provoking, yes, but passable fiction. Because it is much loved by some, it may be need to be included in any Pohl retrospective. I will give a few more empathetic reads and offer a third assessment at later date. (link to the tougher assessment of "Day Million")