Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Spicy Slipstream Stories, edited by Nick Mamatas and Jay Lake

Spicy Slipstream Stories
Nick Mamatas and Jay Lake (editors)
Lethe Press: 2008

Okay, since I read the first story back in February and the last story in early July, I'm a little unsure as to what exactly to say about this anthology. It's been a while, ya know?

From the back cover:
Slipstream stories are that weird combination of eloquent fancy and conventional literary form. Intended to make the reader feel out of sorts within the confines of their imagination, such fiction became the darling of small press venues. And so, maybe, found its way into the hands of a few readers.

But add a dash of the risque and the result is Spicy Slipstream Stories. Here the adventure and bosoms of the old pulps are blended with the stylistic innovations and reader affect of that non-genre genre, slipstream. Embrace the way a sweat, the bruises, and upper thighs of these stories collected by editors Jay Lake and Nick Mamatas.

My first recommendation is to check out my individual story reviews (linked at the bottom). I wrote about the first half or so of the stories.

Lori Selke's "The Call Girl Detective", Lynne Jamneck's "Outside the Box", and Lisa Mantchev's "Sequined with a Vengeance"are three of the standout stories from the anthology.

Basically, I think Spicy Slipstream Stories is worth taking a look at. There are more stories here that are good than that disappoint. The stories here are (mostly) smartly written with heavy pulp elements. That's the point of the anthology, of course. It's good stuff.



Individual Story Reviews
"The Call Girl Detective", by Lori Selke
"Heroes Welcome", by John Bowker
"Sequined With a Vengeance", by Lisa Mantchev
"The Blue Shift", by Joe Murphy
"The Fantastical Acquisition of the Sword of General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna", by Angeline Hawkes
"Outside the Box", by Lynne Jamneck
"Little Black Dress", by Carrie Vaughn
"Proof of Zero", by David Schwartz
"Revolt of the Ultraists!", by Richard Becker
"My Polymorphic Lover", by Mike Philbin
"Wild Tchoupitoulas", by Chris Nakashima-Brown
"Hydraulic", by Ekaterina Sedia
"Here I Come", A. H. Jennings

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