Alembical, edited by Lawrence M. Schoen and Arthur Dorrance

I've covered each of the four stories in Alembical in previous posts.

"America, Such as She Is", by Jay Lake
"13 Miles to Paradise!", by Bruce Taylor
"Harvest", by James Van Pelt
"Now You See Us", by Ray Vukcevich

This is a bit of a wrap up post, not too much of a review. At this point clicking on the story links will be more informative than anything I could repeat here.

So, here's the short version. There are two stories (out of four) which are quite good - the Jay Lake and the James Van Pelt. I swear this has nothing to do with the fact that both writers share my first initial. "America, Such as She Is" is exceptionally strong and I hope to see it on Award ballots over the next year. It's really that good and I feel strongly about the story. "Harvest" is a strong second-best.

After that, there's a bit of a drop off. I believe that some readers would completely disagree with my assessment and would think Bruce Taylor's story was the strongest, or even "Now You See Us". The fact that I think those readers are wrong does nothing to deny that possibility. Each story in Alembical is well written and competent. I believe that two of the stories rise above well written and competent, and one of those two achieves something greater all together.

The fact is that with Alembical you have 78 pages of excellent fiction that I do recommend. You also have 72 pages of fiction which I cannot recommend, though which could also be considered well written and competent. Think about your average collection or anthology. If more than half of the content of the anthology or collection is worth recommending, you've probably hit on a fairly solid anthology. Alembical fits that bill. For Jay Lake's story alone, I would recommend finding a copy of the anthology. For fans of novellas, I'd recommend finding a copy. The editors here made a point to publish novellas, the longer length story which can be more difficult to find a home for in magazines. Alembical is not the best thing since sliced bread, but Mr. Lake's story shines. Mr. Van Pelt's story is also worth getting a hold of. It's a solid anthology of four original novellas.


Reading copy provided courtesy of Paper Golem.

Alembical: "Now You See Us"

The final story in Alembical is Ray Vukcevich's "Now You See Us".

Here we have the story of Maggie and David. They met at a county fair in Oregon. He was besotted immediately, and she responded but also talked about her theory of how time worked, that Jerry Garcia was "dead now . . . but it won't always be now."

Years later David is off writing a book in Norway, Maggie studying with Time Monks in Finland. Without getting into too much detail, after David's plane crashes just outside his destination he discovers a whole lot of weirdness going on. Maggie loops back into David's story eventually.

The exact nature of the weirdess is undefined until late in the story. In a sense this doesn't matter because for the first half (or so) of the story I was intrigued as to where Vukcevich is bringing the story. How would this time thing work? What was going on in Norway? Vukcevich gets at the answers to these questions.

And yet, despite the fact that Vukcevich has some good ideas, "Now You See Us" never quite comes together in any satisfying way. In the end "Now You See Us" comes across as a bit of a mess. Everything flowed through the end semi-naturally enough, and I can't say exactly what didn't work, except...

"Now You See Us" didn't work.

Alembical: "Harvest"

The third story in Alembical is from James Van Pelt, "Harvest". The story opens with the lines,

I bought Neil Young's Harvest CD on Friday, the day Merle Meecham killed both his parents. It was a mistake.

The narrator goes on to discuss why the mistake was purchasing the CD, not the Meecham boy murdering his parents. The killing almost feels like afterthought, except that the murder puts the reader on alert to stick through the mundanity.

"Harvest" follows Graham (our narrator, first person perspective) and his two friends, Linda and Rachel, as they discuss the killing just like everyone else in school. The friends talk about it and we get a sense of the town and of Merle. Linda is a Christian, Rachel a bit of a pagan with an interest in seances and contacting the dead.

There is not a strong supernatural element to the story, though it does crop up briefly a couple of times.

I wonder if a working knowledge of Neil Young's music and the song "Harvest" in particular would not add an extra layer of resonance to the story. It might. I don't have that knowledge, so i can't say for sure.

Regardless, "Harvest" meanders into Graham doing his own investigation of what happened to Merle and why that boy who was briefly was Graham's friend killed his parents. Everything in the story feels appropriate, that these are things real teenagers might do. "Harvest" comes across as authentic and compelling. Readers will want to know what happens next and readers will care about Graham and his friendships. At least, I did.

Mr. Van Pelt does an excellent job telling this story. It may not quite reach the heights of "America, Such as She Is", but it is easily the second best story in Alembical.

Alembical: "13 Miles to Paradise!"

The second story in Alembical is Bruce Taylor's "13 Miles to Paradise!" Coming on the heels of Jay Lake's outstanding "America, Such as She Is", I had very high hopes. Perhaps too high.

"13 Miles to Paradise!" takes the Garnet family on a drive the Paradise Visitor Center at Mt Rainier National Park. Bruce Taylor tells the story by giving each member of the family in the car an inner monologue to get forth everything they are thinking. The father, Mark, starts out and the reader gets the father's anger and the reasons why and through each character shift we learn more about the family.

The first thing that struck me was that Mark's inner monologue was extremely scattered and ran on and on. Yeah, that's what an inner monologue would be, but it wasn't the greatest thing to read. The second thing that struck me was that for the most part Mark's visible anger seemed to have caused every member of the family (wife, son, daughter, mother in law) to become introspective about nearly the exact same thing. Sure, there are character differences and personal introspection, but everybody thinks about the nature of family and the nature of Mark's anger and the influence it may have on the rest of the family, and where it came from.

It seemed too coincidental. Too neat, too perfect. Oh, the family is a bit of a mess, as are all families (I believe), but in the case of "13 Miles to Paradise!" I felt that the characters were only thinking those thoughts because it fit the story that Bruce Taylor wanted to tell and not because it was organic to the story. That's picky, and potentially unfair (though I disagree), but whatever Mr. Taylor attempted, I'm not sure he pulled it off.

On to the next!!

Alembical: "America, Such as She Is"

Alembical is the first volume in what may become a series of novella anthologies from Paper Golem Press. Paper Golem has previously published Prime Codex, a reprint anthology. Alembical features stories from Jay Lake, Bruce Taylor, James Van Pelt, and Ray Vukcevich.

I'll be covering each of the four stories with brief reviews / blog posts.

The first story in Alembical is Jay Lake's "America, Such as She Is", an alternate history which posits that the United States lost World War II when Germany dropped two nuclear bombs on American cities - Portland and Baltimore. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is considered "the last freely elected president of the United States". The United States has become an occupied nation in the aftermath of the war, by Germany in the East and by Japan in the West.

That's what happened. It's not what the story is about.

"America, Such as She Is" is really three stories. Two of the stories are about people, both unnamed. One man traveling up the Pacific coast, stopping at a small town looking for somebody to the north who can help him, though the reader does not know what for. Not initially. He seems to be a drifter, but he's not just that. He is a former soldier, a man with a skill. A woman is a prostitute in a town which may be in the Pacific islands. The location does not truly matter, except that the town is occupied by a Japanese base and through this nameless woman's eyes we see the pain of an occupier. Through this woman's eyes we see that for the locals it does not matter who the occupiers are, only that there are occupiers.

The third story comes out through both the woman and the man, though mostly from the man. Through these storylines, and through excerpts of speeches and newspaper articles, the fallen America becomes a character and becomes a story itself. Jay Lake manages to get across the emotional and economic depression that would surely come from America's defeat and from German and Japanese occupation, and from the eventual (yet natural) co-opting of America by German (read, Nazi) values.

"America, Such as She Is" is perhaps the most realistic alternate history I’ve read. I've had the chance to read a handful (maybe a double handful) of Jay Lake’s fiction and of those stories, this is quite easily his best.

Brutal story. Excellent story.

If this is the opener to Alembical, I have to wonder what the other three stories bring to the table. "America, Such as She Is" is outstanding. If Mr. Lake is ever inclined to write more stories with this settting, or expand the idea into a novel - I'm there. If not, I count myself lucky to had the chance to read this one.

Yeah, I just gushed. This one deserves it.