Nebula Award Nominee: "Spar"

"Spar"
Kij Johnson
Clarkesworld: October 2009
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Short Story


It begins, as all stories do, with a single sentence.

In the tiny lifeboat, she and the alien fuck endlessly, relentlessly.

Oh. Well, this clearly isn’t going to be just another story.

Kij Johnson’s “Spar” is a claustrophobic story set in a life capsule, the result of “a mid-space collision between their ship and the alien's, simultaneously a statistical impossibility and a fact.” There is the narrator and there is the alien and there is very little room for anything else. Though there is a prurient nature to the story, and a good deal of uncomfortable and unpleasant alien sex, “Spar” isn’t really about that. It just happens to be included.

“Spar” can be read as a horror story. The sex isn’t the horror, though perhaps it is, as well. Imagine being a survivor of a wreck. You are alone in lifeboat for weeks upon weeks. No human contact and very few possibilities to even move around. All that you have is what is in your mind, and the more time that passes the more even that betrays you. Now, add another creature to this cramped life vessel. An alien, though it could just as well be a plant. There is no communication, no apparent sentience. Only, periodic penetration.

This is a terrifying story. “Spar” is an ugly story. It is also a wonderfully horrifying story. From the first sentence, “Spar” is a very graphic story, but once you get past the obvious graphic-ness, there is a painful story of loss twisted inside.

Excellent story, but many readers may well be turned off by the graphic nature of the content.


The latest issue of Clarkesworld Magazine has an interview with Kij Johnson where she talks a bit more about "Spar" (and some of her other stories)

Nebula Award Nominee: "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss"

“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”
Kij Johnson
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Short Story


“Aimee’s big trick is that she makes twenty-six monkeys vanish onstage.”

So opens “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”, a story about Aimee and her 26 monkeys. Told in 24 short sections Kij Johnson tells of Aimee’s act, how Aimee got the act, about what kind of monkeys she has, what they do. Everything except where they go when the monkeys disappear. See, she doesn’t know. She bought the show for a dollar three years ago from a man who bought the show for a dollar four years prior. The show really belongs to the monkeys. The monkeys are just as much characters in this story as Aimee and her boyfriend Geof. They’re real monkeys, though.

The story is in turns clever, sweet, funny, and sad. After reading last year’s nominated story “The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change” I was quite impressed with Kij Johnson’s storytelling skill and was curious to read more of her work. “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” is a story of one woman’s healing among a show full of performing monkeys – monkeys that accepted her, not the other way around.

It’s good. It’s really good. Last year’s story was one of my favorite nominated stories and after reading this, I expect “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” will be one of this year’s favorites.

Thoughts on 2008 World Fantasy Award Nominees: Short Stories

"The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics" - Daniel Abraham
"Singing of Mount Abora" - Theodora Goss
"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" - Kij Johnson
"Damned if you Don't" - Robert Shearman
"The Church on the Island" - Simon Kurt Unsworth


I will start with Theodora Goss's "Singing of Mount Abora". Originally published Logorrhea and reprinted in Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Two, this story from Theodora Goss was a complete loss for me. I remember reading this story about telling a story (not sure the song part was all that essential) and right away I was ready to read something else. I didn't re-read "The Singing of Mount Abora" for this category, so I'm going off what I can vaguely remember from July. But, what I remember is that I didn't like the story, that it wasn't the sort that would ever engage me. Unlike the other Logorrhea story nominated for the WFA. More on that later.

Next, onto "The Church on the Island", which I reviewed back in August. What I said then still stands.

I'll grant the inherent creepiness of this ill-groomed priest, a priest whom one might expect to do bad things to Charlotte. So, in this description-heavy story there is good potential for something special to come out in the story, some bit of goodness that will cause "The Church on the Island" to rise above and merit the acclaim that comes from a World Fantasy Award nomination. Something that will explain what the nominating panel saw in the story.

Frankly, I don't see it.

Oh, the story is decent enough and there is some genuine horror in the story and the anticipation of horror (because what else is true horror than that which we don't see but fear?), but it never quite delivers.

"Damned If You Don't" from Robert Shearman is the first gasp of fresh air in this category (see review). You'll note that I'm working my way up from what I consider to be the bottom to the strongest / best story nominated for the award. I was charmed by Shearman's collection of short stories and "Damned If You Don't" hit me in a weird, wistful way. What I had to say:

“Damned If You Don’t” is ultimately a sad story. This isn’t fire and brimstone, nor is it at all a “Christian” story. By the end, Shearman has done quite a few things, touching on the nature of Hell, God, friendship, marriage, zombies, death, prejudice, and blame. “Damned If You Don’t” is a quiet story. It doesn’t do or say anything flashy. It is charming, in a darkly twisted sort of way.

I was very impressed by Kij Johnson's "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs at North Park After the Change." The title is still crazy-long, but it's one hell of a moving story. What I had to say regarding the Nebula Nomination for this story:

Heartbreaking. So much of reading is as much what the reader brings to the book as what the writer brings to the reader. I am a dog owner. Kij Johnson’s story of dogs abandoned after “The Change” just kills because the dogs’ basic nature hasn’t changed, just the fact that they can now speak. From the very start this was a moving story and Johnson did not let up. Stories are more than concepts, though, there has to be execution and I think that Kij Johnson nailed this one.

This leaves me with the story that, had it not been for Ted Chiang being nominated for the Hugo, certainly could have come home with this year's Hugo for Novelette. I expect Chiang's win, but Daniel Abraham would have been my sentimental favorite. "The Cambist and Lord Iron" is outstanding. I wasn't ready for the story to end. I still haven't picked up Logorrhea or the novels of Daniel Abraham, but based on this story alone - I think I need to. What I said then.

Rather than being a dull story about the value of things, “The Cambist and Lord Iron” is a smoothly written story with an interesting intellectual challenge for Olaf (and in turn the reader, if we want to think about the challenge before Olaf figures it out). Moreover, I liked “The Cambist and Lord Iron” enough that I intend to go find a copy of Logorrhea (the anthology the story is from), and also go read the novels of Daniel Abraham.

So there you have it. "The Cambist and Lord Iron" should win the World Fantasy Award. Will it? I have no clue. I'll only be disappointed if the Theodora Goss or the Simon Kurt Unsworth stories win. I don't think Robert Shearman's story is good enough to win the award, but I'm glad I had the chance to read it and it's a good story. If, for some reason, "The Cambist and Lord Iron" should fail to win, I hope that Kij Johnson's story with a title I'm not going to type out a second time (or even copy and paste) wins. Those are the standouts here.

Thoughts on Nebula Nominees 2008: Novelettes

"The Fiddler of Bayou Teche" - Delia Sherman (Coyote Road, Jul07)
"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)" - Geoff Ryman (F&SF, Nov06)
"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change" - Kij Johnson (Coyote Road, Jul07)
"Safeguard" - Nancy Kress (Asimov's, Jan07)
"The Children's Crusade" - Robin Wayne Bailey (Heroes in Training, Sep07)
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" - Ted Chiang (F&SF, Sep07)
"Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone" - Terry Bramlett (Jim Baen's Universe 7, June 2007)


I have very mixed feelings about the nominees in the Novelette category. On one hand we have “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang. This is an outstanding story and is rightfully nominated, should probably win, and deserves to be held up as one of the best stories of this or perhaps any other year. On the other hand we have “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)”, by Geoff Ryman. I am not sure I can quite properly express how much I did not like this story. I first read it last year when it was nominated for the Hugo, and this year it was nominated for a Nebula. One would think that this means the story is good and well regarded. Perhaps. It is a frustrating read and one which offers no satisfaction for the reader, or at least for this reader. Both stories are from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Next up are the two from The Coyote Road, an anthology of trickster tales. I wrote about these two recently and what I said then still stands. “The Fiddler of Bayou Teche” left me cold while “The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change”, despite the overlong title, was a very moving story and involved human and animal characters I could find a way to identify with. I get that being able to identify with the characters is not necessarily a mark of good writing, and I am sure Delia Sherman’s story involved skillful writing, but the best stories are the ones that make the reader care and continue to think about the story long after we’ve reached “The End”. Kij Johnson’s story was successful at that. Delia Sherman’s story was not.

The next pairing is “Safeguard” by Nancy Kress and “The Children’s Crusade” by Robin Wayne Bailey. “The Children’s Crusade” comes out of the Heroes in Training anthology edited by Jim Hines and Martin Greenberg. All the stories in the anthology deal with, in one way or another, young people taking their first steps to being heroes. “The Children’s Crusade” starts in Iraq with a young Muslim boy tired of terrorism takes a stand. We learn later than the boy can teleport, and he has friend from Israel also tired of the violence adults do to children. Together, they try to find a place of peace in the world and when they don’t find it, they decide to make their own. “The Children’s Crusade” is a story which could easily find a place in a non-genre publication, even with the teleporting (hey, if The Time Traveler’s Wife isn’t considered SF by the general public...) and is a moving story of children fed up with being targets of wars they have no part of. In his introduction to the anthology Jim Hines stated that this story made him cheer for the kids. While I would not go quite that far, it is worth a read. “Safeguard” takes the flip side of this. The government of the United States has discovered that some terrorist cells have genetically engineered children to be weapons of terror. The United States has four children completely isolated in something of a bio-dome. The four children only know of this as the real world. Flipping between viewpoints of the children and of Katherine Taney, the only woman the children know and an advisor to officials of the United States, “Safeguard” tells of a bleak future where there is little hope and where children can be weapons. Of the two I prefer “The Children’s Crusade”, though “Safeguard” has echoes of a possible future where the unspeakable can be real.

The final story is “Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone”, by Terry Bramlett. I was apprehensive about this one, I think due to the format of the seasons, but the story of a former musician turned farmer meeting a girl who would grow and age with the seasons (hence the title) really pulled me in. Its worth checking out. I'd like to read more from Bramlett.


If I had to vote for a winner in this category, and as a Non Member of the SFWA, I can’t, I would probably vote for “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang. I marveled at the story when I read the Subterranean publication in hard cover, and with Ted Chiang’s name on the story we know it’s going to be something good. The story lives up to the expectation and to whatever hype there is.

With that said, if I had a second choice or if we could ignore the elephant in the room named Ted Chiang, my second favorite story from this set is “The Evolution of Trickster Stories...” by Kij Johnson. I can’t tell if it is the dogs, or if it that the story is just that good, but Kij Johnson had me at hello.

Free Nebula Stories

Here are some additional free Nebula stories:

Terry Bramlett’s novelette “Child, Maiden, Woman, Crone” from Baen’s Universe (thanks to SF Signal).

"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change", by Kij Johnson, from The Coyote Road.

"Awakening", by Judith Berman - from The Black Gate.


The full list has been updated with the above three stories and can be found here.

The Nebula stories not available online are as follows:
"The Fiddler of Bayou Teche" - Delia Sherman (The Coyote Road)
"The Children's Crusade" - Robin Wayne Bailey (Heroes in Training)
"Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse" - Andy Duncan (Eclipse 1)
"The Story of Love" - Vera Nazarian (Salt of the Air)

Hopefully the authors or publishers will release those stories as well.

From The Coyote Road

This weekend I had the opportunity to read the two novelettes from The Coyote Road, an anthology of “trickster” stories (plus the Will Shetterly story but that’s just because I wanted to read his story before his first Shadow Unit entry came up).

First up was “The Fiddler of Bayou Teche” by Delia Sherman. As a trickster story we did have a couple of interesting and nearly rigged bets (as the trickster is looking only for a good trick to benefit himself), but I felt nothing during the story. I know that I’m not necessarily supposed to feel empathy for the characters, but I didn’t care, either, about anything in the story. I don’t think I would have even nominated this one.

Next was Kij Johnson’s "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change". Heartbreaking. So much of reading is as much what the reader brings to the book as what the writer brings to the reader. I am a dog owner. Kij Johnson’s story of dogs abandoned after “The Change” just kills because the dogs’ basic nature hasn’t changed, just the fact that they can now speak. From the very start this was a moving story and Johnson did not let up. Stories are more than concepts, though, there has to be execution and I think that Kij Johnson nailed this one. The format has several different stories being told, some by the dogs, others of the main storyline of a woman visiting North Park to see the dogs and help them out as she can.

As for the Will Shetterly story. I liked it. I much prefer Kij Johnson’s story, but Shetterly’s was better than the nominated Delia Sherman story.

The whole “Trickster” tale concept isn’t one that really appeals to me as a reader, so despite a Kelly Link and Jeffrey Ford story still unread in the anthology, I’m sending The Coyote Road back to the library with only three stories read. They were the three I really wanted to read.