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.

mostly final thoughts on "The Church on the Island"

I’m trying to walk a fine line between giving a sense of what a story or a novel is about and turning a review into a plot summary. In that effort I’ve begun to dial back on plot summary. The problem is that I’m not sure this always works, especially if I don’t spend enough time then talking about what works and doesn’t work in a story.

My review of “The Church on the Island” never quite satisfied me. I don’t think I really got at what bugged me about the story, except to say that it didn’t work.

And yes, this post is partially driven by Jonathan McCalmont’s comment, but I was also thinking about this before I read that comment.

After Charlotte meets the priest she thinks about leaving the island. Given that this is a greasy, smelly, sort of scary looking priest, I just don’t know why Charlotte didn’t get the hell off the island. Instead, she follows the priest as he gives her a tour of the island and the church and informs Charlotte of her new duties. And she accepts this!

Unsworth’s story just assumes the inevitability of what is to come next, as if there was no other choice. The moment Charlotte decides that it is time to leave the island and not spend the rest of her life as a caretaker for the church performing daily ritual to keep the “darkness” at bay, the priest tells her that she is already forgotten, that in another day all traces of her life will have been erases from existence.

Perhaps this is the “horror” of the story, that by stepping foot in the church Charlotte will never be able to leave.

It feels like a cop-out, like a cheap way of telling the story. I don’t have a better option, but the choices Unsworth made simply do not work for me.

There are some interesting ideas about darkness and the true role of the church is to keep a manifest darkness out of the world. That there should be caretakers in those entrance points for darkness. Those interesting ideas would be a different story. Here they are overwhelmed by too many descriptions of the church and the flat out assumption by the author that this is the only way the story could play out, that once Charlotte set foot on the island her life was over. A stronger story might still have that sense of inevitability but that inevitability would “feel” like a natural extension of the story, that there really was no other choice. “The Church on the Island” feels like Unsworth is forcing the story.

I’m still banging my head against the story, but hopefully this explains my issues better.

World Fantasy Award Nominee: "The Church on the Island"

"The Church on the Island"
Simon Kurt Unsworth
Nominated for the 2008 World Fantasy Award: Short Story

"The Church on the Island" is the first story from the anthology At Ease With the Dead and is a World Fantasy Award nominee this year. Naturally I had to find a way to get my hands on a copy of the story.

Charlotte is on vacation and her hotel room overlooks a lake. Across the lake is a small island on which is a white church of indeterminate size. From the moment Charlotte first sees the church she is obsessed. She must swim across to the church. She rationalizes about how this is a touch of freedom from her boyfriend and that is just for her, but she is unable to stop thinking about the church.

The first several pages of the story are description of the church of how Charlotte swam to the church, and of Charolette's disappointment that even though this is a Greek Orthodox church apparently abandoned on a small island in the middle of a lake, the church interior looks nothing like a Greek Orthodox church. And then, just as she is about to open the door to the church...

a priest opens the door and greets her. The priest is dirty, smelly, unkempt, and says "Come, I will show you around and explain what needs to be done", as if Charlotte was expected.

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.


I'll go into a bit more detail in a category wrap-up post on why I think "The Church on the Island" is one of the weaker nominees for Short Story, but for now, let me just say that this story is a disappointment as the opening story of At Ease with the Dead and also as a World Fantasy Award nominee. It's an interesting choice, but I just cannot see why this story made the short list.

I intend to review each story in At Ease with the Dead, so expect more from this anthology. Hopefully they get better. There is a story from Kealan Patrick Burke in the anthology, so I have high hopes for at least that one story.