Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology (Paperback)

by James Patrick Kelly (Editor), John Kessel (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This primarily reprint anthology attempts to define "Slipstream" as the "literature of cognitive dissonance and of strangeness triumphant," with examples showcasing the work of various mainstream and genre writers. Highlights include Bruce Sterling's "The Little Magic Shop," an allegorical fantasy story; Jonathan Lethem's "Light and the Sufferer," which uses the SF trope of superior aliens to comment on a story of character; Ted Chiang's "Hell Is the Absence of God," which presents a believably horrific picture of God's lack of compassion; Kelly Link's "The Specialist's Hat," which plays with the ghost story form; and Michael Chabon's "The God of Dark Laughter," a reinvention of Lovecraftian horror. Original to this volume is M. Rickert's "You Have Never Been Here Before," which the editors believe is an example of what slipstream does best by being "hauntingly familiar and very, very strange." While these intriguing stories (and accompanying essays) may not be enough to define the canon of a new subgenre, they provide plenty of good reading. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* In 1989 sf writer Bruce Sterling coined the term slipstream to denote a kind of story that was neither sf nor fantasy, exactly, but that was showing up in all the places that sf and fantasy did; a kind of story that used sf and fantasy elements within otherwise realistic, or at least consistent, settings to provoke a feeling of strangeness or, better, feeling at home, strangely. After every three stories or so in editors Kelly and Kessel's pick of representative slipstream stories, excerpts from several young writers' blog exchange 17 years after Sterling's essay carry on the analysis, and it's interesting--but, oh, these stories! The authors are mavericks old and new: such travelers from genre to mainstream and vice versa as Aimee Bender, George Saunders, Jonathan Lethem, Karen Jay Fowler, and Michael Chabon; longtime unclassifiables Carol Emshwiller and Howard Waldrop; new small-press stars Kelly Link and Jeff VanderMeer; two quietly grandiose weird imaginations who've broken onto the big publishers' lists, Jeffrey Ford and Ted Chiang; and virtual newcomers M. Rickert, Theodora Goss, and Benjamin Rosenbaum. Oh, and Bruce Sterling, whose "Little Magic Shop" is perhaps the tamest of a wild bunch. How wild? Try Rosenbaum's Arabian Nights-ish alternate-history tale with the long, academic-sounding name. Try Fowler's double-time-lined "Lieserl," about Albert Einstein's forsaken daughter. Try Bender's "Healer," and ask what world it's set in. Don't stop until all have been read. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tachyon Publications (July 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189239135X
• ISBN-13: 978-1892391353
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #304,522 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( K ) > Kessel, John
  #2 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( K ) > Kelly, James Patrick

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and disturbing stories, December 23, 2008

By	T. Davenport (La Jolla, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Themed anthologies are usually put together by people who pay pennies and earn nickels -- if they're lucky. Under such conditions, it's pretty unusual that every story is worth reading. This book is one of those rare exceptions. There are enough reliable names here -- M. Rickert, Jeffrey Ford, Ted Chiang, Kelly Link -- that anyone who pays attention to speculative fiction will have already identified this book as worth reading.

But for those of you who are poking your heads in from the world of mainstream literature, please come in! This book is a warm and welcoming place for you pale things -- strange and thrilling, but not formulaically so. Really, please come in.

I'm serious.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended anthology, with involving cross-genre stories from all sources, March 14, 2007

By	Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Feeling Very Strange was one of the most celebrated anthologies of last year. It took me a while to get around to reading it, partly because I had read most of the stories already. But I finally did read it. I reread the stories I had already read, and was darned happy to do so. It really is an outstanding book.

It includes some surprising and very effective pieces from outside the core SF/Fantasy genre -- notably Michael Chabon's "The God of Dark Laughter" and George Saunders's "Sea Oak". It includes some stories from within the genre that I had liked a lot (and praised highly in public) but that I didn't really see as slipstream -- though I see the editors' point in including them now I think -- stuff like Benjamin Rosenbaum's "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Airplanes', by Benjamin Rosenbaum", and Theodora Goss's "The Rose in Twelve Petals", and Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God". It includes Kelly Link's magnificent "The Specialist's Hat", easily one of the spookiest stories I have ever read. It includes Howard Waldrop's Alternate History of an ascendant Africa, "The Lions are Asleep This Night" -- another story I wouldn't have at first blush called slipstream (and it does seem that the editors consider certain types of AH slipstream (the Rosenbaum story being another example), but that works that way, and reads a bit differently in that context.) There is also a fine new story by M. Rickert, "You Have Never Been Here", and good stories by Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Aimee Bender, Bruce Sterling, Jeff VanderMeer, Karen Joy Fowler, and Jeffrey Ford. Highly recommended.

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A collection which helps define and identify the genre of fiction known as 'slipstream', August 17, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Advanced review galleys are not typically featured - we usually only review from finished books - but FEELING VERY STRANGE: THE SLIPSTREAM ANTHOLOGY is something unusual to watch for: a collection which helps define and identify the genre of fiction known as 'slipstream'. This category has long defied easy definition: blend literary avant garde elements with science and you begin to realize its boundaries. It embraces cognitive dissonance, ambiguity, and visionary oddities and the short stories by Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Bruce Sterling and others provide diverse satisfying examples of how this is accomplished.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch