Slipstreams [Paperback]

Martin H. Greenberg (Editor), John Helfers (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2006

Imagination knows no boundaries

Twenty of science fiction and fantasy's most talented authors take up a challenge: to wade into the waters of a new genre and create something utterly unique. The results of this literary adventure include stories about a mountain man's encounter with a very agressive demon in Yellowstone Park, a wood carver seeking to pick up the pieces of his life throughout the galaxy, and a vampire detective who specializes in bloodwork.

Product Details

• Paperback: 307 pages
• Publisher: DAW (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075640357X
• ISBN-13: 978-0756403577
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 3.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,685,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of Net Impact, a spy thriller which incorporates real-world conspiracy theories, GREENSWORD, a dark comedy about global warming, and Forced Conversion, a military science fiction novel set in the near future. Also author of a variety of short fiction in the science fiction, fantasy, thriller, horror, steampunk, romance, and comedy genres, including stories in the Dragonlance and Transformers universes and in a variety of DAW themed anthologies. World's top-ranked player of RPGA Classic roleplaying game tournaments from 1985-2000. See my writing and gaming resumes at www.donaldjbingle.com., including a listing of the more than thirty anthologies in which I have stories. Some of my previously published stories have been collected by theme in my Writer on Demand TM series and published on Kindle, including Tales of Gamers and Gaming, Tales of Humorous Horror, and Tales Out of Time. My award-winning short memoir, Father's Day, is also available on Kindle, as is Gentlemanly Horrors of Mine Alone, the ninth story in Mike Stackpole's Chain Story Project.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Antislippage, August 10, 2006

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Slipstreams (Paperback)

Themed anthologies usually can't stick with their concepts, and often promote a "theme" so narrow that no stories can be found that comply with such strictures. That challenge is very noticeable in this book. One of the editors, John Helfers, attempts to make the case for an emerging genre called "slipstream" fiction. This is a pretty dubious claim, and a half-hearted attempt to find a hip new label to something that has been around for ages -cross-genre experimentation in speculative fiction. Most of the stories here can be considered experimental and even groundbreaking, but it's not exactly a bold new genre that's setting the literary world on fire. Fortunately, most of the stories in this book are enjoyable reads for speculative fiction fans. Winners include Jane Lindskold's examination of a marriage told in the form of a cookbook, Irene Radford's mix of Arthurian fantasy and Jewish theology, and Donald Bingle's combination of true crime and thought experiments in quantum physics. Several of the authors here ably mix fantasy and/or sci-fi with other genres, such as detective noir, horror, mystery, and western - and they're usually (though not always) successful at not appearing forced or contrived. Of special note for the adventurous reader is Michael M. Jones' tale of a retired Santa Claus as a self-destructive private eye, while the closer by Russell Davis is a gut-wrenching treatise on self-examination and emotional salvation. So if you're interested in modern speculative fiction, this is a mostly successful collection of strong writers and engaging stories. Just don't read too much into the concept. [~doomsdayer520~]

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre anthology with little to recommend it, February 14, 2010

By 

Eric Hawkes (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slipstreams (Paperback)

This collection of stories appears to be a vehicle for authors to sell previously rejected stories. The editor's introduction attempts to excuse the fact that most of the stories contain little that would distinguish them as slipstream (other than those that meet its vitiated definition, "cross-genre"). Most would not be out of place in a mainstream science fiction or fantasy anthology - in fact, many of these stories are simply entries in existing fantasy and SF series by the same author. The title is probably an attempt to cash in on slipstream's fading novelty as an emerging genre. Most are mediocre, ranging from worse than average to somewhat better than average.