Customer Reviews

Songs For Drella: and Other Disharmonies THE ALBUM

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Clearly, something strange has creeped into SF's old, stale scene. These stories (though not all of them are "Science-Fiction") are so different from the typical story found in ASIMOV'S or F&SF they might as well be a different animal altogether. They ooze with the feeling of a Punk invading a Museum. Of something Different trespassing (uncalled) in an old Manor. It's hardly surprising editors like Dozois and Gelder, with their "agendas" of what is right and isn't in a "SF Short Story", don't buy stories like these. It's all right. As long as books like this exist, they'll remind us what science fiction used to be about: the literature of tomorrow (not of ABOUT tomorrow).

A much more focused collection than his first effort as THE WORLD ACCORDING TO KANE was all over the place (what with mainstream mysteries, hard science fiction, alternative history and even some bizarre dark fantasy thrown into the mix for good measure). This time we get a much more formal "science fiction" collection --save a couple or two in the even dozen which might have more fiction than science in them, to be fair. If you liked the first you'll probably like this one. The same offbeat and cruel sense of humor is here, along with the irreverent points of view. Clearly, an author still young but very much in control of his creative powers, it's hard to believe barely a year has passed between collections (with the disappointing novel in the middle) which makes me believe the first book was really made up of much older material --I HAVE read the title story of the first book was written when he was 17. The dozen tales in this newest book show a growing maturity. Definitely for all those who thought the KANE collection was more than a fluke.

Salinas has always been one of those gifted authors whose writings defy classification, jumping willy-nilly between genres (sometimes in the SAME story). What prevents his stories from becoming kitchen sink narratives involving one too many subplot is, quite simply, his craft. He manages to balance this hodge-podge of ideas, no matter how truly strange, and tell a story like no other you've ever read. That is a rare gift.
Take, for instance, "Man of the People" one of the dozen stories collected here, about an Artificial Intelligence's therapy session with its "shrink". Very, very weird. The story that comes next, "Songs for Drella" (which titles the collection) goes off the deep end completely as we follow the private duel in the rain-soaked and abandoned ruins of Angkor Wat, complete with rifles and all, between an Andy Warhol-analogue and the artist-lover-protégé he betrayed years ago. Weird doesn't even begin to describe this one.
Several of this stories border on the obscene, certainly on the inappropriate. Salinas once mentioned in some interview how a good friend of his, a deeply religious man, had stopped talking to him after reading one of his books (it was probably the novel, not this one). He called the book "sick". Laughingly, Salinas lamented the fact his editors didn't let him use his friend's comments on the cover of his next book (this one). Don't worry. It might not be on the cover, but it should be obvious to anyone who reads it. It's sick. And Salinas probably likes it like that.

Short-story collections are always an easy way to experiment with a writer you're not familiar with. Fortunately, that's how Armando Salinas started out making his living. A sophisticated, urbane writer, Armando Salinas has slowly, over the span of this past decade made quite a name for himself without ever really coming close to becoming a bestseller author. If you're familiar with his stories from Verboten magazine, or Omen, then you're already aware you don't know what to expect from this genre-jumping collection.
"Ceremony of Innocence" starts things with a high bang, the disturbing little tale about a man incapable of emotions having to perform in a weird play to resurrect a dead woman he's never heard of, but eventually gets to love (also found in The Best of Omen Magazine Vol. 2). It only gets better with the classic "One of our Shanghais is Missing", the story of a brotherless loner looking for his father in an impossibly convoluted future of our own making. The caustic acid prose of "Low Society" (shortlisted for the 2002 Ambient Award for best short story of the year) comes next, as well as "The Computer Code of Love", yet another of his stories about lonely expatriates adrift in a strange land. "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "The Last Days of the Regency Hotel", the first and second of the Galen cycle of stories are also included, as well as "Five Angry Men" and "Stairwell's End", from the St. August series. Each and every story here deserves to be read by a wider audience and Writers Club Press has done a wonderful job packaging this collection.

Generally, I don't like short stories. They do not offer enough time to develop character and plot. I usually find that, just as I'm falling into the rhythm of a short story, it's over. The experience is unsatisfying. Having discovered Armando Salinas about a year ago having read his acid novel THE ANARCHY LESSON, I took a gamble and picked up his short story collection, SONGS FOR DRELLA. To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it. These stories all grabbed my interest in the first few pages. There's no getting your feet wet while try you acclimate and get your bearings. Salinas throws you right into the pool. I didn't often like where I was or whom I was with. There are few redeeming characters in this collection. The stories are populated with smart, but cowardly people. They know they're immoral and they just don't care. They don't look for purpose or redemption. Some are scarier that the monsters in more classic "horror" stories. If it wasn't for the humor and insight with which Salinas portrays these people, his work would be too bleak for me. Recommended, but certainly not to everyone's tastes. Be warned.