From Publishers Weekly
An agent provocateur of escapist surrealism, Irvine (A Scattering of Jades) showcases his versatility in 13 short stories ranging from whimsical fantasy to hard-edged SF. In the one tale written specifically for this collection, the entertaining "A Peaceable Man," an ex-con antique dealer has the good fortune to have a magical Borzoi as his faithful canine companion. In the touching and poignant "Agent Provocateur," a father and son investigate the impact that Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle has on the son’s 1940 interception of a Moe Berg home run. Irvine is equally at ease speculating about the futility of endless wars ("Jimmy Guang’s House of Gladmech," which also focuses on the importance of certain romantic attachments) as he is constructing multilayered fantastic historicals ("Akhenaten," his mythological Egyptian meditation on the creation of gods, and "Vandoise and the Bone Monster," a rollicking Rocky Mountain ghost yarn). He returns to relationship issues in "Chichén Itza," an astute reflection on the transformation of communication in the future, while "The Sea Wind Offers Little Relief" echoes Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451’s concern about the preservation of literature. Irvine falters only in the slice-of-life moroseness of "The Sands of Iwo Jima," the overwritten cuteness of the monkey-infested "Down in the Fog-Shrouded City" and the too-silly "Tato Chip, Tato Chip, Sing Me a Song." Most of these stories point to a bright future for an exuberant new voice in speculative fiction.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Irvine's first collection of stories and novellas covers a lot of ground as, from the halls dedicated to Aten, the sun, in the ancient Egypt of "Akhnaten" to a future in which terraforming is banned and people live in domed cities ("Elegy for a Greenwiper"), Irvine perambulates through the long-term human condition, and not only as we know it, for in "Chichen Itza" he contemplates revolutions in perception that quite change it. He doesn't neglect the chaotic nature of reality; indeed, in "Agent Provocateur," Heisenberg's uncertainty principle "decides" the outcome of a world war. The volume-opening novella, "Jimmy Guang's House of Gladmech," looks at the entrepreneurial spirit in a near future of endless ethnic warfare in central Asia, and the closer, "A Peaceable Man," rolls two human-condition-mongering genres, crime thriller and ghost story, together. Despite the stories' variety, they hang together remarkably well in a book that provides food for thought and that staple of healthy living, entertainment. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
