I came to this book in kind of a round-about way. Matt is one of our newer folks in the Queer Sci Fi group, and he posted this one a few weeks ago on a Me Me Monday.
The cover is soooo NOT sci fi – but there’s a reason for that – you’ll just have to read the Acknowledgement.
We ended up talking a bit online, and he offered to send me a copy.
Great, I thought, another eBook to throw on the stack.
But Matt surprised me – he’s kind of old school, and really likes printed books – something about the experience of reading a “real” book that you just don’t get from an eBook. So he said sure, he’d send me the eBook. But he wanted to send me a printed copy too.
I said ok, and forgot all about it, at least until the book arrived. It’s a slender volume – just eleven stories in all. But there’s a story behind the stories, which are all flash fiction. The longest is eight pages, and most are just three or four.
Matt started a writing group at his local Barnes & Noble, and as part of the group and to foster a more hands-on experience, he had everyone spend an hour writing a short story, and then another hour sharing their story with one other person.
Out of this crucible were born the stories in this book.
Fair warning – only two of the stories really qualify as “gay”, though one of those, “The Worlds of Things”, is my favorite story in the book, both for the boundless creativity it displays and for the emotional hook at the end.
Matt’s imagination really does wander here. We get stories on genetically modified animals, fake christmas trees, obstinate computer viruses, ghosts in the machine, and much more. And they are fascinating, every one. Perhaps Matt will take one or more of these and expand them to novella or novel length at some point in the future.
But the brevity of these stories is also a feature. I won’t tell you where I read them – let’s just say it was in a place where I had short bits of time to kill, three or four times a day. But the book filled my time, and brilliantly.
I hate the whole “star rating” thing, so let’s just say that if you like innovative, cutting edge sci fi, go buy this book now. The eBook is just a buck. Or you can treat yourself and get the paperback for just $5.
Matt’s right. There’s something about having a “real” book.