An omnibus collection from Subterranean, containing six books. Her you get a monster hunting girl, a couple of new orleans chefs, a werewolf hunting nun, a talking seal victorian adventurer, fifties pulp sf, and an old fashioned magic wielding occult detective vampire shagger. Overall quite good quality.
Subterranean Bundle November 2007 : Alabaster - Caitlín R. Kiernan
Subterranean Bundle November 2007 : D.U.C.K. - Poppy Z. Brite
Subterranean Bundle November 2007 : Dreadful Skin - Cherie Priest
Subterranean Bundle November 2007 : Flaming London - Joe R. Lansdale
Subterranean Bundle November 2007 : In the Beginning - Robert Silverberg
Subterranean Bundle November 2007 : New Amsterdam - Elizabeth Bear
I suppose albino monster killing avatars of a higher power may just have been done before. This waif girl version of such is even more a pathetic specimen than the other one, in general, perhaps a 78 pound weakling, even, in that she looks like she would struggle to bench press a baby toad.
No soul-sucking sword, either, just a not overly well sharpened kitchen knife to face the monsters, demons, and crazed magic-wielders, after a bit of prompting from a showy fiery sword wielding angelic not overly helpful type.
Dancy Flammarion : 1 Les Fleurs Empoisonnées - Caitlín R. Kiernan
Dancy Flammarion : 2 The Well of Stars and Shadow - Caitlín R. Kiernan
Dancy Flammarion : 3 Waycross - Caitlín R. Kiernan
Dancy Flammarion : 4 Alabaster - Caitlín R. Kiernan
Dancy Flammarion : 5 Bainbridge - Caitlín R. Kiernan
A bailiff, a dead bear, and a League of monstrous women.
3.5 out of 5
Riddle survival.
3.5 out of 5
"Sure, we been prayin' for someone, but not a crazy albino kid with a butcher knife."
3.5 out of 5
"I don't have a tail," Dancy says, wishing the albino girl in the mirror, the girl who isn't her reflection after all, would shut up and go away. "You might as well, as far as the Seraphim are concerned. To them, you're nothing but a trained monkey, an ugly little freak of evolution they can swindle into wiping their Heavenly arses for them."
3.5 out of 5
Angel slicing.
3 out of 5
Alternate history cooking.
In a New Orleans that was never trashed a couple that runs a restaurant has a challenge of a different kind.
Make a multiple course banquet for Ducks Unlimited, featuring duck in every course:
G-man pulled the duck out of the bag and brandished it at Rickey, his hand wrapped around its neck. From the top of his fist emerged a tiny, slit-eyed, unmistakably duck-billed head. From the bottom hung a brown, blue, and white body that had been gutted, but not deprived of its feathers or its webby feet. The ooze from a small perforation stained its delicately dappled breast.
"Jesus Christ."
"Least we know it's fresh."
"Goddammit, you mean we gotta pull the feathers off fifty ducks?"
"We don't." G-man gazed at Rickey over the tops of his shades. "Jacolvy and Devonte do. Or the dishwashers, even."
To top this off, famous quarterback Bobby Hebert is involved, and they just happen to be keen Saints fans
A cute book.
3.5 out of 5
There are three linked stories in this collection, all featuring the same werewolf hunting nun. Yes, that is right. A werewolf hunting nun. Someone that is not quite human herself, and on the trail of a monster, throughout the three stories.
The first couple are told from the point of view of a few of the characters in it, the third somewhat different for the first major part, being recounted in letters and journals.
On the whole, rather good.
Sister Eileen Callaghan : The Wreck of the Mary Byrd - Cherie Priest
Sister Eileen Callaghan : Halfway To Holiness - Cherie Priest
Sister Eileen Callaghan : Our Lady of the Wasteland - Cherie Priest
"I ducked into a niche between a cabin and the pilot house and hiked my skirt up enough to reach down into my garter holster. I've heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal.
We'd see what Mr. Colt could do for a woman."
While Mr. Colt's equality of weaponry is one thing, I doubt it applies to werewolves, and one of which is what this nun is hunting, and has tracked him to a riverboat. Or at least she hopes she has, and it isn't the other way around.
4 out of 5
Sister Eileen, still looking for Jack, has her own case of the furries to deal with, and comes a werewolf at a revivalist camp.
3.5 out of 5
When Jack and the revivalist's son from the second story team up for a reign of terror and snacking, Eileen realises she needs help, and makes a stand with some allies in a town church.
3.5 out of 5
A flipper War of the Worlds.
Where the coolest guy is a seal. Yes, literally.
Here he teams up with Mark Twain and Jules Verne, among others.
The problem? A Martian invasion. What else would be good in such a Victorian adventure? (of course, given it is Mr. Lansdale, rather a bit more irreverent tha your usual tales of the era)
Yep, giant talking apes, and mechanical men.
Raybeams, bashing, and throw in a time machine later on for a continuing possibility.
All very silly, but pretty likely to make you chuckle, too.
I was able to get this thanks to Subterranean selling through webscriptions. Sometimes even more interesting than the 'formula adventure stories' that the author calls them at times is his recounting of how they came to be.
Reasonably lengthy introductions to each piece detail his relationship with various editors of lower tier Science Fiction magazines at the time, and how they often used a stable of house writers, and multiple different pseudonyms.
Sometimes Silverberg would have several stories in the same issue, all under different names, of course. A man blessed with the ability to be able to writer incredibly fast, knocking out novelettes in a day or two when he had to.
It also includes him talking about his relationship with Randall Garrett.
The stories themselves are ok in general (3.25), supposed to be a bit of fun, in the main. You do of course have to realise that they were all written in the 1950s.
In the Beginning : Yokel with Portfolio - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Long Live the Kejwa - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Guardian of the Crystal Gate - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Choke Chain - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Citadel of Darkness - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Cosmic Kill - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : New Year's Eve—2000 A.D. - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : The Android Kill - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : The Hunters of Cutwold - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Come into My Brain - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Castaways of Space - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Exiled from Earth - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Second Start - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Mournful Monster - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : Vampires from Outer Space - Robert Silverberg
In the Beginning : The Insidious Invaders - Robert Silverberg
Handling the alien monster like that is a load of bull.
3 out of 5
Landing getaway leaves him worshipfully in over his head.
3.5 out of 5
Manjacked giant diamond bitchfight freedom.
3.5 out of 5
Breathing tax.
3.5 out of 5
"—and when one came, it was a female. She was over six feet tall, with a magnificent body only nominally covered by her brief clothing, and strapped to her hip was a gem-studded blaster. I stepped out behind her as she went past. "I hate to do this to a lady," I said apologetically, as I clubbed down on the back of her neck and grabbed the blaster from its holster in the same motion. She started to crumple before I had the gun out."
...
"A sudden burst of thought illuminated my mind. "If that's true, I think I know how I can carry this thing off. Let's go someplace where I can get out of all these spacesuits and into a slave's loincloth!"
3.5 out of 5
Mercurian lust, loyalty and zam-gums. On speed.
3 out of 5
Space Age celebration.
3 out of 5
Don't shoot me, I ain't no tin man.
3 out of 5
Sentient shooting.
3.5 out of 5
"Get out of my mind, Earthman!"
3.5 out of 5
Piss off Space Patrol boy, queen is just fine thanks.
3 out of 5
Alien theatre.
2.5 out of 5
"Look," I said. "I'm a Rehab. That means I've been through the Center, analyzed, monkeyed-with, headshrunk, rearranged. There isn't a criminal molecule left in me. I can't do it even if I wanted to. And I don't want to."
3.5 out of 5
Put me out of my misery.
3.5 out of 5
If those aliens aren't the bloodsuckers, must be the non-vegetarian ones.
3.5 out of 5
Not my brother anymore.
3 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
A good old fixup I believe the author might call this. The name of the main character, Abigail Irene Garrett, is of course a homage to Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy series, and she has combined the detective and sorcerer pairing i that book into the one woman, here.
However, I am quite sure Lord Darcy would not have down trou and let his vampire partner (in any sense of the word you like) suck dinner from his groin!
Monsters and plots to deal with, and plots to make in this turn of the 19th century fantasy USA and Europe, in a quite well done collection of stories.
Abigail Irene Garrett : New Amsterdam - Elizabeth Bear
Abigail Irene Garrett : New Amsterdam 1 Lucifugous - Elizabeth Bear
Abigail Irene Garrett : New Amsterdam 2 Wax - Elizabeth Bear
Abigail Irene Garrett : New Amsterdam 3 Wane - Elizabeth Bear
Abigail Irene Garrett : New Amsterdam 4 Limerent - Elizabeth Bear
Abigail Irene Garrett : New Amsterdam 5 Chatoyant - Elizabeth Bear
Abigail Irene Garrett : New Amsterdam 6 Lumière - Elizabeth Bear
Murder, bloodsucking and detection by dirigible.
3.5 out of 5
Forensic sorcery monster murder triangle.
4 out of 5
The sharp end of political plot with a bit of monster transforming gear for AIG and fanged friend.
3.5 out of 5
Fenian plots : "It was an odd thing, to find one's self greeting a murderous sorcerer by name, making casual conversation while he helped one off with one's coat and escorted one to the usual place."
3 out of 5
Some blokey vamp action, before AIG decides to give the Crown job the arse and take up the possibility of being a Bostonian Consulting Detective. More dead people and not people follow.
3 out of 5
"You have another reputation as well, Lady Abigail. One as a sort of distaff Nimrod. A mighty slayer of monsters."
The aforementioned triple barreled lady, Sebastien, Jack and the ratdog have decamped to Paris for a little revolutionary air. However, the monster hunting skills will still be needed with the ghost werewolves of Paris and The Beast running around.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
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