The Oracle Lips by Storm Constantine
Stark House Press, 1999

Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction
Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel, editors
Overlook Press, 1998

The Oracle Lips and Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction
Oracle Lips Links Listing on Storm's Web Site includes complete content listings and links to a few stories Listing on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk American Book Exchange Great place to find a used copy Bending the Landscape Links Listing on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk Review by Outworlder Will Gauvin Amazon.com listing for Bending the Landscape: Fantasy Amazon.com listing for Bending the Landscape: Horror

After years of reading nothing but novels, often of the long, convoluted variety, this spring I ventured to read two short story collections. With the last short stories I read being a collection of E.M. Forster's posthumously published gay-themed stories, read three or four years ago, I don't think I could have made better picks for my re-introduction to the form.

The first book I chose was Storm's story anthology, The Oracle Lips (Stark House Press, 1999). I'd set my sights on this book once I realized I had at long last read all of her novels (but for the unfindable Aleph, alas). Having read a few of Storm's stories beforehand (the short Three Heralds of the Storm chapbook, "Paragenesis" in The Crow anthology and several posted to her web site), I had some idea of what to expect, but at the same time, I started out my reading curious what other strange new worlds and characters I might discover.

One of the things which surprised me was the fact that not all the worlds and characters were new. A half a dozen stories were directly related to novels I had already read! Three of the book's 24 selections are tales of Grigori. "Heir to a Tendency" is a peek at the exploits of one Peverel Othman, years before his fateful appearance at Little Moor -- an arrival described in another story appearing, "A Change of Season." Written for an anthology and with the twins in Little Moor being not Grigori but something else, "A Change of Season" is essentially a draft version of the first chapter of Stalking Tender Prey. The book's third Grigori story, "The Feet, They Dance," is a lyrical story of a museum curator who falls into the sort of "remembered life" experiences that come up so often in the third book of Grigori, Stealing Sacred Fire. Any reader and fan of Grigori cannot afford to miss these stories.

Other Storm novels also have relatives appearing. "Blue Flame of the Candle" is an exotic Magravandias tale of temple idols and mysterious strangers. (It also reminded me strangely of an E.M. Forster novel set in a cross between ancient Mesopotamia and Southeast Asia.) A Wraeththu story Storm once had on her web site, "By the River If Only, in the Land of Might Have Been," also makes an appearance, offering a poignant glimpse at what it means when a people loses touch with its roots and wander unquestioningly in darkness and confusion. And finally, just to tantalize me, there's a story set (so Storm's intro note explains) on the same world as Aleph, the (for me) impossible-to-find sequel to The Monstrous Regiment. "God Be With You" is a bitter account of how religious fanaticism and "born again" zeal can split apart families and turn friends into enemies.

Beyond these jaunts into more familiar territory, however, are many more virgin journeys where Storm has created people and places out of nothing and presents them for the length of a short story. Included within this are stories from various genres, from Storm's own brand of science fiction (where space is much more scary and grim than exciting and glamorous), dark fairy tales, fantasies, and strange (but wonderful) unclassifiables like "The Oracle Lips" (a Moebius strip of a story) to "Of a Cat, but Her Skin," a tale of one woman's liberation.

I found my favorite stories split among all the genres. One of the most dearly enjoyed was "The Vitreous Suzerain," the story that opens the anthology. This is one of Storm's forays into science fiction, with a new governor arriving on one of his empire's conquered planets and discovering there is much more to the planet's inhabitants (and more satisfaction to be had) than he or his fellows ever suspected. For me, this story captured my conception of an inter-species encounter far better than any episode of Star Trek.

Other favorites of mine were two dark fairy tales ("Sweet Bruising Skin" and "Remedy of the Bane"), another sci-fi tale ("As It Flows Into the Sea," very much a Twilight Zone episode set in outer space), Storm's fantasy-parody "The Deliveress," a story ("Return to Gehenna") that was like a one-chapter Thin Air, and just about every other story in the book. As I said, I made a good choice with this book!

Interestingly, the second story anthology I read was not one I chose, but one that was chosen by a book group I belong to. Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction (Overlook Press, 1998), is the first of a three-part series of "original gay and lesbian writing" edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel (not very coincidentally, a participant in Outworlders, a local Atlanta GLBTQ sci fi / fantasy fan group and the parent group to our book group.) After choosingThe Sign for the Sacred as our group's first fantasy selection, we turned to Bending as a book that would cover science fiction but also appeal to a variety of tastes. Also playing into the selection was the fact that the book had been awarded a number of extremely prestigious awards and Stephen Pagel would possibly come to our meeting to discuss it (which he did!)

Unlike with The Oracle Lips, when I started on Bending, I really didn't quite know what to expect; most of my affection for science fiction comes not from books but from movies and television, so I really didn't know how much of it I would enjoy. I soon discovered that my wariness was unfounded, for not only did I enjoy the science fiction, but the designation "science fiction" didn't really cover what I was reading -- I found a lot of what I considered "fantasy" as well. I also discovered that Griffith and Pagel made some truly excellent story selections.

Bending features stories which, so Pagel told us himself, cover the full spectrum of science fiction -- everything from futuristic private eye stories to time travel escapades to stories of alien worlds to explorations of cyber consciousness and gender identity. Clearly, this was not a book simply thrown together or with the lowest common denominator in mind. Instead, it's a book in which writers of all sexual orientations explore situations that explore one of science fiction's enduring themes, "the Alien, the Not-Self, the Other," with the "other" a lesbian or gay man (interpreted, so the book's introduction admits, "liberally.")

There were a lot of stories in Bending that I loved and several which actually reminded me strongly of Storm's stories. For example, "The City in Morning" by Carrie Richardson reads like a chapter from a lost Storm novel. "On Vacation" is a subtly hilarious tale of aliens living on earth a la Men In Black. Far and away my favorite story, which I must have reread a dozen time the day I first read it, was the beautiful, elegant and sweetly heart-rending "Silent Passion" by Kathleen O'Malley. Set in A.C. Crispin's StarBridge universe, to which O'Malley has contributed two books), the story is one I summed up to a friend as featuring "giant gay, signing, alien crane-creatures" and their interaction with gay human couple, whose relationship turns a new corner when the narrator is finally able to move beyond the pain of human intolerance. It's a beautiful, life - and love-affirming story which I doubt I will ever forget and which I plan to lead me on to O'Malley's two StarBridge novels, which, so Pagel tells me, feature these same amazing crane-aliens.

After these two books of stories, I went back to novels but knowing there are two more Bending anthologies (fantasy and horror) to read and having just purchased Storm's The Thorn Boy and Other Tales of Dark Desire (Stark House, 2003), I am sure I have many more great tales ahead of me.