Other Worlds, Better Lives, by Howard Waldrop, pages, $15. Waldrop is one of science fiction’s hidden treasures. He writes short fiction published in spots that have to be sought out.
Old Earth Books has gathered some of his scattered stories in a reader of Selected Long Fiction. The seven stories create wildly alternate worlds inhabited by well-known, if not always real, characters from Hercules to the Keystone Cops. An afterword to each story provides insight into how it came about and explains some of the myriad details.
In “You Could Go Home Again,” Thomas Wolfe survives the brain operation that ended his life in our world. He is on a zeppelin from the 1940 Tokyo Olympics to Europe. The first night out, Fats Waller sits in with the house band and outlasts them in an all-night performance. I only learned from the afterword the role J. D. Salinger plays in the story.
In “Flatfeet!” the Keystone Cops battle a series of monsters while tracing the steps of Oswald Spengler’s “The Decline of the West.” Naturally they will be the front line in enforcing Prohibition and stopping communism.
In “A Dozen Tough Jobs,” Lee Houlka has to work for Boss Eustis for a year to complete his parole. Eustis gives him a series of seemingly impossible tasks. On the surface it’s a powerful story of racism and class in 1920s Mississippi. Below that, it’s a complete retelling of the labors of Hercules.
Waldrop always brings strange corners of our world into a new light by showcasing them in ever-changing and constantly re-imagined settings.
Ex-Kop, by Warren Hammond, $24.95. Denver author Warren Hammond has another winner with his second novel of sex, violence and mildew on the dank backwater planet of Lagarto.
Juno Mozambe has been forced off the police force but his ex-partner, Maggie, persuades him to help investigate a series of murders after she loses trust in her new partner.
He reluctantly agrees to look at the case of a young woman on death row. Juno doesn’t believe in her innocence although he knows something is wrong when he is assaulted after interviewing her.
Juno is an expert at police corruption from his decades of experience as a corrupt policeman. Ian, the new leader of the corrupt officers, is steroid-gorged and quick to anger. He is stronger than Juno, maybe even smarter, and allied with a slumming offworlder. Ian has a girlfriend who Juno finds dangerously attractive. She seems to return the interest, but her secrets may be too dark for even Juno.
Juno is in a desperate situation. He will do anything to help his dying wife except honor her request to die. He is ready to betray anyone while he works all sides against each another. Juno is up against his greatest fears with the offworlders who have left him disabled from previous encounters.
“Ex-Kop” brings hardboiled detective and science fiction together in an addictively readable mix. Juno is a classic case of a hero holding onto a scrap of ethics in a very corrupt world.
Lord Tophet, by Gregory Frost, $14. Gregory Frost concludes his lush story about storytelling in the world of Shadowbridge. The shadow-puppeteer Leodora and the musician Diversus have been moving from bridge to bridge at the insistence of her manager, Soter.
On one stop, Leodora visits the local dragon bowl, the place where the gods occasionally grace someone with a mysterious gift. Here she has a vision that rejuvenates the dying city of Colemaigne.
Years earlier, the city was blighted by Lord Tophet after Leodora’s father performed there. Now the theater will be reopened for Leodora. Soon it is full every night to see her perform under the stage name Jax.
Following a few spans behind Jax and company are the wraithlike Archivists, who are interested in Jax for unspecified Library business. Those who delay or question their mission are turned to stone.
Leodora gathers new stories from all parts of the city. The underspan is a big cavern where the workers stir occasionally to move cargo. Leodora is there looking for an inverted city she had a glimpse of in her vision. Diversus is the first to find what proves to a be a world of trickster gods eager to trap them in an endless series of stories.
The Shadowbridge novels are bright visions outside the usual variations of fantasy stories. Frost goes against the publishing trend and writes his story in two volumes instead of a trilogy with inevitable sequels.
Fred Cleaver is a freelancer who writes regularly on new science fiction releases.
