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Iraq + 100: The First Anthology of Science Fiction to Have Emerged from Iraq by Hassan Blasim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As you might have noticed, I like-a the sci-fi, and having grown up in America, my SF intake has been mainly American and British, with a little Japanese and Russian thrown in. But having lived in Hong Kong for over 26 years now, I’ve been increasingly interested in how other cultures approach literary SF, and in recent years we’ve seen SF from Nigeria, South Africa, China, Argentina and other countries make their way to the West. So when I came across this anthology – billed as the first collection of SF from Iraq – of course I had to try it.
The background is as interesting as the stories themselves – the editor, Hassan Blasim, points out that Iraq doesn’t produce a lot of SF or speculative fiction because Iraqi writers (whether in Iraq or out in Iraqi diaspora) are too caught up in the horrors of the present day or recent past – also, he adds, govt-backed religious repression in the Arab world in general hasn't helped. But as they say, SF is really about the present, so Blasim convinced nine authors to write a story that imagines Iraq in 2103, one hundred years after the US invasion in 2003. And so they did – and the results are, as you might imagine, bleak.
There’s a variety of approaches here – virtual realities, time-travelling angels, technophobic dictators, talking statues, hovering tiger-droids and an alien invasion – but little optimism. Most of the stories directly reference the 2003 war and its aftermath via flashbacks or history as learned by characters in 2103, and many imagine that Iraq will continue to be a place of conflict and oppression in some form or other, which in itself is a brutal commentary on the impact of imperialism on native cultures – the future is shaped by the past, etc. So for that alone I’d recommend this.
Bite Me by Christopher Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the third instalment in Christopher Moore’s A Love Story vampire series, which follows the adventures of freshly turned vampire Jody Stroud, her boyfriend Tommy Flood (also a vampire, turned by Jody) and their hypersexed teenage goth-girl minion Abby Normal. The story takes up where the previous book (You Suck) left off, with Jody and Tommy encased in bronze, while Abby tries to figure out how to get them out without getting herself killed (as she’s the one who bronzed them in the first place) and convince them to turn her into a vampire so she can get revenge on her enemies, starting with her biology teacher who flunked her.
Naturally, this turns out to be the least of her problems – a large stray cat named Chet has also become a vampire and is creating an army of vampire cats that threaten to take over the city. The Animals – which is to say, the night shift crew at the Marina Safeway where Tommy used to work – team up with the Emperor of San Francisco and a Chinese hip-hop grandmother to deal with the vampire cats, while Steve “Foo Dog” Wong (Abby’s science-nerd sex toy) is trying to figure out a way to reverse the vampire process. There’s also a gentleman samurai in here, as well as a vampire hit squad out to clean up the vampire kitty mess, as they’d very much prefer that the world at large not know vampires exist.
So it’s a typical Moore romp, and it’s a lot of fun. That said, it feels a little less focused – with Jody and Tommy sidelined for part of the book, this is more of an ensemble piece, so the narrative focus jumps around a lot. Also, I still find Abby to be a somewhat annoying (albeit funny) character – she’s easily the most terrifying thing in the whole series, so much so that the final scene feels a little forced to me. Still, it’s an entertaining and funny page turner, and still proof (for me) that Moore writes better vampire novels than most vampire genre novelists.
View all my reviews
Kthxbye,
This is dF
Iraq + 100: The First Anthology of Science Fiction to Have Emerged from Iraq by Hassan BlasimMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
As you might have noticed, I like-a the sci-fi, and having grown up in America, my SF intake has been mainly American and British, with a little Japanese and Russian thrown in. But having lived in Hong Kong for over 26 years now, I’ve been increasingly interested in how other cultures approach literary SF, and in recent years we’ve seen SF from Nigeria, South Africa, China, Argentina and other countries make their way to the West. So when I came across this anthology – billed as the first collection of SF from Iraq – of course I had to try it.
The background is as interesting as the stories themselves – the editor, Hassan Blasim, points out that Iraq doesn’t produce a lot of SF or speculative fiction because Iraqi writers (whether in Iraq or out in Iraqi diaspora) are too caught up in the horrors of the present day or recent past – also, he adds, govt-backed religious repression in the Arab world in general hasn't helped. But as they say, SF is really about the present, so Blasim convinced nine authors to write a story that imagines Iraq in 2103, one hundred years after the US invasion in 2003. And so they did – and the results are, as you might imagine, bleak.
There’s a variety of approaches here – virtual realities, time-travelling angels, technophobic dictators, talking statues, hovering tiger-droids and an alien invasion – but little optimism. Most of the stories directly reference the 2003 war and its aftermath via flashbacks or history as learned by characters in 2103, and many imagine that Iraq will continue to be a place of conflict and oppression in some form or other, which in itself is a brutal commentary on the impact of imperialism on native cultures – the future is shaped by the past, etc. So for that alone I’d recommend this.
Bite Me by Christopher MooreMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the third instalment in Christopher Moore’s A Love Story vampire series, which follows the adventures of freshly turned vampire Jody Stroud, her boyfriend Tommy Flood (also a vampire, turned by Jody) and their hypersexed teenage goth-girl minion Abby Normal. The story takes up where the previous book (You Suck) left off, with Jody and Tommy encased in bronze, while Abby tries to figure out how to get them out without getting herself killed (as she’s the one who bronzed them in the first place) and convince them to turn her into a vampire so she can get revenge on her enemies, starting with her biology teacher who flunked her.
Naturally, this turns out to be the least of her problems – a large stray cat named Chet has also become a vampire and is creating an army of vampire cats that threaten to take over the city. The Animals – which is to say, the night shift crew at the Marina Safeway where Tommy used to work – team up with the Emperor of San Francisco and a Chinese hip-hop grandmother to deal with the vampire cats, while Steve “Foo Dog” Wong (Abby’s science-nerd sex toy) is trying to figure out a way to reverse the vampire process. There’s also a gentleman samurai in here, as well as a vampire hit squad out to clean up the vampire kitty mess, as they’d very much prefer that the world at large not know vampires exist.
So it’s a typical Moore romp, and it’s a lot of fun. That said, it feels a little less focused – with Jody and Tommy sidelined for part of the book, this is more of an ensemble piece, so the narrative focus jumps around a lot. Also, I still find Abby to be a somewhat annoying (albeit funny) character – she’s easily the most terrifying thing in the whole series, so much so that the final scene feels a little forced to me. Still, it’s an entertaining and funny page turner, and still proof (for me) that Moore writes better vampire novels than most vampire genre novelists.
View all my reviews
Kthxbye,
This is dF
