{"id":8064,"date":"2013-05-06T15:39:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T19:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=8064"},"modified":"2015-05-13T10:43:41","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T14:43:41","slug":"shimmering-kaleidoscopes-cat-rambos-near-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=8064","title":{"rendered":"Shimmering Kaleidoscopes: Cat Rambo\u2019s Near + Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note:<\/strong> this is part of a series in which I discuss works of the contributors to The Other Half of the Sky<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0 Other entries in the series appear at the end of each discussion.<\/p>\n

\"Cover,<\/a><\/p>\n

Cat Rambo\u2019s recent collection, Near + Far<\/i> (Hydra House, $16.95 print, $6.99 digital), is a t\u00eate-b\u00eache book containing 2×12 stories of wildly different lengths that previously appeared in such venues as Abyss and Apex, Clarkesworld, Clockwork Phoenix, Crossed Genres, Daily SF<\/i> and Lightspeed<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Before I discuss the stories themselves, I\u2019ll mention two secondary but important aspects of the book.\u00a0 One is the attention paid to the presentation; as one example, the text ornaments are almost distracting in their beauty.\u00a0 The other is that each story has an afterword in which Rambo gives its backstory and worldpath. \u00a0Personally, I greatly enjoy such fore\/afterwords (I still fondly recall Harlan Ellison\u2019s needle-sharp, needling introductions) and find that they invariably deepen my understanding and appreciation of the tale \u2013 provided that the writer knows their craft.\u00a0 Which brings us to the content of the collection.<\/p>\n

Cat Rambo is a chameleon \u2013 a type of writer as rare as a Hollywood actor who can submerge themselves into a character. \u00a0Rambo\u2019s range is galaxy-wide: she goes from near-future quasi-dystopia to far-future space opera, from slapstick humor to Eurypidean tragedy, with deceptively effortless prose, like a prima ballerina executing grandes jet\u00e9s.\u00a0 She also has a flair for the telling snippet that brings a person or setting to sharp, vivid life, like the pass of a lighthouse beacon.<\/p>\n

The Near<\/i> and Far<\/i> halves hew to their titles: the former keeps close to home in spacetime, the latter ventures further afield.\u00a0 Yet common kernels underlie these thematically and stylistically far-flung worlds: the complexity of relationships (the frictions of long-term pairings in particular) and, obversely, the urgent desire for connection even at a steep cost. \u00a0Everything is scaled to personal dimensions, even in the space operas.\u00a0 There\u2019s a noticeable transhumanist overlay to the cycle (AIs of various sentience levels and nanobiotech-based modifications are ubiquitous), though it never devolves to the tiresome paradise\/hell binary.\u00a0 Instead, Rambo focuses on the dilemmas of autonomy, privacy and community.\u00a0 She also eschews neat resolutions.\u00a0 Most of the stories end ambiguously or remain open-ended; many are bleak, though in a pragmatic, low-key way that makes them poignant.<\/p>\n

Several of the stories in Near<\/i> are about failing connections. \u00a0\u201cPeaches of Immortality\u201d is a downbeat version of Groundhog Day that renews the frisson associated with high school cliques. \u00a0\u201cClose Your Eyes\u201d and \u201cNot Waving but Drowning\u201d are unflinching examinations of issues that corrode relationships: the friction between a sister taking care of her dying brother in the former, the unraveling of trust that results from excessive transparency in a marriage in the latter. \u00a0\u201cTherapy Buddha\u201d and \u201cLong Enough and Just So Long\u201d are investigations into consciousness: the first illustrates the placebo effects of an ELIZA-type program; the second is Tanith Lee\u2019s Silver Metal Lover<\/i> shorn of its romantic trappings.\u00a0 \u201cRealFur\u201d is a story of suffocation on several levels whereas \u201cVocobox\u2122\u201d is about the loneliness of togetherness when the fit is bad.<\/p>\n

My favorite stories in Near<\/i> show harsh worlds where loyalty and companionship are nevertheless possible and make a difference. \u00a0\u201cThe Mermaids Singing Each to Each\u201d is a retelling of The Old Man and the Sea<\/i> in a universe where gender fluidity is easy \u2013 and an AI can earn forgiveness for a betrayal.\u00a0 \u201cMemories of Moments, Bright as Falling Stars\u201d is what Strange Days<\/i> could have been if Kathryn Bigelow had not pulled her punches about the repercussions of brain enhancements in a pyramidal-privilege society.\u00a0 \u201cLegends of the Gone\u201d portrays the world going out not with a bang, but with a whimper\u2026 yet its subdued notes are oddly consoling, perhaps because dying humanity has remained humane.<\/p>\n

Heading for the antipodes, some of the Far<\/i> stories are actually between Near<\/i> and Far<\/i>.\u00a0 Taking off from Near<\/i>, \u201cZeppelin Follies\u201d and \u201cSurrogates\u201d contemplate futures in which humans interact with the world through filtering devices. \u00a0Landing at Far<\/i>, \u201c<\/b>A Querulous Flute of Bone\u201d and \u201cFive Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain\u201d explore desire in unique settings that are nevertheless reflections of our internal landscapes.<\/b><\/p>\n

Far<\/i> showcases Rambo\u2019s prowess at creating intriguing, thought-provoking worlds and aliens.\u00a0 Several stories in Far<\/i> delve into the longing to belong and also explore other senses beyond the dominant human one of vision.\u00a0 At the humorous end, \u201cKalakkak\u2019s Cousins\u201d is Deep Space 9<\/i> via Lucky Luke\u2019s bumbling Dalton brothers.\u00a0 In the still-hopeful middle are \u201cSeeking Nothing\u201d and \u201cAngry Rose\u2019s Lament\u201d whose misfit protagonists voluntarily choose submersion into group minds to allay loneliness.\u00a0 At the sorrowful end, \u201cAmid the Words of War\u201d shows a doomed alien outcast with surprisingly universal needs.\u00a0 Aliens of a different kind are depicted in \u201cTimesnip\u201d in which a time-transported suffragette catalyzes a revolution (actually, a restoration) in a planetfall society that has turned the Oedipal configuration into a requirement for male adulthood.<\/p>\n

Far<\/i> closes with \u201cBus Ride to Mars\u201d, a slipstream version of the Canterbury Tales.\u00a0 However, the piece in Far<\/em> that plucked a strong resonating chord in my mind was its opening: \u201cFutures\u201d is a flash story that encompasses all the universes in the anthology \u2013 plus many more.\u00a0 With its limpid, lapidary glimpsed views through doors held ajar, it\u2019s the most evocative piece in the collection, the one that induces the yearning triggered only by the highest quality SF.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve kept the descriptions of the stories in Near + Far<\/i> deliberately brief and vague; they\u2019re far more complex and intricate that these soundbites indicate.\u00a0 It\u2019s my fond hope that the crumbs I dropped have made everyone hungry enough to devour the entire collection.\u00a0 It\u2019s a generous, savory meal that rewards the discerning palate.<\/p>\n

In the same series:<\/strong>
\nThe Hard Underbelly of the Future: Sue Lange\u2019s Uncategorized<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: this is part of a series in which I discuss works of the contributors to The Other Half of the Sky.\u00a0 Other entries in the series appear at the end of each discussion. Cat Rambo\u2019s recent collection, Near + Far (Hydra House, $16.95 print, $6.99 digital), is a t\u00eate-b\u00eache book containing 2×12 stories of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}