Mothership Zeta issue 1, volume 1
Page 12
So strap on your knee and elbow pads, grab a helmet off the nearest desiccated corpse, and get your gnomestick—wait, did I forget to tell you about the gnomestick?—we’re going for a ride in the Wasteland.
Rachael Acks is a writer, geologist, and dapper AF. She’s written for Six to Start and been published in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, and more. Rachael lives in Houston with her two furry little bastards, where she twirls her mustache, watches movies, and bikes. For more information, see her website: http://www.rachaelacks.com.
/review
Book Review: Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl
“To really be a nerd, she’d decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.”
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
September 2013, Saint Martin’s Press, 438 pages
This quote from Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl fits my self-described nerdity perfectly. I very rarely consume any media that isn’t speculative. I was proud of myself for enjoying the mainstreamish Downton Abbey, until I realized that, as a historical, it’s no more set in the here and now reality than my recent Sense8 Netflix binge. When a coworker at my university recommended Fangirl I was expecting some magic, a bit of fantasy, something F&SF. The only thing speculative about this book was the fanfiction tie-in, but there was plenty of ordinary, everyday magic that enthralled me as a fan, writer, and college teacher.
Cather is a college freshman, introvert, and “famous” fan fiction author who has trouble balancing her classes with relationships and extracurricular writing. She juggles interactions with her forceful roommate, the extroverted guy-that’s-in-their-room-all-the-time, her underage-drinking twin sister, her manic father, her absent mother, demanding fiction teacher, and a boy who, we are all pretty sure, is only interested in her for her writing chops. This book was painfully raw for me in places, because it reminded me so strongly of my own loneliness when I first came to college, before I found my tribe of fellow F&SF fans and blossomed. Watching Cather find herself and become the kind of adult she wanted to be made me fall in love with her and this book.
Emotionally, Rowell had claws into me from the first chapter to the last, and, like candy sprinkles, I loved the references to the magical slash fanfiction world of Simon Snow, which I took to be a Harry Potter allegory. This book gave me insight into the students in the college writing club I advise, who all have to juggle the demands of college homework and weird college social situations with their passions for writing. Do you remember the incredible distraction of falling in love? Rowell describes it perfectly.
If you’re looking for a “gateway” book for a fan who isn’t into mainstream new adult books, but would gain a lot from knowing what issues they might face in college, this would be my pick. The prose is excellent (particularly how Rowell describes characters), the dialog laugh-out-loud snappy, and the plot packed with back-to-back highs and lows tied neatly together with fan references to an imaginary world with mages and vampires. I can report as an advisor, mentor, and college teacher, the issues are very real, very close to my daily life at a midwestern university, but I still enjoyed the other of escaping into Cather’s world and experiences. Check it out; you won’t be disappointed.
/review
Book Review: M. R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts
“And then like Pandora, opening the great big box of the world and not being afraid, not even caring whether what’s inside is good or bad. Because it’s both. Everything is always both. But you have to open it to find that out.”
The Girl with All the Gifts by M R Carey
January 2014, Orbit, 512 pages
Melanie is a little girl who loves her school. She likes learning, she likes the other children, she even likes her cement cell. But being strapped into a wheelchair, given chemical baths, and treated like a dangerous wild animal are part of her daily life, a life that’s not at all like the stories she hears from her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau, whom she loves more than anything and anyone in her world. When Melanie must leave this routine and carefully controlled environment and return to a world that she cannot remember, she learns more than she ever wanted to.
A genius-level child, a psychologist-turned-schoolteacher, a hardened battle veteran, a psychopathic research scientist, and a young, green recruit venture through a post-apocalyptic landscape, each of them with secrets, hopes, and desolations they reveal to others only when push comes to shove, which happens with an expert’s delicate manipulation of rising, crisis actions and consequences in this book.
If you enjoyed the terrifying destruction of World War Z, the degradation of humanity in Road Warrior, a tough-as-nails kid character like Newt from Aliens, the strange fungal spores of Finch, the fear of young humans only Children of the Corn can generate, and deep, exploratory characters like those found in modern mainstream fiction such as Little Children, you will enjoy The Girl with All the Gifts.
Some of the POV jumps were a bit abrupt, a few descriptions here and there seemed to contradict each other, but overall the writing was excellent, particularly the characterization and carefully crafted rise and fall of action. For a book that gets deeply into character’s heads, motivations, and emotional reactions, it had an amazing amount of action and adventure. The book is stocked with cinematic battles (as one might expect from the Eisner-award nominated author of Lucifer, Hellblazer and X-Men comics) but also lushly described settings and realism. A savvy science fiction reader gets right away what this book is about, and can make spot-on educated guesses concerning the plot. However, it’s so well written, slight predictability did not dampen the experience, and, in fact, worked to help the reader feel smart. When surprises come, they feel earned, even though, in retrospect, they were foreshadowed.
I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in taking a walk through the dark side of evolution and humanity’s myriad of potential futures.
Karen Bovenmyer is proud to serve as Mothership Zeta’s Assistant Editor of Nonfiction. She earned her MFA in Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program in summer 2013 and has published in Crossed Genres, Abyss & Apex Magazine, and Devilfish Review. She enjoys mentoring new writers at Iowa State University and attending GenCon, WorldCon, and World Fantasy--she loves making new friends, so introduce yourself to a six foot tall midwesterner in a Star Wars or Star Trek dress because chances are, it’s Karen.
/fiction
And so our inaugural selection of original fiction comes to a close! We hope you’ve enjoyed your stay. The exit is right through the Insect Forest. What, you’ve never been to the Insect Forest? Let Paul DesCombaz describe the dangers that await you…
The Insect Forest
by Paul DesCombaz
So you’re going to the Insect Forest.
You know, my shop, Cantor Sled’s Textile Anthropoda, has been in this location for nearly 30 years. We’re the only place in town who deal in insectile fibers.
None of my competition has survived.
But you want to get down to business? Very well.
I suppose you already know about the towering cockroach trees.
No?
Ah well, they sleep for most of the day. Though, keep in mind, they are always hungry, and they move fast when they have to.
True, their abdominal roots reach deep into the ground, limiting their mobility. All the rest, though—the forelegs, the mid-legs, the grinding mouth palps—sprout wild and loose, ready to grab and tear and rip and chew.
Brainless eating machines, really. That’s how I lost these three fingers. And this knob of scar tissue here; one of the bloody things nearly took off half my calf muscle. Now I have to use this damn cane everywhere I go.
You appear unfazed by this. How rare. Most are dissuaded once I bring up the roach trees.
But I digress. If you’re planning on opening your own shop, what you really want to
hear about are the mostly docile moth vines.
I’m sure you’ve heard tales of larval buds as big as foals, blossoms with ten-foot wingspans? Don’t be fooled. Those are mostly stories. Legends. The reality is much less impressive. I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you. Hardly worth the effort.
Hmm?
Yes, one could eke out a living, I suppose. Once you get past all the life-threatening danger, the endless hours, and all the back-breaking labor, that is.
Did I mention the only way to get the sometimes docile moth vines is through the cockroach trees?
How absentminded of me.
Avoid the roach trees?
Yes, I suppose some do go east, out to the carnivorous maggot marshes, hack a thrashing bluebottle from the acid spitting polyps, somehow manage to strap themselves to the slippery thorax, then attempt to steer the mad beast over the chittering canopy of the insatiable roaches.
That is one way to go.
So far this year the death toll for fly wranglers is already at 26. And that’s just locally.
Still not put off, eh?
My, but you are a persistent one, aren’t you?
There is more.
Even if you are lucky enough to make it through the roach trees or ride a fly without falling to your death, you mustn’t forget about the encroaching centipede kudzu. Not a native to the forest, but the scurrying weed is fast spreading, and its venom is at its absolute deadliest this time of the year.
I’ve seen what happens to the bitten, and, believe me, the images stick with you.
You’re still not bothered.
Very well.
You know, I can’t remember the last time I met such a dogged young entrepreneur.
Wait, before you go, I’ve just remembered: the cricket spores!
I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention the cricket spores. If you happen to breathe one of those nasty things into your lungs, it’s an extremely unpleasant way to go. You see, they nest and lay their eggs in the air sacs.
And if you hear them chirping, I’m afraid it’s too late.
You’re still planning on leaving in the morning.
If you don’t mind me asking, on the off chance that you do make it back alive, where are you planning on selling your wares?
Here? Really?
On this block?
My little block.
How very exciting for you.
Healthy competition?
Yes. Hmm.
Let me think. Let me think.
Ah, I have just been struck with a wonderful idea. Why don’t I accompany you on your journey?
After all, as you might have guessed, I am an accomplished guide. I’ve made the trip many times, and I’m always willing to escort such an eager new venturer through the most perilous sections of the forest.
As a matter of fact, you don’t have to bring a thing. I’ll supply all the necessary provisions.
No, no, don’t bother yourself, I’ll bring the guns as well.
As I always say, it’s important to travel through the Insect Forest with someone you can trust.
Paul DesCombaz hunches over a laptop and talks to dogs in the wilds of Minnesota. Find him on Twitter @prdescombaz.
/coming
Coming soon!
Stories from Ursula Vernon, A. Merc Rustad, Carlie St. George, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro!
The next open submission window for original stories will be in 2016.
/cons
CONVENTION WATCH:
Mothership Zeta at upcoming conventions!
January 2016:
8-10: Illogicon, Raleigh, NC - Mur Lafferty is Guest of Honor
21-24: ConFusion, Novi, MI—Mur Lafferty and Sunil Patel attending
/credits
Credits
“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Dwarf Planets”
Image of Pluto borrowed from http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150714
Image of Pamela Gay borrowed from http://www.starstryder.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/plg_tyson_0701.jpg
If you find any errors in this ebook, please report them to info@mothershipzeta.org. Thanks!
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