An argument could be made that the work by of Kahlo, Varo, Tanning, and Carrington dominate the book. And inevitably, some readers will call some of the work derivative. But there are fresh imaginations at work here, and a willingness to dive deep within the subconscious to evoke dreamlike imagery.
Among the many revelations: Helen Lundeberg, Bridget Tichenor, Alice Rahon, Dorr Bothwell, Gerri Gutmann, and Jacqueline Lambda. The photographic work of Ruth Bernhard and Francesca Woodman should startle and discomfit the viewer. Ditto that by Lee Miller, who recently was featured in a show at the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco. A few of the artists included in the book seem oddly out of place, especially Lee Krasner. Although Krasner – and a few others – might have flirted with or been influenced by surrealism, her work seems more firmly identified with other artistic journeys.
The book is beautifully produced and bound, an obvious candidate for coffee table status. The exotic cover image and contents reward casual browsing in addition to careful reading. Following an overview of artists working in U.S. (by Ilene Susan Fort) and in Mexico (by Tere Arcq), and an 88 page gallery of artwork, contributors Dawn Ades, Arcq, Maria Elena Buszek, Whitney Chadwick, Rita Eder, Ilene Susan Fort, Terri Geis, Salomon Grimberg, and Gloria Feman Orenstein, have provided essays focusing upon the artists’ influences, psyche, themes, and the legacy of their work for contemporary feminist art.
Each artist receives a capsule biography in the back of the book. Even more helpful is a selected bibliography listed by artists and general books and articles. An index to each artist’s work is also useful. While the work contained in In Wonderland varies in terms of impact, it is both interesting and invigorating, certain to inspire young artists. As a reference book, it rescues several artists from oblivion, and is essential to anyone who has serious interest in surreal and fantastic art.
SHORT TAKES
Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention is a delicious exercise in nostalgia. The Frank Reade Weekly and Frank Reade Library have long ago faded into obscurity, but over a hundred years ago, they thrilled young boys who had the pocket change to afford these proto-science fiction, juvenile dime novels. In them, protagonist Frank Reade, and later, his son, Frank Reade, Jr., were the heroes of a series of adventure tales involving exotic locales and mysterious devices. Young Frank Reade, Jr. was an inventor of amazing vehicles, including submersibles, airships, and electrical land vehicles. He also invented steam-powered robots.
Paul Guinan & Anina Bennett have taken these vintage tales and expanded them into an alternate world ‘‘mockumentary,’’ filled with charming steampunky images and clever footnotes. As in their previous book, Boilerplate: History of a Victorian Era Robot, they’ve reframed stories from the original Frank Reade Library and Frank Reade Weekly as non-fiction, positing the notion that the adventurous Reade family truly existed, and used their adventures as a means by which to view some of the most important events of the 20th century.
It’s an engaging approach, and the color-corrected vintage illustrations that accompany the tales are great fun. The only thing missing is credit for the originators of the Frank Reade Weekly and Frank Reade Library yarns. Pretending that Frank Reade and his offspring actually existed is campy fun, but the lack of credit for the original authors of the Frank Reade tales – Harry Enton and Luis P. Senarens, AKA ‘‘Noname’’ – is a sad omission.
Nevertheless, Guinan & Bennett have created an attractive, enjoyable package, adding bits of arcana and imagery where needed to flesh out the conceit. Frank Reade and family enjoy adventures and exploration around the globe. Their picturesque equipment – robots, airships, submarines – and encounters with other famous figures of the time add campy flavor to the proceedings. They even manage to slip the robot protagonist from their previous book into this story, via the section on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
It’s all very nicely put together, with many intriguing, droll illustrations. In tone and execution, Frank Reade recalls Guinan & Bennett’s earlier book, Boilerplate, and is similarly appealing. Guinan & Bennett seem to be making a specialty of these imaginative, witty alternate history books. It will be interesting to see what they come up with next.
•
Another parodic venture into nostalgia, The Arctic Marauder, a hardcover reissue of the 1972 graphic novel by famed French artist Jacques Tardi, gives readers who missed it the first time around a chance to enjoy this seminal ‘‘icepunk’’ tale, replete with inhabited icebergs, mysterious experiments under the arctic ice, madmen inventors and the very best of Edwardian age technology.
Tardi is celebrated as a groundbreaking graphic novelist, one of the leading European cartoonists of the 1970s. He drew over 30 graphic novels. In an effort to acquaint American audiences with his work, Fantagraphics has translated and published several of his graphic novels, including West Coast Blues, You Are There, and It Was the War of the Trenches. The Arctic Marauder is the latest title in this series.
Tardi’s black-and-white scratchboard images and landscapes, reminiscent of woodcuts in texture, tell remarkable dynamic tales and add stunning details to each panel. The sweeping landscape on the endpapers – a tour de force of contrast and ‘‘wood grain,’’ gives the viewer a sense of what’s in store. In Chapter I, ‘‘The Phantom Clipper’’, the panels featuring the wrecked, icebound tall ship are unforgettable, dramatic lessons in what can be done with a limited palette and exuberant use of texture. And, in Chapter V, ‘‘An Abrupt End To A French Scientific Expedition’’, Tardi again astonishes us with his mastery of the scratchboard. He seems to enjoy the limitations of the extreme vertical panels, making inspired use of contrast and abstract elements to form forbidding images of Arctic seas. In Chapter VI, ‘‘In The Belly Of The Beast’’, he again embraces the vertical, creating a stunning, three-panel view of a remarkable steampunk-era laboratory. Throughout the book, varying panel shapes – lozenges and horseshoe frames – break up the density of two or four panel groupings while adding an ornate, old-fashioined look to page composition.
Although Marauder is one of Tardi’s earliest graphic novels, its visuals are accomplished and sophisticated, recalling both Japanese woodcuts and the illustrated newspapers of the 19th century. His satirical take on an undersea adventure worthy of Jules Verne is good, silly fun, visually thrilling, and filled with enough mechanical marvels – and hissably evil villains – to thrill any steampunker.
•
Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm with Illustrations by David Hockney will delight Brothers Grimm completists, Hockney fans, and students of etchings and aquatints.
Originally published in 1970 by Petersburg Press, London – and displayed since then in an exhibit at the Mary Hill Museum in the UK – these 39 illustrations are unique and very much flavored by the artist’s own personal aesthetic.
They accompany six tales – not all entirely familiar – by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, including ‘‘The Little Sea Hare’’, ‘‘Fundevogel’’, ‘‘Rapunzel’’, ‘‘The Boy Who Left Home To Learn Fear’’, ‘‘Old Rinkrank’’, and ‘‘Rumpelstilzchen’’. Once you view Hockney’s work, you may come to see the tales of the Brothers Grimm anew.
Hockney interprets these stories in stark, unadorned images whose spare power lends a modern cast to the texts, accentuating their strangeness. Especially thought-provoking images accompany ‘‘Rapunzel’’, ‘‘The Boy Who Left Home To Learn Fear’’, and ‘‘The Little Sea Hare’’.
The book, elegantly simple, without dustjacket, is printed on rich paper stock which sets off the illustrations nicely. No foreword, introduction, or additional text is provided. A full listing of the plates, media, and dimensions follows the text.
–Karen Haber
Return to In This Issue listing.
LOCUS LISTENS TO AUDIOBOOKS: AMY GOLDSCHLAGER
The Diviners, Libba Bray
The Girl of Fire and Thorn, Rae Carson
The Crown of Embers, Rae Carson
The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
Every Day, David Levithan
Days of Blood & Starlight, Laini Taylor
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
Trumps of Doom, Roger Zelazny
The Diviners, Libba Bray; January LaVoy, narrator (Listening Library 978-0-449-80873-3, 15 CDs, $60.00, 18.25 hr., unabridged [also available as a digital download]) September 2012.
Evie O’Neill’s partying, brash behavior and psychic ability to reveal secrets by holding people’s possessions encourage her parents to send their 17-year-old daughter to New York City, where her Uncle Will pursues studies in the occult. At first, Evie hides her psychometry from her uncle, but when the ghost of a serial killer returns to complete a horrific ritual, she insists on getting involved.
Bray has it all here: humor, romance, suspense, and skin-crawling horror, all of which keep this lengthy audiobook moving at such a rapid clip you’ll be shocked when it’s over. Narrator January LaVoy has a fine sense of the dramatic, and makes Evie’s use of charming ’20s slang seem quite natural. She also chills the blood with her creepy turn as the ghostly murderer/cult leader Naughty John, and provides a beautifully sung rendition of ‘‘Wade in the Water’’ during a funeral scene. Finally, she gets bonus points for genuine-sounding children’s voices; as I’ve noted many times, that’s a really tough feat to pull off. The only stumble comes in the book’s very first scene, where partygoers are using a Ouija board; it’s quite difficult to follow just what’s being spelled out, and I had to resort to the print version for clarification.
This is clearly the first of a series; ominous portents close out the book, and there are several other psychically powered characters who will be playing more central roles in future installments. A most promising start; I look forward to seeing what Bray’s always fertile imagination comes up with next.
•
The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Rae Carson; Jennifer Ikeda, narrator (Harper Audio, digital, $17.95, 12 hr., unabridged) July 2012.
The Crown of Embers, Rae Carson; Jennifer Ikeda, narrator (Harper Audio, digital, $17.95, 11.5 hr., unabridged) September 2012.
Queen Lucero-Elisa was born with the Godstone in her navel; the sparkling blue gem, given to one bearer per century, responds to prayer and warns of danger. It can also do magic, if Elisa can only figure out how in the spare moments she has from fulfilling her destiny as one of God’s chosen, repelling an invasion, dodging assassins and treachery within her own court, and sorting out her love life (ideally in a way that satisfies both political expediency and her own heart.)
Rae Carson’s first two novels add freshness to the well-worn track of epic fantasy trilogies. Elisa’s vulnerability is terribly real, although I wish it had been a bit harder for her to lose her strong tendency to eat for comfort. Jennifer Ikeda’s first-person narration is warm, rich, and serene. She fits easily into the character of a young woman growing into secular, magic, and personal power (Ikeda took on a similar role in the excellent A Discovery of Witches). Sometimes, when first-person novels are strongly devoted to that person’s interior life, the voicing of other characters can suffer by comparison. Thankfully, that is absolutely not the case here. Standouts include Elisa’s lady-in-waiting Mara and her rude traveling companion Storm. The Crown of Embers ends on a cliffhanger; I’m already counting down the months to book three.
•
Methuselah’s Children, Robert Heinlein; MacLeod Andrews, narrator; Brilliance Audio 978-1-4558-7898-7, 6 CDs, $14.99, 7.25 hr., unabridged [also available as MP3-CD and digital download]) July 2012.
Part of Heinlein’s Future Universe series, this classic short novel chronicles an adventure set in the early days of Lazarus Long (early in that he’s between 200 and 300 years old, rather than 2,000+). When the long-lived Howard Families decide to reveal themselves to the world, the world refuses to believe their longevity is a matter of good genes, rather than some secret technique, and authorities are prepared to stop at nothing to extract that secret. In a desperate attempt to save the Families from torture and death, Lazarus masterminds a plan to steal a giant interstellar spaceship that can carry them to a new home.
Lazarus is a curious blend of fiery adventurer and crotchety old man; he clings to many old-fashioned expressions which sound slightly awkward when Andrews vocalizes them, and yet their very noticeability helps to illuminate the character, who can’t and simply doesn’t want to fit in with others. The story is somewhat dated, and as a whole seems more creaky when it’s read out loud, but it’s also a solid, integral part of the Heinlein canon, and should provide enjoyment to his legion of fans.
•
The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner; Ellen Kushner, Barbara Rosenblat, Felicia Day, Joe Hurley, Katherine Kellgren, Nick Sullivan, and Neil Gaiman, narrators (SueMedia Productions for Neil Gaiman Presents/Audiobook Creation Exchange, digital, $24.95, 15.5 hr., unabridged) July 2012. Cover by Tom Canty.
Some years after Swordspoint, sardonic, self-destructive Alec is the dissolute Duke of Tremontaine, while his swordsman lover Richard appears to have vanished. In a perverse act of revenge against his sister, Alec brings his niece Katherine to the city and has her trained as a swordsman. Meanwhile, Lord Ferris, whose political fall was engineered by Alec, has now risen to leadership and seeks revenge of his own.
As in the production of Swordspoint, author Ellen Kushner narrates much of the book herself; other scenes are ‘‘illuminated;’’ i.e., voiced by a full cast and backed by sound effects. When reviewing Swordspoint a year or so ago, I said that the illuminated scenes were unnecessary, and that all narration should be left to the extraordinarily able Kushner. Not so for this book. The conceit works far better here, as the text has both first-and third-person sections, which provides an appropriate division between solo and full-cast scenes. Barbara Rosenblat’s gorgeously throaty, charmingly arch voice narrates the third-person scenes, and Joe Hurley’s Alec is simply wonderful; the key to Alec is comic timing, and Hurley has that down – he has a lovely drawl with a truly snarky bite to it. As a bonus, Neil Gaiman has an amusing cameo as a flamboyant artist.
About as flawless as a production can be.
•
Audiobook reviews by Amy Goldschlager continue after ad.
Every Day, David Levithan; Alex McKenna, narrator (Listening Library, 978-0-449-01520-9, 7 CDs, $37.00, 8.5 hr., unabridged [also available as a digital download]) September 2012. Cover by Adam Abernethy.
Sixteen-year-old A is a bodiless being who switches into a body of the same age every midnight, taking over that person’s existence for just one day and then moving on without volition. The day A’s ‘‘host’’ is Justin, A finds itself falling in love with Justin’s girlfriend Rhiannon. Is it possible for A and Rhiannon to pursue a relationship, given that A never knows where and who A will be each day?
It would be a great mistake to assume that just because A meets Rhiannon in a boy’s body, A is male. A takes great pains to explode such a heteronormative concept: A fell in love with Rhiannon as a person, not a gender. A could just have easily been in a girl’s body at the time; such things are simply not important to it (although body gender does matter to Rhiannon, which is a major point of conflict in the story). The choice of narrator brilliantly underscores this key point; Alex McKenna is female, not male, and her somewhat hoarse, androgynous voice could belong to anyone. It’s clear this is a deliberate choice: when McKenna is voicing other characters, their gender is always quite clear. While lacking a gender and a more smoothly continuous existence, A is obviously human in every other way: its frustration with its situation and its apparent powerlessness to make significant changes to it shine through clearly in McKenna’s narration.
Thoughtful, affecting, and powerful – perfect for those who enjoy some philosophy, psychology, and sociology in their SF.
•
Days of Blood & Starlight, Laini Taylor; Khris
tine Hvam, narrator (Hachette Audio, 978-1-61969-198-8, 12 CDs, $26.98, 15.5 hr., unabridged [also available as a digital download]) November 2012. Cover by Cliff Nielsen.
In this follow-up to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the angels have finally conquered their hereditary enemies, the chimera. Karou is attempting to restore the chimera army by practicing the art of resurrection, placing chimera souls in magic-crafted bodies. Despite her vital work, the chimera don’t trust her; in a previous life, the now-human Karou was Madrigal, a chimera executed for loving the angel Akiva. Karou loves him still, but has rejected him for being instrumental in her people’s destruction. Meanwhile, a regretful, heartbroken Akiva does what he can to protect the remaining chimera and forestall the angels’ plans for future conquests.
Khristine Hvam remains one of my very favorite narrators. Accents and pitches tumble fluently from her lips. I especially enjoyed her role as Karou’s feisty Czech friend Zuzana; scenes with Zuzana and her boyfriend Mik add some rare comic bright spots in a book far grimmer than its predecessor. Mainly, Hvam is called upon to express pain, guilt, and the pressure of making impossible choices, and she does so powerfully and passionately.
After all the blood and misunderstandings between them, is it still possible for Karou and Akiva to reunite in a world where there is no war or pain? I sure hope so.
•
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny; Alessandro Juliani, narrator (Audible Frontiers, digital, $19.95, 5.5 hr., unabridged) July 2012.
Trumps of Doom, Roger Zelazny; Wil Wheaton, narrator (Audible Frontiers, digital, $19.95, 5.5 hr., unabridged) July 2012.
Nine Princes in Amber begins the saga of Corwin, Prince of Amber, and his struggle to regain his memory, then to grab the throne of Amber, and finally, to secure the continued existence of reality. All modern multiverse series lead to Amber, pretty much; those first five Amber books burned themselves into my brain at age 13 and still haven’t left yet. The second series concerns Corwin’s son Merlin, who faces a variety of threats from people and entities trying to assassinate or manipulate him or both. The Merlin books are, alas, considerably weaker, riddled with plot holes and continuity issues. However, book one of that run, Trumps of Doom, is actually fairly solid; asking questions tends to be a lot more intriguing than answering them.
Locus, January 2013 Page 13