INTRODUCTION

JONATHAN OLIVER

 

 

Games are ubiquitous – even if you don’t consider yourself a ‘gamer’ it’s likely that at least some of your leisure time is spent gaming; whether that’s casually on your iPhone or tablet, or attempting to complete a crossword to while away the time on a journey. Games are a part of our lives from the earliest age and Dangerous Games explores some of our reasons for playing.

Often the player of a game is setting out to prove something to themselves – athletes regularly push themselves to their limits and beyond – and this anthology kicks off with Chuck Wendig’s ‘Big Man’ in which the recently-divorced protagonist finds himself involved in a curious game of one-upmanship on the freeway. Endurance and risk-taking also feature in Tade Thompson’s ‘Hounourable Mention’ in which a traditional board game is given a surprising twist. The reasons for Tito, Tade’s penniless protagonist, to play are clear, but it’s the price he pays that gives this story its bite. Ivo Stourton gives Russian Roulette a science-fictional twist in ‘Two Sit Down, One Stands Up’ and in doing so produces a story which not only questions the motivations of players, but also looks at the very fundamentals of what it is to be human.

This being an anthology concerning itself with games, it’s not surprising that some of the stories are playful. After all, writing itself is something of a game; creating something from nothing and allowing the imagination to roam in a fictional space. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s ‘The Yellow Door’ has a somewhat tongue-in-cheek feel in its use of a Lovecraftian trope, though in telling it straight, Silvia also explores the risks taken by gamblers. Gary Northfield’s three page comic strip ‘Captain Zzapp!!! – Space Hero from 3000 AD’ is laugh-out-loud funny but may also make one ponder the nature of videogame violence. Robert Shearman has always been a playful writer, mixing humour with pathos, linguistic trickery with emotional complexity and ‘The Monogamy of Wild Beasts’ certainly shows Shearman at his best. The three humans onboard the second Ark play games with the animals on board in order to produce the strongest couplings, but the players soon turn on themselves in this poignant and darkly funny tale.

Games of cruelty and games with deadly consequences have been part of genre for almost as long as genre itself. In Lavie Tidhar’s stark ‘Die’ it’s a game of human against human, to the death. This short-sharp-shock of a story demonstrates why Tidhar is considered one of genre’s rising stars. The macabre subject matter of Melanie Tem’s ‘Death Pool’ cleverly masks a story that’s about the importance of hope. ‘The Bone Man’s Bride’ by Hilary Monahan blends a Depression-era tale of desperation with a gruesome pagan ritual.

Unsurprisingly, card games are a part of this anthology, though I was surprised that I didn’t receive more stories using cards as a narrative. Pat Cadigan’s ‘Lefty Plays Bridge’ is all about what’s happening between the cards being laid on the table. It reads like a pleasant conversation between the players, but trust me when I tell you that this story is as dark as Hell. Nik Vincent’s ‘The Stranger Cards’ shows how much can be achieved within the confines of the short story. This is a great little thriller. A seemingly innocuous game of Clock Patience played by a convicted serial killer on death row becomes something so much more. Killers, of course, have their own games, the rules and motivations for their method of play inexplicable to all but the killer themselves. Gary McMahon has written extensively about such folk and ‘Ready or Not’ shows us a childhood game gone horribly wrong. Rebecca Levene’s ‘Loser’ reveals the effects of a damaged childhood on a young man and how playing games helps him to cope with the cruelty visited upon him.

Of course one of the reasons we play games is to win, and this is no better demonstrated than in Libby McGugan’s ‘The Game Changer’ in which the father of a terminally ill child discovers a game that may just help his son. ‘South Mountain’ by Paul Kearney features a cadre of American Civil War re-enactors facing the realities of warfare and receiving a stark reminder of why some battles are worth fighting.

To those not involved in the mechanics of a game, the rules can seem strange and overly complex. The confused looks I get from those non-gamers to whom I try and explain roleplaying games is a case in point. Yoon Ha Lee’s ‘Distinguishing Characteristics’ features a very unusual roleplaying game, one which appears to be being played for a political purpose. Yoon’s world is strange and her characters oblique – which of course makes for a satisfyingly strange story. In ‘Chrysalises’ Benjanun Sriduangkaew has produced a story full of startling imagery – poetic while sometimes horrific, one is reminded of the body horror of Cronenberg’s early films. Benjanun’s game may be being played in one reality or many, it’s up to the reader to immerse themselves in this fantastical tale. There is a lot of cruelty in Helen Marshall’s ‘All Things Fall Apart and Are Built Again’ as games are played with the emotions and upon the body of the protagonist. There’s a lyrical sadness to much of Marshall’s fiction, and it’s present here as the old men roll the bones at the end of the world.

So here then are the players and the played. It’s time to take your place at the table, time to shuffle the cards and roll the dice. There are eighteen games for you here, and a whole host of possible outcomes. Win or lose, Dangerous Games are always worth playing.

 

Jonathan Oliver

August 2014, Oxford