Foreword
The invited contributors to this anthology were presented with the theme of awakening. Whether this was to be an awakening into a new experience, environment, or plane of existence, or merely a character waking in their normal life, remained unspecified. As long as the story could be considered Speculative Fiction there was no further constraint placed on genre or style. In response, we have in this compilation stories addressing physical awakenings, natural and supernatural; mental awakenings, self-directed and assisted; magical awakenings, individual and collective; even spiritual awakenings, personal and global. The range of interpretations that the authors have delivered, is testament not only to their imagination, but also to the exciting breadth and diversity of Speculative Fiction.
Here in one volume is a treasure-trove of brand new stories that explore the diverse flavours that make up a good speculative menu. A spectrum of tales from hard science fiction to edgy fantasy to chilling paranormal; styles from clinically serious to joyfully silly. As you read through them all, and you must read all of them, you will be taken on an emotional journey through a galaxy of sparkling fiction; you will laugh, you will cry; you will consider timeless truths and contemplate eternal questions. All of life is within these pages, from birth to death (and in some cases beyond). Hopefully, you will also discover that the distinctions between the genres encompassed within Speculative Fiction are often arbitrary and indistinct. Much more significant is what draws them together so successfully into an über-genre, that, while appearing to be so utterly modern has its roots in the earliest extant literature. Speculative Fiction is a natural home for writers with imaginations that are crying out to remain unfettered. That is at once both its strength and weakness. Speculation inherently requires imaginative scenarios, pushing the boundaries of the everyday world – the implications of a novel technology or scientific breakthrough, the opportunities afforded by new worlds and races as yet unseen, the dangers of planes of existence previously denied or avoided, the side-effects of tampering with natural laws. Does it also lead to a disconnect with reality? Not if the stories recounted here are any indication. Such a simple theme, one that might at first appear to be no more than a daily, even mundane, experience for each one of us, is nevertheless a rich vein of inspiration for these writers to bring us such a variety of accounts of life within or without, beyond our ken or beyond the stars. Yet the potential for deep and insightful explorations of what it means to be human, to wake into, or from, a life-changing experience, has also provided fertile ground for humour among these stories. The subtle wit of nudging readers’ expectations only to wrong-foot them in the final line; the dark irony of rôle-reversal in apparently traditional tales; the dead-pan delivery of a satirical take on modern society; the dry, and very British, humour of a space pilot having a bad day; the whimsy of a narrator who won’t play by the rules. Humour in speculative fiction? Whatever next! But it is surely continuing a great tradition that reaches right back to what is widely regarded as the first science fiction story, Lucian’s True History, a satire on the incredible ‘truths’ that his 2nd century contemporaries were peddling, which starts with an exhortation to the reader not to believe a word he says as he’s made it all up. Thus was science fiction born out of a joke.
I was invited to contribute to this collection of stories, and then asked to act as compiling editor. As well as being quite flattering, such an invitation quickly becomes a daunting prospect with responsibility for the compilation as well as some of the content. At first my concentration was directed to my own contributions. Once they were written I was keen to see what my fellow contributors would deliver. As each one arrived I was lucky enough to get to read it first. I was especially pleased that many of these authors are previously unpublished, having been invited after impressing the editorial staff of Elsewhen Press with their work. Crafting a good short story can be much more difficult than writing long form narrative; there are fewer words and less time to develop a character or set the scene, the reader’s attention must be grabbed almost immediately as there is no time for waffle or flabby preamble. In all of the contributions to this book, the short story format has been used to great effect, in some cases to lead the reader to an apparently logical conclusion, only to present a twist in the end that completely subverts the reader’s assumptions and requires a re-appraisal of the whole tale. I love to get to the end of a story and be so surprised that I immediately want to read it again to look for the clues I must have missed. We have stories like that here, I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.
Part of my rôle as compiling editor is to introduce the collection as a whole and explain or justify the choice of work included. However, I think the best justification for each of the stories included in this collection is the writing itself. I find anthology compilers who feel compelled to provide a summary of each included story (albeit only a sentence or so in some cases) are often guilty of ruining the surprise that is one of the delights of a diverse collection such as this. To paraphrase a well-known film character, an anthology is like a box of chocolates – too much detail in the contents list can stop you tasting at random and enjoying a pleasurable new experience. So instead I shall try to explain the compiling rationale, such as it was. The quality of all the stories made my job as compiler easy and yet at the same time quite onerous. Choosing the tales to include was straightforward; the opportunity to incorporate stories representing a wide range of the genres that together make up Speculative Fiction was very welcome and will hopefully entice readers who are fans of each of those genres, tempting them to stray into other areas of writing that they may not have previously considered. However, that has, in turn, made it more of a challenge to put these tales together in an order that makes some sort of sense. Apart from the underlying theme there is a plethora of other ways in which these different stories share interesting topics and premises and it is those that I have tried to use to plot a path through this veritable universe of stories. I resisted using genre to corral them, indeed I held out against any identification of genre for each story – some will no doubt criticise this approach for removing their ability to choose just the stories they expect to like (using that overly detailed chocolate box contents list); but I encourage you yet again, dear reader, to read all of the stories (which is where my chocolate box analogy falls apart, because even I wouldn’t keep all the chocolates to myself). Taste away, praline and gianduja, fantasy and science fiction, you might find that they aren’t so very different after all!
PR Pope, London
October 2011