Posted By SandChigger on June 17, 2009
I really wanted to like this book. I first learned of it when I discovered the Islam and Science Fiction website during a web search early last December. The book wasn’t available on Amazon at the time (It is now, but for Kindle only the last time I checked), so I contacted one of the editors, Muhammad A. Ahmad, and was told to contact the publisher, ZC Books, directly. (Their site disappeared from the web a couple of weeks back, to be replaced by one now featuring “Chicas con webcam en el videochat porno, video-chat erotico.”) They informed me that the price of the book was $20.00, plus $12.00 for shipping, or $8.00 for a PDF copy. I decided to think about it for a while, since I wanted the physical book, but then got busy with end-of-the-year stuff and didn’t get back to them until February. When I did, they told me to contact the other editor, Ahmed Khan. I did and long story short, eventually I had the book by the end of March but didn’t start reading it until May (book pile traffic jam).
The book begins with an “Introduction” by Ahmad followed by “A Brief Note on the Contents” by Khan. The main purpose of this book, as of the website mentioned above, is to present Islam—”an often misunderstood religion”—and Muslims “in a different light.” I really have no interest in the former—let me be clear about this, of the Abrahamic religions Islam is the one I have the least use for and I believe it is anything but “misunderstood”—but the latter, the people themselves, will always fascinate as all human beings must. What I hoped to find in this book, somewhere in the gaps in the agenda, was a few glimpses of realistically depicted Muslim characters in science fiction settings. And they were there. But the book has a few problems as well.
Of the twelve stories, only the last six are completely original to this anthology. The first two are “out and out reprints” according to Khan, and indeed, I soon found that the first is available online. The third through sixth stories evidently underwent “revisions” for this book, which may be a common practice for all I know, but it still bothered me a bit, given the overall agenda.
The first story is the excellent “A Walk Through the Garden” by Lucius Shepard. For me it’s a toss-up between this first story and the next as to the best one in the collection, with the very last one a strong third. (I’m not going to spoil the plots much here; there are several blog posts out there that already do that. Google.) In this one, it’s the setting and the story universe that’s Muslim rather than any specific characters.
After the action-filled opening of the Shepard story, “Squat” by Donna McMahon presents characters facing a moral dilemma. The Muslim here is a supporting character, not the main one.
“Organic Geometry” by Andrew Ferguson was the first indication that this book wasn’t going to be perfect. This one is just two pages long and about cricket. It is not science fiction. I don’t understand why it was included here.
The same applies to “Synchronicity” by editor Ahmed A. Khan. His story, about an Indian fellow with a Muslim doctor friend, is written well enough, if a bit formal in the language, but it’s about a vague premonition and the events that follow from it, and human relations, and not science fiction as I define it.
“Cultural Clashes in Cadiz” by Jetse De Vries is simply awful. It’s badly written (and, I’m sorry to say, poorly edited), jejune, and for me was ultimately pointless. I didn’t find the attempted humor amusing, and I actually had to force myself to finish reading it. But at least it does contain a few science fiction elements (multiverse time travel, unfortunately) amidst much silliness.
“Servant of Iblis” by Howard Jones is yet another non-science-fiction story—it’s more of a historical weird/horror mystery in a Muslim setting—but it’s well written and I rather enjoyed it. (It reminded me somewhat of the very enjoyable Samarkhand section of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt.)
I also enjoyed “The Weight of Space and Metal” by Camille Alexa, the first story originally written for this volume, or at least I did while I was reading it. Afterwards I was less satisfied with it, but to explain why requires a little spoilage: the Muslim character in this one dies under suspicious circumstances, probably the result of sabotage by a jealous non-Muslim. And that just seemed a bit too pat later for me to remember this one favorably. It is interesting and well written, however.
“Miss Lonelygene’s Secret”, by C. June Wolf, is set in the future and relies on technological innovation for setting and its main plot element, but frankly it bored me and I was glad when it was over. I don’t recall the Muslim element as being particularly central to the story. The character(s) in question could just as well have been Chinese.
“Recompense” by Pamela Kenza Taylor is a rather good ghost/sort-of-pirate story with Muslim elements and characters. Taylor handles her subject matter much better than Anderson apparently has done with similar material in the first volume of his new “epic” Terra Incognita fantasy series.
“A Straight Path Through the Stars” by Kevin James Miller can best be summed up as “disgruntled Muslim American makes Second Contact with a ship full of Muslim aliens.” Um … no thanks. The editing was fairly spotty in this one, too, which did not help the already bad writing.
“Emissary” by G.W. Thomas was another attempt at humor that fell completely flat for me. The only Muslim element is the names of the characters, maybe? Forced, too contrived, pass on this fail.
Tom Ligon’s “For a Little Price” completes the collection and was worth the wait. (I’m pretty sure the two duds preceding it didn’t influence my judgement here.) Who the Muslim characters are and what they do in this one is a little strange when you think about it, considering the agenda of this book, but the story rang truer (and the resolution more satisfying) for being more in line with common beliefs and expectations. Ligon has included a section entitled “The Back-Story” which provides interesting insights into the story’s history and development.
In conclusion, I’m glad I got and read this one, for the sake of the good stories. I just wish all of the stories had been equally well done.
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