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The promise is right there on the
cover, in a quote from Allen Steele: "Read this book and feel your brain
melt." Surprising in an age when most advertisements scream about how harmless
a product is supposed to be. Can this be a throwback to the bad old days when
SF was considered inappropriate reading material for decent people? Or is it simply
too good to be true?
Our Pick: A+
Adam-Troy Castro's stories in An Alien Darkness bounce around the full range of
its self-defined SF/fantasy thematic structure. Some are familiar genre material.
A stubborn robot acts as a tribute to Isaac Asimov all the way to the end of time.
A magical quest fails to bring everlasting love for a witch and a wanderer. Personalities
that money can buy create a different kind of love in a cyberpunkoid romp. A sister
who never had a chance to live changes the lives of her siblings in a modern ghost
story. Two different stories have UFOs and aliens tormenting humans. There's even
a classic space opera with a hero rescuing a girl from aliens.
Others slide across the borders of genre: A cosmic Ferris-wheel ride goes beyond space and time, and conventional story structure. A bit of speculation about Batman and Robin blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction, as well as myth and pop culture. "The Guy Who Could Make These, Like, Really Amazing Armpit Noises, and Why He Was Contemplating Hippopotami at the Top of Mount Everest" delivers everything promised in the title, and it actually makes a kind of sense. Another starts out as a grim account of a man trying to escape his psychotic family and suddenly turns out to be far more that expected--even though all the clues are there, even in the title.
A wild ride into new territory
The more conventional stories are well done and enjoyable, but take things a step beyond routine. "The Last Robot" goes places that the Good Doctor wouldn't have gone himself. Fairy-tale conventions are twisted around in "Cerile and the Journeyer." "Funeral March of the Marionettes" is not only a space opera, but good state-of-the-art science fiction, too--Castro's galactic civilization, aliens and all the wonderful little details are delightfully original. Even the hero and heroine are fresh and new. "Fuel"creates a bold new reason for UFO abductions and the paranoia surrounding them, and ends with a hard-boiled note of triumph. "Neither Rain Nor Sleet" has a mailman "going postal" because aliens have made him into a human nuclear bomb; it clearly illustrates a demented mental state, but also can be interpreted as SF or mainstream, depending on the reader's preferences.
Other stories get fully gonzo, creating what could be described as the Brainmelt Effect. "MS. Found Paper-Clipped to a Box of JuJubes" is an incredible trip across the universe in a few short pages--who could ask for more? The "Armpit Noise" story actually manages to be crazier than its title. And "Woo-Woo Vengeance" delivers such a diabolical kick to the frontal lobes that it can't be described without ruining the experience.
The stories in this book do more than provide the sort of mild escapism that is usually just ordinary commercial fiction dressed up in funny clothes. Adam-Troy Castro provides some extra brain stimulation. Heavy energy sparks across the synapses in reaction to his brain-tickling prose. Neurons may well overheat. Don't be surprised to see a news report of someone being found with gray matter running out his ears and a copy of An Alien Darkness clutched in his hands. Of course, the happy victim will be wearing a demented smile.
Yes, a molten brain is a happy one! That is the effect good science fiction and fantasy should have on the reader. The rule-breaking stories in this collection may not always have the structure or subject matter of the genre, but they do have that essential brain-melting effect. The effect is where they excel. That is probably why the best of these stories appear in this book for the first time--which, as any writer knows, means that all viable markets have rejected them. Too bad for everybody. There are masterpieces here that make the book worth having on the shelf next to the masters.
It's good to see a writer who jumps on the back of wild ideas, gives them a taste of his spurs, hangs on for dear life, and lets the ideas take him--and the reader--into new territory. Sure, there's the risk of a blown mind or a shattered concept of the ethical structure of the universe, but the joy of the ride is worth it.
An Alien Darkness represents Castro at play in the SF genre. Wildside Press
has also recently released A Desperate Decaying Darkness, a collection covering
the author's tales of horror.
-- Ernest
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