reviewed by
Jennifer Kahng
Slipstream stories, as a genre, seem to not really have a definition. What I gathered was that they were stories that took place in a regular world with just a small hint of something not quite being right. A twist in the environment, if you will.
Personally, I just like a good story, regardless of what “genre” it may or may not fall into.
The stories in this collection vary from taking place in the world as we know it to taking place in such a completely different world I’m not really sure how slipstream applies.
Thankfully, there don’t appear to be any really horrible stories in the collection, but there are definitely a few that are fairly uninteresting. There are also a few that are very interesting.
"Marrow Wood" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman falls into the latter category spinning a tale from the point of view from someone who appears to be the last of his kind among a galaxy of humans. This story was interesting in that it took place in a world so completely different from our own it became, in and of itself, a slipstream story as I came to understand it.
Then there’s "Claus of Death" by Michael M. Jones. I just find it highly amusing and fascinating to think of Santa Claus as a drunk, private investigator begrudgingly trying to figure out who killed his ex-wife’s lover, Jack Frost. As if Santa not being Santa wasn’t strange enough, Jones gives us a bit of a glimpse at just how Santa could get around the world in one night.
Some of the stories also deal with historical figures, whether real or fictional: Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, Jack the Ripper, Mycroft Holmes, etc.
All in all, the Slipstreams collection covers a lot of ground and there are bound to be a story or two that any science fiction lover will like.
