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    The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 3
    Unavailable
    The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 3
    Unavailable
    The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 3
    Ebook377 pages6 hours

    The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 3

    By Lavie Tidhar

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "The Apex Book of SF series has proven to be an excellent way to sample the diversity of world SFF and to broaden our understanding of the genre's potentials."
    --Ken Liu, winner of the Hugo Award and author of The Grace of Kings

    These stories run the gamut from science fiction, to fantasy, to horror. Some are translations (from German, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Swedish), and some were written in English. The authors herein come from Asia and Europe, Africa and Latin America. Their stories are all wondrous and wonderful, and showcase the vitality and diversity that can be found in the field. They are a conversation, by voices that should be heart. And once again, editor Lavie Tidhar and Apex Publications are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to bring them to our readers.

    Table of Contents:
    Introduction -- Lavie Tidhar
    Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods -- Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Thailand)
    A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight -- Xia Jia (China)
    Act of Faith -- Fadzilshah Johanabos (Malaysia)
    The Foreigner -- Uko Bendi Udo (Nigeria)
    The City of Silence -- Ma Boyong (China)
    Planetfall -- Athena Andreadis (Greece)
    Jungle Fever -- Zulaikha Nurain Mudzor (Malaysia)
    To Follow the Waves -- Amal El-Mohtar (Lebanon/Canada)
    Ahuizotl -- Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (Mexico)
    The Rare Earth -- Biram Mboob (Gambia)
    Spider's Nest -- Myra Çakan (Germany)
    Waiting with Mortals -- Crystal Koo (Philippines)
    Three Little Children -- Ange (France)
    Brita's Holiday Village -- Karin Tidbeck (Sweden)
    Regressions -- Swapna Kishore (India)
    Dancing on the Red Planet -- Berit Ellingsen (Korea/Norway)

    Cover art by Sophia Tuska.

    Lavie Tidhar is the World Fantasy Award winning author of Osama, The Violent Century and the forthcoming A Man Lies Dreaming. His novella “Gorel & The Pot-Bellied God” won a British Fantasy Award, and he is also the author of graphic novel Adolf Hitler’s “I Dream of Ants!” and forthcoming comics mini-series Adler. He grew up on a kibbutz in Israel, and spent much of his adult life traveling around the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherApex Book Company
    Release dateJun 30, 2014
    ISBN9781311657664
    Unavailable
    The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 3

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    Reviews for The Apex Book of World SF

    3.5/5

    22 ratings4 reviews

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    • 2/5
      A collection of sci fi, fantasy, and horror from all over the world. Some was written in English, others translated.

      I didn't like most of these stories. Some were too surreal for me to get a handle on what was happening and, even more importantly, why I should care (most obvious example: Zoran Zivkovic's "Compartments," in which the main character walks through train compartments and various characters tell him stories). Others were too obvious and cliched for my tastes (ex: Yang Ping's "Wizard World," in which a MMO player gets hacked and eventually decides to live life outside his computer, or the love spell gone wrong in Tunku Halim's "Biggest Baddest Bomoh") or were too fundamentally unbelievable for me to get engrossed (why did the butcher's boy agree to leave his family and all he knew just to help some stranger collect items for a magical kite for thirty years, as in Dean Francis Alfar's "L'Aquilone du estrellas"?) A few were nicely creepy but I didn't get the point of them (Jamil Nasir's "The Allah Stairs"), or why they were so recursive (Nir Yaniv's "Cinderers"). I didn't particularly enjoy Anil Menon's "Into the Night" or SP Somtow's "The Bird Catcher," about old men and cultural change, but I bet if I cared less about sf/f and more about literary considerations, I'd like them better.
      I liked Kristin Mandigma's "Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang": the premise is great fun, and the style of the letter is as well:
      With regard to your question about how I perceive myself as an "Other," let me make it clear that I am as fantastic to myself as rice. I do not waste time sitting around brooding about my mythic status and why the notion that I have lived for five hundred years ought to send me into a paroxysm of metaphysical angst for the benefit of self-indulgent, overprivileged, cultural hegemists who fancy themselves writers. So there are times in the month when half of me flies off to--as you put it so charmingly--eat babies. Well, I ask you, so what? For your information, I only eat babies whose parents are far too entrenched in the oppressive capitalist superstructure to expect them to be redeemed as good dialectical materialists."
      I was very intrigued by the world building in Aliette de Bodard's "The Lost Xuyan Bride," in which North America is dominated by Greater Mexica and Xuya, with all the alternate cultural and historical shifts that implies. I'd like to read more by this author.

      Overall, this book was a collection of stories that just didn't fit my tastes. I wanted more worldbuilding, more characterization, more plot, and instead I got a lot of surreal nonsense, hackneyed plots, and very little plot indeed. This is not to say that these stories were bad, but they weren't what I look for in sf/f.
    • 4/5
      It's rare I give an anthology more than three stars, just due to averaging out the weak and strong stories, but this one was fairly consistently strong for me, tipping the scales to the upper end. There is a tremendous mix of stories, though most seem to have been originally written in English (with just a few in translation, and of those the majority were translated by the author). If pressed to choose a favourite--okay, let me have two--they would probably be "L’Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars)" by Dean Francis Alfar and Kristin Mandigma's "Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-realist Aswang", two stories which probably couldn't be more different from one another (though, interestingly, are by the two Filipino writers in the anthology).

      Well worth reading, and I'm looking forward to the second volume, which my email assures me is making its way through the postal system to me at this very moment.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed "Transcendence Express", "The Kite of Stars", and "The Lost Xuyan Bride", but I didn't care for most of the rest of the stories.Also, kind of a weird thing bugged me: I think the editor must have done a big find and replace to change every instance of "while" to "whilst"—that's a fine word, but I don't think "meanwhilst" or "for a whilst" are correct.
    • 5/5
      A collection of short stories in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres from authors from countries the Western world is not used to reading. A fascinating collection and well worth reading, even the stories that don’t quite work. The were all interesting and challenging and reengaged my interest in the genres again, it was so refreshing to get different cultural perspectives than I am used to. "The Bird Catcher" by S.P. Somtow, ThailandA modern version of the Boogeyman and the conditions that made him.This was a dark and disturbing story and I found the ambiguous ending unsettling but it was also subtle and fascinating and I was pulled into it immediately, it made some of the darker tendencies of humanity accessible if not understandable."Transcendence Express" by Jetse de Vries, NetherlandsA new form of computer and technology and how it can transform the world.At first I had a hard time getting into this story as I had a hard time deciding where it was going, and at the end I realized it was because it was a more upbeat and positive story vs. the dark and cautionary themes I’m used to in science fiction. I was more blown away by my reaction to it than to the story though it certainly made me think about my expectations from science fiction and want to search out more positive themed concepts."The Levantine Experiment" by Guy Hasson, IsraelA look at a scientific experiment into the development of self and special awareness.The very concept of the story made me very unhappy and unsettled, I don’t like dark stories involving children but I found the exploration of her mind and how she perceived the world around her fascinating. The ending was a bit to abrupt and unsatisfying, it felt a bit forced in order to make its point but the rest of it was worth it. "Ghost Jail" By Kaaron Warren, Australia/FijiThis was a mix of social activism in what I am assuming is a third worldish island dictatorship mixed with local magic. I never really got a feel for or was able to develop any sympathy for the main character/s and they mostly acted naive and stupid, which did not help. I did find the use of ghosts and magic fascinating and would have liked to read more about that. A mixed story, interesting but ultimately unsatisfying. "Wizard World" by Yang Ping, ChinaA look at what happens when a virtual world takes over and then is taken away.As a gamer whose favorite MMO had just shut down this resonated with me and hit close to home so I was the perfect audience for this book. It felt believable in how people can become so immersed in their virtual worlds that the real one fades away, the ending was a bit abrupt but still felt believable within the world created here."L'Aquilone du Estrella" ("The Kite of Stars") by Dean Francis Alfar, PhilippinesA fairy tale of a young girls life long quest to gain the attention of her love at first sight. This truly reads like an old time fairy tale, it is epic and grand in scale and for all its unbelievability it was believable. Everything fit with this, the world, the language used, the characters, a real gem and joy to read."Cinderers" by Nir Yaniv, IsraelI’m not sure if this was a story about renegade artists, a murderer or psychosis or all three. For me it was the only fail in the whole book as I did not like it and the ending left me vaguely angry, like it had wasted my time. I don’t need things spelled out for me but this was so obscure it just ended up meaning nothing."The Allah Stairs" by Jamil Nasir, PalestineAnother fable/fairy tale about a boy who can summon monkeys from Allah? I’m not really sure how that works but it was interesting if not engaging. I really couldn’t tell if anyone was a good guy in this story or if there was supposed to be a moral or anything so I ended up not caring but the visual imagery was effective and captivating so I enjoyed it for that."Biggest Baddest Bomoh" by Tunku Halim, MalaysiaThe dangers of using love magic. Another one I found hard to get into as I felt both characters were dislikable and the guy especially but I did like the not really a total surprise twist ending, I felt that was handled well."The Lost Xuyan Bride" by Aliette de Bodard, FranceA mystery/detective story set in an Alternat History Mexico.This was my favorite story in the book, she is the only author I’ve gone out of my way to track down more of her writing. I loved how full and realized the world she created felt, you don’t have to read any of the others stories in this universe to fully understand and get into this story. Very satisfying. "Excerpt from a Letter to a Social-Realist Aswang" by Kristin Mandigma, PhilippinesA letter from a Communist demon. Short, amusing, a little self indulgent but since it is so short it works. "An Evening in the City Coffee House, With Lydia on my Mind" by Alexsandar Ziljak, CroatiaA cyberpunkesque story about voyeurism, pornography and well, other things. Not a pleasant story but a fascinating one. For me it did a great job of creating the world and it’s technology and was positively reminiscent of the original cyberpunk movement. "Into the Night" by Anil Menon, IndiaAn aging Brahmin trying to adjust to a more Western and technological world than he is used to. I found it a somewhat interesting look at the culture clash between different generations but it was a bit unbelievable that he would have no familiarity with the current technology which took me out of the story completely, and it was pretty obvious how things would go for him so it was very hard to care that much as neither he nor his daughter were very likable and we were given no reason to care, they were both just their to fulfill their story bound roles. "Elegy" by Melanie Fazie, FranceA mother dealing with the unusual disappearance of her children.This is another one I had a hard time getting into, I couldn’t tell if this was something that really happened or if it was all in her mind and she had gone crazy with the grief. The writing didn’t flow for me and felt forced and with the concept not being clear to me it just left me confused and unsatisfied."Compartments" by Zoran Zivkovic, SerbiaA somewhat existential story of a mans journey on a train and the people he meets there. I have read this authors stories before so knew better than to expect anything easily understood or clear cut and this was no exception. His writing has a more lyrical and poetic feel to it vs. traditional narrative story telling and you never really find out what is going on and while that was a tad frustrating at the end, the journey itself was so magical that it still makes the story worth reading.