Gravity Wells
by James Alan Gardner
(Eos, $15.95, 346 pages, trade paperback; published in May 2005.)
 Ontario
writer James Alan Gardner is best known for his series of novels chronicling
the adventures and travails of the Explorer Corps. In fact, all of his
novels are part of this series, a very Canadian take on familiar US
science-fiction tropes: space opera de-emphasizing arrogant heroism
and heavy on beauracracy; military science fiction without the gung-ho
patriotism.
Readers of this series will be surprised by the range of his first
collection of short fiction, Gravity Wells. Gardner shows himself
to be a versatile writer with a confident command of diverse narrative
voices. And he slides back and forth between various genres of fantasy
and science fiction with equal assurance.
A few of the fourteen stories collected here take place in the same
future history as the author's novels, including "The Last Day of the
War, with Parrots," in which a video crew on a shoot on an abandoned
planet fall prey to the vestiges of an ancient war, and "The Young Person's
Guide to the Organism," a deft and intriguing mosaic of multiple perspectives
to a startling event. Both of these stories are psychologically astute,
with large casts of characters, all of whom ring true.
The highlight of the collection is "Muffin Explains Teleology to the
World at Large," a fantasy tale about the end of the world. It's recounted
from the point of view of a baffled little boy whose younger sister
is perhaps the wisest person on the planet. This already beautifully
conceived story is further enlivened by a non-stop flow of hilarious
quips, witty dialogue, and clever scenes.
The stories in Gravity Wells are all crafted with a careful
attention to voice. Thus every story carries it own sounds, creates
its own finely honed reality.
Originally published in
The Montreal Gazette, Saturday, 25 June 2005.
Claude Lalumière's Fantastic Fiction
is a series of
capsule reviews first published in the Saturday Books
section of The Montreal Gazette.
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