Short Book Reviews: Chaz Brenchley's Best Is Very Good, Indeed

Everything in All the Wrong Order: The Best of Chaz Brenchley, by Chaz Brenchley (Subterranean)

 

Anything I say about the short fiction of Chaz Brenchley requires the disclaimer that he is a dear friend and colleague. Here’s the story of how I met him: Years ago, the Science Fiction Writers of America (note for the obsessive: it’s now the Science Fiction & Fantasy Association) had a Circulating Book Program of books provided by publishers for consideration for the Nebula Award. I made an effort to read at least the first few pages of every book I received. I flipped open one such submission and read:

“Down in the Shine was Issel, dreaming.”

A shiver went down my spine because I knew with utter certainty that here was a master of the craft. To begin a novel with such compelling poetry! (And the book did not disappoint, being a thing to be savored, not skimmed.) The book was Bridge of Dreams, by some Brit I’d never heard of.

A few years later I had signed a contract to edit my first anthology, Lace and Blade. I thought of that amazing opening line. I contacted the author and asked if he would submit a story. He agreed. “In the Night Street Baths” was set in the same world as Bridge of Dreams. I loved every word of it. (So did readers, and other editors — it was reprinted in a “Best of” anthology.)

So it made perfect sense that Chaz and I become personal friends, at first meeting on those rare occasions when he visited the United States, then more frequently once he’d moved to my home state. Since then I’d had the joy of editing more of his work, as well as many rich conversations.

Am I biased when it comes to Chaz stories? You bet, I am!

So here’s a truly amazing collection to be enjoyed slowly and reflectively, like fine wine. Share them with someone you love.

 

 

[ARCHIVES] Guest blog: Chaz Brenchley Steampunks Mars (With Added Hockey Sticks)

Chaz Brenchley is an amazing writer -- I've been an unabashed fan ever since I read Bridge of Dreams, which led me to write to him, begging for a story for my editorial debut, Lace and Blade. (That story, "In the Night Street Baths," was reprinted in Wild Stories 2009.) Now, many literary adventures later, Chaz sets his sights on Mars, complete with steampunk and a girl's boarding school placed in a failed hotel that was once a Norman castle. Read on for the delicious details...

One of the joys of living in the heart of Silicon Valley is that NASA Ames is just over there, and SETI HQ is even closer. We live among the cool kids - and the cool kids like to share. I went to NASA for the recent transit of Venus; and ever since I moved here, I’ve been going to SETI’s weekly colloquium where planetary scientists and cosmologists talk about the latest discoveries, or the specific projects they have on a new mission, or the latest weird theory that’s almost a guaranteed Nobel prize if it should ever prove true (“but right now there are only two people who believe it, and they’re both in this room”), and like that.

So there I was with planetary scientists at my fingers’ ends for the asking, and lots of Mars talk going on around the time of Curiosity’s landing, so it’s really no wonder that I started thinking about Mars fiction. Real Mars, not so much, for it is dry and inhospitable and I have written my desert books already - but old Mars, Mars with canals and an atmosphere and aliens? Oh, yes. Very much yes.

And very much within that spirit, I wanted to steampunk it up a bit; and there was a lot of talk at that time in my social media about how steampunk tended to assume British Empire overtones, as though that were the only choice, and how it so very much was not. So I thought somewhat about that - but I did keep coming back to the British Empire, because I am far from home and the more time I spend in California the more inveterately Brit I become, and because I am the son of an Empire brat (Grandad was a major in the Scots Guards; Mum was born in Rangoon and grew up in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, speaking Malay more readily than English), and because above all I was really curious. If Mars were a province of the British Empire, how would that actually work? How could it happen, and what would it mean - to the Empire, and to European and world history? And to Mars, and to the presumptive Martians? How do you impose colonial rule on a race that has no concept of empire, or statehood, or governance? And does it make a difference if you’re there by their courtesy, via their aetherships, for reasons you still don’t understand? And how do you negotiate even the broadest heads of agreement where you can barely communicate at all? 

The Feathered Edge: About the Feathers...

This is the first in a series of blog posts about the stories in my new anthology, The Feathered Edge.

I love how communities are built and how people are linked. So, in the wonderfully organic network of writers who meet one another across vast distances, I can't talk about "Featherweight" and Kari Sperring without telling the tale of SFWA and its Circulating Book Plan.

The idea is that publishers send review copies to garner Nebula nominations, and boxes of books make their way to participating SFWA members according to an arcane circulating route. Some years ago, this migratory library included a book called Bridge of Dreams by some fellow I'd never heard of, Chaz Brenchley. I try every book that isn't obviously war porn for a few pages, so I opened it...and was lost at the first sentence. It grabbed me, poetry neurons and curiosity and romanticism all in one fell swoop, and didn't let go for 400 pages or however long it was.

Shortly thereafter, I found myself with the delightful prospect of editing my first anthology, Lace and Blade. Because the publisher wanted a Valentine's Day release, she agreed to let me do it by invitation. So I sent Chaz an email. The rest, as they say, was history. I not only received a wonderful story ("In The Night Street Baths," reprinted in Wilde Stories 2009), but made a valued friend.

Through Chaz, I made the online acquaintance of Kari Sperring, a charming and articulate British writer whose first novel, Living With Ghosts, would soon be released (and from my own publisher, making her a fellow DAWthor). Kari's a trained historian and knows about things like ancient Welsh (which I believe she speaks) and Viking history. She's also a fellow cat lover and the owner of an amazing collection of elegant skirts. When I learned that her childhood ambition had been to join the Musketeers, I knew we were kindred spirits. However, friendship is one thing and editorial selection is another.

Strength in Numbers: AKA the Chaz Brenchley Fan Club Conspiracy

It's no secret that an author's career rises and falls on sales numbers and that the ranks of publishers willing to stick with an author they love as that author develops (or even publish work that is good and wonderful rather than commercial crap) are few and far between. If you don't know at least a dozen authors who've been dropped for less than stellar sales figures, you aren't paying attention. (Sorry if that sounded a bit strident; too many of these authors--the best there are--have been my friends, so I'm a bit vehement on the subject).