Dossier: A Collection of Short Stories

by Stepan Chapman

For those of you who have not yet encounterd the bizarre inner workings of Stepan Chapman, prepare for a surrealistic tour de force with this collection of seventeen of his short stories. To say that Chapman exists in another world is the more comforting of the two basic possibilities: could he be one of the very few accurate seers of the world we deludedly think we roam on? In "The Selection of Toothpick" a skinny island boy brazenly celebrates his heroism for killing a giant crab until the local wizard puts the vain lad's status into proper perspective. In "Boots Practice" a recruit is admonished by her drill instructor to not stop walking in her newly-issued boots. Good thing she doesn't because as she traverses changing environments the footgear transforms to skis, then to ice skates...stilts...the ambulatory mechanism of a huge robot...rows of mollusk legs. It all ends normal enough -- sort of. In "The Sister City" an American in a Tokyo bar meets a woman, Nema, at first invisible to him, who shows him her face, and reveals her identity as the spirit of a city self-destructed in grief over what the American's people had done to hers. With Chapman's tales, grip the arms of your chair as you allow your mind to take flight.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Stepan was born in 1951 in Chicago, Illinois, and studied theatre at the University of Michigan. In 1969, his first published story was selected for Analog by John W. Campbell. In the 70's, his early fiction appeared in four of Damon Knight's Orbit anthologies. He has performed in plays in the USA and England, and his comedies for children were produced for the Edinburgh Drama Festival. In 1997, the Ministry of Whimsy Press released his first novel, The Troika, which won the Philip K. Dick Award. - SF Site

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up this book after reading Troika. Seems like a lot of unfinished ideas, and more misses than hits.