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Fish
What secrets belong only to a fish? Dive in and find out.
This an anthology of slippery, flashy, delicate, dangerous and beautiful tales features work by:
Camille Alexa, “The Skin of Her Skin”
Matthew Bennardo, “The Fish-Wife’s Tale”
Polenth Blake, “Thwarting the Fiends”
Shay Darrach, “I Know a Secret”
Amanda C. Davis, “O How the Wet Folk Sing”
Paul A. Dixon, “One Let Go”
Corinne Duyvis, “The Applause of Others”
Megan Engelhardt, “Anansi and the New Thing”
Sam Fleming, “What the Water Gave Her”
Andrew S. Fuller, “A Salmon Tale, 2072”
H.L. Fullerton, “The Fish Are There On Land”
Cate Gardner, “Too Delicate for Human Form”
Zachary George, “You, Fish”
Sarah Hendrix, “Never to Return”
Tim Kane, “Vanity Mirror”
Andrea Kneeland, “Becoming Human”
Jessie Kwak, “Needlepoint Fish of Azure City”
April L’Orange, “Quick Karma”
Claude Lalumière, “Xandra’s Brine”
Ken Liu, “How Do You Know If a Fish Is Happy?”
Tracie McBride, “The Touch of Taniwha”
T.J. McIntyre, “How Did the Catfish Get a Flat Head, You Wonder?”
Timothy Nakayama, “Fallen Dragon”
Mel Obedoza, “The Fisherman and Golden Fish”
Suzanne Palmer, “Lanternfish In the Overworld”
Jennifer R. Povey, “Water Demons”
Cat Rambo, “The Fisher Queen”
Maria Romasco-Moore, “Fisheye”
Alex Shvartsman, “Life at the Lake’s Shore”
A. D. Spencer, “Fish Tears”
Bear Weiter, “The Talking Fish of Shangri-La”
Mjke Wood, “The Last Fisherman of Habitat 37”
Andreea Zup, “Maria and the Fish”
Edited by Carrie Cuinn & KV Taylor
Cover by Galen Dara
This an anthology of slippery, flashy, delicate, dangerous and beautiful tales features work by:
Camille Alexa, “The Skin of Her Skin”
Matthew Bennardo, “The Fish-Wife’s Tale”
Polenth Blake, “Thwarting the Fiends”
Shay Darrach, “I Know a Secret”
Amanda C. Davis, “O How the Wet Folk Sing”
Paul A. Dixon, “One Let Go”
Corinne Duyvis, “The Applause of Others”
Megan Engelhardt, “Anansi and the New Thing”
Sam Fleming, “What the Water Gave Her”
Andrew S. Fuller, “A Salmon Tale, 2072”
H.L. Fullerton, “The Fish Are There On Land”
Cate Gardner, “Too Delicate for Human Form”
Zachary George, “You, Fish”
Sarah Hendrix, “Never to Return”
Tim Kane, “Vanity Mirror”
Andrea Kneeland, “Becoming Human”
Jessie Kwak, “Needlepoint Fish of Azure City”
April L’Orange, “Quick Karma”
Claude Lalumière, “Xandra’s Brine”
Ken Liu, “How Do You Know If a Fish Is Happy?”
Tracie McBride, “The Touch of Taniwha”
T.J. McIntyre, “How Did the Catfish Get a Flat Head, You Wonder?”
Timothy Nakayama, “Fallen Dragon”
Mel Obedoza, “The Fisherman and Golden Fish”
Suzanne Palmer, “Lanternfish In the Overworld”
Jennifer R. Povey, “Water Demons”
Cat Rambo, “The Fisher Queen”
Maria Romasco-Moore, “Fisheye”
Alex Shvartsman, “Life at the Lake’s Shore”
A. D. Spencer, “Fish Tears”
Bear Weiter, “The Talking Fish of Shangri-La”
Mjke Wood, “The Last Fisherman of Habitat 37”
Andreea Zup, “Maria and the Fish”
Edited by Carrie Cuinn & KV Taylor
Cover by Galen Dara
314 pages, Paperback
First published January 23, 2013
2 people are currently reading
417 people want to read
About the author
Carrie Cuinn
21 books66 followersCarrie Cuinn is a writer, editor, historian, and geek. Her writing often blends science fiction and fantasy with feminism, anti-colonialism, myth, poetry, and whatever weirdness she’s fascinated by today. Recent fiction can be found in Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal, Luna Station Quarterly, Apex Magazine, and Unlikely Stories.
As an academic, she holds degrees in Fine Art and History of Art, with a focus on Early American printing. In her spare time she researches local history, enjoys music and art house cinema, cooks everything, reads voraciously, and tries to find time for sleep.
She's online at @CarrieCuinn and at http://carriecuinn.com.
As an academic, she holds degrees in Fine Art and History of Art, with a focus on Early American printing. In her spare time she researches local history, enjoys music and art house cinema, cooks everything, reads voraciously, and tries to find time for sleep.
She's online at @CarrieCuinn and at http://carriecuinn.com.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 4, 2015
A beautiful book I will cherish forever in my book collection.
And one I know I will be re-reading again and again.
Especially, my favorite of the 33 stories within, *The Skin of Her Skin* by Camille Alexa. And though I'm sure I will expand on it later, in brief I will tell you that my Leisa-boo and I now make use of the word bjarga on as many occasions as possible! Just because we both love to say it!
:)
*I hope to write a better, longer review, eventually.
And one I know I will be re-reading again and again.
Especially, my favorite of the 33 stories within, *The Skin of Her Skin* by Camille Alexa. And though I'm sure I will expand on it later, in brief I will tell you that my Leisa-boo and I now make use of the word bjarga on as many occasions as possible! Just because we both love to say it!
:)
*I hope to write a better, longer review, eventually.
May 18, 2015
Review to come, but my general opinion of Dagan Books remains: there's not a single prompt or concept they can't develop into a brilliant book. Effortless, dream-like, diverse and exquisite.
Edit: Here is the LONG, LONG review of the anthology.
After reading Cthulhurotica, the first editorial work by Carrie Cuinn I had encountered, I knew I had found an editor I’d follow into any and every project she would involve herself in. Why? It’s fairly simple. Cuinn doesn’t edit, but rather throws herself with such abandon in her vision as to how her anthologies ought to look, feel and be, the finished product has its own gravitational pull and it won’t let go until you’ve read the last page.
In my Goodread mini-comment, I describe Fish as effortless, dream-like, diverse and exquisite, which certainly holds true as I consider the anthology to be a revelation, because it’s just fish. No restrictions upon genre, no neatly defined prompt to cater to specific tastes. It’s just you and the stories and the fish. Simple and yet so risky. As you read Fish, you step further into a dark and undisturbed ocean where you see reflected light dance across scales and experience ink-black beauty with sharp teeth.
As genius as the anthology is, it’s a tough cookie to review, specifically because the stories have no unifier to hold them together as they dart in different direction not unlike a school of fish, which breaks formation to avoid an attack. I can go ahead and write quasi-deep comparisons to ocean life, but I when I review anthologies I want to mention at least two thirds of the stories. My approach will be to explore the themes in the anthology, so here goes.
It comes as no surprise to see the theme of transformation in anthology dedicated to an animal as the opener story by Polenth Blake (“Thwarting the Fiends”) testifies. A small child goes on a mission to explore the tall grass and finds a floating fish that leads him on an adventure. What seems an innocent adventure grows into a bizarre tale of transformation with an ending that has me thinking the pond with talking fish might have claimed more children than one.
Turning into a fish can be a monstrous process, which the self-obsessed Trent discovers in Tim Kane’s unforgiving “Vanity Mirror”. Why he is haunted by a reflection of himself as a humanoid fish trying to escape its mirror prison doesn’t receive an explanation? Where does the fish come? Has Trent switched bodies with it? Is he possessed? Horrible things in life happen without much of a reason and this qualifies as such. You accept it and move on.
Can fish turn into humans? Certainly! Cate Gardner seeks to show you what fish as humans are like once you feed them magic flakes in “Too Delicate for Human Form”. In a typical Gardner fashion, an already weird concept with its haunting, mournful beauty descends into madness as the narrator discovers where exactly her aunt found her supplies of magic flakes. The revelation shatters the narrator’s certainty of the life she has lived so far. Ultimately, this is a sad tale with desperate words and feverish language.
Fish are readily associated with numerous feats and miracles, because they inhabit a world we as land inhabitants have just begun to pierce. Shapeshifting, incarnation, speech and wish granting have been readily ascribed to fish as they symbolize different things to different cultures and the stories in the anthology reflect the shifting roles of fish in storytelling.
A popular image is that of the talking, intelligent fish, which receives several treatments here. Whether it’s granting wishes with hilarious outcome (“Maria and the Fish” by Andreea Zup) or flinging insults that would corrupt your soul (“The Talking Fish of Shangri-La” by Bear Weiter) – admittedly two of the lighter, more upbeat stories – or sharing wisdom (“One Let Go” by Paul A. Dixon), fish prove that they can be on par with humans as soulful creatures. Sometimes, the barriers between species prove impossible to breach (“I Know a Secret” by Shay Darrach) and what the fish have to say remains hidden, while other times fish share their own conversations to benefit those that consider them dull as seen in “The Skin of Her Skin” by Camille Alexa. This last story certainly stands out as one of the more beautifully crafted tales. Alexa uses a delicate language to convey the thoughts of the koi and a wounded tenderness reserved to the eons-old barja fish, whose name meals ‘save’ in Islandic – a key detail in the story itself.
What surprised me is how authors used fish as a symbol for hope and tool for social commentary in the post-apocalyptic tales. In “Never to Return”, Sarah Hendrix portrays a state of complete environmental with no chance to restore the planet to its former stage and in its quiet manner is confirming that a deep-rooted dream will never be fulfilled. “A Salmon Tale, 2072” by Andrew Fuller sees the opposite scenario – the humans have been wiped out, but the wildlife returns and those who do survive help revert the environment back to its original state (magic Shapeshifting salmon included). Perhaps, a prediction as to where we are headed as a species. “Fish Tears” by A. D. Spencer also falls in line with this theme of restoration and hope falls. This story, in particular, shouldn’t be read about – it should be experienced. It’s moving and beyond beautiful as it deals with revival and awakening in such a raw and organic way.
Then there are the stories that take place outside Earth under the presumption that Earth has died and nothing can live on it anymore. Mike Wood writes about a failed attempt to repopulate the Earth from habitats in space in “The Last Fisherman of Habitat 37” – another quiet take on the end of things and while the project in large has failed, the seed of hope has been sown as the last fish specimens, genetically modified may they be, survive. Ken Liu sees that interstellar travel to a new planet is the solution in his excellent, heart-felt “How Do You Know If a Fish Is Happy?”, which explores how humans and fish can live together in a symbiotic relationship after a slight genetic tampering with interesting side effects as fish are shown to develop emotions and feel loyalty and love.
All titles to this point give fish a modern interpretation, but as we all know, fish have appeared in our lore for centuries and several authors seek inspiration from world culture. T.J. McIntyre tells the lore behind catfish’s appearance in “How Did the Catfish Get a Flat Head, You Wonder?”, a delightful myth presented as a story told from an elder to a young boy. It’s a straight-forward tale with a simple, sparse vocabulary and construction, a stylistic direction both Megan Englehardt and Tracie McBride have adopted for their tribal-tinted stories. In “Anansi and the New Thing”, Englehardt uses the adventure of the spider god Anansi with Fish as a tool to convey wisdom, while McBride uses the image of a Maori amphibian monster to tell three different stories about the same event in “The Touch of Taniwha”.
What I most appreciate about stories derived from an already established cultural narrative is the sense of authenticity. I have grown up on Russian fairy tales, because of Bulgaria’s proximity to Russia’s cultural influence and have found Alex Shvartsman’s “Life at the Lake’s Shore” and Mel Obedoza’s “The Fisherman and Golden Fish” to treat their source material with respect. The two stories are based on the old Russian tale of “The Fisherman and Golden Fish”, one of the most popular stories in Russian folklore. Shvartsman crafts a depressing tale where the protagonist follows the fisherman’s example, catches a wish and makes wishes, but every wish has a heavy price. What makes the story heavy to read is its ties to the events in the country since the Revolution through World War II and the harsh communistic regime. On the other hand, Obedoza doesn’t break from the fairy tale model and has the fisherman become the victim of the golden fish. In the original story, the fish is benevolent, but Obedoza asks what if the fish had a vile heart and the answer to that ‘what if’ leads to a tragic end.
Matthew Bennardo educates readers with a brief catalogue of fish and the function they perform for the community living on North Isles in Scotland. At first glance, there is no story to speak of. The author describes fish as part of people’s lives and creates a sense of normalcy, which then is dispelled once the author reaches the rare monk fish, and suddenly, it’s not the absence of an actual story, but the potential of one that makes “The Fish-Wife’s Tale” enjoyable.
Another instance where mythology bursts into life is H.L. Fullerton’s “The Fish Are There On Land”. Readers step off from the page onto a Hawaiian island, where a messenger awaits his bounty to take uphill where a feast must be prepared with the day’s catch from the ocean. What happens when the fish he holds in his hands turns out to be a god? Nothing good. Finally, no anthology can be complete without an entry about Japan. Timothy Nakayama treats readers to Japanese koi demons in “Fallen Dragon”, another story told as a relation of events from one character to another, which turns out to be a preferred narrative choice.
I found this technique to be highly pleasurable to experience, because the act of telling a story is a powerful thing on its own. Even presented in written form, it brings us back to our childhood story time as well as the sense of wonder. Fish exemplifies sense of wonder and the beauty in it as shown in the dark, murky Lovecraftian effort by Amanda C. Davis, “O How the Wet Folk Sing”, and the wide-eyed, innocent and uplifting “Lanternfish In the Overworld” by Suzanne Palmer. Then, you can read of the most amazing steampunk heroine and golem fish in “Water Demons” by Jennifer R. Povey, the boyfriend with a fishbowl for a head in “Fisheye” by Maria Romasco-Moore and Claude Lalumière’s bizarre courtship and marriage in “Xandra’s Brine”.
I’m reaching the point, where I point out a name and a title and marvel at what makes it special to be included, but that’s not what I’m after with this review, so I will conclude even though I haven’t mentioned every single entry. That’s fine though, because the rest of the exploration is up to you. I have made my point. Carrie Cuinn and K.V. Taylor reveal to you an ecosystem of underwater wonders that’s outrageous, eclectic and beautiful. Theoretically, some might suspect it shouldn’t be able to work as there is nothing at first glance to hold these stories together, but there is so much soul in the project to cement this as the definitive anthology for 2013 – at least in my book.
Edit: Here is the LONG, LONG review of the anthology.
After reading Cthulhurotica, the first editorial work by Carrie Cuinn I had encountered, I knew I had found an editor I’d follow into any and every project she would involve herself in. Why? It’s fairly simple. Cuinn doesn’t edit, but rather throws herself with such abandon in her vision as to how her anthologies ought to look, feel and be, the finished product has its own gravitational pull and it won’t let go until you’ve read the last page.
In my Goodread mini-comment, I describe Fish as effortless, dream-like, diverse and exquisite, which certainly holds true as I consider the anthology to be a revelation, because it’s just fish. No restrictions upon genre, no neatly defined prompt to cater to specific tastes. It’s just you and the stories and the fish. Simple and yet so risky. As you read Fish, you step further into a dark and undisturbed ocean where you see reflected light dance across scales and experience ink-black beauty with sharp teeth.
As genius as the anthology is, it’s a tough cookie to review, specifically because the stories have no unifier to hold them together as they dart in different direction not unlike a school of fish, which breaks formation to avoid an attack. I can go ahead and write quasi-deep comparisons to ocean life, but I when I review anthologies I want to mention at least two thirds of the stories. My approach will be to explore the themes in the anthology, so here goes.
It comes as no surprise to see the theme of transformation in anthology dedicated to an animal as the opener story by Polenth Blake (“Thwarting the Fiends”) testifies. A small child goes on a mission to explore the tall grass and finds a floating fish that leads him on an adventure. What seems an innocent adventure grows into a bizarre tale of transformation with an ending that has me thinking the pond with talking fish might have claimed more children than one.
Turning into a fish can be a monstrous process, which the self-obsessed Trent discovers in Tim Kane’s unforgiving “Vanity Mirror”. Why he is haunted by a reflection of himself as a humanoid fish trying to escape its mirror prison doesn’t receive an explanation? Where does the fish come? Has Trent switched bodies with it? Is he possessed? Horrible things in life happen without much of a reason and this qualifies as such. You accept it and move on.
Can fish turn into humans? Certainly! Cate Gardner seeks to show you what fish as humans are like once you feed them magic flakes in “Too Delicate for Human Form”. In a typical Gardner fashion, an already weird concept with its haunting, mournful beauty descends into madness as the narrator discovers where exactly her aunt found her supplies of magic flakes. The revelation shatters the narrator’s certainty of the life she has lived so far. Ultimately, this is a sad tale with desperate words and feverish language.
Fish are readily associated with numerous feats and miracles, because they inhabit a world we as land inhabitants have just begun to pierce. Shapeshifting, incarnation, speech and wish granting have been readily ascribed to fish as they symbolize different things to different cultures and the stories in the anthology reflect the shifting roles of fish in storytelling.
A popular image is that of the talking, intelligent fish, which receives several treatments here. Whether it’s granting wishes with hilarious outcome (“Maria and the Fish” by Andreea Zup) or flinging insults that would corrupt your soul (“The Talking Fish of Shangri-La” by Bear Weiter) – admittedly two of the lighter, more upbeat stories – or sharing wisdom (“One Let Go” by Paul A. Dixon), fish prove that they can be on par with humans as soulful creatures. Sometimes, the barriers between species prove impossible to breach (“I Know a Secret” by Shay Darrach) and what the fish have to say remains hidden, while other times fish share their own conversations to benefit those that consider them dull as seen in “The Skin of Her Skin” by Camille Alexa. This last story certainly stands out as one of the more beautifully crafted tales. Alexa uses a delicate language to convey the thoughts of the koi and a wounded tenderness reserved to the eons-old barja fish, whose name meals ‘save’ in Islandic – a key detail in the story itself.
What surprised me is how authors used fish as a symbol for hope and tool for social commentary in the post-apocalyptic tales. In “Never to Return”, Sarah Hendrix portrays a state of complete environmental with no chance to restore the planet to its former stage and in its quiet manner is confirming that a deep-rooted dream will never be fulfilled. “A Salmon Tale, 2072” by Andrew Fuller sees the opposite scenario – the humans have been wiped out, but the wildlife returns and those who do survive help revert the environment back to its original state (magic Shapeshifting salmon included). Perhaps, a prediction as to where we are headed as a species. “Fish Tears” by A. D. Spencer also falls in line with this theme of restoration and hope falls. This story, in particular, shouldn’t be read about – it should be experienced. It’s moving and beyond beautiful as it deals with revival and awakening in such a raw and organic way.
Then there are the stories that take place outside Earth under the presumption that Earth has died and nothing can live on it anymore. Mike Wood writes about a failed attempt to repopulate the Earth from habitats in space in “The Last Fisherman of Habitat 37” – another quiet take on the end of things and while the project in large has failed, the seed of hope has been sown as the last fish specimens, genetically modified may they be, survive. Ken Liu sees that interstellar travel to a new planet is the solution in his excellent, heart-felt “How Do You Know If a Fish Is Happy?”, which explores how humans and fish can live together in a symbiotic relationship after a slight genetic tampering with interesting side effects as fish are shown to develop emotions and feel loyalty and love.
All titles to this point give fish a modern interpretation, but as we all know, fish have appeared in our lore for centuries and several authors seek inspiration from world culture. T.J. McIntyre tells the lore behind catfish’s appearance in “How Did the Catfish Get a Flat Head, You Wonder?”, a delightful myth presented as a story told from an elder to a young boy. It’s a straight-forward tale with a simple, sparse vocabulary and construction, a stylistic direction both Megan Englehardt and Tracie McBride have adopted for their tribal-tinted stories. In “Anansi and the New Thing”, Englehardt uses the adventure of the spider god Anansi with Fish as a tool to convey wisdom, while McBride uses the image of a Maori amphibian monster to tell three different stories about the same event in “The Touch of Taniwha”.
What I most appreciate about stories derived from an already established cultural narrative is the sense of authenticity. I have grown up on Russian fairy tales, because of Bulgaria’s proximity to Russia’s cultural influence and have found Alex Shvartsman’s “Life at the Lake’s Shore” and Mel Obedoza’s “The Fisherman and Golden Fish” to treat their source material with respect. The two stories are based on the old Russian tale of “The Fisherman and Golden Fish”, one of the most popular stories in Russian folklore. Shvartsman crafts a depressing tale where the protagonist follows the fisherman’s example, catches a wish and makes wishes, but every wish has a heavy price. What makes the story heavy to read is its ties to the events in the country since the Revolution through World War II and the harsh communistic regime. On the other hand, Obedoza doesn’t break from the fairy tale model and has the fisherman become the victim of the golden fish. In the original story, the fish is benevolent, but Obedoza asks what if the fish had a vile heart and the answer to that ‘what if’ leads to a tragic end.
Matthew Bennardo educates readers with a brief catalogue of fish and the function they perform for the community living on North Isles in Scotland. At first glance, there is no story to speak of. The author describes fish as part of people’s lives and creates a sense of normalcy, which then is dispelled once the author reaches the rare monk fish, and suddenly, it’s not the absence of an actual story, but the potential of one that makes “The Fish-Wife’s Tale” enjoyable.
Another instance where mythology bursts into life is H.L. Fullerton’s “The Fish Are There On Land”. Readers step off from the page onto a Hawaiian island, where a messenger awaits his bounty to take uphill where a feast must be prepared with the day’s catch from the ocean. What happens when the fish he holds in his hands turns out to be a god? Nothing good. Finally, no anthology can be complete without an entry about Japan. Timothy Nakayama treats readers to Japanese koi demons in “Fallen Dragon”, another story told as a relation of events from one character to another, which turns out to be a preferred narrative choice.
I found this technique to be highly pleasurable to experience, because the act of telling a story is a powerful thing on its own. Even presented in written form, it brings us back to our childhood story time as well as the sense of wonder. Fish exemplifies sense of wonder and the beauty in it as shown in the dark, murky Lovecraftian effort by Amanda C. Davis, “O How the Wet Folk Sing”, and the wide-eyed, innocent and uplifting “Lanternfish In the Overworld” by Suzanne Palmer. Then, you can read of the most amazing steampunk heroine and golem fish in “Water Demons” by Jennifer R. Povey, the boyfriend with a fishbowl for a head in “Fisheye” by Maria Romasco-Moore and Claude Lalumière’s bizarre courtship and marriage in “Xandra’s Brine”.
I’m reaching the point, where I point out a name and a title and marvel at what makes it special to be included, but that’s not what I’m after with this review, so I will conclude even though I haven’t mentioned every single entry. That’s fine though, because the rest of the exploration is up to you. I have made my point. Carrie Cuinn and K.V. Taylor reveal to you an ecosystem of underwater wonders that’s outrageous, eclectic and beautiful. Theoretically, some might suspect it shouldn’t be able to work as there is nothing at first glance to hold these stories together, but there is so much soul in the project to cement this as the definitive anthology for 2013 – at least in my book.
March 8, 2013
Mannetje, mannetje Timpe Te,
botje, botje in de zee,
mijn vrouwtje die heet Ilsebil,
ze wil niet zoals ik wil.
Van de Visser en Zijn Vrouw in De Sprookjes van Grimm,
Van Holkema & Warendorf, 1984O man of the sea!
Come listen to me,
For Alice my wife,
The plague of my life,
Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!
The Fisherman and His Wife in Grimms' Fairy Tales.
Puffin Books, 1971
Before I started this blogging lark, if you'd come to me and said 'Listen in three years you will read a short story anthology filled with nothing but stories inspired by the concept of fish AND you are going to really enjoy it,' I would have thought you'd lost your mind. Indeed I hardly read anthologies and come on, an entire anthology pf fishy stories? Who would think of that and then publish it? Well, Carrie Cuinn would and did. And what's more, I really did enjoy this anthology tremendously. Who knew, past me, who knew?
So, 33 stories inspired by fish, what do those look like? Perhaps not unexpectedly, there are several stories inspired by the fairy tale of the fisherman and his wife and several folk and mythological tales from around the world. But there are also fish in space, magical fish familiars, adventure fish and even a narcissistic eel. All of the stories are surprising, even if not all of them worked as well for me. To shake my anthology reviewing format up a little, I'm going to review my favourite stories individually.
Paul A. Dixon - One Let Go
A layered story about choices, crossroads, and wisdom that resonates down the years. I love the separate stories Dixon manages to fit into this gem of a story. At the heart of it is the history of a magical talking salmon, how he chose to stay out to sea instead of traveling upriver to the spawning grounds to procreate and die, how he's seen the world's oceans and has finally found his way back to his birth river. But it is also the story of the boy Ian, who catches the salmon together with his grandpa and the choices they make when the salmon offers them a deal: release him in exchange for wisdom. But it is also the story of the man Ian, who has to decide whether he'll settle down to raise his son or get back out on the highway and freedom. All three stories end in choices, but only one of those choices is revealed to the reader, the others are implied only and how the reader interprets them is largely up to her. I loved the thoughtfulness of the story, its layering and its build-up to the end. I know what I hope Ian chooses to do in the end, but the fact is I'll never know and my hopes are based on the person I am and how my life looks. I think others might wish him to make a different choice.
Andrea Zup - Maria and the Fish
A variation on the magical, boon-granting fish, I loved the prolonged interaction between Maria and the Fish. There is an absolute smugness to Maria, which instead of making her unsympathetic, is rather endearing and the Fish's vindictive interpretation of her wish is fabulous. There is a sense of fun and whimsy to the story and a snarkiness to the dialogue that is highly entertaining. It ends on a perfect note and left me with a smile on my face.
Corinne Duyvis - The Applause of Others
I adored this story almost as much for its setting as its narrative. It's set in Amsterdam and is written not with the eye of a stranger but someone familiar with the city and its character, who knows to look beyond its tourist trap façade to its everyday magic. I loved how Duyvis incorporated details about Dutch life and culture without signposting them, dropping in names and features. The connection between Floor and the narcissistic eel is fascinating and disturbing and its ways of seemingly taking revenge on those who ignore it, threaten it, or take attention away from it is very fitting both as its a fish and due to the eternal Dutch struggle against the encroaching sea. This is the first time I've read a Dutch speculative author and I can't wait to read more from Duyvis.
April L'Orange - Quick Karma
Orange's Quick Karma may just have been my favourite story out of the bunch. I adored the characters and the premise. Wizards and familiars, a reincarnated gold fish, a wizard-in-training, a roller-derby playing roommate, and that only covers half of it. The tone and pace of the dialogue was quite snappy and the pacing overall was very good. I really enjoyed the story and the resolution. Quick Karma also felt as a fantastic set-up for a series and I'd love to read more about Merritt, Davey, and Susan!
Andrew S. Fuller - A Salmon Tale, 2072
This is a gorgeous, post-apocalyptic tale, cast in the mould of a mythological origin tale. I absolutely adored it. From the glimpses of society's collapse to the rebuilding of life in a new setting and the importance of traditions therein, it struck a perfect note. It's also a tale of man helping nature reclaim her natural state, taking down man-made structures and setting her free. I loved the cadence of the writing. I actually read this one out loud to my daughter as she was fussing and despite stumbling on the pronunciation of the Native American words and names, the rhythm of the sentences carried beautifully. It's a beautiful story with quite a hopeful ending.
Suzanne Palmer - Lanternfish in the Overworld
Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination and for the little lanternfish who needs to deliver a massage to the Overworld it's a big journey indeed. I loved the richness of Palmer's ocean setting and the way the different fish interacted. The eventual moral of the story was beautiful and the ending lovely. It felt like a fairy tale, a tale you could read to children too and I really loved it.
These six were my favourites, but all of the stories were interesting, even those I didn't end up liking much. The idea behind FISH is an interesting concept and the stories found within show the versatility of the genres collected under the umbrella of speculative fiction. Cuinn and Taylor have gathered together an interesting and talented bunch of authors and created a memorable reading experience. As with their previous release, In Situ , Dagan Books have published another interesting and beautiful anthology; one that doesn't just contain beautiful words, but beautiful art as well. If you like short fiction and are looking for a quirky and unique collection of stories, you can't go far wrong with FISH.
This book was provided for review by the publisher.
Read
January 9, 2013Very proud of this collection, coming soon from Dagan Books. Fish stories, beautiful ones, from beautiful authors. Fantasy, science fiction, fairy tales, contemporary--it's all magic, though.
October 12, 2013
I needed a break from reading the intense Mazalan series, and thought that I might as well give Fish by Carrie Cuinn a try since I saw it on one of my friend's "to-read" bookshelves.
This book basically contains an entire series of anthologies about fish. It's a simple and broad theme, really, but one that I found to be effective.
Some of the anthologies include the classic tale of the fisherman and his wife, magical fishes and a self-absorbed eel. Basically, everything fish. It has mythology, fairy tales, fantasy and even science fiction all jumbled up into one book.
This book basically contains an entire series of anthologies about fish. It's a simple and broad theme, really, but one that I found to be effective.
Some of the anthologies include the classic tale of the fisherman and his wife, magical fishes and a self-absorbed eel. Basically, everything fish. It has mythology, fairy tales, fantasy and even science fiction all jumbled up into one book.
June 14, 2014
Many of these stories are slight and insubstantial, but many are also wonderfully strange and rich, covering a myriad ways to interpret the theme of fish. I realised, while reading it, just how many of the stories I read and was told as a child actually involved fish, and the sea.
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