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The Complete Accursed Wives
Five short stories and 35 poems reprinted from the pages of Asimov's SF, Amazing, Weird Tales, SF Age and other leading genre publications. Includes winners of the Asimov Readers Choice Award and the Best of Soft SF Award. Five original illustrations by Allen Koszowski.
100 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
About the author
Bruce Boston
356 books118 followersI've published more than sixty books and chapbooks, including the novels Stained Glass Rain and the best-of fiction collection Masque of Dreams. My work ranges from broad humor to literary surrealism, with many stops along the way for science fiction, fantasy, and horror. My novel The Guardener's Tale (Sam's Dot, 2007) was a Bram Stoker Award Finailist and a Prometheus Award Nominee. My stories and poems have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Asimov's SF Magazine, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and The Nebula Awards Showcase, and received a number of awards, most notably, a Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov's Readers' Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. For more information, please visit my website at http://www.bruceboston.com/
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April 28, 2026
The entire collected Accursed Wives series, including both the poems and the short stories – except one.
This collection is partly the result of a curse. Or, at least the words of the poet makes it sound like that is what it ended up as.
"[F]or several years in the mid-nineties I felt as if I'd written myself into a corner at Asimov's SF Magazine, since these were the only poems of mine that editor Gardner Dozois seemed to want to publish. Meanwhile, many of my fellow speculative poets have tended to look slightly askance at the series, viewing it as populist work not worthy of serious consideration." (Quanta, 2001; p. 37)
That is clearly a case of 'damned if you do and damned if you don't,' but where 'do' is still the only option given – this must surely count a curse of some sort. Then again, it's understandable that the editor wanted more. The popularity of these poems were unparalleled: Across the years, in the Asimov's Reader Poll two of them got a third place, one got a second, and two won their years; between the fourth and ninth places one finds a further ten of them. Fifteen poems out of thirty-six were ranked top ten during the twelve year period that these were written. This collection was itself nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Poetry Collection. And when this poet stopped writing them, the poet Scot L. Towner wrote 'Curse of Bruce Boston's Wife' and won the reader's poll with that. There was even a second poem written with the same name, by Denise Dumars, because one wasn't enough.
In short, enthusiasts of speculative poetry were indeed quite enthusiastic about this series.
It seems probable that this widespread enthusiasm reflects how this series appealed in different ways to different people. At least it certainly excels in more than one way. Some would have come for the inventive use of the speculative, others for the serious underpinnings found in many of the poems, others again because many of them are genuinely funny, and then there is of course the irresistibly beautiful language which the poet is known for.
These claims demands an example. The one chosen is about a husband whose reign of terror isn't often captured in words this elegant – a description that goes for most of the poems herein – from 'Curse of the Berserker's Wife':
He stumbles off to bed, disheveled
and distraught, leaving her alone
to face the carnage he has wrought:
the tears, the awkward silences,
once friends...now nevermore,
rendered egos, severed psyches,
rushing pell-mell for the door.
How many more evenings
must she suffer, how many
more deftly dull parties stage
and the sparkling hostess play,
before she has the evidence,
gathered fit by bloody fit,
to put the lunatic away? (p. 21)
On the one hand it has a tinge of something light, such as the description of the carnage itself, but on the other there is what surrounds it, a situation that is very real and very dire. Many of these poems contain a bit of both, in varying amounts; most of them were written with the real life treatment of women in mind, and with no little disappointment that humanity hasn't progressed any further than it has with regard to this.
"Curse of the Werewolf's Wife" portrays the classic syndrome of the wife beater, while "Curse of the Snowman's Wife" depicts the fate of a woman married to a man incapable of expressing emotion. (Quanta, 2001; p. 34)
The berserker is perhaps not a character that feels all that speculative. While this reviewer gets a Conanesque image of this brute, that isn't necessarily the case for every reader. Most of the accursed wives are married to beings who are far less ambivalence in this: Demons, satyrs, doppelgängers, mermen, and time-travellers, to name few – but it seems clear that even the ambivalent ones were intended to be speculative. For instance, 'Curse of the SF-Writer's Wife' is confirmed to be speculative, even if it might not be obvious at first:
I've often wondered what would happen to SF writers in a future that was completely science fictional. "Curse of the SF-Writer's Wife" suggests an answer. (Quanta, 2001; p. 37)
But what appeals to this reviewer more than anything is how the wives are often more than one can glean from a surface glance. They have agency, even if it often hides. The quote from 'Curse of the Berserker's Wife' shows this: She is staging parties to gather evidence, to prove to others what he is, presumably so that she can either escape or at least avoid having to bear it alone. And she is not alone in this. The brujo's wife uses his own spell against him, the cyberhead's wife grows tired of him and leaves on her own adventures, the werewolf's wife willingly sacrifices herself for the world around her – though she should not have had to do that, the shapeshifter's wife betrays him, and the Telepath's wife rids herself of her tormentor by her own hand, to name some. This agency isn't afforded to all the wives, and it feels like it has been stripped from some them on purpose, but the best ones are clearly the ones where they have retained it.
Within the Accursed Wives series there are five short stories. These live up to the poems. They feel and sound largely the same. Like anything Boston wrote that wasn't poetry, one could still tell that the pen was guided by a poet and not a novelist. Take for instance how 'Curse of the Cyberhead's Wife' describes the husband as he returns from the cyberspace:
He acts as if he has been deep-spacing it solo to a distant star system for years, recycling his own thoughts until he has evolved to a creature onto himself. (p. 29)
Even in the short stories, the poet made the words speak with more of whatever it normally should have spoken.
At the end there is a single fault that needs to be admitted: The Complete Accursed Wives is just almost complete. Seven years prior to this collection, a lauded chapbook was published called Accursed Wives. It contained eleven of the poems that would make up the collection here under review. Yet, Accursed Wives contained twelve poems in total. The poem called 'Curse of the Alien's Wife' isn't here. Instead a short story based on that poem has taken its place – which to be fair isn't the first change it has gone through as it is itself an adaption of 'Genna Takes a Lover' from the Mutant Rainforest series. Unfortunately the poem version exists only in the previous collection, which is really difficult to get hold of, and in the August 1990 issue of Azimov's SF Magazine.
For everything else concerning this series, look to The Complete Accursed Wives. These works are among his finest in just about every way one turns them. Few of his works are more essential than this one.
This collection is partly the result of a curse. Or, at least the words of the poet makes it sound like that is what it ended up as.
"[F]or several years in the mid-nineties I felt as if I'd written myself into a corner at Asimov's SF Magazine, since these were the only poems of mine that editor Gardner Dozois seemed to want to publish. Meanwhile, many of my fellow speculative poets have tended to look slightly askance at the series, viewing it as populist work not worthy of serious consideration." (Quanta, 2001; p. 37)
That is clearly a case of 'damned if you do and damned if you don't,' but where 'do' is still the only option given – this must surely count a curse of some sort. Then again, it's understandable that the editor wanted more. The popularity of these poems were unparalleled: Across the years, in the Asimov's Reader Poll two of them got a third place, one got a second, and two won their years; between the fourth and ninth places one finds a further ten of them. Fifteen poems out of thirty-six were ranked top ten during the twelve year period that these were written. This collection was itself nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Poetry Collection. And when this poet stopped writing them, the poet Scot L. Towner wrote 'Curse of Bruce Boston's Wife' and won the reader's poll with that. There was even a second poem written with the same name, by Denise Dumars, because one wasn't enough.
In short, enthusiasts of speculative poetry were indeed quite enthusiastic about this series.
It seems probable that this widespread enthusiasm reflects how this series appealed in different ways to different people. At least it certainly excels in more than one way. Some would have come for the inventive use of the speculative, others for the serious underpinnings found in many of the poems, others again because many of them are genuinely funny, and then there is of course the irresistibly beautiful language which the poet is known for.
These claims demands an example. The one chosen is about a husband whose reign of terror isn't often captured in words this elegant – a description that goes for most of the poems herein – from 'Curse of the Berserker's Wife':
He stumbles off to bed, disheveled
and distraught, leaving her alone
to face the carnage he has wrought:
the tears, the awkward silences,
once friends...now nevermore,
rendered egos, severed psyches,
rushing pell-mell for the door.
How many more evenings
must she suffer, how many
more deftly dull parties stage
and the sparkling hostess play,
before she has the evidence,
gathered fit by bloody fit,
to put the lunatic away? (p. 21)
On the one hand it has a tinge of something light, such as the description of the carnage itself, but on the other there is what surrounds it, a situation that is very real and very dire. Many of these poems contain a bit of both, in varying amounts; most of them were written with the real life treatment of women in mind, and with no little disappointment that humanity hasn't progressed any further than it has with regard to this.
"Curse of the Werewolf's Wife" portrays the classic syndrome of the wife beater, while "Curse of the Snowman's Wife" depicts the fate of a woman married to a man incapable of expressing emotion. (Quanta, 2001; p. 34)
The berserker is perhaps not a character that feels all that speculative. While this reviewer gets a Conanesque image of this brute, that isn't necessarily the case for every reader. Most of the accursed wives are married to beings who are far less ambivalence in this: Demons, satyrs, doppelgängers, mermen, and time-travellers, to name few – but it seems clear that even the ambivalent ones were intended to be speculative. For instance, 'Curse of the SF-Writer's Wife' is confirmed to be speculative, even if it might not be obvious at first:
I've often wondered what would happen to SF writers in a future that was completely science fictional. "Curse of the SF-Writer's Wife" suggests an answer. (Quanta, 2001; p. 37)
But what appeals to this reviewer more than anything is how the wives are often more than one can glean from a surface glance. They have agency, even if it often hides. The quote from 'Curse of the Berserker's Wife' shows this: She is staging parties to gather evidence, to prove to others what he is, presumably so that she can either escape or at least avoid having to bear it alone. And she is not alone in this. The brujo's wife uses his own spell against him, the cyberhead's wife grows tired of him and leaves on her own adventures, the werewolf's wife willingly sacrifices herself for the world around her – though she should not have had to do that, the shapeshifter's wife betrays him, and the Telepath's wife rids herself of her tormentor by her own hand, to name some. This agency isn't afforded to all the wives, and it feels like it has been stripped from some them on purpose, but the best ones are clearly the ones where they have retained it.
Within the Accursed Wives series there are five short stories. These live up to the poems. They feel and sound largely the same. Like anything Boston wrote that wasn't poetry, one could still tell that the pen was guided by a poet and not a novelist. Take for instance how 'Curse of the Cyberhead's Wife' describes the husband as he returns from the cyberspace:
He acts as if he has been deep-spacing it solo to a distant star system for years, recycling his own thoughts until he has evolved to a creature onto himself. (p. 29)
Even in the short stories, the poet made the words speak with more of whatever it normally should have spoken.
At the end there is a single fault that needs to be admitted: The Complete Accursed Wives is just almost complete. Seven years prior to this collection, a lauded chapbook was published called Accursed Wives. It contained eleven of the poems that would make up the collection here under review. Yet, Accursed Wives contained twelve poems in total. The poem called 'Curse of the Alien's Wife' isn't here. Instead a short story based on that poem has taken its place – which to be fair isn't the first change it has gone through as it is itself an adaption of 'Genna Takes a Lover' from the Mutant Rainforest series. Unfortunately the poem version exists only in the previous collection, which is really difficult to get hold of, and in the August 1990 issue of Azimov's SF Magazine.
For everything else concerning this series, look to The Complete Accursed Wives. These works are among his finest in just about every way one turns them. Few of his works are more essential than this one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review