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The Arcana of Maps & Other Stories
This collection of stories roves the liminal spaces between now and not-quite-now, dream and waking, futures far flung and fantastic. Here are tales of adventure and transformation, clockwork detectives and polar bears, a wild sea on a space station, alien salvage and revenants. Featuring 16 previously published works and one unique to the collection, these stories open obscure doors into fantastic otherwheres and whens, conjuring worlds with deft and evocative lyricism.
Contents:
* Introduction (The Arcana of Maps and Other Stories) • essay by Martha Wells
* Threads (2003) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Nights at the Crimea (2009) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* The Chambered Eye (2013) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* W hen the Ice Goes Out (2008) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* The Arcana of Maps (2000) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* Boy Twelve (2005) / short story by Jessica Reisman (variant of Boy 12)
* An Irdish Tale (2019) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Raney's Hounds (1999) / short story by Jessica Reisman [as by Jessica Wynne Reisman]
* Two Hearts in Zamora (2006) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Incantation (2009) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* Boneshadow (2012) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* A Thousand Wings of Luck (2011) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Before the Rain (2019) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Flowertongue (2011) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* The Demon of Russet Street (2019) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* The Vostrasovitch Clockwork Animal and Traveling Forest Show at the End of the World (2010) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* Bourbon, Sugar, Grace (2017) / novelette by Jessica Reisman
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Contents:
* Introduction (The Arcana of Maps and Other Stories) • essay by Martha Wells
* Threads (2003) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Nights at the Crimea (2009) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* The Chambered Eye (2013) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* W hen the Ice Goes Out (2008) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* The Arcana of Maps (2000) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* Boy Twelve (2005) / short story by Jessica Reisman (variant of Boy 12)
* An Irdish Tale (2019) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Raney's Hounds (1999) / short story by Jessica Reisman [as by Jessica Wynne Reisman]
* Two Hearts in Zamora (2006) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Incantation (2009) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* Boneshadow (2012) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* A Thousand Wings of Luck (2011) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Before the Rain (2019) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* Flowertongue (2011) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* The Demon of Russet Street (2019) / short fiction by Jessica Reisman
* The Vostrasovitch Clockwork Animal and Traveling Forest Show at the End of the World (2010) / short story by Jessica Reisman
* Bourbon, Sugar, Grace (2017) / novelette by Jessica Reisman
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302 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 2019
3 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Reisman
19 books28 followersI have always loved any fiction or art that opens doors -- or windows or cracks in the air -- to possibility, that lets wonder into the room.
The first things I wrote, at nine years old, were fantastic literature, and that's where my heart has always been -- whether you call it science fiction, fantasy, horror, dark fantasy, magic realism, or fabulism. My writing is about two things: exploring and expanding limits and notions of the possible, and feeding the body and spirit through language and story.
Having lived and gone to school in Philadelphia, parts of Florida, California, and Maine, I make my home these days in Austin. Well-groomed cats, family, and good friends grace my life with their company. I've been employed as a house painter, a blueberry raker, an art house film projectionist, a glass artist's assistant, an English tutor, teaching assistant, and an editor, among other things. I dropped out of high school and now have a master's degree. I was a Michener Fellow in grad school, graduated from the Clarion West workshop, and have a large collection of Hong Kong movies. A narrative junkie from a young age, I have always found inspiration and solace in books, movies, and television. Also in animal life, nature, good food with friends, artful cocktails, and rain.
Some of these facts are only tangentially related.
The first things I wrote, at nine years old, were fantastic literature, and that's where my heart has always been -- whether you call it science fiction, fantasy, horror, dark fantasy, magic realism, or fabulism. My writing is about two things: exploring and expanding limits and notions of the possible, and feeding the body and spirit through language and story.
Having lived and gone to school in Philadelphia, parts of Florida, California, and Maine, I make my home these days in Austin. Well-groomed cats, family, and good friends grace my life with their company. I've been employed as a house painter, a blueberry raker, an art house film projectionist, a glass artist's assistant, an English tutor, teaching assistant, and an editor, among other things. I dropped out of high school and now have a master's degree. I was a Michener Fellow in grad school, graduated from the Clarion West workshop, and have a large collection of Hong Kong movies. A narrative junkie from a young age, I have always found inspiration and solace in books, movies, and television. Also in animal life, nature, good food with friends, artful cocktails, and rain.
Some of these facts are only tangentially related.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
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November 11, 2019Here's Martha Wells introduction: https://marthawells.dreamwidth.org/49...
"Jessica Reisman writes in layers, like a cake.
A cake that's deep and rich and strange. Maybe one with a candy geode in its heart, that's almost too beautiful to eat. . . .
The stories collected here represent a body of work that should be better known. It's wonderful to finally have so many collected in one edition instead of scattered to the winds of magazines and anthologies. I hope this allows many new readers to discover Jessica Reisman. She is a writer you can trust with your brain and more importantly, your heart."
"Jessica Reisman writes in layers, like a cake.
A cake that's deep and rich and strange. Maybe one with a candy geode in its heart, that's almost too beautiful to eat. . . .
The stories collected here represent a body of work that should be better known. It's wonderful to finally have so many collected in one edition instead of scattered to the winds of magazines and anthologies. I hope this allows many new readers to discover Jessica Reisman. She is a writer you can trust with your brain and more importantly, your heart."
September 23, 2019
I was fortunate to receive an ARC of Reisman's collection of wide-ranging stories, from Victorian epistolary fantasy to deep space salvage operations and everything in between, that mostly seems to speak very softly while painting vivid imagery and crafting unique characters. Her stories are beautiful, often haunting, and always thoughtful. It's not a collection to burn through, but rather one to savor. Hers is a unique voice that deserves to be amplified.
November 20, 2019
Reisman's tales are invariably beautiful, stories of people who live on the edge between real and magical, and this collection doesn't disappoint. I often leave the world of the story wanting to know more, wanting more of the story, and allowed to make out what path I wish to see ahead.
I have read several of these tales before, and Flowertongue is still my favorite (orchid hunters!) but I will be rereading this volume soon as there are several other stories I want to revisit!
I have read several of these tales before, and Flowertongue is still my favorite (orchid hunters!) but I will be rereading this volume soon as there are several other stories I want to revisit!
December 7, 2019
Jessica Reisman is a wonderful wordsmith and this collection is simply gorgeous. The stories included here are stories that feel as if they are myths from distant planets. And maybe they are. Maybe that's what Reisman does -- writes down the myths and legends of other worlds. They have that otherworldly fairy tale quality anyway. As well as being tightly constructed and sometimes kind of funny. For all readers who love stories that are deeply weird, loving, and beautiful.
February 9, 2020
I don't know how this lovely collection wasn't in my read books. I read it and blurbed it, because it's full of wistful stories, indelible characters, and wonderful moments.
August 15, 2020
Jessica's writing is very poetic, at times reminding me of Bradbury. This is a collection ranging from various parts of her writing career, but I felt there was a theme underlying many of them. It felt very much like a cohesive collection. Some of the stories feel they are just perfect vignettes, but others I wanted to see expanded into larger works. My favorite stories were The Chambered Eye, A Thousand Wings of Luck, and The Demon of Russet Street.
December 4, 2019
This collection from Reisman is long overdue - these stories so ably capture her passion, her graceful writing style, her sheer delight in capturing the realities of a variety of worlds in all their beauty and brutality. It is a brilliant collection and should garner all the wards there are.
September 3, 2020
Jessica Reisman's stories are like prose poetry. Each word carefully chosen, each story exactly as long as it needs to be and no more.
Some are science fiction, some are fantasy. Some are urban legend or old wives' tales. Some are nineteenth century botanical expeditions, a la Charles Darwin. Some are ghost stories. Some are just wonder.
I retired after 40 years as a public library reference librarian. To some extent, especially my early years are like the memories of another, lost world. I began my career at the library when the most sophisticated machine in our building was our IBM Selectric typewriter, which we primarily used to issue library cards (by typing the patron's name and address on each card) and write our reports.
I remember the days when we had huge atlases where you could see an entire continent on one sheet of paper. You had to know how to read the map's legend to understand everything the map had to show you.
I remember when the world's knowledge was bound up in paper and to learn anything, you had to either physically come to the library or call us on the telephone. You would pose your query, we would do a bit of research, and we would give you your answer or locate the book you needed or tell you that you had stumped the librarian and none of us knew your answer.
Thank you, Jessica, for evoking in your title the lost world of my early library career where it mattered whether you could read a map in our huge print atlases!
My library wasn't always quiet, of course. I worked at an academic library while in library school and that university library was fairly quiet and well ordered.
But the day came when I was returning a call (we were so busy that most of my job was calling people back to answer their reference questions) and the phone rang three tables over in the middle of the room. The patron had done as we recommended and gone ahead and come in person to the library where they were assisted immediately. (That was the best way to jump the wait for the librarian to call you back line.) [Yes, of course, the patron had answered me on their cell phone.] I was astounded.
Towards the end of my career, most of my time was spent giving out Web URLs to the Web sites that patrons needed, emailing journal / magazine articles to patrons, and explaining how to access the database which the patron needed to use to find their answers.
They could stay home and use their own computers once I had pointed the way to the online resources that they needed. And most did, many apologizing that they had looked themselves but were unable to answer their own questions, even with computer and smartphone access whereas I usually was able to quickly get them started in the right direction for their research.
[And teaching bewildered grandparents how to get their first Yahoo! or Gmail email account so that they could join in the family email and connect with their grandchildren. And helping people apply for jobs online. If you wanted to sack groceries at the grocery store checkout lines, you still had to apply online, whether you had ever used a computer before or not. Etc.]
This is Jessica's first compilation of shorter works under one cover, written over a span of years. Amazon.com says "Featuring 16 previously published works and one unique to the collection...."
Don't miss the introduction by Martha Wells!
Highly recommended for people who appreciate word artistry as well as stories fit to be told at night around the campfire!
Some are science fiction, some are fantasy. Some are urban legend or old wives' tales. Some are nineteenth century botanical expeditions, a la Charles Darwin. Some are ghost stories. Some are just wonder.
I retired after 40 years as a public library reference librarian. To some extent, especially my early years are like the memories of another, lost world. I began my career at the library when the most sophisticated machine in our building was our IBM Selectric typewriter, which we primarily used to issue library cards (by typing the patron's name and address on each card) and write our reports.
I remember the days when we had huge atlases where you could see an entire continent on one sheet of paper. You had to know how to read the map's legend to understand everything the map had to show you.
I remember when the world's knowledge was bound up in paper and to learn anything, you had to either physically come to the library or call us on the telephone. You would pose your query, we would do a bit of research, and we would give you your answer or locate the book you needed or tell you that you had stumped the librarian and none of us knew your answer.
Thank you, Jessica, for evoking in your title the lost world of my early library career where it mattered whether you could read a map in our huge print atlases!
My library wasn't always quiet, of course. I worked at an academic library while in library school and that university library was fairly quiet and well ordered.
But the day came when I was returning a call (we were so busy that most of my job was calling people back to answer their reference questions) and the phone rang three tables over in the middle of the room. The patron had done as we recommended and gone ahead and come in person to the library where they were assisted immediately. (That was the best way to jump the wait for the librarian to call you back line.) [Yes, of course, the patron had answered me on their cell phone.] I was astounded.
Towards the end of my career, most of my time was spent giving out Web URLs to the Web sites that patrons needed, emailing journal / magazine articles to patrons, and explaining how to access the database which the patron needed to use to find their answers.
They could stay home and use their own computers once I had pointed the way to the online resources that they needed. And most did, many apologizing that they had looked themselves but were unable to answer their own questions, even with computer and smartphone access whereas I usually was able to quickly get them started in the right direction for their research.
[And teaching bewildered grandparents how to get their first Yahoo! or Gmail email account so that they could join in the family email and connect with their grandchildren. And helping people apply for jobs online. If you wanted to sack groceries at the grocery store checkout lines, you still had to apply online, whether you had ever used a computer before or not. Etc.]
This is Jessica's first compilation of shorter works under one cover, written over a span of years. Amazon.com says "Featuring 16 previously published works and one unique to the collection...."
Don't miss the introduction by Martha Wells!
Highly recommended for people who appreciate word artistry as well as stories fit to be told at night around the campfire!
September 6, 2020
I can't explain why this collection didn't engage me. It's clearly well-written.
One reviewer said these are, "stories of people who live on the edge between real and magical," and maybe that's my problem. I've never cared for that sub-genre. Give me real, or give me magic, but don't hover in between. I felt as if the ones read were closer to word paintings than to stories. Just couldn't get into caring about the characters, who all felt a bit drifty, or what would happen to them - especially when in a couple of cases the story just stopped and we were told to move on to the next window on a world.
So you might love this book. Do read the other reviews.
One reviewer said these are, "stories of people who live on the edge between real and magical," and maybe that's my problem. I've never cared for that sub-genre. Give me real, or give me magic, but don't hover in between. I felt as if the ones read were closer to word paintings than to stories. Just couldn't get into caring about the characters, who all felt a bit drifty, or what would happen to them - especially when in a couple of cases the story just stopped and we were told to move on to the next window on a world.
So you might love this book. Do read the other reviews.
March 22, 2022
This is a beautiful collection of short stories. Reisman has a wide-ranging imagination, great world building, solid characters, and beautiful descriptions. A couple of my favorite lines: "It was a rainy, sweet-throated morning" and "Her pale hair was soft, but tangled hopelessly; she smelled of band-aid and dog." If you're a fan of sf/f/liminal-space short stories, this book will absolutely be worth your time.
November 10, 2022
This was a wonderful collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories. They were deep and well written. The author is SO descriptive. She makes it easy for me to imagine each new setting she drops the reader into.
February 1, 2020
This collection is spectacular, with stories running the gamut from quiet, contemplative fantasy to spirited, quick science fiction. Reisman's prose is flowing and poetic, her words beckoning you closer, drawing you down until you are lost in the worlds of her imagination. Read this at night in the flickering light of a candelabrum set with tapers and it's quite likely you will find that you have traveled into another dimension, and only ink-on-paper birds will guide you back home.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews