Story of the week: The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson

Novellas are back and hotter than ever. Not that they ever truly went away. Rather, publishers simply avoided novellas, saying it wasn't economical to release print editions of tales which were longer than short stories yet far shorter than full-length novels.

Thanks to e-publishing, that view has changed and novellas are booming. One of the best I've read so far this year is The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson.

This story follows the life of Demane as he leads a caravan across the magic-infused wildeeps. As a descendent of god-like beings who once lived on this perhaps-futuristic planet, Demane has powers and abilities beyond regular humans, who label him a sorcerer.

Except that things are not what they seem with Demane. Instead, the world Demane experiences may be merely proof that Arthur C. Clarke was correct and any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. But that hardly reassures the people in the caravan, who both trust their lives to what they see as Demane's magic and are uneasy at the events around them which can't be explained.

That is the strength of Wilson's story — the things we can't explain. Wilson does an amazing job using his beautiful language to open up an ambiguous world for readers where what we believe to know isn't always what truly exists. Yet the powerful characters and world-building in Sorcerer of the Wildeeps pulls you through this uncertainty until you have no choice but to accept that in fiction, as in life, we often only learn what happens in hindsight.

Highly recommended. You can read an except of Sorcerer of the Wildeeps here.

Send in your 2015 SF/F novel recommendations

Early next week I'll be updating my monthly tally of 2015 science fiction and fantasy novel recommendations. If you have SF/F novels to recommend send them my way. The only catch is the novels must have been published this year.

My contact information can be found here. Don't forget to let me know if I can publicly thank you for making a rec or if you prefer anonymity.

Limit recommendations to two novels per month per person. And yes, people who already recommended novels can send more recs each month.

In case you missed it, here are last month's recommendations.

Novel of the week: Lightless by C.A. Higgins

I have a love/hate relationship with most hard science fiction. I love scientific accuracy and insight in the stories I read, but I despise how many hard SF authors falsely believe a focus on accuracy and technical details are more important than fleshed-out human characters which whom the reader relates.

There's a reason most people don't read technical manuals for amusement. That's because a story without humanity is not a story. Without realistic characters and drama, all the SF hardness and softness and everything in between matters not a bit.

Thankfully, this is a truth which author C.A. Higgins knows full-well because her debut hard science fiction novel Lightless is the perfect melding of hard science fiction and human drama. Lightless is, in fact, one of those rare hard science fiction novels which even people who don't like hard SF will enjoy.

Lightless is set on the experimental spaceship Ananke, launched by the all-knowing System government to test a new propulsion drive. On board is computer scientist Althea, who, in her love of computers and programming, has learned to ignore the oppressive political system she works for. However, when a pair of fugitives gains access to the Ananke, Althea is pulled out of her computer-focused world and must deal with a series of human and scientific conflicts which could completely destroy everything she knows.

Lightlight has something to satisfy all fans of science fiction, with plenty of action, big ideas, and characters you can relate to. And as a sidenote, Lightlight would make a mind-blowing film if the right director optioned the story. Hollywood, take note.

Lightless is highly recommended.

Novel of the week: Red Girls by Kazuki Sakuraba

Viz Media first appeared on my radar in the late 80s and early 90s with their pioneering work bringing translated Japanese manga to the USA. Trying to strike translated gold twice, in 2009 Viz created its imprint Haikasoru to publish English versions of Japanese science fiction and fantasy novels. 

The results of this work are paying off. Their translation of All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka inspired Hollywood to buy the rights to the novel, which eventually become the Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow. (Side note: Haikasoru editor and author Nick Mamatas wrote a synopsis of the book, part of which Hollywood absolutely loved. This resulted in the following bit of Nick's writing becoming the most widely read and quoted words he ever created: "Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers".)

Now Haikasoru has released Red Girls by Kazuki Sakuraba, a novel which, if there's any justice, will be read by even more people than All You Need Is Kill.

The subjects of these two novels couldn't be more different. Described as a "multigenerational saga of matriarchs, manga, and murder," Red Girls fits more comfortably in the genre of magical realism than hard fantasy or SF. The novel follows the lives of three generations of women in the Akakuchiba family in a steel-producing town in rural Japan. Spanning the times from Japan's defeat in World War 2 to the modern day, Red Girls is — to play off Nick's quote above — Forrest Gump meets One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Except that the novel is also far more than that. Red Girls is gripping, beautifully written, and as insightful as any fiction I've read this year. The characters draw you in and keep you moving through life with them. And this is a novel even non-genre fans will love. My wife, who isn't a fan of SF/F stories, loves Red Girls.

With All You Need Is Kill and other translated novels and anthologies, Haikasoru has proved there's a market in the Western world for Japanese genre fiction. They continue their winning streak with Red Girls by Kazuki Sakuraba. I urge people to read this novel, which will be on my shortlists for next year's Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards.

My story "Duller's Peace" is now online

The other day K. Tempest Bradford named my short story "Duller's Peace" among the five best stories so far this year.

Result: A number of people asking to read the story. Which turned bad, because the issue of Asimov's Science Fiction containing the story is no longer available. Which turned good because Asimov's said I could go ahead and post the story online for everyone to read.

Here's "Duller's Peace" to download. Enjoy.

Many thanks to Asimov's editor Sheila Williams for both accepting the story and allowing me to reprint it online. In case you need more convincing to read "Duller's Peace," here's a sample of reviews and feedback.

A "moral indictment of other nations trying to control a people or a country" and "a powerful story that is extremely relevant in the world today, yet is clearly true SF as well. Well done, Mr. Sanford, well done." — Bob Blough, Tangent Online

"Duller's Peace" is "another well-crafted story from Sanford" with a real chilling ending. — Sam Tomaino, SFRevu

Highly recommended "An intense distopian world in which a government achieves control through nanotechnology that reaches into everything, including your thoughts. The concept is creepy, mostly because it’s not far fetched. I can see people balking at the ending, I say it’s perfect."  —  K. Tempest Bradford, io9