Review
Russell B. Farr has collected together 23 stories with the common theme of belonging or coming home. The Editor would appear to have zeroed in on the concept following a personal journey to his parent's home country of England. While most of the stories concern themselves with finding a feeling of place, a number do depart the fold to have pretty obvious digs at the current Australian immigration policy and treatment of the so called “boat people”. While I personally applaud political leanings in fiction, I was surprised no one offered an alternative view to what after all are by and largely economic rather than political refugees. So yes the collection is pretty much one sided with some rather naive “high horse” attitudes that may anger some readers. Please note I don't want to get into a debate about this, I'm an immigrant myself, just pointing out what could be a source of irritation to some readers. Though I'm sure we probably all have the same distaste over what are being called “detention centres” in this Country. For horror fans, and this is how I'm viewing the collection, it's slim pickings as Belong is largely a romp through various Science Fiction visions. On the bright side we at least get more of a go than the down trodden fantasy nuts who will have to content themselves with going to see the latest Harry Potter outing once again. Still in the wash-up I was happy enough to catch up with the SciFi community and see what was cooking in their neck of the woods. Overall the quality of the stories range from excellent, there's a number of classics you will want in your collection, to average, and it has to be said a couple that touch on the wrong side of the slush pile. The Editor clearly had different criteria to my own in picking the stories, but a few proved to be a real chore to get through as they dragged with no innate understanding of pace. I would point out that a few of the Authors are so caught up in making some sort of a political statement that they kind of forget the one guiding rule to Speculative Fiction, namely story is everything. Or maybe that's a requirement of the horror genre and doesn't apply to Sc-Fi? Your call there, though there's enough included between the covers that the odd lemon isn't going to destroy your reading experience, just jump over those ones as there's gold in them there pages otherwise. Be warned however didactic thoughts ahoy. It might sound like I'm somewhat lukewarm to this collection, and to a certain degree I am as it's not our normal happy hunting ground in terms of genre, but this shouldn't put off Sc-Fi geeks as there are some very solid stories from that genre present. I would point the potential reader to Green, Green Grass Of Homeworld by Donna Maree Hanson, where alien hybrids find the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the road. Sure one of the major surprises in the story has been done to death, no spoilers here kids, but don't let that upset your enjoyment of a strong tale with something to say. Equally Gustavo Bondoni's Namug shows all those seasons of Star Trek really haven't taught the human race much when it comes to the colonisation of other planets and the search for extraterrestrial life. I think Bondoni is actually closer to the mark then Capt Kirk and crew, regardless of century we are still going to view life on our terms without bothering to try and understand alien concepts. So if a regular SciFi reader then Farr has you covered with a number of very solid outings. I tend to restrict my reading to stuff like Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy, but although Beyond didn't quite get to Hamilton's level of space opera I still found enough substance in the collection to rock on with. Naturally since we're all here for the dark genre musings there's enough blooded meat on the bone to keep us moderately howling at the moon. Oh yes there will be zombies, witches, and fallen angels. Penelope Love kicks off the collection with a particularly incendiary tale of zombies titled Border Crossing. There are some disturbing concepts in this one, with the actual walking dead not being the instigators. Angela Regis brings a new interpretation to witchcraft and the evils of fast food in the excellent Slow Cookin'. And Feather-light by George Ivanoff is a different take on the whole paradise lost thing, though the concept of despair naturally pervades a lot of dark genre. As a whole, the package delivered by Ticonderoga is more than adequate, though perhaps missing some of their normal artistic concepts. I rocked on with the collection though I found some stories dragged and I actually skipped a couple that were overly self indulgent. As stated there's enough going on between the covers to keep most readers happy, so yeah add the book to your summer reading list and take a walk on the Sc-Fi side of the road. Belong is available online from the folk at Ticonderoga, right here. At time of writing the soft-cover will set you back $35.00, and there is also a limited edition hard-cover on offer at $75.00. For the purposes of this review I looked at the soft-cover edition.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... As a dark genre outing, add 1 if after some Sc-Fi reading.
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