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jasonandrew“Review: You Might Sleep by Nick Mamatas, Part I"
by Jason Andrew
You Might Sleep from Prime Books is a collection of speculative short fiction from writer Nick Mamatas. Many of the stories take a left turn and delves into that grey area between marketing labels that some of the greats such as Harlan Ellison or Ray Bradbury occasionally visited.
This book has three strikes against it. The cover is very busy. Artistic taste is often subjective, but I just honestly can’t imagine this image selling this book. The introduction to the collection is boring. I wanted to get more of a sense of the writer and for Mamatas to show the same vulnerability that appears in his stories. And finally, the collection starts with a very short flash fiction piece that is really a recycled literary joke titled “Found Wedged In the Side Of a Desk Drawer in Paris, France. 23 December 1989.”
“Land Speed Record” is an amusing story set in the world of cubicals, office paranoia, and the mind-numbing monotony of the corporate world where worker drones dream of revolution. This isn’t the strongest story in the collection, but I certainly was entertained and now wanted to read the rest of the collection.
“All That’s Left After the Big One Drops” is a sad almost bittersweet story about a teenaged boy living in a government controlled shelter during a nuclear war. This story shows a surprising vulnerability in the characters and the dynamic between the successful father and the chubby son just trying to rebel and live a little. There’s an awkward age when you just want to get the girl, cut your hair wild, and you will do anything even eat cockroaches just to be cool while you’re young. However, it is hard to be shocking wearing a Charlie Manson t-shirt when your father has killed three billion people. I’ve read this story three times in three days and I’m very impressed with the genius in the storytelling and the sadness in the characters.
“April 29th” takes a look at an old sci-fi trope and takes a very human look at it. Alien spacecraft have appeared in the skies and humanity is awaiting word from the visitors. It seemed very important during 9/11 to get home and watch everything on the news. Seattle is just about as far as you can get from New York in the continental United Stated and still the instinct to return home and wait was almost palpable. I remember the office empty before noon and the strange distance I felt from everyone else trapped in my own head and fear. The narrator of this story has that same sort of alienation and instinct to stay at home. People of the world fear leaving their houses least the aliens see them. When they do leave, it is only under the cover of an umbrella. It seems strange that it would matter, but there is a very unstated shame from humanity for their technological inferiority.
“The Pitch” is a clever story that continually goes against reader expectations. Successful movie producer Manny Bursky is on the hunt for new stories and gets the surprise of a lifetime. The pitch is a new twist on classic horror tropes with a sad denouncement. The story takes you slowly, one step at a time, into a horrible concept that stays with you long after you are finished reading it. I read this story five times looking for more details.
“One Thumb Up” works well placed after “The Pitch” and I almost thought it was a sequel at first. It is a short flash story that hits with a solid punch and then fades into the black.
“There is a Light That Never Goes Out” is a huge multi-thread story that features separate scenes from different eras and different people with an unusal connection with each other. I enjoyed this challenging story.
“Build a Trebuchet” is one of my favorite stories in the book. It doesn’t contain any speculative elements, but it is hiliarious. We’ve all had occasional drunken moments where we’ve done strange things to get attention from women. Some guys dress like pirates, some wear kilts, or learn to play guitar to pick up women. The main character of this story decides that the best way to pick up women is to be interesting and build a trebuchet. It is the strange sort of thing some of my friends my do. This story alone is worth purchasing the book.
“Quieter Types, Loners Mostly...” is a story set in a classic dystopian future where punishment is meted out seemingly at random with excessive cruelty.
“A Sudden Absence of Bees” involves a professor challenging his students to imagine different end-game scenarios for the world. When all of them start happening at once, the professor starts to suspect his old students.
“Withdraw, Withdraw!” is an erotic study of a young couple that turns sexual politics into a fetish. This story was both sexy and authentic. I knew girls like this in college ready to explore known sexual troupes and try to figure out that time when our bodies feel mature and ancient and yet the world in new and each turn feels like discovering a new world.
“The Uncanny Valley” examines the post-humanity dealing with the concept of the Singularity troupe and what it might mean to those humans left behind. I enjoyed the idea of a mass collective consciousness needed therapy. Technology changes our perspectives in the world, but sometimes we need human contact to heal wounds.
by Jason Andrew
You Might Sleep from Prime Books is a collection of speculative short fiction from writer Nick Mamatas. Many of the stories take a left turn and delves into that grey area between marketing labels that some of the greats such as Harlan Ellison or Ray Bradbury occasionally visited.
This book has three strikes against it. The cover is very busy. Artistic taste is often subjective, but I just honestly can’t imagine this image selling this book. The introduction to the collection is boring. I wanted to get more of a sense of the writer and for Mamatas to show the same vulnerability that appears in his stories. And finally, the collection starts with a very short flash fiction piece that is really a recycled literary joke titled “Found Wedged In the Side Of a Desk Drawer in Paris, France. 23 December 1989.”
“Land Speed Record” is an amusing story set in the world of cubicals, office paranoia, and the mind-numbing monotony of the corporate world where worker drones dream of revolution. This isn’t the strongest story in the collection, but I certainly was entertained and now wanted to read the rest of the collection.
“All That’s Left After the Big One Drops” is a sad almost bittersweet story about a teenaged boy living in a government controlled shelter during a nuclear war. This story shows a surprising vulnerability in the characters and the dynamic between the successful father and the chubby son just trying to rebel and live a little. There’s an awkward age when you just want to get the girl, cut your hair wild, and you will do anything even eat cockroaches just to be cool while you’re young. However, it is hard to be shocking wearing a Charlie Manson t-shirt when your father has killed three billion people. I’ve read this story three times in three days and I’m very impressed with the genius in the storytelling and the sadness in the characters.
“April 29th” takes a look at an old sci-fi trope and takes a very human look at it. Alien spacecraft have appeared in the skies and humanity is awaiting word from the visitors. It seemed very important during 9/11 to get home and watch everything on the news. Seattle is just about as far as you can get from New York in the continental United Stated and still the instinct to return home and wait was almost palpable. I remember the office empty before noon and the strange distance I felt from everyone else trapped in my own head and fear. The narrator of this story has that same sort of alienation and instinct to stay at home. People of the world fear leaving their houses least the aliens see them. When they do leave, it is only under the cover of an umbrella. It seems strange that it would matter, but there is a very unstated shame from humanity for their technological inferiority.
“The Pitch” is a clever story that continually goes against reader expectations. Successful movie producer Manny Bursky is on the hunt for new stories and gets the surprise of a lifetime. The pitch is a new twist on classic horror tropes with a sad denouncement. The story takes you slowly, one step at a time, into a horrible concept that stays with you long after you are finished reading it. I read this story five times looking for more details.
“One Thumb Up” works well placed after “The Pitch” and I almost thought it was a sequel at first. It is a short flash story that hits with a solid punch and then fades into the black.
“There is a Light That Never Goes Out” is a huge multi-thread story that features separate scenes from different eras and different people with an unusal connection with each other. I enjoyed this challenging story.
“Build a Trebuchet” is one of my favorite stories in the book. It doesn’t contain any speculative elements, but it is hiliarious. We’ve all had occasional drunken moments where we’ve done strange things to get attention from women. Some guys dress like pirates, some wear kilts, or learn to play guitar to pick up women. The main character of this story decides that the best way to pick up women is to be interesting and build a trebuchet. It is the strange sort of thing some of my friends my do. This story alone is worth purchasing the book.
“Quieter Types, Loners Mostly...” is a story set in a classic dystopian future where punishment is meted out seemingly at random with excessive cruelty.
“A Sudden Absence of Bees” involves a professor challenging his students to imagine different end-game scenarios for the world. When all of them start happening at once, the professor starts to suspect his old students.
“Withdraw, Withdraw!” is an erotic study of a young couple that turns sexual politics into a fetish. This story was both sexy and authentic. I knew girls like this in college ready to explore known sexual troupes and try to figure out that time when our bodies feel mature and ancient and yet the world in new and each turn feels like discovering a new world.
“The Uncanny Valley” examines the post-humanity dealing with the concept of the Singularity troupe and what it might mean to those humans left behind. I enjoyed the idea of a mass collective consciousness needed therapy. Technology changes our perspectives in the world, but sometimes we need human contact to heal wounds.