Critical Mick

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Reviews by the Clown that All Other Critics Want to Strangle with a Black Turtleneck

Greetings from Lake Wu
Jay Lake
Wheatland Press, 2003

A Second Helping, Please!

I like my fiction spiced pretty high. Entering the dangerous world of food analogies: Greetings From Lake Wu is a picnic buffet. A Lakeside picnic, even! See the nice cottonwoods, feel that breeze, laugh at the amusing clown. Ah! Now that we're all relaxed, let's dig into this spread.

The collection opens with "The Courtesy of Guests," a tasty little character-driven nugget set in a distant future. What's to be the fate of Earth, after mankind has long evolved off it? Hmm. Good to chew on, and two memorable buddies to compare notes with! No wonder this tale won the Best of Soft SF prize for 2001.

"The Scent of Rotting Roses" will likewise please sci-fi fans. Fresh enough to arouse interest, familiar enough to satisfy any appetite, this one smells like warm bread rolls to me.

"Glass: A Love Story"- chicken cordon bleu, baby! Intricate, beautiful, ostentatious... not your typical picnic fare. Stories like this (and there are several- damn thee, word limit!) make this collection absolutely hearty.

Like the dish contributed by some moustached aunt from the Old Country, I have no idea what "G.O.D" is. I tried some to be polite, but, huh? Same can be said for "The Trick of Disaster." Throwing a Frisbee for record-breaking distance is a great picnic game, but Lake's sailed this one way over many heads. Looked great when it was in the air, but I haven't a clue where it's landed.

The German potato salad of the collection is "The Murasaki Doctrine," bland filler which occupies about one-third of the volume. I dunno. Maybe some readers like rehashed space-opera. Some people like German potato salad. Gimme a surprisingly original dish with loads a chilli, any day.

Some more meat: "Jack's House." Move Orwell's Animal Farm indoors. And have the cats and rats and mice and dogs address religion, rather than politics. Tasty and sustaining, "Jack's House" is a highlight.

There's always gotta be something sticky. Months after its reading, I think about "The Goat Cutter" almost every time I open a tin of pet food.

And as it's not an official picnic until the bugs arrive, Greetings From Lake Wu includes the noteworthy "Who Sing But Do Not Speak."

"The Angle of My Dreams" is sweet dessert. There's a surprising number of tales in this basket which would be worth the purchase alone.

After this outing, count me as a Jay Lake fan. Visit www.jlake.com if, like me, you've been impressed and want to know when the next celebration is scheduled.

Four Lil' Debbie Star Crunches out of five.

Greetings From Lake Wu is a fine collection, says Critical Mick, even if it makes no mention of the Rescue Louse.

Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2005 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.

This Page Was Last Updated On 1 June, 2005.