“Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy”, Sharyn November, editor

This collection was deeply emotional for me on a personal level, both old and new. On one hand, it brought me back (way back) to the time when I first discovered Science Fiction/Fantasy. Science Fiction began as a short-story medium, and excels in that style. I first discovered Sci-fi in collections of stories bound together in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Each tale would take me to a new world, a new experience. In 10 or so pages I would feel transported. The drive-by method of storytelling is quite effective … it challenges you to take the rather large leap to other realities and to think hard about improbable occurrences that exist in the edges of our world. This anthology, one of three by Firebird publishing, lives up to expectations. Mixing well-known authors like Alan Dean Foster with relative unknown writers like Emma Bull creates a rich tapestry of strong voices that tell a range of tales. The authors come from four different English-speaking nations: the UK, Canada, the US & Australia. Each story is followed by a brief biography of the author (and the obligatory website) as well as their “impetus” for writing the story, a fascinating insight that enriches the text. The sixteen stories go from contemporary New York city to the colonization of new worlds with green skies, from G-Rated innocence to some seriously PG-13 language and themes. Some authors, such as Tamora Pierce, explore new territory (but still maintains her strong female themes) while others, such as Nina Hoffman, add dimension to settings and characters present in other novels. The themes are divergent with a small number of connecting threads – most of the protagonists are teenage females with avian and fire imagery woven through. Without doubt, the story that impressed me the most was Emma Klages’ “In the House of the Seven Librarians” which honestly made me cry. Ms. Klages harkens back to the time when libraries were wooden and musty and a bit magical. The library jokes are plentiful throughout and overall, I felt a tremendous “sturm und drang” in reading it. A joy at the memories, a sadness at a kind of necessary loss as the world marches forward. Which leads me to the ultimate irony – this was the first book I ever read as an “eBook”. To read about the loss of a “real” library on a computer was … well ... odd. As to the eBook experience, I’m not sure how I feel about it. On the plus side, there is the convenience of uploading a book from home (say, during a blizzard when the roads are impassible), and the joy of no overdues (the book simply disappears from your device when the 21 days are up), on the other hand, there was some eye-strain (this tome is over 500 pages and I spend an awful lot of my “other life” staring at computer screens) and a strange sense of distractibility – I couldn’t “sink into” the book as I usually do. It’s all a bit of a mystery as to whether I can find the love in this new medium, but I do believe the written word still has power, regardless of where you read it. Reading this book was an interesting experience – both in content and in presentation. Things change … and I’m always up for a new adventure, even if I don’t always embrace the new experiences it brings.