Now this is a treat: not only did the folks at
Future Fire ("social political and speculative cyber-fiction") like The Bachelor Machine,
my collection of erotic science fiction, but they also just posted a
nice review of my non-erotic collection of fantasy/science
fiction/horror,
Love Without Gun Control:
I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect when Love Without Gun Control
showed up to be reviewed. The cover is very retro-pulp-comic, a scene
on Mars, all bright colors and simple lines, misleading as to the
content. It seems more like a graphic-novel cover, or a series of 70's
porn. The book itself is quite thin, only 155 pages. I was pleasantly
surprised. The collection opens with the eponymous story, ‘Love Without Gun Control’,
published for the first time in this collection. Ultra-violent and
rather bizarre, it is somewhat reminiscent of a D. Harlan Wilson story. A
sort of modern-day Western romance, the story really does defy labeling
as it shows the effects of one snake-oil doctor’s ‘love potion’,
applied erroneously, and the destruction that can come from thwarted
desire. A fun, rollicking ride with a very unique flavor.
The second story, ‘Needle Taste’,
is a unique concept with an ambiguous ending. The story itself is a
totally different beast from the previous tale, but the wistful tone
holds up the strange story well enough until the end, when it feels a
little... abrupt. If there’s a weak one in the bunch, it’s this one,
simply on a relative scale. It is in no way a bad one, it just doesn’t
have quite the force of the others.
...seeking a forever-quiet man in the whole buzzing, humming, singing, cackling city.
‘Hush Hush’ is
my favorite story in the collection. The language is absolutely
beautiful: weird, eery and slippery. The tale is half mystery, half
internal journey. Whether he solves the mystery or not is really
unimportant. What he learns along the way is not. This was a lovely to
read for the language as for the story.
‘The Rich Man’s Ghost’ is
probably my least favorite of the stories. It lacks the smoothness of
voice, the weird beauty of most of the other pieces. The story is a
little less Weird, too, and maybe that colors my opinion.
‘Wanderlust’ is
one of the stories that I’m not really sure, at first, how I feel about
it. On the one hand, the reader is kept in the dark until the very end
of the story. I simply didn’t have a clue what was going on. On the
other hand, the writing is very rich, so it isn’t necessarily a bad
thing to enjoy the ride. A man who inspires absolute ecstasy from
everyone he meets comes across a bit thin at first, but their reactions
if he stays around for longer than a few minutes are... interesting.
‘Orphan’ is
chilling and haunting. A young man running from something, to
something, carrying a horrible secret. There were a couple of places
that could have used a clarity edit or that read a little contrived,
but overall, definitely a memorable piece worth reading again.
Really,
though, I’d be hard-pressed to say that any story in this collection is
best skipped over or read in a hurry. There’s just enough variation in
the stories to keep them unique, and enough cohesion to develop a voice
that just draws me in more deeply, the farther I read. (The first story
is an odd difference to the rest of them, but no less enjoyable.) The
cover-art remains a sticking point, as it has no apparent connection to
the content, and prose like this needs something lovely to wrap it up,
and what it has is not something I would be wild about displaying on a
shelf.
Read this one slowly, because each story is best savored
and mulled over. And I’ll be keeping an eye out for more of M.
Christian’s stories.
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