Book Review–The Sea is Ours (eds. Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng)

This is the second volume I have read edited by Joyce Chng who shows a talent, along with Jaymee Goh, for selecting quality work and writers.

The Sea is Ours – Tales of Steampunk South East Asia quite directly presents itself as Steampunk.  I want to say though, that it’s a bit more than that.  It’s quite easy to dismiss Steampunk in general as a sub-genre that’s been overworked.

From very early on in my reading though, it was apparent that The Sea is Ours, had greater depth.  Here’s what I wrote via a Goodreads update nearly halfway through the reading:

An intriguing selection that is reminiscent of Alternative Alamat in some ways. This *is* steampunk, but where that might cause potential readers to roll eyes and think "not another clockwork collection", The Sea is Ours is much more South East Asian alternative history and is all the better for it. The steampunk is subtle in most cases and where it isn't it’s original.

Collections like the The Sea is Ours is what I think of when talking about diversity in genre.  Each of the stories contained brought a new angle or a fresh perspective on some old tropes. 

But ultimately what excited me was the stories and characters of South East Asia.  In and age long past half my history major was on Ancient South East Asian history, so for me The Sea is Ours brings back memories and adds additional threads to the tapestry of my experience.

Steampunk can feel “bolted” on a times, a cliché, but what I found with each of these stories was a much subtler integration into both story and culture.  In some stories the technology arrives from outside the narrative’s culture and it’s adapted, in others it forms an integral part.

There’s also a good balance of the mythic and fantastical, Alessa Hinlo’s, The Last Aswang, and Timothy Dimacali’s On The Consequence of Sound, immediately spring to mind. Each author brings something fresh to this work though and for a collection that has its fair mention of airships and automatons, The Sea is Ours delivers variety in the type of story as well. 

This is a fresh and original collection that reworks Steampunk in interesting ways while showcasing talented authors who present us with the reworked and reimagined stories of their own cultures and traditions. 

Alter your perspective.

 

This is a review copy offered by the publisher.

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The Sea is Ours is available in Australia through Booktopia from November 1st

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Vellum & Ink Signal Boost

Sometimes authors just have to do it for themselves and the dynamic duo of Joyce Chng and Joelyn Alexandra have formed Vellum and Ink in an effort to support Singaporean Genre Writers through the provision of writing services and information. 

If you live in Singapore and write genre or if you have events that Singaporean writers might be able to take advantage of please get in touch with them through their website.

http://vellumink.wordpress.com/

 

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Aspiring Singaporean Genre Writers–Checkout Vellum & Ink

 

Joyce Chng and Joelyn Alexandria have started Vellum & Ink, a service that aims to help facilitate some home-grown genre fiction gems, and promote the Singaporean voice through quality fiction created with artistic integrity and creativity.

Aside from their own works, the founders offer:

• copy-editing services,
• plot & book reviews,
• book launches & readings,
• literary presentations & facilitations,
• as well as research & fact-checking for the budding writer, publisher, or book store.

You can check out their online presence here.  I hope to interview Joyce for the second instalment of the Adventures of a Bookonaut podcast, when I can sort out the internet issues I am currently experiencing.

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Book Review– Ayam Curtain by June Yang & Joyce Chng (Eds)

Ayam Curtain is an elegant book, in conception, construction and content. A delight to read and perceive. It’s one of those joyous books that is a work of art because of the words on its pages and how those pages are presented.

I first became aware of the project after stumbling across one of the editors, Joyce Chng(@jolantru) on twitter. She, as well as all the writers in the collection are worth checking out - from the Alvin Pang’s to the Clara Yeo’s.

I rarely give out 5 star reviews, generally a work has to really hit me emotionally or be doing something clever or original.

Being a collection Ayam Curtain doesn’t carry the emotional punching power of a novel, but there are pieces that peck at my emotions, stories that that flit in and out of my perception, evoke memories and images that fade with beat of tiny feathered wings.

Ayam Curtain is split into two distinct parts, the first, Speaking Bird Language or kong jiao wei (translated as a cock and bull story, a flight of fancy), is a collection of micro fiction that gives the reader short fluttering glimpses of alternate Singapore.

They can vary wildly in construction and tone from JY Yang’s Interview (which is lucky if it’s more than 100 words long), which manages to cover class, control and language as an inhibitor, to, They called me the hyacinth girl by Victor Ocampo, a haunting passage of a Crow’s flight.

Dejected, rejected it returns to the parliament of trees, the ninth circle of hell where Indian Troops sing to the dead of Changi: Manasu marugudhey, manasu marugudhey

Yet the sum is greater than its parts, with each of the small pieces forming a cacophony of bird calls that seems to have a distinct sound about it, nostalgia seems to perch easily, side by side with perceptions of the future.

The second part of the book, The Ayam Curtain, features longer works of up to 1000 words.  The effect is much the same, diverse tone and style but with an overall synthesis that gives a tangible sense of speculative Singapore.

Woodwind by Clara Yeo points a feathered wing at Singapore’s deforestation, as a young child imagines that she can hear the story of a Rosewood table. While JY Yang posits the real reason for SMRT train breakdowns in The War going on Beneath Us.

The intention of the collection was to

• uncover the diversity of writers voices in Singapore
• and to explore local issues

all under the larger wing of speculative fiction.  The editors have achieved this vision.  I step away from the book with a number of new (to me ) writers that I want to follow up and a tangible sense of the issues that are foremost in the minds of the speculative fiction community of Singapore. 

This book deserves wide circulation.  I encourage you to purchase and enjoy.  To enrich your literary experience with the birdsong than is Ayam Curtain.

This book was a gift borne on steel wings, from the Lion Fish City.  You can purchase it from Books Actually, Singapore’s number one independent bookstore.

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Signal Boost – International Science Fiction Issue 1

This is the second issue put out by the team at ISF, issue 0 was released in June and I somehow missed it.

So issue 1 features fiction from Joyce Chng, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, and a translated work by  Marian Truta.

There’s a reprint of a Stenislaw Lem essay on Phillip K Dick and some great cover art by Rafael Mendes.

ISF comes in pdf format, is 32 pages long and free.  I’d happily pay for epub version though as reading the pdf on my laptop screen is not optimal.

Chng’s Metal Can Lanterns, was a great twist on honouring traditions, and on the naturally subversive and subtly challenging nature of young children.

Loenen-Ruiz’s,59 Beads, was an enthralling piece about sacrifices made for families, and the unseen cost of that sacrifice.

All in all it was a nice powerful little package of International speculative fiction.  I recommend you check them out at http://internationalsf.wordpress.com

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Ayam Curtain Launches

Ayam Curtain, an anthology of Singaporean speculative fiction, launched at the Singapore Writers Festival this Sunday past. 

Editors Joyce Chng (@jolantru) & JY Yang (@MizHalle) with the help of publishers Math Paper Press,fulfilled a dream of launching at the prestigious event.

Photo’s of the event can be seen here.

I am chasing up a TOC so that you can start to recognize these young speculative fiction up and comers, and seeing if I can order a copy.

Edit: Joyce has provided a TOC here

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Seeing different frontiers

Joyce Chng has written an interesting post on being A straddler between worlds that deserves your attention. 

It’s an interesting look at how writers from post colonial societies are expected to act, and what they are expected to write about to be accepted by the literary scene both at home and abroad.

To quote another article she links to in her post:

Let’s start with my last name. It immediately signifies that I am not white. I am ethnic Chinese, my forebears immigrants from China. So, am I supposed to write literary fiction about tumultuous struggles out of Communist China or craft a tale about mother-daughter relationships ala Joy Luck Club? I write speculative fiction—genre fiction isn’t well received by local publishers. I can’t force myself to write literary fiction. It isn’t me.

When you think Genre might not be respected in Australia by the wider literary scene, spare a thought for our northern cousins.

She also signal boosts a peerbacker project called We See a Different Frontier a special issue/anthology of colonialism-themed speculative fiction from outside the first-world viewpoint, co-edited by Fabio Fernandes and published by The Future Fire.

Worth checking out and perhaps pitching in.

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