https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3753545.html

OK, a big peeve here: the title of the book as published is partly in mock-Cyrillic, STЯAПGE BEDFЗLLФШS. This kind of thing really annoys me. Я is a vowel, З and Ф are consonants, and П and Ш may be consonants but they sound nothing like N or W. Russian is a real language, as are Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Kazakh, etc, and these letters have real meanings. It seems odd for a book published almost a quarter of a century after the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe to equate Cyrillic script with subversive politics.

This is a 2014 anthology of original stories with political themes. I may just have been tired when reading it, but the only one that really lingered with me was the opener, Eugie Foster's "Tried as an Adult", which takes the U.S. justice system and extrapolates it to a grim conclusion. Funny how the concerns of 2014 just look a bit different now. It's been a long seven years (especially the last one). ( )

An often-terrific new Canadian anthology of politically based science fiction tales from around the globe and beyond. Okay, not from beyond, but how cool would that be? From my Quill & Quire review (here): “The late, great Kurt Vonnegut wrote that if a writer “tries to put his politics into a work of the imagination, he will foul up his work beyond all recognition.” Strange Bedfellows sometimes wavers and stumbles, but the talents on display put the lie to his theory.”

Read the full review here ( )

Strange Bedfellows, an anthology edited by Hayden Trenholm, provides us with a series of politically-oriented science fiction tales. It has stories that analyse the concepts of equality and diversity, stories that study possible evolutions of the human diet, and those that analyse legal topics like capital punishment for corporations or judging children as adults.

Like I said before, Strange Bedfellows contained a mixed bag of stories, both in their topics and in their power to make the reader stop and think. I found some more powerful than others, but, overall, I have been glad to read this anthology for stories like Tried as an Adult, which has probably become one of my favourite reads of the year.

Read the full review on Jetpack dragons: http://www.jetpackdragons.com/2014/03/political-science-fiction-stories-make-str... ( )