Friday 14 August 2009

The Fix Says...

THE FIX

Apex Magazine, May 2009
By Kimberly Lundstrom ⋅ August 8, 2009
The May 2009 issue of Apex Magazine features three stories of characters navigating a changed or changing world.

“Hideki and the Gnomes” by Mark Lee Pearson has the haunting quality of a dark fairy tale murmured in the flickering light of a dying fire. Yet it is entirely modern. Hideki looks on as, one by one, the moons in the sky disappear or are destroyed, wreaking havoc all around him. As his world deconstructs, technology moves backward and Hideki takes action. But it is unclear whether he has taken the right course.

Using structural repetition and a portentous countdown from twelve moons, Pearson offers a puzzling but intriguing picture of apocalypse.

Saturday 1 August 2009

MARK @ ASIMOV'S???

My short story "Hideki and the Gnomes" got a tiny mention in the Best New Stories thread on the discussion board at ASIMOV's 5/28/2009!

Review of Hideki Desu at TANGENT

Reviewed by Steve Fahnestalk

TANGENT

“Hideki Desu,” by Mark Lee Pearson, surprised me. Since the title character, Hideki, is described as "a short, serious kid in a white button-down shirt and large horn-rimmed glasses,” I immediately had two thoughts: Hiro Nakamura, from the TV series Heroes; and, Oh, cripes, another Japanese story by someone who has only read manga and seen Japanese movies.

To the first thought, I can say, "well, maybe, in a way,” but to the second, "no way!" Pearson is obviously familiar with Japan, and that knowledge adds a certain vividness to the story that can't be gotten out of books and movies; only first-hand knowledge will serve. (When you know what you’re talking about, it really shows.)

Gaijin (foreigners) are needed in Japan, because every Japanese sarariman (literally, "salaryman") wants to learn English as a way to make more money, but Hideki has a novel way of doing so… he eavesdrops on gaijin dreams. Our unnamed gaijin protagonist meets Hideki on a Tokyo train platform and from then on things become more surreal than even a westerner familiar with Japan can imagine. "Hideki desu" means "I'm Hideki"—and by the end of the story you won't have a clue who Hideki really is. Nicely done and quite fun to read, and you don't need to know a word of Japanese to enjoy it.