Review: Four entertaining speculative fiction stories
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2014
I read an advance copy of Conclave and was impressed by these four pieces of speculative fiction from New Zealand authors.  Over 90,000 words altogether, they are a mixture of novellas and stories.The first, A Mer-tale by Jan Goldie, is an enchanting story mostly told from the point of view of Thala, a young mermaid living with her uncle and aunt following the disappearance of her parents after an invasion by an alien species, the Sprats, drove the merfolk out of their natural home.  In part, the story is also told from the point of view of Shiv, one of the Sprats, who takes an interest in the merfolk and begins to question the values of his own people.  It's an interesting story about accepting others who are different, and the two main characters, Thala and Shiv, are portrayed well.The second, The Fence by Piper Mejia, is set in a dystopian world ruled by a nameless and faceless Corporation, who extract "volunteers" from a small town.  The story focuses on Doze, a schoolboy with attitude, his two sisters and a few others, who decide to escape from their unpleasant existence.  The setting and dialogue in this story is memorable.The third, Conclave Seven by Lee Murray, is a kind of galactic competition involving solving potentially lethal problems and, akin to the Hunger Games, possibly knocking off some of the competition along the way.  The story follows four unfortunate young humans, all strangers, who, because of their genetic links to an ancient warrior, were selected to compete against several alien species to retain their world's place in the galactic government league table.  It's an entertaining and action-packed story with themes on teamwork and ethics, great writing and dialogue.The fourth, Peach and Araxie by Celine Murray, is set on a generational interstellar ship on which no one recalls their home world and is still twenty years from their destination, if they are still on track at all.  Peach, a young student, is surprised when she gets contacted from offship by Araxie, who befriends her, and she shares her concerns about the voyage with him because her mother is unwilling to discuss them with her.  This is a unique story which I really liked, and I didn't pick the ending at all.