Scan barcode
A review by daveversace
One Small Step: An Anthology of Discoveries by Tehani Croft Wessely
4.0
One Small Step: An Anthology of Discoveries is a showcase of Australia's current wealth of women writing speculative fiction. These 16 stories cover a range of genres, from far-future science fiction to dark fantasy, fairytales - traditional and post-modern - to police procedurals, and the odd foray into the weird. All tie into a theme of exploration and discovery - emotional, intellectual and sometimes geographic.
My experience of themed anthologies is that the quality can vary considerably, usually with one or two outstanding stories balanced out by mostly good ones and a couple of duds. One Small Step is better than that. The standard here is very high. The worst that I could say about editor Tehani Wessely's selection is that a couple of them are excellent specimens of styles that aren't to my tastes. Even the very few stories I didn't particularly like were undeniably worth reading. (In fact the story I enjoyed the least in the collection was probably the most strongly written. My tastes don't always line up perfectly with storytelling excellence!) I would note that if your speculative fiction appetite starts and end with hard science fiction of the spaceships and robots variety, there's probably only one story - D K Mok's "Morning Star" - that will suit. But it is a good one!
I'm calling out a few of my favourites here, but take my word for it that I'm not papering over any cracks in the collection. I'm prepared to bet that every story here would make someone's top three.
One Small Step opens with Michelle Marquardt's "Always Greener", a child's encounter with strange aliens on a hostile colony world, a setup that seems like it could go anywhere but still takes an unexpected and bittersweet turn. Jodie Cleghorn's "Firefly Epilogue" is a colourful evocation of the Australian tourist's experience of Malaysia, again tinged with a sweet sadness. I adored Tansy Rayner Roberts' "Cold White Daughter", a homage that nails its colours proudly and playfully to the mast, while re-examining a beloved childhood tale.
One Small Step is worth picking up for a good idea of what the current renaissance in Australian speculative fiction looks like at the moment. Smart, heartfelt and a little bit otherworldly. It works for me.
My experience of themed anthologies is that the quality can vary considerably, usually with one or two outstanding stories balanced out by mostly good ones and a couple of duds. One Small Step is better than that. The standard here is very high. The worst that I could say about editor Tehani Wessely's selection is that a couple of them are excellent specimens of styles that aren't to my tastes. Even the very few stories I didn't particularly like were undeniably worth reading. (In fact the story I enjoyed the least in the collection was probably the most strongly written. My tastes don't always line up perfectly with storytelling excellence!) I would note that if your speculative fiction appetite starts and end with hard science fiction of the spaceships and robots variety, there's probably only one story - D K Mok's "Morning Star" - that will suit. But it is a good one!
I'm calling out a few of my favourites here, but take my word for it that I'm not papering over any cracks in the collection. I'm prepared to bet that every story here would make someone's top three.
One Small Step opens with Michelle Marquardt's "Always Greener", a child's encounter with strange aliens on a hostile colony world, a setup that seems like it could go anywhere but still takes an unexpected and bittersweet turn. Jodie Cleghorn's "Firefly Epilogue" is a colourful evocation of the Australian tourist's experience of Malaysia, again tinged with a sweet sadness. I adored Tansy Rayner Roberts' "Cold White Daughter", a homage that nails its colours proudly and playfully to the mast, while re-examining a beloved childhood tale.
One Small Step is worth picking up for a good idea of what the current renaissance in Australian speculative fiction looks like at the moment. Smart, heartfelt and a little bit otherworldly. It works for me.