A City Equal to My Desire

by James Sallis

Pointblank/Wildside Press, 167 pp. $29.95

A hardback collection of short stories from one of science fiction’s - what? Sallis was one of the rising stars of the New Wave of the 1970s, appearing in Harlan Ellison’s ‘Again Dangerous Visions’ and Damon Knight’s ‘Orbit’ anthologies. He helped Michael Moorcock edit ‘New Worlds’ magazine in London, and Moorcock put him onto detective novels. Then, Sallis abandoned the genre for mystery writing – or did he? A short sketch may make such a claim, but this collection from 2004 complicates the picture. There is a story from Asimov’s magazine in 2001. Another is from F&SF magazine in 2003. There is a genuine spaceship-inspired story, Pitt’s World, appearing here for the first time. Plus 22 other stories.

Only a few are longer than three pages, though. I’d count about 68 pages as snippets of what could be called arealistic fiction, while the other 100 pages are varieties of mundane fiction like crime stories. Most of the arealistic stories have an offbeat twist that makes them speculative fiction, perhaps part of that catchphrase The New Weird. So if you like really short stories with a weird twist, this one’s for you. See how quality writing can tell a complete story in just a few pages. Ahhh, you say, I’m not shelling out thirty bucks for half a book of weird short-shorts? No problem – I checked my copy out of the public library.

While this reaffirms Sallis as an old master of the New Wave, he is more than that, truly a Man of Letters. He does write detective novels, but he also publishes book reviews, poetry, essays, and musicology. He wrote the biography of novelist Chester Himes, and he has edited an academic collection about Samuel Delany (does that name ring a bell?). Yeah, but is he part of the scifi community any more? Well, he IS one of the regular book reviewers for F&SF magazine. In fact, he teaches a course on science fiction writing at Phoenix Community College.

Hmmm, complicated indeed. - Mike Griffin