Kiernan is one of the greats in the sf/f/h space; you might recognize her from Agents of Dreamland or one of her mini-series in The Sandman universe. Although Kiernan is mostly known for her weird and horror fiction, she has also written a lot of speculative and science fiction throughout her career. Bradbury Weather collects her science fiction short stories in one anthology to provide readers access to her sci-fi work in one collection.
Synopsis:
Though Caitlín R. Kiernan is known primarily as a preeminent author of the weird and the macabre, and is often cited as Lovecraft’s successor, during the three-decades of their career they have also been a prolific author of science fiction. Indeed, Kiernan’s first SF tales appeared in print before any of their weird fiction (“Persephone” and “Between the Flatirons and the Deep Green Sea,” both 1995). And while their science fiction has often been praised by critics, the author has only ever released a single collection specifically devoted to their SF—A is for Alien (2009). Finally, with the publication of Bradbury Weather, almost all of Kiernan’s science-fiction short stories and novellas have been collected in one volume.
These twenty-eight tales paint a picture of dystopian futures, first contacts gone horribly awry, the limits and dangers of technology, and encounters with the alien within us all. From Earth to Mars to distant exoplanets, from the past to the present to the future, Kiernan surveys a cosmos that is strange and marvelous and oftentimes inimical to human life. A paleontologist by training, they bring to their SF a deep understanding of science, its methods, and its limits, with their scientific background often informing and lending an authenticity to their tales of deep time, deep space, extraterrestrial life, and things that might be.
Review:
At 800 pages, this is a massive collection of sci-fi and speculative short fiction pieces; it’s an anthology you won’t easily finish in one afternoon. There is so much to this collection, giving readers plenty of options to of stories to choose from. As with most anthologies, not every short story in the collection worked well for me. The piece I liked most was the final, titular short story, “Bradbury Weather.” I also enjoyed “Galapagos” and “Zero Summer.”
However, my favorite parts of the collection, by far, were Kiernan’s introductions for each story. These story introductions, simple as they were, served as unique and clever additions to this anthology. I enjoyed reading the history of each short story, and these sections really add to the full effect of the book. I wish more single-author anthologies would follow suit.
Final Thoughts: If you’re a fan of straightforward and uncomplicated science fiction, this anthology is not for you. However, if your tastes lean toward the weird or the macabre, this is a collection of strange sci-fi and horror-leaning short stories worth your time.
Thanks to Subterranean Press for providing me an advanced review copy of the book. All the above thoughts are my own.
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