Alphaland and Other Stories by Cristina Jurado
I would like to thank Calque Press for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Calque Press
Published – Out Now
Price – £10.99 paperback
Otherness is the idea that permeates all these speculative stories, full of characters troubled by the misconstruction of their identities, and in permanent search for answers in the margins of reality. From upgraded humans to individuals living among daydreams, from monsters to fantastic beings, these creatures populate a highly imaginative and evocative world, impregnated by an inspired sense of wonder. Draw near with care and enter Alphaland!
One of the best things about reading is when you take a chance. When someone says I think this may be up your street and for now it’s an author you’ve not come across before. When you get the first page and suddenly WHAM you’re hooked. You keep reading and while the words are terrifying, awesome and lyrical but you’re smiling because the reading is just so damn good! (Annoyingly Robert Shearman has similar feelings more eloquently explained in their introduction to this piece) That’s the experience reading Alphaland and Other Stories by Cristina Jurado (with excellent translations by James Womack, Sue Burke, Steve Redwood and Ines Galiano) a sumptuous collection of surprising short stories that take the reader into the stranger and more dangerous waters of science fiction, fantasy and horror but they’re so inviting you can’t help yourself diving in.
In this collection we start with the magnificent ‘Vanth’ a tale of surprises. A young boy and his alcoholic father to a hunting trip has a few consequences we see when he becomes a powerful politician. What then surprises us is how Jurado turns the tables on this unpleasant man we slightly understand and his assignation with a prostitute goes very very wrong for him. Jurado enters someone quite surprising and gives then a voice that moves this story in the supernatural and it becomes haunting, ethereal and just captivating. One of those stories you don’t forget in a hurry.
Then to show the versatility Jurado holds a science fiction tale with more than a nod to David Bowie in ‘Inchworm’ where one of the scenes from Ashes to Ashes video inspires a tale of an astronaut who has gone far out into space and yet there are connections to the rick star’s life interwoven which make this a blend of science fiction, poetry and alternate biography that is hugely impressive.
Unsettling is a huge feeling experienced in ‘Alice’ where the main character finds up to find she has asked for all her memories to be wiped. The absolute strangeness of no longer knowing who you were is played with a minor chord of uneasiness that rises as our main character asks a robot cleaner to help her out and finally the tale erupts with a dark wave of violence suggesting something nasty is about to begin.
A magnificent horror tale also capturing the dark power of grief is experienced in ‘Second Death of the Father’. A woman who had a complex estranged relationship with her father finds that his death not just releases a powerful grief but triggers haunting of her father and a mysterious dangerous creature she alone sees. Jurado writes the pain of grief powerfully so we feel the main character’s torment and the addition of the supernatural is held in a way that this could be supernatural or psychological and that the story lets us deciding means either answer is horror enough.
Another shorter but haunting tale is ‘Alphaland’ where our narrator describes their stranger hidden thoughts that finally led them to living in Alphaland and it is left for us as readers to decipher what may have actually happened. Disconcerting yet beautifully delivered.
A fascinating mix of first contact and cosmic horror is delivered in ‘Embracing the Movement’ where a ancient, intelligent and huge but very alien creature meets a human space traveller. We get the encounter told purely from the alien’s point of view and Jurado delivers a voice unique, we get to savour a totally alien experience and view of life and yet as we now know Jurado tends to have surprises so where this tale goes in its final act is both understandable and yet not your standard science fiction tale.
There is a powerful building tragic horror story to be found in ‘Lamia’ a tale of a young woman who meets a man who bewitches her with his strange words, beauty and manages to destroy and change her life. That would be disturbing enough but the latter half explores the consequence of what lamia has become and leads to a tale of death and monsters with a truly chilling brilliant last line.
There are also two tales of truly alien, yet familiar ways of life explored in ‘Dump’ that imagines a world where life in a rubbish dump is very dangerous and ‘The Shepherd’ where we meet an unusual very alien (possibly far future human descendent) and a not-so-simple simple shepherd gets into great danger. But you can’t help thinking their flock is also very alive. Here Jurado in both tales explains a whole different way of life to what we know and yet it all feels very real.
Alphaland and Other Stories is one of the most unique and fascinating collections I’ve read in a very long time. It’s a spellbinding read that never makes you take a breath when you realise where we’ve got to at the end of each tale. Its bewitching and strongly recommended!
