Leena Krohn: Collected Fiction

This ambitious collection of short and long fiction is a delightful feast of the finest SF. Krohn's creations are crisp and concise, using precision of language to convey tales frightening and fantastical. The enchanting and challenging "Tainaron: Mail from Another City" evokes the enthusiasm of a tourist's reports, which describe an alien city full of horrors made more shocking by their familiarity. Its meditation on individuality is echoed in "Pereat Mundus: a Novel of Sorts." In "Datura: or a Figment Seen by Everyone," the style is tender and romantic as it conveys the protagonist's courtship of the supernatural even at the risk of her own life. The inclusion of essays, an appendix, and a philosophical poem supports and enhances the reading. The most haunting moments are to be found among the short fiction and novel excerpts. An author's palpable disappointment gives "Final Appearance," an unforgettable, heartbreaking symmetry, and the excerpt from Dreamdeath has a cold inevitability as dreamers select their own fates. Fans of strange and wonderful ficiton will relish the opportunity to appreciate the scope of Krohn's vision as it develops with her unique and confident voice. (Nov.)