Book Review: A Foreign Country – New Zealand Speculative Fiction edited by Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan

A Foreign Country – New Zealand Speculative Fiction edited by Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan, Random Static, RRP $24.95, ISBN 978-0-473-16916-9, Available now.

If the past is a foreign country, it follows that the future is even more so. This collection of New Zealand speculative fiction brings together New Zealand  stories about that which is yet to come.

Speculative fiction, for the uninitiated, is fiction based on a What If. What if aliens invaded Gisborne? What if Hot Water Beach had mysterious healing powers? What if we flew coma class instead of cattle class? What if our lease on the planet ran out?

Because A Foreign Country is New Zealand spec fic, many of the stories are set here, which is delightful. I found Tim Jones’ idea of Auckland being The Last Good Place on earth very kind on the ego (even if the vision painted by the story was a little harsh). Having said that, sci fi buffs and Aucklanders alike will recognise that it’s hardly an original thought.

Speaking of original thoughts, it seems unlikely that such a high percentage of the population of the future will be hardboiled detectives. And I’ll believe in just about any premise thrown at me, but the wise-cracking, human-sized, gun-toting evil mutant possums stretched my suspension of disbelief to breaking point.

It’s all good fun, but because these stories are so plot driven, the characterisation can suffer. I understand it’s difficult to shove character, action and an entirely-new-yet-eerily-familiar-universe into a dozen pages, but some stories do succeed -which make others fall a little flat. Some absolute standouts included Back and Beyond by Juliet Marillier, Tourists by Anna Caro, High Tide at Hot Water Beach by Paul Hanies and Beneath the Trees by Claire Brunette. They’re definite read-agains, but overall I thought A Foreign Country could have been a third shorter.

I found this story collection like I find all story collections – a little hit and miss. I’ve never found a story collection where I’ve loved every story. It’s also not very light: all the stories seemed to lean towards the depressing. I would have enjoyed more visions of the future which didn’t involve the end of the human race. I appreciate that part of the role of A Foreign Country is to act as a vision of a distopia so powerful we’ll all stop reading and go save the planet. But I haven’t given up on my hope for a future filled with flying cars, moon bases and endless leisure time so I found some of the visions of the future a bit of a downer.

A Foreign Country is a solid introduction to spec fic, and a good read for those who love the genre. However, compared to many New Zealand story collections, it falls a little flat.