Published in Issue 22 of Visionary Tongue, Summer 2007.

%CODE-Amazon%It does pretty much what it says on the tin/cover – Glorifying Terrorism is an anthology of writings that, funnily enough, feature terrorism in some form, and if some of the stories don’t exactly glorify terrorism, their presence in this volume is nonetheless a statement – a refusal to accept the silliness of the new law, which if it were to be acted on to its nth degree would more or less put a stop to all stories that weren’t about fluffy bunnies. No, that’s strictly not true; some stories might come into existence that feature the blowing up of fluffy bunnies and they wouldn’t be acceptable at all. What we are talking about is the potential loss of a great landscape of fiction, and standing up for its preservation is akin to standing up for the Amazonian Rainforest in literary terms.

Stories by Ian Watson and Ian Whates also feature in this collection, which has attracted a bubbling under of appreciative murmurings across the Internet in some cultish places (Boing Boing, Spyblog, The Guardian sic). There are some well known names and some not so well known names listed among the contributors, but in contributing to this anthology, the likes of Ken Macleod, Charles Stross, Jo Walton, Gwyneth Jones, Hal Duncan and many others stand up to be counted.

Needless to say, it wouldn’t be worth their doing if the writings weren’t very, very good. Ian Watson’s ‘Hijack Holiday’ is fantastic, and I was touched by the poetic writings of relative newcomers Kira Franz and Kari Sperring. Worth getting for the quote by China Mieville on the cover alone!

Rackstraw Press ISBN: 978-0955468803

Review by Donna Scott