Published – Out Now
Price – £9.99 paperback £2.99 ebook
Be inspired. Look to the future with hope, not fear.
Enjoy adventures set in and around the Humber region of Yorkshire, England. Discover characters and communities who overcome the challenges of climate change to find potential instead of dismay.
These ten science fiction and fantasy stories are written by established and emerging authors of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Humber Speculative Fiction, and include past guests of Humber Science Fiction and Fantasy events held in Hull and East Yorkshire.
Often the 2020s have seemed to be a regular mix of despair and anger but while the hope is said to be what kills you, I sense its also what’s keeping us going. That eventually people will try being rational and kind for a change. With western storytelling there often is a belief that conflict must be made to a story and so perhaps that’s why hopeful tales feel anathema to a story, but I think we forget resolution is also part of the tale. Things coming back together or even better than at the start are also key to a tale. In Susan Oke and Shellie Horst’s new anthology Challenging The Tides – An Anthology of Hope we get an interesting mix of stories all based around the Humber area that suggest there may one day be better days to come and that is always worth believing in.
With ‘Weather Station 451’ by Keith W Dickinson we have an unusual static character in the form of a partially sentient weather station. It’s a fascinating premise as we watch temperature and CO2 levels rise and to the machine’s confusion his operators seem to be getting weaker and weaker and yet then things change. Having an almost child like narrator trying to interpret why the world has gone so wrong and what could happen next really works and it’s a story that really pulls you into the collection.
With ‘Distilled Dregs’ by Rick Danforth we have a tale of worker rights that really shows the power of protest. Rosie specialises in repairing the units that allow the enclosed settlement to breathe but the owners continually reduce the workforce and increase the hours for little pay. Jobs are scarce so the pressure to keep your head down is high. I really liked how this story uses a future setting to explore issues of environmental disaster btu also how resistance against capitalism can work. The tension of who will back up Rosie is very palpable but that makes the payoff even sweeter.
One thing I noticed in the collection of tales reminding us that the future can be bittersweet in ‘To See The Deep’ by Andrew Knighton we have a tale of when the future remedies are now not viewed as viable. We follow Sam the last kelp farmer for the Humber Estuary and he is about to be told his beds are to be destroyed. This story plays with reader expectation - is it one of resistance, greed or perhaps just that we all must accept things will change and are needed to change. It’s a tale of learning to change perspective and really works as this sis something many stories forget is possible with a character.
I was very impressed by ‘Resilience, Resistance, Relocation’ by Shona Kinsella. It starts with a hook of a mother feeling London with a sick child. But Kinsella makes the mother an unusually snobbish character seeking her deceased partner’s rich family estate. What she finds distresses her. It would be very easy for the reader to lose sympathy but actually we get a well told story of learning that the world needs to change again, and our roles change with it. As with Knighton’s tale perspectives are changing and that allows the world for the characters to change too.
With ‘My Home, Your Home’ by Carl F Northwood this imagines a future where fae powers get back into the world. There is a conflict and a future knight must hunt a renegade. It’s an enjoyable but simple tale of people learning not everything is black and white but feels a little old school for my tastes.
There is an interesting angle with ‘The Last of the Solar Giants’ by Daniel Godfrey we have a group trying to break into a mysterious abandoned energy facility. Is this about energy hoarding, environmental damage or something new. The answer is the latter, but this presents an interesting question about human beings and our need for a horizon to aim at. The tension ultimately is about someone wanting more from life and what a world that limits that ide ais like. It’s a thoughtful tale.
Returning to the theme of the future being bittersweet we have ‘The Rider’ by Will Slater. A mysterious bike rider is heading around a fractured apocalyptic Humber area. The ruined landscape is presented well but there seems to be a story about the rebuilding but what gives this story an emotional kick is our rider’s backstory. It gives the story a real sense of heart and an ambivalent future for his fascinating character that really worked for me.
With ‘The Power of Art’ By Shellie Horst we have an unusual tale that in some ways is about post-apocalyptic settlements meeting one another but unusually its an artist desperate for carbon that is the catalyst/ I really liked a story that says people need art and culture just as much as food and raw materials and indeed art may help bridge gaps even better.
In a similar way ‘Hull’s teeth’ also uses a future Hull to bridge cultures but this time it imagines different ways humans could evolve as well. It is quite an effective mini adventure story with sympathetic characters realising that they can work together well.
I really liked the final tale ‘See The World’ by Jaydon Nolan. A time traveller is sent to investigate a woman’s mysterious descendent. It captures the curiosity of someone seeing a world they cannot recognise but helps modern day readers see our world afresh. There is an intriguing mystery here and the revelation at the end could easily have made the tale tragic but actually its a story of appreciating every moment we have and finding that hope to hang onto.
This is a really interesting anthology with a great mix of variety and ways to explore the theme of hope. In a week where we perhaps have reminder that things can change for the better its well worth your time and highly recommended!
