‘The Mom Walk: a Story in Five Stories’ is Alice Kim’s first published piece; and it’s a bold beginning, as it veers in its five sections between numerous viewpoints and grammatical voices. In Kim’s capable hands, what could have been a mess is a strikingly effective way of telling the story of Wendy and Wanda, counterparts from parallel universes whose mothers disappear one day, and who are visited by two alien students investigating the mysterious event they have dubbed the ‘Mom Walk’. But the tale is more than just an exercise in technique; there’s also a strong emotional element, which Kim handles well. My main reservation is that Wanda’s and Wendy’s voices perhaps aren’t distinctive enough for them to come across as separate personalities; but that’s really a small gripe, and Alice Kim is surely a writer to watch out for in the future.

‘Shackles’ by David J. Schwartz is set in a dungeon where the disparate group of prisoners have little to do but tell each other their stories; but one story, that of Maximus Mane, might just have the power to change things. From what might seem an unpromising set-up, Schwartz evokes an intriguing world, both within the dungeon and beyond it; we come to understand that the setting is not atsstraightforward as we might first assume (one of the captives is an automaton, for example). Add a political edge to the imagination and the result is a remarkable piece of work that leaves one thinking afterwards, about both the issues raised and the world depicted. When I’d finished the story, I did wonder about one thing in particular, but my doubts went away once I realized that the prisoners were in more than one kind of shackle. All in all, ‘Shackles’ is a superb read.

F. Brett Cox’s ‘My Whole World Lies Waiting’ is the story of Patrick and Carol, a couple travelling across country to visit relatives and take in the sights along the way – sights which turn out to include a number of strange doors that lead to somewhere, and leave the couple uttering lines of French (which neither understands) once they emerge. The trouble I had with this story was that I couldn’t figure out the significance of the doors, even after identifying the French and where the story’s title comes from; so I ended up feeling puzzled rather than intrigued. And the doors seem to be so central to the tale that it’s quite hard to judge it on other terms. The story also doesn’t flow perhaps as well as it could, with too much background detail that feels ‘dropped in’. So I wasn’t too happy with ‘My Whole World Lies Waiting’; but, then again, a lot of that is down to my personal reaction to the story, so perhaps it’s one to read and judge for yourself.

Heather Shaw contributes ‘Mountain, Man’, in which John Tucker accidentally shoots a young woman on the side of his mountain and takes her back to his cabin, to find that she is infested with all manner of wildlife – and things only get stranger. Shaw’s tale starts brilliantly but, though it remains well written, unfortunately it does not live up to that early promise. The problem is that there’s not enough ambiguity about the girl’s identity for it to be a surprise. ‘Mountain, Man’ is still worth reading, but it’s not as good as it could be.

In ‘The Ghost Line’, Meghan McCarron takes us to a world weirdly transformed by an event known only as the ‘Flash’; grass has grown to the height of a jungle, and ghosts (not all of them dead) roam the land. Against this background, young Fish sets out in search of her lover Pabst, who has left the Clearing without telling her. Much of this tale’s effect comes from the strangeness of the setting (depicted evocatively by McCarron), so it would be inappropriate to reveal much more. I was a little confused by the ending, but the journey made up for that.

The book closes with Geoffrey H. Goodwin’s ‘Release the Bats’, an odd little tale about a man who makes pacts with demons, but told from the viewpoint of his estranged daughter, Constance, who is fed up with her father and takes matters into her own hands. As with ‘The Ghost Line’, it’s if I keep the details a secret; suffice it to say that Goodwin’s tale is an unusual and effective twist on a fairly standard theme, and a fitting end to the anthology.

The tales in ‘Long Voyages, Great Lies’ are all different, both from each other and from what you’ll find in the average short fiction publication. They all merit a read, and some are particularly good. This volume surely marks Rabid Transit out as a source of good-quality, dynamic fiction. If a story can be considered a form of lie, these are indeed great lies.

David Hebblethwaite lives out in the wilds of Yorkshire, where he attempts to make a dent in his collection of unread books. You can read more of David's reviews at his review blog.

© 2006 Laura Hird All rights reserved.