The author of Currents of Change, a paranormal ghost story set in rural New
Zealand, Darian’s Smith’s latest work offers its own share of demons. Releasing in August 2015, Shifting Worlds is an anthology of sixteen
diverse stories, including both literary and speculative fiction, all deep,
relevant, and extremely readable.
The collection includes a zombie story with
some unlikely heroes, set alongside a harrowing tale of miscarriage and
despair. There is Slippery Road, a
story about tough life choices, Girl in
the Window a classic off-world tale, with elaborate world-building and a
twist I didn’t see coming, and Recession,
a favourite of mine, Smith’s chilling story of hard times which first appeared
in the charity Baby Teeth: Bite-sized
Tales of Terror.
Some of stories have been previously published, several
are competition winners, and three have earned Smith a place in the finals of
New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards, so readers can be confident that they
are well-written and engaging. Indeed,
the stories are full of poetic imagery: a pack of bullies is “a beast with four
heads”, the hospital has “intestinal corridors” and Mum wears “the bruise of
the week” on her cheekbone. Yet
this is not simply a book of enjoyable yarns, although they are that. As Smith
states: “Stories are
often a way to process an emotion or experience – to extrapolate it to a fuller
conclusion in a way we wouldn’t dare to do in real life. They are literally … where the author’s
demons hide.” If what Smith says is true, then this collection is haunted, a
sideshow of the demons with
which the author does battle in his every day journey throughout adulthood. Take
Atrophy, for example: this story was
written when Smith’s wife was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. It asks the
question “Am I going to stay for this, or leave and build a ‘normal’ life
elsewhere?” Not a comfortable theme by any means, but Smith dares to explore
it, and he does it well, in a brutal and poignant testimony to the woman who is
his muse.
Another example is Double
Happiness a story of promise and loss, which explores the relationship
between an immigrant Chinese calligrapher and his wife. This story, in
particular, resonated for me, as the granddaughter of an immigrant Chinese general
and his young opera singer wife. I mentioned to Smith the impact the story had
had on me and learned that Smith’s wife had a hand in its development: “That
was a challenge to write—it was before Adrienne and I had recognised our
pattern: I come up with an idea, she thinks it’s naf, I write it and she loves
it after all. So, she was saying it sounded lame and was it smart for a white
guy to be writing an Asian immigrant perspective anyway? And I was stubbornly
pushing ahead.” I find it interesting that a throwaway comment from someone
whose approval counts can be enough to make a determined writer pull up his sleeves,
do his research, and write something exceptional.
For me, this was further evidence
that in Shifting Worlds there is a
story in the spaces, in the pauses between where one story ends and another
begins, in the ellipses, and in the margins.
More than the sum of its parts, Shifting Worlds tells of a writer’s
inspiration, and how, if he tries hard enough, a man might just be able to move
the world with the power of his imagination.
With a foreword by Jennifer Fallon,
the author of well-known works such as The Demon Child Trilogy, The Hythrun Chronicles, and The Tide Lord Quadrilogy, Shifting
Worlds is a superb
collection from one of New Zealand’s emerging talents. Highly recommended.
Publisher - Wooden Tiger Press
Publisher - Wooden Tiger Press
Lee Murray is a five-time winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award and
holds an Australian Shadows Award (with Dan Rabarts) for Baby Teeth: Bite-sized Tales of Terror (Paper Road Press).
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