Book Review: The Feverish Stars by John Shirley

 

The Feverish Stars by John Shirley 

Independent Legions, Paperback 297 pages

Published March 3rd 2021

I have reviewed probably more than 30 John Shirley titles and I have to balance repeating myself, with the fact that you the reader of this review might be seeing my words about John Shirley for the first time. I wrote a very detailed article about the history and importance of this writer whose most famous work might be the screenplay for The Crow, he was the writer who put a guitar in Eric’s hands. In my opinion, he has masterpieces in both Science Fiction (City Come a-Walkin’) and Horror (Wetbones).

While there are more than two dozen totally genius novels in both genres, including some underrated tie-in novels in franchises from Hellblazer, Predator, and Alien. John is a prolific novelist but his output on short stories is also completely off the rails. The Feverish Stars is just the latest in a series of collections that include: The Exploded Heart, Black Butterflies, In Extremis, Lovecraft Alive, Living Shadows, and the soon-to-be re-issued Really, Really, Really Weird Stories. John Shirley's short stories sometimes experiment with form and structure. When he wants to, he can mimic the styles of Poe and Lovecraft with an uncanny knack. He has recently found a vibe that will remind keen readers of the powerful fantasies of Jack Vance who was a favorite of Shirley growing up.

Introduced by RC Matheson who is no slouch on the short story front, this latest collection The Feverish Stars collects the recent output in the last decade or so. The last collection we got was Lovecraft Alive, as John was asked often to contribute to Lovecraftian style collections. This book has a few of those. The underlying theme of these stories is a very smooth blend of cosmic dread and the creeping dehumanization of technology. Don’t mistake that theme as something Luddite in nature. The reality is we older folk who lived fine without technology get nervous seeing young folk depend on it.

John Shirley's stories always have a socio-political point of view. Often not in a preachy way, although few preach a point of view in genre better than Shirley, look at his criminally underrated The Other End or Demons as novels who preach like hell and I love them for it. If you don’t like authors with a point of view then John Shirley is not going to be your jam.

Most of the stories in this collection are not the preachy type, the messages are mostly subtle except for a few key examples. There are thousands of voices in this genre so the promise of a John Shirley story is that outspoken voice. He was a student at Clarion with Harlan Ellison who was his teacher at Clarion, alongside Frank Herbert and Ursala Leguin. He was the writer in spiked dog collar, Climbing trees, and throwing stuff at Harlan, Shirley was a genre middle finger mixed with sharp intelligence and fierce anger.  Writing skill, with street-level grit and a righteous eye for justice.

So add wisdom and experience and it would be easy to dull an edge. This collection proves that the storytelling edge is still sharp and if you read John Shirley prepare to get cut deep. There were several stories in this collection that gave me that feeling. The opening salvo was one I read before in the PM outspoken author series. State of Imprisonment is a dark satire where the entire state of Arizona is turned into a high-tech prison. This novella is a savage political statement. Just as powerful my second time reading it. As a devoted Shirley reader, I had checked out several of these stories before but was happy to look at them again.

So as I do with collections let's look at some of my favorite stories, and a couple of powerful moments. My favorite stories included Meega, Weedkiller, Waiting Room, and one written just for this collection Exelda’s Voice.  

Working backward the latter of the stories is a fantastic story, that is a sly character-driven story about a criminal who robs a bank with the help of a next-generation AI power directions app on his phone. It wasn’t lost on me in this high-tech world of the future the man in the story is robbing a bank to pay off health care debt. This story is one is built on irony and dark humor. It plays with idea that some morons get so dependent on GPS telling them where to go they would drive off a cliff. Here the AI has feelings about how this should all go down. Great story.

Waiting Room is a story about being an old punk rocker. As the vocalist of the Screaming Geezers today John Shirley still rocks, and this story is a very personal story about getting older on the outside when the heart of a young rocker is still inside. I think many will relate to this one. 

Weedkiller is one of the most powerful works in the book. The story is organized by a couple of narrative points of view but the grim life of the character Sharon is disturbing but shows Shirley’s pitch-perfect skill at reveals rolled out in tiny details. It starts with yellow rancid pajamas. The story wrestles with an issue of people who don’t even want to live in THIS world. This story is a great cautionary piece about online life.

Meerga is the darkest and most disturbing tale in the collection. This is a story that could be read, re-read, and again. There are several intense layers of story and theme in this one. It reminds me of a conversation I had with John and his son Julian some years ago over burritos in Portland. We were talking about Facebook and the theme of the conversation was who knew that we would log on willingly to Big Brother. This story is a mosaic of stories about the insidious creep of technology and the blending of daily items with governmental and corporate surveillance.

This story is divided into five parts and the third part was so disturbing that I turned away from the book for a few moments. This is vintage John Shirley that combines political anger, and powerful writing. This story was the GODDAMN moment.

The Feverish Stars is a savage piece of artwork. As a story collection, it feels like a raunchy punk song recorded in an expensive studio that has a message that discerning listeners will immediately get. I promise if you like horror and sci-fi short stories this book will deliver. If you are thinking I already have 6 Shirley collections I can happily tell you that this book stands strong alone.


My article on John Shirley for NeoText