Excerpt
Spying on the Editor
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Sometimes I just want to call anthologies that I edit Stories Kris Likes. It would certainly be easier than the hours I spend noodling with the table of contents, trying to make an anthology flow.
If I called the anthology Stories Kris Likes, then there doesn't have to be an order. Readers would understand that the only thing linking the stories is my taste.
After spending four hours tonight ordering and reordering and re-re-reordering the contents of Fiction River Special Edition: Spies, I almost gave up and went for the Stories Kris Likes order.
But, these aren't random stories that I like. These stories were written to my specifications. I had asked for stories about spies. I wanted different tones, different cultures, different time periods. I was afraid I'd get Bond-James-Bond stories (and really, the man is not a spy. What spy walks around introducing himself?) or some Americans rip-off or something.
What I got was a wide variety of tales with a wide variety of spies. The tone goes from satire to serious, from touching to brutal, from light to oh-so-very-dark. And not every point of view character is human either. Even though I asked that there be no fantasy or sf, I did end up with an Animal Farm-ish satire that even references George Orwell. I choose to believe the non-human protagonist story is not fantasy, but who am I to judge? (Except that I do, and did, because I'm the editor. Ah, well.)
What links these stories, besides their wide variety of spies and spying, is their willingness to look at the world in all its messiness. The stories don't flinch from the effect that secrets have on those keeping them (or those who are victims of them).
The other thing that links the stories is their entertainment value. Even as I reread them, I couldn't put them down. Even when I knew what was going to happen. The writing is compelling, the characters more so, and the situations memorable.
The writers in this volume outdid themselves.
What screwed me up the most is that normally, I have tentpole stories—one at the beginning, one at the end, and one in the middle. I knew I had to end with Ron Collins's spectacular "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," not just because it's powerful, but also due to the length. I like ending with a nice weighty piece of fiction. The moment I read this story, I knew it would close out the volume.
Just like I knew that Tonya D. Price's "Spy in the Sky" would start the volume. That strong story does a lot of things that the other stories in the volume do—it has an unusual protagonist, an unusual setting, and a lot of tension.
But that middle tentpole? The one that reaches out and grabs readers (who read in order) and keeps them moving forward? Well, I had a lot of choices. Lisa Silverthorne's "Trafficking Stops," which is too brutal to use as the opening story, would have been a great choice, except there's nothing else like it in the volume. Just like Sabrina Chase's "Our Man in Basingstoke," which shares a tone with a few other stories (and a pitch-perfect voice) but is (again) unlike anything else in the volume—and was too light to start the book, considering, well, Lisa's story. And Ron's, and Dave Stier's and a few others that I can't cite here without ruining them for you.
Most of the remaining thirteen stories could have been tentpoles. I finally gave up on the idea of a middle tentpole at all. The stories are so strong, I think any one of them could pull you through. So, pick your own middle story. That's the only area where I defaulted to the Stories Kris Likes template.
I'm pleased to share these spy stories with you. As always, I suggest you read the stories in the order presented, so you can flow from mood to mood, balancing the dark with the light. But dip in out of order if you want.
If you dare.
And enjoy!
—Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Las Vegas, Nevada
June 11, 2018
