Murderous Emperors, Plagues, Killer Lobsters: New Speculative Fiction

The Melancholy of Untold History

By Minsoo Kang

Horace Walpole wrote that “history is a romance that is believed; romance, a history that is not believed.” Minsoo Kang’s THE MELANCHOLY OF UNTOLD HISTORY (Morrow, 228 pp., $28) engages with that tension, unfolding in three distinct registers: a horror-inflected narrative of a raconteur about to be killed by his emperor, a mythic tale of discord between the gods, and a story of a recently bereaved present-day history professor. The braiding of these narrative strands invites us to question who, in the grand scheme of things, is telling stories about whom.

The result is delightful and spellbinding. In the face of well-worn advice that writers should show, not tell, it’s wonderful to be reminded that we call it storytelling, not storyshowing. “The Melancholy of Untold History,” title notwithstanding, is a book that is thoroughly told from beginning to end. The thoughtful aloofness of Kang’s narration allows him to punctuate quiet, heartfelt meditations on the nature of grief with fart jokes, and include sections in which a god named Red Bear Fat Butt wields a sword he calls Red Bear Penis. I can’t remember the last time a book made me laugh so immediately after making me cry.

The Sapling Cage

By Margaret Killjoy

Margaret Killjoy’s THE SAPLING CAGE (The Feminist Press, 329 pp., paperback, $17.95), the first volume of a trilogy, is an atmospheric medieval fantasy set in a world gripped by ecological crises, as an uncanny arboreal plague called the cold blight fells entire forests. Those in power blame witches, but Lorel, who has always wanted to be a witch, doesn’t believe they could be responsible. Her best friend, Lane, has been promised to the witches since birth, but would rather be a knight. Lorel offers to pretend to be her when the witches arrive, and joins them in Lane’s stead — despite worries that she will be kicked out if the coven learns she lived as a boy before joining them.

As Lorel travels with the witches, she learns about “ley,” a life energy animating all things, and how magic works in balance with it. The cold blight, meanwhile, is caused by imbalance: the invention of a new magical technology which extracts and stores ley in a way that destroys what it’s taken from — but allows for workings of much greater power. The question of who’s responsible — and whether or not such exploitative innovations can be used for good — creates dangerous divisions among the witches, who can’t afford to be anything but united in the face of supernatural and geopolitical threats.