I’ve been a Charles de Lint fan since I was a kid (see photographic evidence, above, of a 13-year-old me attending one of Charles’s signings at Bakka Books in 1984!), and so I was absolutely delighted to read his kind words in his books column in Fantasy and Science Fiction for my latest book, Radicalized. This book has received a lot of critical acclaim (“among my favorite things I’ve read so far this year”), but to get such a positive notice from Charles is wonderful on a whole different level.
The stories, like “The Masque of the Red Death,” are all set in a very near future. They tackle immigration and poverty, police corruption and brutality, the U.S. health care system and the big pharma companies. None of this is particularly cheerful fodder. The difference is that each of the other three stories give us characters we can really care about, and allow for at least the presence of some hopefulness.
“Unauthorized Bread” takes something we already have and projects it into the future. You’ve heard of Juciero? It’s a Wi-Fi juicer that only lets you use the proprietary pre-chopped produce packs that you have to buy from the company. Produce you already have at home? It doesn’t work because it doesn’t carry the required codes that will let the machine do its work.
In the story, a young woman named Salima discovers that her toaster won’t work, so she goes through the usual steps one does when electronics stop working. Unplug. Reset to factory settings. Finally…
“There was a touchscreen option on the toaster to call support but that wasn’t working, so she used the fridge to look up the number and call it.”
I loved that line.
Books To Look For [Charles de Lint/F&SF]
