Book Review – Jigsaw Nation
Edited by: Edward J. McFadden, Ekaterina Sedia
Cover Artist: Lara Wells
Publisher: Wilder Publications
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: April 2006
So, how do you take your politics – red or blue? Were you outraged or pleased with the results of the 2004 election in the USA? Are you beginning to wonder why these questions should matter for a book review on a website like Fantasybookspot?
Jigsaw Nation: Science Fiction Stories of Secession had its genesis with a bunch of SFF writers venting their frustrations with the election coming together in this original anthology edited by Edward J. McFadden III and E. Sedia. This collection of 19 short stories includes new offerings by Paul Di Filippo, Ruth Nestvold, Jay Lake, Michael Jasper, CJ Henderson, and others.
The collection opens with “Escape From New Austin” by Paul Di Filippo. Amy is 15-year old fan of classic country music – Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Gretchen Wilson – living in New Austin in the 2020’s. The usual tension between her and her parents leads her to run away from home on a journey to Nashville. This journey is not as simple as it once was as Austin is an enclave of Agnostica surrounded by Faithland. She has an international border to cross.
Di Filippo tells a fun, witty story of the divided nations, pleasantly bringing memories of my growing up in Austin to mind. He doesn’t go far into things, or as bitterly as he may have, he just tells a simple story of teenage angst and the realization that all teenagers eventually come to – making a mistake.
From the relatively light, harmless, and universal story of Di Filippo, the collection turns darker, more serious, and I’ll be honest, more depressing. Cody Goodfellow’s story “Waking Waco” is a highly symbolic story of a psychotic serial killer resurrected in the future and searching for what’s been taken from him. The division of self and country paints a pessimistic picture.
“Seconds” by Seth Lindberg is the first story in the collection with any true element of SF – most of the others really fall more in the alternative history genre. Two parallel life lines of the same person dream of each other – one possibly in a dark future. In one version the country is torn apart by war, in another, Marshall leads a typical upper-middle class existence in San Francisco. This story starts strong, continues stronger, and finally fails at the end, which was a bit rushed – it had such great potential.
“Juneteenth” by K.M. Praschak tells of a celebration of a birthday and the holiday of Juneteenth – a recognition of slaves gaining their freedom after the Civil War. This is one of the better told stories in the collection – it’s subtle and powerful, without ever feeling rushed.
My favorite story in the collection is “Victory Without Honor”. What would happen if the United States of the future lost a collection of nuclear warheads (along with instruction manuals) in a time-traveling incident and they fell into the hands of the Confederacy at the end of the Civil War? The interesting premise is pulled off very well after the dues ex machina of the beginning.
As much as I was expecting these stories to be grounded in the politics of today, I was a bit disappointed to see that so many of them quickly equated racism with the divided nation. Perhaps I’m a bit too naive, but I think more exploration of the socio-economic conditions would have been more realistic; and a vast majority of the stories completely ignored the largest minority in the country – Hispanics.
As with many collections, Jigsaw Nation is inconsistent – it has its great moments (“Victory Without Honor”) and its duds (“Fieldwork”). If you’re apathetic about the politics of the United States, this isn’t the book for you. If you lean toward the red, you probably won’t like the direction many of these stories go in. However, plenty of these stories are fast to criticize both extremes, advocating a middle ground. If you’re a politically savvy individual, who finds the premise behind Jigsaw Nation intriguing, then you’ll probably enjoy this collection.
I typically rate books on 10-point scale, where 10 is the perfect book and 5 is a mediocre book that I won’t recommend. Anything above 7.5 is highly recommended, between 5 and 7.5 is recommended but I had a few issues with it, and anything below 5 was not worth my time. Due to the hit and miss quality of most collections, they are hard to rate, so keep the above discussions in mind.
It has some gems, but most stories fail to be all they could have been, and I fear this collection lacks the staying power of a great anthology. However, as I said above, if you find the idea intriguing, you should enjoy Jigsaw Nation.
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