Subject: Review: DIRTY WORK

From: [email-masked] (Alan Miburi-san Wexelblat)
Date: 15 Feb 94 00:18:00 GMT

Dirty Work
			by Pat Cadigan
		Review Copyright (c) 1994 Alan Wexelblat

If there's an author I like better than Pat Cadigan, I haven't met hir yet.
When I first read MINDPLAYERS my immediate impression was that I was looking
at the best raw talent and innovative thinker I'd seen since I picked up
William Gibson.  On meeting Pat and becoming friends with her my impressions
were redoubled.  She is funny, intelligent, very mentally quick and she
writes intense gripping stories which probe into the darkest corners of the
human psyche.

So what more do you need to know?  Go out and buy this book!

Oh, you want to know what's in it?  Well, it's got 18 stories, most of which
have been published before although some have only seen limited press runs.
Each story has a few paragraphs of introduction/explanation by the author;
Cadigan manages to be enlightening without detracting from the pleasure of
reading the stories.

The title cut, "Dirty Work" is a Deadpan Allie story, originally written for
for one of Ellen Datlow's vampire anthologies.  If this doesn't make you
hunt up a copy of MINDPLAYERS, nothing will.

In her previous short story collection (PATTERNS), Cadigan kept largely to
fantastic and horror themes.  PATTERNS pushed into psychological cracks
relentlessly.  This collection has some stories in that vein such as the
post- apocalyptic "Home By The Sea."  Overall, though, it seems to favor a
lighter touch, such as in the sad/funny "Second Comings Reasonable Rates" in
hard SF form -- and even in "The Sorceress in Spite of Herself" which is
pretty conventional magic-realist fare.  Surprisingly (to me, anyway)
Cadigan even indulges in real fantasist stuff in "Naming Names" and its
semi-sequel "A Deal With God."

Of course, she places these tools squarely in the hands of one of her usual
no-nonsense female protagonists.  If more fantasy had this kind of
authoritative honesty I'd be much happier.

Perhaps this variety of types and topics is Cadigan demonstrating the range
of her talent.  Perhaps it's just that she's becoming more confident in what
she can do and what of her work she wants to show off.  Either way, I
finished this book way too fast.  Now I have to be patient and wait for the
next one.

[As noted in an earlier review, Ziesing books are available from the
publisher at P.O. Box 96, Shingletown CA 96088, and at more discerning small
bookstores, if you're lucky.]

%A Pat Cadigan
%T Dirty Work
%I Mark V. Ziesing
%G ISBN 0-929480-27-9
%O $29.95
%D 1993