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    An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories
    An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories
    An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories
    Ebook331 pages7 hours

    An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories

    By Andy Duncan

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    In the tales gathered in An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories you will meet a Utopian assassin, an aging UFO contactee, a haunted Mohawk steelworker, a time-traveling prizefighter, a yam-eating Zombie, and a child who loves a frizzled chicken—not to mention Harry Houdini, Zora Neale Hurston, Sir Thomas More, and all their fellow travelers riding the steamer-trunk imagination of a unique twenty-first-century fabulist.

    From the Florida folktales of the perennial prison escapee Daddy Mention and the dangerous gator-man Uncle Monday that inspired "Daddy Mention and the Monday Skull" (first published in Mojo: Conjure Stories, edited by Nalo Hopkinson) to the imagined story of boxer and historical bit player Jess Willard in World Fantasy Award winner "The Pottawatomie Giant" (first published on SciFiction), or the Ozark UFO contactees in Nebula Award winner "Close Encounters" to Flannery O’Connor’s childhood celebrity in Shirley Jackson Award finalist "Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse" (first published in Eclipse) Duncan’s historical juxtapositions come alive on the page as if this Southern storyteller was sitting on a rocking chair stretching the truth out beside you.

    Duncan rounds out his explorations of the nooks and crannies of history in two irresistible new stories, "Joe Diabo's Farewell" — in which a gang of Native American ironworkers in 1920s New York City go to a show — and the title story, "An Agent of Utopia" — where he reveals what really (might have) happened to Thomas More’s head.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSmall Beer Press
    Release dateNov 6, 2018
    ISBN9781618731548
    An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories

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    Reviews for An Agent of Utopia

    3.5/5

    15 ratings10 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Andy Duncan is one of the great unsung writers of fantasy and this collection of his selected short work readily showcases his best characteristics, including his distinctively Southern, unapologetically wry voice. That voice sets his work apart from the typical in the genre, as does the fact that so many of his stories are infused with Southern folklore and place-consciousness, giving them a realer-than-real tone that makes a reader of fantasy want to soak in the writer's world. While one or two of the older stories here might be read in the current climate as over-soaked in masculine nostalgia, most are smart and culturally conscious. Duncan's penchant for literary reference ranges from the Antebellum-era folktales of enslaved peoples to Thomas More's "Utopia" -- as the title tale makes clear -- providing plenty of food for those who get the nods, as well as for those who don't mind googling as they read. While this isn't necessarily a book to fly through all in one sitting -- its range of moods and references rewards a slower sampling -- it is definitely deserves the proper time to appreciate.
    • 2/5
      OK, I'm not much of a fiction fan, I had high hopes for this collection since I used to like SF more. It disappointed; I could barely get through it, and honestly, gave up about midway through. I see a number of other reviewers are referring to Southern folklore, and maybe that's part of why I just didn't get any immersive interest in any of these stories. Most of the ones I managed to read all the way through were just a dull slog.
    • 3/5
      This was an ER book. It's a collection of (i guess) fantasy short stories. I found them all incredibly dull. The only ones I really liked were the last two, and even they weren't really all that great.
    • 4/5
      Andy Duncan was born in the South, and is intimately familiar with the tropes of Southern folklore as well as the people and their language. He uses these to good effect in his latest collection, which contains some of his most well-known stories, along with two new stories previously uncollected.Whether he is discussing the meeting between heavyweight champ Jess Willard and Harry Houdini (The Pottawatomie Giant) or Zora Neale Hurston's trip to Haiti to learn about zombies (Zora and the Zombie), Duncan's writing puts you into the story. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award but has not won, but he has been awarded three World Fantasy Awards, and the Nebula for the last story in the collection, Close Encounters, a beautiful story about a man who was among the early claimers of having been visited by extraterrestrials, and how his life has changed, and may be poised to change again.Duncan's prose is similar to that of Jeffrey Ford, Gene Wolfe, or early Jack Vance; if those three aren't recommendation enough to make you read this book, you'll be missing out on the work of one of the great modern fantasists.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers Program. This was a great book of short stories. Very enjoyable for someone who likes their tales sprinkled with historical figures, especially southern writers. Duncan is hailed as a fabulist, but these stories just barely bumped up against the fantastic...I'm not convince that moniker is appropriate. I particularly enjoyed the stories about Zora Hurston and Flannery O'Conner. Great stuff here!
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed Andy Duncan's recent collection of short stories, "An Agent of Utopia" a great deal. The characters - many taken from the real world - were filled with human frailties and strengths. The complexity of his characters propelled the stories along and provided interesting twists and turns as the stories unfolded. I especially enjoyed the title story, Zora and the Zombies and Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse. The Map to the Homes of the Stars was almost an anti-coming of age story. I liked the way the stories teetered on the edge of fantasy. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      An entertaining collection of short stories of science fiction and magical realism. The standouts for me were “Real Indians,” a story about Native American construction workers in the 1920s; “Slow As A Bullet,” a story written as a folk tale, about a man who bets that he can outrun a bullet; and “Close Encounters,” about a man coming to terms with an alien encounter decades before.
    • 3/5
      I got this thru ER for an honest review. Honestly, this collection of sci-fi and near sci-fi stories, was a bit of a miss for me. I ended up putting it down about 3/4 of the way thru. Perhaps it was just the mood I was in at the time. There were a couple stories that were exceptional that made the read worthwhile, perhaps I'll go back eventually and pick up the rest. My favorites were; "An Agent of Utopia" - a assassin from Utopia, "The Map to the Homes of the Stars" - life in a small town and the map to the stars in the mind of two young boys, and "Senator Bilbo" - a delightful imaging of Bilbo Baggins as a Senator in the Legislature of the Shire.
    • 3/5
      I've been trying to figure out how to review this for a while. Some stories were great, some just started and then...ended, with no real idea what the point was. I liked it and disliked it at the same time. I don't think I would recommend it overall, maybe just a couple stories to particular people. The style was a little all over the place, sometimes more fantasy, sometimes more sci-fi, sometimes just plain old fiction, but he never seemed to commit fully to any one style even in a single story. I did finish it, but am confused why I did, lol.
    • 4/5
      Wow, there's some serious literary range on display here. Stories shifting between Science fiction, fantasy, weird, absurdism, ghost stories, southern folklore, history, biography, and so on...along with loads of humor. Something like reading an entire season of X-Files episodes, but funnier. In a few of the stories, the title one for example, I found the style somewhat incoherent, similar to free jazz....verbal fireworks which are perhaps an acquired taste. But for the most part, reading these stories was an engrossing and entertaining experience. I especially enjoyed Zora and the Zombie. Highly recommended.

    Book preview

    An Agent of Utopia - Andy Duncan

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