Secret Language is a collection of sixteen short stories from Neil Williamson, mixing genres and subjects from the fantastical to horror to futuristic. The collection includes the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) shortlisted story “Arrhythmia”.
The title of Secret Language entirely fits this collection, with themes of language and music running throughout the stories. There’s a wonderful mix of genres – horror and sci-fi and romance and post-apocalypse and dystopia are all touched on, but nothing feels out of place, and most stories mix genres as well as themes. Williamson’s stories have a way of getting under your skin, making you think again about the things you thought you understood, the scenarios that seemed usual and placid. It’s an unsettling and very interesting collection that dances from thoughtful to dark and back to sweet, often within the same story.
On the surface, the first story in the collection, Deep Draw, is a story about an actress famed for her ability to cry, and the man who comes into the bar knows the secret that made her great. But underneath, it’s a story about stories, about the desire to tell and the need to share, and those people that carry the stories around.
The second and third stories – The Secret Language of Stamps and Sweeter Than – are both, as the names suggest, sweet stories. However, that said, they’ve both got a kick in the tail! The Secret Language of Stamps is a nice, old-fashioned story of a landlady and her lodger, and the messages that pass between them. I’m not going to spoil the ending of this one, except to say that it’s unexpected! Sweeter Than has a wonderful concept; the idea of hearing the music of life and love, being aware of the swells of violins as you meet someone, the chorus of extras on cue and the need to duet…but what if you were half a beat behind, never quite dancing to the right tune?
The next three stories also continue the theme of music. Arrhythmia is set in a dystopia, a perfect world of work where everything has a beat and everyone fits to the beat – until the counter-culture of pop pushes against it, an act of rebellion and a sardonic jarring against the music of daily life. The story has a nice twist at the end (again, I’m not going to spoil it) that will keep you thinking. Pearl In The Shell is a wonderful piece of world-building with a story of rebellion, the constantly changing now, the interactions with others inside your shell, and the unsettling idea that if copyright only allowed seventeen hundred and seventy eight original songs, how would you create new music? And what would you do to get your hands on something genuinely new? And finally, Killing Me Softly has an almost as horrifying idea; what if live music was replaced by a karaoke competition? Add in a murder mystery, a policewoman with an interest in Tom Waits and a dose of mythology, and it’s an interesting and layered tale.
The next couple of stories are shorter, but no less excellent. The Bed is a story of a couple’s new – you guessed it – bed, but it’s woven in with existential thoughts and a wondering about the nature of relationships. As Williamson himself puts it at the end of the story, “Sharing a bed every night is one of the most intimate things we do, and yet we still manage to feel utterly alone with our thoughts, and our secrets.” Fish On Friday is a half-satirical tale about corporations and the drive to make people healthy, extrapolating our current mega-shops into a health organisation that just wants to help, and doesn’t understand why an elderly lady wants ridiculous items such as haggis…
The Posset Pot heads over into post-apocalyptic themes. Bubbles appear and then swap out with whatever’s in them, removing people, buildings, earth, air…and replacing them with whatever is in the other dimension they’re travelling to. The protagonist is simply trying to survive, combing the battered city for food and anything left, looking after a housemate with a penchant for cleaning, and wondering where the bubbles go to. The Lost Sheep is also genre – but this time, it’s sci-fi. On the surface, it’s a story about an dodgy dealer and his spaceship, who just stay one jump ahead of the lawmen and are usually one jump from hard times – and what they stumble across after one too many hasty exits. Underneath, it’s a story about heroes who aren’t and adventurers who aren’t; bio-engineering and the idea of memory and history, how we view events and the telling of events; movie endings and heroic life, and being in the right place at the right time.
Silk Bones is a story about memories and buried secrets. A heartbroken woman struggles to find somewhere to retreat to, and her neighbour offers a solution; tell your memories to bones, and bury them in the snow. But what happens when the snow melts? Messianic Con Biro is a quirky and pointed tale about lonely hearts adverts and relationships, examining how people find each other and what love is – with a side dose of the meaning of language and what love actually means! Last Drink Bird Head is a short piece on freedom and flying, poignant and unsettling, and is probably my favourite in the collection despite being the shortest. And The Golden Nose is a quirky story about fame and talent, and the uses to which it can be put…I’m not going to spoiler this either, but it really won’t be what you expect!
This Is Not A Love Song returns to the theme of music, pairing it with love; a DJ who can make people fall in and out of love through music, and how that relationship plays out. It’s an interesting story, and has a very teenage feel, of falling in love for the first time. And the final story, The Death Of Abigail Goudy, pairs music with the idea of art and performance, and how we experience art – and as an artist performs her final piece, a critic and ex-lover remembers all of the previous performances, and realises that it’s the memories and the performances that make the piece as much as the work itself.
If you like stories that make you think and leave you with a nagging little reminder that the world isn’t quite as perfect or simple or smooth as you thought it was; stories that wind two things into each other and make you realise how they work together, or break the other apart; stories that cross genre and contain multiple themes and ideas; stories that are deceptively simple and stay with you past the first read…read this collection.
© Kate Coe, August 2016
Secret Language by Neil Williamson
Published June 6th 2016
http://www.neilwilliamson.org.uk/
Review copy courtesy of the author
216 pages
