Title spotlight - "Three Messages and a Warning" edited by Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris N. Brown

One of the things that I love about speculative fiction is the chance of exploring new worlds and settings. I believe that this must be a consequence of my love for travel, since I do love to explore our world too. I do not get the chance to travel as much and as often as I would certainly like, but I do have my share of travels. Still, there are plenty of opportunities for travel and discovery of new countries and cultures and that is with the help of fiction. I love to read authors from different parts of the world and to discover their corner of life through their fiction (although lately this aspect suffered a bit in my readings). It is a bit of travel too. A new opportunity to discover our world or step over the boundaries of reality will arise in December this year when Small Beer Press will release an anthology of contemporary Mexican stories of the fantastic, “Three Messages and a Warning”, edited by Eduardo Jiménez Mayo and Chris N. Brown. As the presentation of “Three Messages and a Warning” states I am certain that Enrique Jiménez Mayo and Chris N. Brown’s anthology is a collection that satisfies my both attractions for speculative fiction and exploration of our vast and fascinating word:

This huge anthology of all-original Mexican science fiction and fantasy features ghost stories, supernatural folktales, alien incursions, and apocalyptic narratives, as well as science-based chronicles of highly unusual mental states in which the borders of fantasy and reality reach unprecedented levels of ambiguity. Stereotypes of Mexican identity are explored and transcended by the thoroughly cosmopolitan consciousnesses underlying these works.

Here is also the table of contents of “Three Messages and a Warning” in alphabetical order and a small introduction of the editors as it is found on Small Beer Press’ website:

Lucía Abdó – “Second-Hand Pachuca”
Maria Isabel Aguirre – “Today, You Walk Along a Narrow Path”
Ana Gloria Álvarez Pedrajo – “The Mediator”
Liliana V. Blum – “Pink Lemonade”
Agustín Cadena – “Murillo Park”
Karen Chacek – “The Hour of the Fireflies”
Alberto Chimal – “Variation on a Theme of Coleridge”
Ana Clavel – “Warning and Three Messages in the Same Parcel”
Yussel Dardón – “A Pile of Bland Deserts”
Amparo Dávila – “The Guest”
Óscar de la Borbolla – “Wittgenstein’s Umbrellas”
Beatriz Escalante – “Luck Has Its Limits”
Bruno Estañol – “The Infamous Juan Manuel”
Iliana Estañol – “In Waiting”
Bernardo Fernández – “Lions”
Esther M. Garcia – “Mannequin”
Claudia Guillén – “The Drip”
Hernán Lara Zavala – “Hunting Iguanas”
Mónica Lavín – “Trompe l’œil”
Eduardo Mendoza – “The Pin”
Gabriela Damián Miravete – “Nereid Future”
Mauricio Montiel Figueiras – “Photophobia”
Queta Navagómez – “Rebellious”
Amélie Olaiz – “Amalgam”
Donají Olmedo – “The Stone”
Edmée Pardo – “1965”
Jesús Ramírez Bermúdez – “The Last Witness to Creation”
Carmen Rioja – “The Náhual Offering”
Pepe Rojo – “The President without Organs”
René Roquet – “Returning to Night”
Guillermo Samperio – “Mister Strogoff”
Horacio Sentíes Madrid – “The Transformist”
Gerardo Sifuentes – “Future Perfect”
José Luis Zárate – “Wolves”

About the Editors

Born in Boston and raised in San Antonio, Eduardo Jiménez Mayo holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in Hispanic literature and a doctoral degree in the humanities from a Catholic university in Madrid. He has taught undergraduate literature courses at the University of Texas in San Antonio and recently obtained a doctorate in jurisprudence from Cornell Law School. He has published translations of books by contemporary Mexican authors Bruno Estañol, Rafael Pérez Gay and José María Pérez Gay. In recent years, he has also published scholarly studies on the Spanish poet Antonio Machado and the Mexican fiction writer Bruno Estañol. Lately, he has conducted readings and lectures on the subject of literary translation at the invitation of Cornell University, New York University, The New School and the Juárez Autonomous University of Tabasco.

Chris N. Brown writes fiction and criticism from his home in Austin, Texas. His work has been variously described as “slick, post-Gibsonian, and funny as hell, like Neal Stephenson meets Hunter S. Thompson” (Cory Doctorow), “Borges in a pop culture blender” (Invisible Library), and “like a cross between Mark Leyner and William Gibson” (Boing Boing). He also contributes to the group blog No Fear of the Future.