The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew by Catherynne M Valente.

The last story in the Torque Control Short Story Club is The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew by Catherynne M Valente, published in Clarkesworld Magazine. (I say last story but Niall teasingly says “(for now)” in a kind of end of season finale style.)

The story is about a movie star, who makes documentaries. I think. The story is dense both descriptively and in the semblance of a plot. It’s not really a straightforward plot but a selection of scenes from films and comments about scenes. There’s some lovely writing, big lengthy descriptive passages that take a while to digest (the sort of stuff I think I enjoy reading more with a paper book in my hand rather than on a screen.)

The feel is sort of steampunk, retro, Victorian-y, alternative universe; where Venus is a habitable planet and the digital age never seemed to arrive. I don’t like steampunk, I prefer the glossy sheen of high-tech to the Industrial Revolution technology, so I found the references to phonographs and diving bells a little distracting, but I tried to ignore them.

In the end the story felt like a glimpse into a world, in sharp cut scenes. And I think that was the point. A few beautiful vistas and a lingering feeling that there wasn’t enough there for me to decide whether I liked it. Which is kind of what the story is about. I think.