I just finished James Van Pelt's second collection of short fiction, The Last of the O-Forms and Other Stories. It doesn't take much reading to realize Van Pelt is not only a very good writer, he's also comfortable in a variety of genres. In the fifteen stories in this collection, you'll find sf, fantasy, horror, an homage to Lovecraft, post-apocalyptic stories, stories about high school kids, little kids, birds and animals, a poker tournament, Bogart, Astaire and more.
Van Pelt knows about all these things, but more importantly, he knows a lot about what it means to be human, even when your surroundings pressure you to become something other than human. That he can do this without coming across as heavy-handed or sappy is pretty amazing.
Take, for example, the post-apocalyptic "A Flock of Birds." All we know is that something has wiped out most of the North American population, only about 50,000 people remain. Van Pelt isn't really concerned with how it happened. (Lord knows, it could be any one of a hundred ways.) What he is concerned with is how we handle the days that follow. A middle-aged, balding man named Carson spends his days watching for rare, near-extinct birds while taking care of an ailing woman who has wandered into his house. We've seen this scenario before, lots of times, but Van Pelt doesn't go where you think he's going.
He's never predictable in any of these stories. They're all fresh, well-told and memorable. The title story is one of the most powerful, unsettling tales I've read this year. The only thing I can't understand is why Van Pelt isn't talked about more.
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