Genre: Poetry, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Reviewer: Scott
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About The Book
A poetry book about how the Fae and the Gods make the Subway theirs.
The Review
What if the Old Gods walked among us, and used the subway?
That’s the fascinating premise behind Shirley Meier’s new poetry book, Underhill Transit Services. How would those Gods deal with the assorted nuisances, smells and inconveniences of traveling on the Underground?
The answer is about as well as the rest of us.
I loved the way Meier combined the mundane and mortal with the magical, often pissing off both sides.
Consider:
Oberon despises the mortal tubes.
But SHE has the Beemer today.
With Puck raising terrified neck-hairs on human drivers.
Grey silk suit.
Sinner-hide briefcase.
Screamingly beautiful.
Perfect GQ coif, perfect eyes,
soulless. Or rather placed
in a plastic safety deposit box.
His soles hover on fairy-dust insulation.
How DARE the dying world
impinge on Him?
Damn the mortal dross for daring to exist.
Lightning restrained by cufflinks, and tie clip.
Jostle at your own risk.
And have you ever wondered why the trains sometimes pause between stops? Meier has the answer:
A busy stop.
Echoing, infinite worlds
depending on which door
opens for you.
Every platform
in every world
has at least one door into Underhill.
and sometimes in between.
You know, when the trains stop? Mid-tunnel?
To let the Dragons off.
This is a delightful chapbook full of clever surprises, as deity and detached everyman collide in that most mundane of places – a playful reimagining of the morning and evening commutes that will leave you grinning and sometimes even laughing outright.
Well worth the read. And if you like it, I hear the author’s working on a sequel…
The Reviewer
Scott is the founder of Queer Sci Fi, and a fantasy and sci fi writer in his own right, with more than 30 published short stories, novellas and novels to his credit, including two trilogies.