The People's Republic of Everything is made up of fourteen short stories and one novella from genre fiction writer Nick Mamatas and is the most varied assemblage of work I've read in some time.
Walking with a Ghost - A Lovecraft inspired piece right off the bat and one of the best in the collection. It's the story of H.P. Lovecraft as AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Arbeitskraft - A steampunkish story about the elimination of the proletariat. I even see a bit of our times in this unusual tale.
The People’s Republic of Everywhere and Everything - A crime noir story, of sorts, about stealing the Q-chip, or quantum chip, which promised to be capable of breaking any and every code. This one has one of my favorite lines in the entire collection...
"...even the Revolution appreciated a pretty girl who shaved her armpits and smelled like patchouli rather than patchouli and landfill."
Tom Silex, Spirit-Smasher - Fiction that smacks of realism. A story about an attempt to obtain the rights to reprint the works of a forgotten pulp writer...
"Tom Silex is like a Sherlock Holmes/ cowboy/ ghostbuster/ Harry Potter-type all rolled up into one."
The Great Armored Train - A fanciful tale of the Russian Revolution and a Polish girl who can turn into an owl.
The Phylactery - Sort of an essay on Greekness. Phylactery. It's a Greek thing. A good luck charm, if you will.
Slice of Life - "Not many women of child-bearing age make arrangements to leave their bodies to science. Fewer still die while in their third trimesters."
North Shore Friday - (Please note that the digital edition does not contain this story) A tale of immigration. Here's a helpful tip: If you think the government is reading your mind. Think in Greek.
The Glottal Stop - Living a life inside of social media...
"By the time she got out of “the joint”— she was thinking in TV clichés from her own childhood now !— all the social media platforms would be obsolete and abandoned, a graveyard of controversies as accessible as floppy disks."
The Spook School - Inspired by time spent in Scotland.
A Howling Dog - The curious incident of a bark without a dog. This was once produced as a full-cast audio adaptation at pseudopod.org and appears in print for the first time in this volume.
Lab Rat - Supplementing a freelance writer's income by being a lab rat. I wonder how many of my writer friends have actually done this.
Dreamer of the Day - A terrific crime story of an aging daytime actress wanting her philandering husband dead.
We Never Sleep - It's the Pinkerton slogan. Dieselpunk - Just like steampunk, but greasier and more efficient.
Under My Roof - What would happen if an otherwise ordinary man built a nuclear bomb, put it a garden gnome on his lawn and became a sovereign state. I loved this novella to finish up the collection.
I found much of the work in The People's Republic of Everything to be introspective, clever, and fun.
Recommended.
The People's Republic of Everything is available now in both paperback and e-book formats from Tachyon Publications.
From the author's bio - Nick Mamatas is the author of several novels, including Love is the Law, I Am Providence and the forthcoming Hexen Sabbath. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, and many other venues. His fiction and editorial work have been nominated for the Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and International Horror Guild awards. Nick lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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