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Introducing J. Kathleen Cheney
Jul. 8th, 2007 02:51 pmI finally got around to reading the June edition of Jim Baen's Universe. I was pleasantly surprised to see J. Kathleen Cheney (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jcheney) listed as an author in the "Introducing" section of the ezine.
Part of the mission of Jim Baen's Universe is to cultivate and encourage new writers, and they do it in the "Introducing" section. Well, Ms. Cheney's introduction, the lovely short story Touching the Dead, is well worth the price of admission.
The story is a mystery, set in a society with mid 19th Century technology. Shironne Anjir, the protagonist, is a girl of 15, daughter of an upper class family in a garrison town. She's also a "sensitive," able to detect such things as nitrate residue from a gunshot by touch alone. A sergeant, the lover of her maid Benia, has been murdered. Against the wishes of her parents, Shironne offers her services to find the murderer.
It's an interesting story, well written, and told from Shironne's point of view. Since Shironne has been blind for almost two years, it's a unique point of view, and difficult to pull off. Ms. Cheney, however, does so admirably, and has crafted a wonderful story.
This story, like several I've seen in Baen's, is cross-genre, in this case fantasy and science fiction. "Sensitives" can detect microscopic residue left on surfaces (fantasy) but what they're detecting is the same sort of trace evidence a modern criminologist would use today (science fiction). It's an interesting mix, and Baen's seems to be one of the few places you'll see that. Bottom line, folks - if you're not subscribing to Jim Baen's Universe, you're missing something special.
jcheney) listed as an author in the "Introducing" section of the ezine. Part of the mission of Jim Baen's Universe is to cultivate and encourage new writers, and they do it in the "Introducing" section. Well, Ms. Cheney's introduction, the lovely short story Touching the Dead, is well worth the price of admission.
The story is a mystery, set in a society with mid 19th Century technology. Shironne Anjir, the protagonist, is a girl of 15, daughter of an upper class family in a garrison town. She's also a "sensitive," able to detect such things as nitrate residue from a gunshot by touch alone. A sergeant, the lover of her maid Benia, has been murdered. Against the wishes of her parents, Shironne offers her services to find the murderer.
It's an interesting story, well written, and told from Shironne's point of view. Since Shironne has been blind for almost two years, it's a unique point of view, and difficult to pull off. Ms. Cheney, however, does so admirably, and has crafted a wonderful story.
This story, like several I've seen in Baen's, is cross-genre, in this case fantasy and science fiction. "Sensitives" can detect microscopic residue left on surfaces (fantasy) but what they're detecting is the same sort of trace evidence a modern criminologist would use today (science fiction). It's an interesting mix, and Baen's seems to be one of the few places you'll see that. Bottom line, folks - if you're not subscribing to Jim Baen's Universe, you're missing something special.
