Dedman Stephen 01

Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron

The Art of Arrow Cutting by Stephen Dedman

Occasionally, far too infrequently, a golden moment creeps up on you - something unexpected and very pleasant. My most recent, an author and title that I had never heard of, happened when I had ten minutes to kill in the local library and found a truly excellent book which was fun to read - so good I read it twice! The book is Stephen Dedman's The Art of Arrow Cutting, surtitled as a "novel of magic-noir suspense". Nothing to do with fletching (making arrows), the title actually refers to the technique of plucking arrows from the air as they are shot at you. I make no apologies for bringing to your attention a book that has been in print in paperback for nearly two years. Sadly, it is not in print in the UK, but is available as an import from the usual sources such as Amazon & W.H.Smiths.
The genre is apparently set by the book starting with a Japanese Yakuza conducting an interview in a bath house. But almost immediately, and quite subtly the fantasy starts creeping in. The story at its most basic is a chase across North America, with larger than life characters. A drifter who scrapes a living as a photographer - Michelangelo Magistrale, known as "Mage" is given what turns out to be a stolen Japanese talisman which the Yakuza wants back. However, the talisman has magical properties, and the Yakuza is able to call on Japanese supernatural characters to recover it. One of the most memorable is a rukoro-kubi, a disembodied head and pair of hands which are able to fly at night - a sort of Japanese vampire. The book is fresh and well paced. It was fun, and an easy read, perhaps even at one sitting. With an imaginative and satisfying ending there is room for at least two sequels. Please.
Who is Stephen Dedman? He is an Australian, living in Perth, who has published short fiction in a number of magazines such as Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's and SF Age. He has also been published in anthologies such as Little Deaths & Dark Destiny III. I believe The Art of Arrow Cutting to be his first novel. A second novel Foreign Bodies is also available in paperback. It appears to be more obviously SF / Fantasy, being set in 2014. I cannot wait to get hold of it!

Publisher: Tor Books
Date: 1997
Pages: 288 pp
Price: $13.95 (£9.60ish)
Format: Trade paperback
Reviewed by: Rod Cameron
Date Reviewed: January 2001