Dystopias, rooted in vampires, space aliens, greed, war, repression are the backgrounds for Johnson's tales, but unlike most her characters, while victims, aren't the innocent as much as the compromised. A rich tapestry of disturbing images and limited if any hope. ( )

Fantasy and sf focusing on characters making their way in a world they can’t control, whether it’s been invaded by glassmen for mysterious purposes or simply destroyed by climate change. Some of her characters change a lot—or at least how we see them changes a lot—as their choices and reasons for those choices become clearer. I am a bigger fan of her longer writing, but it’s still so unusual to see sympathetic treatment of abortion that this is worthy of note. ( )