Omicron Ceti III: Stories

Named for the Star Trek planet where the ever-logical Spock experiences real human feelings, it's disappointing that Bal%C3%A1zs's debut story collection often feels emotionally removed. An undercurrent of dark humor runs through these nine stories, which are divided into three sections, each with an epigraph from the relevant Trek episode, "This Side of Paradise." Strange relationships, loving or otherwise, form the backbone of the collection: from a man's obsession with exotic food and those who appreciate it in "The Gourmand," to a Middlemarch-loving grad student in "April Paris" whose crisis of faith leads him to New York where he's sucked into a bizarre downward spiral with a drug-addled porn actress. In "Niddah," where teenage Judith tries to reconcile getting her period for the first time with her Jewish faith, and "The Music Man," centered on a woman's growing obsession with a man she met during a speed dating session, Bal%C3%A1zs never achieves the tone of a convincing first-person female narrator. Despite the author's wit and several clever plots, the collection feels too distant and disjointed. (Dec.)