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ameserole's review against another edition
3.0
The Ape's Wife and Other Stories was never on my radar until now. Which in some ways I'm kind of glad for. Plus any book that's filled with lots of short stories needs to be on my radar from now on. They are so easy to fly through and I really like when I get creepy ones from time to time.
Now I liked how some of the stories could get dark but others kind of felt incomplete to me. Mostly with how they ended or didn't (in a weird way). I sometimes like open endings because I can think of whatever I like for that book. However, since this was basically short stories I would have like final endings. It could just be me though..
As for the actual stories, well, I did enjoy a few a bit more than others. Then there were some duds in my eyes but that's due to not enjoying the endings of them. I'm just honestly happy that I found the time to dive into this and I can't wait for my next short story collection.
Now I liked how some of the stories could get dark but others kind of felt incomplete to me. Mostly with how they ended or didn't (in a weird way). I sometimes like open endings because I can think of whatever I like for that book. However, since this was basically short stories I would have like final endings. It could just be me though..
As for the actual stories, well, I did enjoy a few a bit more than others. Then there were some duds in my eyes but that's due to not enjoying the endings of them. I'm just honestly happy that I found the time to dive into this and I can't wait for my next short story collection.
misterjay's review against another edition
4.0
The Steam Dancer (1896) - Lovely, quiet story about a woman who has been gifted a mechanical leg and how she dances. 4/5
The Maltese Unicorn - Fantastic detective, hard-boiled story about a bookseller who is both sponsored by and caters to demons. 5/5
One Tree Hill (The World as Cataclysm)
Kinda struggled with this one. Too atmospheric, not enough plot for my tastes. Still, interestingly written and strong sense of character. 3/5
The Collier’s Venus (1898)
Although intriguing, I lost interest about halfway through when the story stopped being about the relationship between the two main characters and became, instead, a history of a being left sleeping in the earth millennia ago. 2/5
Galapagos
Sad story of a woman who comes face to face with a Goddess and then must spend the rest of her life dealing with the pain and loss that comes with surviving the experience. 4/5
Tall Bodies
Almost more of a poem than a story, Tall Bodies evokes a sense of wonder and fear and longing all at the same time. Really beautifully written. 4/5
As Red As Red
Very atmospheric, this feels almost more like a sketch than a story about the true history of a nineteenth century vampire. Very good though. 4/5
Hydraguros
A tale of drugs, or maybe alien possession whilst on drugs. Either way, there are a lot of drugs in this story. Starts really strong, fades out in a is-it-real-or-a-dream ending. 3/5
Slouching Towards the House of Glass Coffins
A tale of revenge across the deserts of Mars. Atmospheric, broody, and weird. Just about perfect. 5/5
Tidal Forces
How would you react if a black hole appeared in your wife’s side? Would you study it? Avoid it? Reach into it? This is a moving story of doing just exactly that. 5/5
The Sea Troll’s Daughter
Start with the slaying of a troll by a stranger and throw in a comely barmaid and you have a standard adventure tale, up to a point. That’s the point when the story gets interesting. 3/5
Random Thoughts Before a Fatal Crash
An artist mistakes a god for his muse. Both disaster and art ensue. It’s hard to tell the one from the other. 3/5
The Ape’s Wife
Thoughtful re-telling of King Kong from Ann Darrow’s perspectives. Artful and dreamy. 4/5
The Maltese Unicorn - Fantastic detective, hard-boiled story about a bookseller who is both sponsored by and caters to demons. 5/5
One Tree Hill (The World as Cataclysm)
Kinda struggled with this one. Too atmospheric, not enough plot for my tastes. Still, interestingly written and strong sense of character. 3/5
The Collier’s Venus (1898)
Although intriguing, I lost interest about halfway through when the story stopped being about the relationship between the two main characters and became, instead, a history of a being left sleeping in the earth millennia ago. 2/5
Galapagos
Sad story of a woman who comes face to face with a Goddess and then must spend the rest of her life dealing with the pain and loss that comes with surviving the experience. 4/5
Tall Bodies
Almost more of a poem than a story, Tall Bodies evokes a sense of wonder and fear and longing all at the same time. Really beautifully written. 4/5
As Red As Red
Very atmospheric, this feels almost more like a sketch than a story about the true history of a nineteenth century vampire. Very good though. 4/5
Hydraguros
A tale of drugs, or maybe alien possession whilst on drugs. Either way, there are a lot of drugs in this story. Starts really strong, fades out in a is-it-real-or-a-dream ending. 3/5
Slouching Towards the House of Glass Coffins
A tale of revenge across the deserts of Mars. Atmospheric, broody, and weird. Just about perfect. 5/5
Tidal Forces
How would you react if a black hole appeared in your wife’s side? Would you study it? Avoid it? Reach into it? This is a moving story of doing just exactly that. 5/5
The Sea Troll’s Daughter
Start with the slaying of a troll by a stranger and throw in a comely barmaid and you have a standard adventure tale, up to a point. That’s the point when the story gets interesting. 3/5
Random Thoughts Before a Fatal Crash
An artist mistakes a god for his muse. Both disaster and art ensue. It’s hard to tell the one from the other. 3/5
The Ape’s Wife
Thoughtful re-telling of King Kong from Ann Darrow’s perspectives. Artful and dreamy. 4/5
aregberg's review against another edition
2.0
A little too Lovecraftian for my tastes. I liked the diversity of characters though.
scottishben's review against another edition
5.0
Caitlin Kiernan is one of my favorite writers and this collection features many excellent stories. In her second best of collection due out later in 2015 over half of these stories feature which gives an idea as to the quality of these stories compared with her overall work.
All the stories are either dark or weird or both with a mix of myth retellings, SF, fantasy and contemporary weird/dark tales.
So far I have read the following
The Maltese Unicorn - Kiernan sometimes embeds short fiction in her novels and I read this as part of the second Quinn book she wrote under a different name and then used the McGuffin in the story as the McGuffin for that Quinn book - had mixed feelings about the Quinn book and this coloured my experience of the story. Will need to reread to judge it on its merits but I am sure if approached in the right mood there is fun to be had here
Ape's Wife - didnt leave much of an impression on first read but given how many people love and talk about the story I probably need to give it a second try
Random thoughts before a Fatal Crash - The artist featured in the story plays a big part (though not directly) in her novel The Drowning Girl so I was really reading this with that perspective...Then part of the novel visits Inverness and the surrounding area where I grew up so I got a bit distracted reading this - Still a very well written and satisfying tale
Hydraguros - I am not massively into the Neo Noir SF of this story. In SF I like to get a sense of wonder, extrapolation, different world etc - with Kiernan SF is more a setting for the mood and atmosphere of the story. It was genuinely creepy and strange. Best approached I think like a Lynch movie and not trying to understand or make sense of but very satisfying.
Slouching Towards.... - Kiernan does interesting things with SF linguistics but I wasnt in the mood to take that journey with her and it distracted me - still an interesting story.
Tall Bodies - really enjoyed this short, strange story - Inexplicable, weird and raises more questions than it answers
The Steam Dancer - read and dont really remember, need to reread
One Tree Hill - Kiernan at her best - this was a wonderfully creepy story that I felt covered similar ground to her novel The Red Tree in some respects. Like many of her stories there was an unreliable narrator and elements of autobiography buried in and enriching the fiction
Tidal Forces - A story that would appeal to both horror and fantasy readers and I found the writing here particularly effocative and strong. Although I didnt react to this as personally as I have to a couple of her stories I think this is one of her best and one of my favorites
The Sea-Troll's daughter - utterly brilliant! Quite different from the other stories and many readers of fantasy will love this even if they do not normally like Kiernan. This is set in either long ago in our world or in a similar secondary fantasy world. It is a great example of editors asking for something a little bit different from a writer and getting something wonderful that wouldnt have otherwise happened. Some of kiernans work can be a bit jarring and confusing to read where as this was much more straightforward. A sort of feminist retelling of beowulf.
All the stories are either dark or weird or both with a mix of myth retellings, SF, fantasy and contemporary weird/dark tales.
So far I have read the following
The Maltese Unicorn - Kiernan sometimes embeds short fiction in her novels and I read this as part of the second Quinn book she wrote under a different name and then used the McGuffin in the story as the McGuffin for that Quinn book - had mixed feelings about the Quinn book and this coloured my experience of the story. Will need to reread to judge it on its merits but I am sure if approached in the right mood there is fun to be had here
Ape's Wife - didnt leave much of an impression on first read but given how many people love and talk about the story I probably need to give it a second try
Random thoughts before a Fatal Crash - The artist featured in the story plays a big part (though not directly) in her novel The Drowning Girl so I was really reading this with that perspective...Then part of the novel visits Inverness and the surrounding area where I grew up so I got a bit distracted reading this - Still a very well written and satisfying tale
Hydraguros - I am not massively into the Neo Noir SF of this story. In SF I like to get a sense of wonder, extrapolation, different world etc - with Kiernan SF is more a setting for the mood and atmosphere of the story. It was genuinely creepy and strange. Best approached I think like a Lynch movie and not trying to understand or make sense of but very satisfying.
Slouching Towards.... - Kiernan does interesting things with SF linguistics but I wasnt in the mood to take that journey with her and it distracted me - still an interesting story.
Tall Bodies - really enjoyed this short, strange story - Inexplicable, weird and raises more questions than it answers
The Steam Dancer - read and dont really remember, need to reread
One Tree Hill - Kiernan at her best - this was a wonderfully creepy story that I felt covered similar ground to her novel The Red Tree in some respects. Like many of her stories there was an unreliable narrator and elements of autobiography buried in and enriching the fiction
Tidal Forces - A story that would appeal to both horror and fantasy readers and I found the writing here particularly effocative and strong. Although I didnt react to this as personally as I have to a couple of her stories I think this is one of her best and one of my favorites
The Sea-Troll's daughter - utterly brilliant! Quite different from the other stories and many readers of fantasy will love this even if they do not normally like Kiernan. This is set in either long ago in our world or in a similar secondary fantasy world. It is a great example of editors asking for something a little bit different from a writer and getting something wonderful that wouldnt have otherwise happened. Some of kiernans work can be a bit jarring and confusing to read where as this was much more straightforward. A sort of feminist retelling of beowulf.
moonlit_shelves's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
jsmithborne's review against another edition
4.0
Some really amazing stories here, the kind that will float up into my mind at odd times probably for the rest of my life. I especially loved the ones that tied into [b:The Drowning Girl|11515328|The Drowning Girl|Caitlín R. Kiernan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1404243835s/11515328.jpg|16451704].
m_is_for_awesome's review against another edition
1.0
This might be brilliant for other readers but for me it fell flat. The worlds are lovely but the stories just didn't hit the right notes for me.
littleowllost's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
invisibleninjacat's review against another edition
4.0
A mix of fantastic and puzzlingly creepy stories which I liked to varying degrees. Some were absolutely fabulous and others fell a little flat, for me.
scarlettletters's review against another edition
4.0
I'm in the habit of not usually giving more than three stars to collections, mainly because I feel they can be hit or miss and while I might like some of the stories, I don't like all of them enough to give a 4-star rating. However, I really enjoyed the majority of the stories in here and the ones I didn't love, I still thought were pretty good.
My favorite was probably The Tall Men. It had a great creepy vibe with nothing ever really explained. The title story may have been my least favorite, but I can appreciate wanting to explore your own headcanon or think about how things in a favorite work could have gone differently.
The stories range in genre from Steampunk to post-apocalyptic to urban fantasy to just plain weird. Many of them had hints of Lovecraft, if Lovecraft were a queer woman. I think the ones with a more Lovecraftian tone were the ones I liked best, and they definitely made me want to read some of Kiernan's other work.
My favorite was probably The Tall Men. It had a great creepy vibe with nothing ever really explained. The title story may have been my least favorite, but I can appreciate wanting to explore your own headcanon or think about how things in a favorite work could have gone differently.
The stories range in genre from Steampunk to post-apocalyptic to urban fantasy to just plain weird. Many of them had hints of Lovecraft, if Lovecraft were a queer woman. I think the ones with a more Lovecraftian tone were the ones I liked best, and they definitely made me want to read some of Kiernan's other work.