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lamusadelils's review against another edition
3.0
Siempre es un gusto conocer nuevos autores con perspectivas variadas, aunque a muchos de los cuentos les falta ser trabajados un poco.
Se sienten un poco inconsecuentes y como que no consiguieron ese equilibrio de extensión/información perfectos para ser cuentos.
Aún así, me quedaron ganas de aventurarme con las siguientes entregas.
Se sienten un poco inconsecuentes y como que no consiguieron ese equilibrio de extensión/información perfectos para ser cuentos.
Aún así, me quedaron ganas de aventurarme con las siguientes entregas.
vasha's review against another edition
I have things to say about half, or so, of the stories in The Apex Book of World SF 4 (the last two I will discuss are my favorites). I happen to like fiction on the “literary” side of SFF: stories that suggest more than they say, that make their point obliquely, that contain intertwining themes, that are stylistically subtle or innovative. And the editor of this volume, Mahvesh Murad, is of the same mind; not that there aren’t a few straightforwardly-told entries, too. Many stories here are magical-realist, weird, or surreal rather than pure SFF.
Some of the stories are very challenging to read. “Like a Coin Entrusted in Faith”, by Shimon Adaf, went way over my head. It gets into very esoteric Jewish mysticism, it takes the form of a letter exchange between two scholars, who are interested (among other things) in people who may have returned from the future, entwined with a story about a woman asked to act as midwife to demons, and it’s even more confusing than that sounds. “Pepe” by Tang Fei (trans. John Chu) is also difficult, a somewhat diffuse piece involving mechanical children which can only tell stories instead of ordinary speech; it tries to convey a lot and I’m not sure if it succeeds.
However, there’s an exercise in sheer surrealism called “Six Things We Found During the Autopsy”, by Kuzhali Manickavel, which I’ve read twice and wound up really liking; some schoolgirls recount their “autopsy” of one of their number which, rather than revealing anything much about that girl, paints a picture of their own thoughts and judgments.
Horror stories: “Setting Up Home” by Sabrina Huang (trans. Jeremy Tiang) is brief and quite effective in building from an apparently-harmless opening to an appalling end; I’m not sure if familiarity with its cultural setting would increase or lessen its effect. I personally find that the troubling effect lingers, even increases, in retrospect. “Black Tea” by Samuel Marolla (trans. Andrew Tanzi) brings nothing much noteworthy to a trapped-in-creepy-house-with-monster story.
“The Language of Knives” by Haralambi Markov, on the other hand, is definitely not lacking in originality. What I actually think of this extravagantly gruesome, emotionally laden story, I really don’t know.
Zen Cho’s “The Four Generations of Chang E” transposes a paradigmatic immigration story to the moon; it’s beautifully written. “Djinns Live by the Sea” by Saad Z. Hossain satirically confronts a jaded rich man with djinns even older and more cynical than him. “Colour Me Grey” by Silayi Swabir is a political fable, which might be very pointed to some people (such as in the author’s Kenya) but didn’t connect with me.
From the Caribbean, the short piece “Single Entry” (i.e. a contestant in a carnival parade) by Celeste Rita Baker is wondrous and doesn’t give up its meaning easily. Marigi John’s “The Corpse” is a genuinely disorienting magical-realist story (mostly a character portrait of a coroner), but not one of the best of its kind I’ve read.
“The Farm” by Elana Gomel is set during the Russian Revolution, and the main character is a Jewish man leading a small group of rural Bolsheviks; what is noteworthy is the use of the device of his encounters with strange beings called Eaters to draw a rich picture of both the character and the times.
“The Good Matter” by Nene Ormes (trans. by the author and Lisa J. Isaksson) is described as urban fantasy and does, I think, fit nicely into that category in the depiction of the characters with paranormal powers in it. The ideology represented in it was bound to displease me, but I suppose it was competently written.
Two traditional science fiction stories: “The Gift of Touch” by Chinelo Onwualu, a disappointingly clunky depiction of a small starship’s crew and their encounter with various religions; and “The Symphony of Ice and Dust” by Julie Novakova — humans and posthumans explore the outer solar system: sense of wonder promised and delivered.
Dilman Dila, from Uganda, wrote “How My Father Became a God”, the most charming of these stories. It is in the style of an oral tale and set in premodern times; the child Akidi tells of her misfit father who is always looking for technological innovations (wonderfully kooky ones), which is one reason he doesn’t get along with his brothers, but the real reason is that his values (shared only by his wife and daughter) don’t fit with the narrow minds of the family squabbling over money and status. I do recommend it, along with the other one that made the strongest impression on me: “The Lady of the Soler Colony” by Rocío Rincón (trans. James & Marian Womack), set in the author’s hometown Barcelona. Six “colonies” (factories) based around goddesslike machines, the “Ladies”. An industrial society with a pervading wrongness to it, with creepiness gradually revealed, but the real nastiness is the mundane economic exploitation. No tidy resolution, but an impression of layers-upon-layers of unease.
Some of the stories are very challenging to read. “Like a Coin Entrusted in Faith”, by Shimon Adaf, went way over my head. It gets into very esoteric Jewish mysticism, it takes the form of a letter exchange between two scholars, who are interested (among other things) in people who may have returned from the future, entwined with a story about a woman asked to act as midwife to demons, and it’s even more confusing than that sounds. “Pepe” by Tang Fei (trans. John Chu) is also difficult, a somewhat diffuse piece involving mechanical children which can only tell stories instead of ordinary speech; it tries to convey a lot and I’m not sure if it succeeds.
However, there’s an exercise in sheer surrealism called “Six Things We Found During the Autopsy”, by Kuzhali Manickavel, which I’ve read twice and wound up really liking; some schoolgirls recount their “autopsy” of one of their number which, rather than revealing anything much about that girl, paints a picture of their own thoughts and judgments.
Horror stories: “Setting Up Home” by Sabrina Huang (trans. Jeremy Tiang) is brief and quite effective in building from an apparently-harmless opening to an appalling end; I’m not sure if familiarity with its cultural setting would increase or lessen its effect. I personally find that the troubling effect lingers, even increases, in retrospect. “Black Tea” by Samuel Marolla (trans. Andrew Tanzi) brings nothing much noteworthy to a trapped-in-creepy-house-with-monster story.
“The Language of Knives” by Haralambi Markov, on the other hand, is definitely not lacking in originality. What I actually think of this extravagantly gruesome, emotionally laden story, I really don’t know.
Zen Cho’s “The Four Generations of Chang E” transposes a paradigmatic immigration story to the moon; it’s beautifully written. “Djinns Live by the Sea” by Saad Z. Hossain satirically confronts a jaded rich man with djinns even older and more cynical than him. “Colour Me Grey” by Silayi Swabir is a political fable, which might be very pointed to some people (such as in the author’s Kenya) but didn’t connect with me.
From the Caribbean, the short piece “Single Entry” (i.e. a contestant in a carnival parade) by Celeste Rita Baker is wondrous and doesn’t give up its meaning easily. Marigi John’s “The Corpse” is a genuinely disorienting magical-realist story (mostly a character portrait of a coroner), but not one of the best of its kind I’ve read.
“The Farm” by Elana Gomel is set during the Russian Revolution, and the main character is a Jewish man leading a small group of rural Bolsheviks; what is noteworthy is the use of the device of his encounters with strange beings called Eaters to draw a rich picture of both the character and the times.
“The Good Matter” by Nene Ormes (trans. by the author and Lisa J. Isaksson) is described as urban fantasy and does, I think, fit nicely into that category in the depiction of the characters with paranormal powers in it. The ideology represented in it was bound to displease me, but I suppose it was competently written.
Two traditional science fiction stories: “The Gift of Touch” by Chinelo Onwualu, a disappointingly clunky depiction of a small starship’s crew and their encounter with various religions; and “The Symphony of Ice and Dust” by Julie Novakova — humans and posthumans explore the outer solar system: sense of wonder promised and delivered.
Dilman Dila, from Uganda, wrote “How My Father Became a God”, the most charming of these stories. It is in the style of an oral tale and set in premodern times; the child Akidi tells of her misfit father who is always looking for technological innovations (wonderfully kooky ones), which is one reason he doesn’t get along with his brothers, but the real reason is that his values (shared only by his wife and daughter) don’t fit with the narrow minds of the family squabbling over money and status. I do recommend it, along with the other one that made the strongest impression on me: “The Lady of the Soler Colony” by Rocío Rincón (trans. James & Marian Womack), set in the author’s hometown Barcelona. Six “colonies” (factories) based around goddesslike machines, the “Ladies”. An industrial society with a pervading wrongness to it, with creepiness gradually revealed, but the real nastiness is the mundane economic exploitation. No tidy resolution, but an impression of layers-upon-layers of unease.
nwhyte's review
4.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2722550.html
it's a collection of mostly excellent short stories by non-native English speakers; the two that particularly grabbed me by the brain were the very first one, "The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family" by Usman T. Malik, and "How My Father Became a God" by Dilman Dila, both of which might have made it to my Hugo short list if I had read them in time (also assuming that they had no disqualifying previous publication, which I haven't checked). It also includes Thomas Olde Heuvelt's "The Boy Who Cast No Shadow" which was already a Hugo nominee in 2013.
it's a collection of mostly excellent short stories by non-native English speakers; the two that particularly grabbed me by the brain were the very first one, "The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family" by Usman T. Malik, and "How My Father Became a God" by Dilman Dila, both of which might have made it to my Hugo short list if I had read them in time (also assuming that they had no disqualifying previous publication, which I haven't checked). It also includes Thomas Olde Heuvelt's "The Boy Who Cast No Shadow" which was already a Hugo nominee in 2013.
ansate's review
5.0
<3! Such a great and varied set of stories. There were a few that didn't click with me, several that made me instant fans of the author, and an incredible display of the strength of the short story format. [return][return]I haven't had this much fun with short stories in a while (I think I prefer a collection of different authors - some of the fun is seeing the different ways they approach story telling in a small space) and I'm so glad I got the chance to read these.
ansate's review against another edition
5.0
This is such a solid collection of stories, without any qualifiers. I did feel that there were diverse perspectives that showed up and that was great. I never felt like a translation was clumsy. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and was sad when I got to the end.
survivalisinsufficient's review
4.0
These are pretty good - will have to look up some of these authors, since I'd only read 1 or 2 before this anthology.
vcods's review against another edition
5.0
This is probably one of the best collections of speculative fiction I have ever jad the pleasure of reading. There are so many aspects of the genre covered in a myriad of different cultural and stylistic perspectives. I can't remember the last time I was so thoroughly satisfied by a collection of short stories. I am definitely considering going back and buying the previous three collections. Simply wonderful and tantalizingly thought provoking. ♡
sabai's review against another edition
3.0
What works for this anthology is its diversity and breadth of stories and themes - as someone who barely reads SF, I enjoyed many of the stories tremendously, though not everything - particularly some of the very short stories - felt like they fit in. That is to be expected in an anthology though, and so would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading science fiction and magical realism in shorter doses.
kellswitch's review against another edition
5.0
** Full disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review**
It’s always fascinating to read stories from other cultures and this series has always done a great job finding new and interesting stories from around the world, and from cultures you wouldn’t normally expect.
Collections like this are often a mixed bag with some stories appealing more than others though for me this was one of the few where even the stories I didn’t like as much still really interested me and I was glad to read all of them.
My favorites were the first three in the book, Nkasht ii by Darcie Little Badger which really makes me want to read more speculative fiction from Native American authors in general and this author (and characters) in particular. I look forward to finding more from her.
I also loved A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, it was one of the strongest science fiction stories in the collections.
And finally, accursed Lineage by Daina Chaviano, a strange little gem and a family I would love to spend more time with.
These three stood out, but most of the others were just as good, for me this was one of their strongest collections yet. Definitely one I will be rereading over time.
It’s always fascinating to read stories from other cultures and this series has always done a great job finding new and interesting stories from around the world, and from cultures you wouldn’t normally expect.
Collections like this are often a mixed bag with some stories appealing more than others though for me this was one of the few where even the stories I didn’t like as much still really interested me and I was glad to read all of them.
My favorites were the first three in the book, Nkasht ii by Darcie Little Badger which really makes me want to read more speculative fiction from Native American authors in general and this author (and characters) in particular. I look forward to finding more from her.
I also loved A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, it was one of the strongest science fiction stories in the collections.
And finally, accursed Lineage by Daina Chaviano, a strange little gem and a family I would love to spend more time with.
These three stood out, but most of the others were just as good, for me this was one of their strongest collections yet. Definitely one I will be rereading over time.