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tregina's review against another edition
4.0
It's rare I give an anthology more than three stars, just due to averaging out the weak and strong stories, but this one was fairly consistently strong for me, tipping the scales to the upper end. There is a tremendous mix of stories, though most seem to have been originally written in English (with just a few in translation, and of those the majority were translated by the author). If pressed to choose a favourite--okay, let me have two--they would probably be "L’Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars)" by Dean Francis Alfar and Kristin Mandigma's "Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-realist Aswang", two stories which probably couldn't be more different from one another (though, interestingly, are by the two Filipino writers in the anthology).
Well worth reading, and I'm looking forward to the second volume, which my email assures me is making its way through the postal system to me at this very moment.
Well worth reading, and I'm looking forward to the second volume, which my email assures me is making its way through the postal system to me at this very moment.
leticiatoraci's review against another edition
2.0
It's great that an international SFF anthology was put together, but the short stories were too different from each other and this made reading them in sequence quite jarring.
I didn't like this anthology more for two reasons.
First, some of the stories were horror, which is a genre I really don't like.
Second, some of the stories had a writing style that I didn't like.
The only story that really stood out to me and was my favorite was "The Lost Xuyan Bride". A couple of others were OK.
oleksandr's review against another edition
3.0
This is an anthology of short stories from countries whose authors rarely reach English speaking SFF fans. I read is as a part of monthly reading for February 2021 at Speculative Fiction in Translation group. Note that a large share of the stories belong to horror genre, which I don’t consider a part of SFF and which I rarely read.
Here are the notes and ratings for specific stories.
Introduction by Lavie Tidhar a short intro why this book is different from the others
The Bird Catcher by S.P. Somtow, Thailand a horror story as told by a grandfather to his grandson about his friendship with severely traumatized Chinese right after the WW2 on Thailand. 4*
Transcendence Express by Jetse de Vries, Netherlands a famous scientist moves to Africa to teach kids her invention – ‘growing’ bio-quantum computers. Quite original. 4*
The Levantine Experiments by Guy Hasson, Israel a girl grew up in closed room without ever communicating with other people. 3*
The Wheel of Samsara by Han Song, China a wheel in Tibet monastery makes strange sounds and possibly contains a universe. Future Chinese, who already live on Mars, come to investigate. 3*
Ghost Jail by Kaaron Warren, Australia/Fiji a corrupt police chief helps to vacate a spot from poor people, but this time with ghosts as part of everyday life. A journalist investigates. 2.5*
Wizard World by Yang Ping, China a man lived in a virtual reality until some group stole his credentials. Moralistic and I suppose the author hasn’t really played any MUDs. 2*
The Kite of Stars by Dean Francis Alfar, Philippines a fantasy story – a woman wants to be notices by an astronomer and goes on a long journey to collect items for a kite. 4*
Cinderers by Nir Yaniv, Israel a strange SF/horror about artists (?), whose art is fire, often in populated places. 2.5*
The Allah Stairs by Jamil Nasir, Palestine a narrator as a kid knew another kid, who told that after his father hit him, he ascended by Allah stairs and complained and then his father was beaten by monkeys. Years later the narrator returns to find out that that father really died and his last words were ‘monkeys!’ 3*
Biggest Baddest Bomoh by Tunku Halim, Malaysia a guy lusts for a co-worker and asks a rural wizard to entice her. 2.5*
The Lost Xuyan Bride by Aliette de Bodard, France a world where the US is small and poor, while Mexico and Chinese (Xuya) rule the North America. A protagonist is a private eye, asked to find a vanished daughter of a wealthy family. 3.5*
Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang by Kristin Mandigma, Philippines a Marxist shape shifter criticizes a bourgeois SFF and calls for a social revolution. Funny. 3.5*
An Evening in the City Coffeehouse, With Lydia on My Mind by Aleksandar Žiljak, Croatia a narrator is on the run. He made a living by making illicit videos of unsuspecting women who had sex to sell porn, but once he shout a wrong lady. 4*
Into the Night by Anil Menon, India an old men, whose wife has died and who doesn’t believe in modern picture of the world, half-senile, is taken care by his daughter. 2*
Elegy by Mélanie Fazi, France a letter of a mother to some magic entity, who enchanted and stole her twins two years ago. 3*
Here are the notes and ratings for specific stories.
Introduction by Lavie Tidhar a short intro why this book is different from the others
The Bird Catcher by S.P. Somtow, Thailand a horror story as told by a grandfather to his grandson about his friendship with severely traumatized Chinese right after the WW2 on Thailand. 4*
Transcendence Express by Jetse de Vries, Netherlands a famous scientist moves to Africa to teach kids her invention – ‘growing’ bio-quantum computers. Quite original. 4*
The Levantine Experiments by Guy Hasson, Israel a girl grew up in closed room without ever communicating with other people. 3*
The Wheel of Samsara by Han Song, China a wheel in Tibet monastery makes strange sounds and possibly contains a universe. Future Chinese, who already live on Mars, come to investigate. 3*
Ghost Jail by Kaaron Warren, Australia/Fiji a corrupt police chief helps to vacate a spot from poor people, but this time with ghosts as part of everyday life. A journalist investigates. 2.5*
Wizard World by Yang Ping, China a man lived in a virtual reality until some group stole his credentials. Moralistic and I suppose the author hasn’t really played any MUDs. 2*
The Kite of Stars by Dean Francis Alfar, Philippines a fantasy story – a woman wants to be notices by an astronomer and goes on a long journey to collect items for a kite. 4*
Cinderers by Nir Yaniv, Israel a strange SF/horror about artists (?), whose art is fire, often in populated places. 2.5*
The Allah Stairs by Jamil Nasir, Palestine a narrator as a kid knew another kid, who told that after his father hit him, he ascended by Allah stairs and complained and then his father was beaten by monkeys. Years later the narrator returns to find out that that father really died and his last words were ‘monkeys!’ 3*
Biggest Baddest Bomoh by Tunku Halim, Malaysia a guy lusts for a co-worker and asks a rural wizard to entice her. 2.5*
The Lost Xuyan Bride by Aliette de Bodard, France a world where the US is small and poor, while Mexico and Chinese (Xuya) rule the North America. A protagonist is a private eye, asked to find a vanished daughter of a wealthy family. 3.5*
Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang by Kristin Mandigma, Philippines a Marxist shape shifter criticizes a bourgeois SFF and calls for a social revolution. Funny. 3.5*
An Evening in the City Coffeehouse, With Lydia on My Mind by Aleksandar Žiljak, Croatia a narrator is on the run. He made a living by making illicit videos of unsuspecting women who had sex to sell porn, but once he shout a wrong lady. 4*
Into the Night by Anil Menon, India an old men, whose wife has died and who doesn’t believe in modern picture of the world, half-senile, is taken care by his daughter. 2*
Elegy by Mélanie Fazi, France a letter of a mother to some magic entity, who enchanted and stole her twins two years ago. 3*
matt_bitonti's review against another edition
4.0
Several great short stories, some more horror or fantasy than science fiction. Aliette de Bodard had a page turner. My favorite was the Alexander Ziljak, which is also available through their magazine for free:
http://www.apex-magazine.com/an-evening-in-the-city-coffeehouse-with-lydia-on-my-mind/
http://www.apex-magazine.com/an-evening-in-the-city-coffeehouse-with-lydia-on-my-mind/
kateofmind's review against another edition
4.0
See my Reading Progress entries for thoughts on each story. Some good stuff here, especially Aliette de Bodard's amazing entry.
wealhtheow's review against another edition
2.0
A collection of sci fi, fantasy, and horror from all over the world. Some was written in English, others translated.
I didn't like most of these stories. Some were too surreal for me to get a handle on what was happening and, even more importantly, why I should care (most obvious example: Zoran Zivkovic's "Compartments," in which the main character walks through train compartments and various characters tell him stories). Others were too obvious and cliched for my tastes (ex: Yang Ping's "Wizard World," in which a MMO player gets hacked and eventually decides to live life outside his computer, or the love spell gone wrong in Tunku Halim's "Biggest Baddest Bomoh") or were too fundamentally unbelievable for me to get engrossed (why did the butcher's boy agree to leave his family and all he knew just to help some stranger collect items for a magical kite for thirty years, as in Dean Francis Alfar's "L'Aquilone du estrellas"?) A few were nicely creepy but I didn't get the point of them (Jamil Nasir's "The Allah Stairs"), or why they were so recursive (Nir Yaniv's "Cinderers"). I didn't particularly enjoy Anil Menon's "Into the Night" or SP Somtow's "The Bird Catcher," about old men and cultural change, but I bet if I cared less about sf/f and more about literary considerations, I'd like them better.
I liked Kristin Mandigma's "Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang": the premise is great fun, and the style of the letter is as well:
I was very intrigued by the world building in Aliette de Bodard's "The Lost Xuyan Bride," in which North America is dominated by Greater Mexica and Xuya, with all the alternate cultural and historical shifts that implies. I'd like to read more by this author.
Overall, this book was a collection of stories that just didn't fit my tastes. I wanted more worldbuilding, more characterization, more plot, and instead I got a lot of surreal nonsense, hackneyed plots, and very little plot indeed. This is not to say that these stories were bad, but they weren't what I look for in sf/f.
I didn't like most of these stories. Some were too surreal for me to get a handle on what was happening and, even more importantly, why I should care (most obvious example: Zoran Zivkovic's "Compartments," in which the main character walks through train compartments and various characters tell him stories). Others were too obvious and cliched for my tastes (ex: Yang Ping's "Wizard World," in which a MMO player gets hacked and eventually decides to live life outside his computer, or the love spell gone wrong in Tunku Halim's "Biggest Baddest Bomoh") or were too fundamentally unbelievable for me to get engrossed (why did the butcher's boy agree to leave his family and all he knew just to help some stranger collect items for a magical kite for thirty years, as in Dean Francis Alfar's "L'Aquilone du estrellas"?) A few were nicely creepy but I didn't get the point of them (Jamil Nasir's "The Allah Stairs"), or why they were so recursive (Nir Yaniv's "Cinderers"). I didn't particularly enjoy Anil Menon's "Into the Night" or SP Somtow's "The Bird Catcher," about old men and cultural change, but I bet if I cared less about sf/f and more about literary considerations, I'd like them better.
I liked Kristin Mandigma's "Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang": the premise is great fun, and the style of the letter is as well:
With regard to your question about how I perceive myself as an "Other," let me make it clear that I am as fantastic to myself as rice. I do not waste time sitting around brooding about my mythic status and why the notion that I have lived for five hundred years ought to send me into a paroxysm of metaphysical angst for the benefit of self-indulgent, overprivileged, cultural hegemists who fancy themselves writers. So there are times in the month when half of me flies off to--as you put it so charmingly--eat babies. Well, I ask you, so what? For your information, I only eat babies whose parents are far too entrenched in the oppressive capitalist superstructure to expect them to be redeemed as good dialectical materialists."
I was very intrigued by the world building in Aliette de Bodard's "The Lost Xuyan Bride," in which North America is dominated by Greater Mexica and Xuya, with all the alternate cultural and historical shifts that implies. I'd like to read more by this author.
Overall, this book was a collection of stories that just didn't fit my tastes. I wanted more worldbuilding, more characterization, more plot, and instead I got a lot of surreal nonsense, hackneyed plots, and very little plot indeed. This is not to say that these stories were bad, but they weren't what I look for in sf/f.
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