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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
I love Connie Willis' short stories. This collection is uniformly excellent, which isn't surprising when you consider that they're all award-winning stories. Even if you aren't a fan of science fiction, I highly recommend these. Willis' writing style is uncommonly clear and compelling. In addition, her introduction provides insight into the writers who influenced her. This would be a great compilation to use in an English class.
audio
This was a fun compilation. Some I loved, some I really didn't, but most were in between.
Narration was well done
This was a fun compilation. Some I loved, some I really didn't, but most were in between.
Narration was well done
One of my favorite things about this book is that all of the connecting ligaments (the author's notes at the end of each story, the introduction, the final speeches at the back) are love notes to other books. It's a collection of short stories on a range of topics, some of which I enjoyed very much, some of which I was less interested in (although I didn't skip any; Connie Willis is a very proficient and funny writer. It's more that politically I am not sure we are seeing eye-to-eye, which is Fine of course). But I am very into books that are love notes to other books; I spent a lot of time building a "to read" collection out of what My Heroes kept on their shelves. This seems to be a somewhat dated practice in modern books, unless they are being Pretentiously Literary, and that makes me sad! Bring back intertextual book recommendations.
The short stories themselves are often love notes to various things-- the Tube, for instance, and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and dogs, and Christmas Hymns.
I will say that "The Soul Selects Her Own Society" is one of the greatest short stories I've ever read, ft. footnotes, zombie Emily Dickens, and alien invasion, plus plenty of academic skewering.
"All Seated on the Ground" gave me a lot of feelings about recontextualizing Christmas Carols in a spirit of love and humanity, actually. Maybe I'll read it again 'round Christmas time and see if I can sing guilt-free.
I have another book of Connie Willis short stories, & am looking forward to seeing if there are enough different stories to count as a different book. She is also just very funny, and there's usually a romantic subplot that I get all suckered into every time.
The short stories themselves are often love notes to various things-- the Tube, for instance, and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and dogs, and Christmas Hymns.
I will say that "The Soul Selects Her Own Society" is one of the greatest short stories I've ever read, ft. footnotes, zombie Emily Dickens, and alien invasion, plus plenty of academic skewering.
"All Seated on the Ground" gave me a lot of feelings about recontextualizing Christmas Carols in a spirit of love and humanity, actually. Maybe I'll read it again 'round Christmas time and see if I can sing guilt-free.
I have another book of Connie Willis short stories, & am looking forward to seeing if there are enough different stories to count as a different book. She is also just very funny, and there's usually a romantic subplot that I get all suckered into every time.
Love Connie Willis' full length novels. Her short stories....not so much. Meh.
Honestly, at this point in my life, I’m still salty that none of the other readers in my immediate family are big on science fiction. They couldn’t share or understand my joy at discovering Philip K Dick when I was 12. They couldn’t comprehend my fascination with Heinlein when I was 15. They couldn’t agree with my gushing over any of the science fiction/spacey movies or tv shows (except your typical Star Wars and Firefly stuff) that I just couldn’t get enough of. In much the same way I can discover a musical artist and not believe I never fell head over heels for them before (because, once again, my musical tastes also differ from those of my family), I have discovered Connie Willis and cannot believe I’ve never read her before this year.
And that’s how I feel about that.
And that’s how I feel about that.
Some good short stories, but they aren't as good as her novels. She's an amazing writer.
It's hard to overstate how much I love Connie Willis. If you read much of her work you start to think she must have experienced some traumatic incidents of getting lost, unending phone tag, or unsatisfactory seances. The repeated missed connections and wandering give her work a dreamlike feeling of unreality and incompleteness. It's repetitive, but leaves me wanting more. You also often have to be able to cast yourself back to a time before we all had phones, facebook, and GPS.
Each story has a short afterword by Willis giving background on the story, often on how she got the idea.
The first story is my favorite, "A Letter from the Clearys." It has a dog and it does an brilliant job of climbing into the head of an adolescent at that time when you're running around independently and trying to participate in the life of the family and sometimes you mess up because you can't read between the lines of adult conversations yet.
The story that doesn't work for me is "Inside Job." It poses some professional skeptics the challenge of wanting to believe in a ghost they've set out to debunk. The world of spirit channelers felt too fake to need debunking, and the skeptics don't hold together as people when faced with the possible ghost of early 20th century skeptic H. L. Mencken. Their logic is not sharp enough - people shouldn't struggle this much with the basic groundings of their job! They also seem to waver between trying to prove and trying to disprove the ghost. In the end there's too much talk about Mencken and not enough about how this experience affects the protagonists.
Each story has a short afterword by Willis giving background on the story, often on how she got the idea.
The first story is my favorite, "A Letter from the Clearys." It has a dog and it does an brilliant job of climbing into the head of an adolescent at that time when you're running around independently and trying to participate in the life of the family and sometimes you mess up because you can't read between the lines of adult conversations yet.
The story that doesn't work for me is "Inside Job." It poses some professional skeptics the challenge of wanting to believe in a ghost they've set out to debunk. The world of spirit channelers felt too fake to need debunking, and the skeptics don't hold together as people when faced with the possible ghost of early 20th century skeptic H. L. Mencken. Their logic is not sharp enough - people shouldn't struggle this much with the basic groundings of their job! They also seem to waver between trying to prove and trying to disprove the ghost. In the end there's too much talk about Mencken and not enough about how this experience affects the protagonists.
I came across this collection on a discount table in a bookstore in Denver, and I'm so glad I did.
Hugo Award winners in this collection:
* "Fire Watch," novelette : 1983 — really excellent! Belongs to Willis's Oxford time-traveling historians series. (Also won the Nebula Award.)
* "The Last of the Winnebagos," novella : 1989 — one of the saddest stories I've ever read (I cried). (Also won the Nebula Award.)
* "Even the Queen," short story : 1993 — hilarious! Worth the price of the book just for this. (Also won the Nebula Award.)
* "Death on the Nile," short story : 1994 — funny and also surreal.
* "The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective," short story : 1997 — amusing, but not a favorite for me.
* "The Winds of Marble Arch," novella : 2000 — didn't love this one. Seemed like a mediocre Twilight Zone episode.
* "Inside Job," novella : 2006 — as a journalist, I gotta love a story that includes H. L. Mencken's ghost, a sleazy spirit channeler, and a Sam Spade–like debunker of psychics.
* "All Seated on the Ground," novella : 2008 — funny and entertaining story about a few annoyed aliens on Earth and a likable choir director at Christmas-time.
Nebula Award winners:
* "A Letter from the Clearys," short story : 1983 — this also seems like a Twilight Zone episode, but a memorable one.
* "At the Rialto," novelette : 1990 — I enjoyed the quantum physics angle very much! Set at a physicists' convention, it's quite funny in unexpected ways.
Hugo Award winners in this collection:
* "Fire Watch," novelette : 1983 — really excellent! Belongs to Willis's Oxford time-traveling historians series. (Also won the Nebula Award.)
* "The Last of the Winnebagos," novella : 1989 — one of the saddest stories I've ever read (I cried). (Also won the Nebula Award.)
* "Even the Queen," short story : 1993 — hilarious! Worth the price of the book just for this. (Also won the Nebula Award.)
* "Death on the Nile," short story : 1994 — funny and also surreal.
* "The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective," short story : 1997 — amusing, but not a favorite for me.
* "The Winds of Marble Arch," novella : 2000 — didn't love this one. Seemed like a mediocre Twilight Zone episode.
* "Inside Job," novella : 2006 — as a journalist, I gotta love a story that includes H. L. Mencken's ghost, a sleazy spirit channeler, and a Sam Spade–like debunker of psychics.
* "All Seated on the Ground," novella : 2008 — funny and entertaining story about a few annoyed aliens on Earth and a likable choir director at Christmas-time.
Nebula Award winners:
* "A Letter from the Clearys," short story : 1983 — this also seems like a Twilight Zone episode, but a memorable one.
* "At the Rialto," novelette : 1990 — I enjoyed the quantum physics angle very much! Set at a physicists' convention, it's quite funny in unexpected ways.
A truly wonderful collection of short stories that show just how wide and varied science fiction can be and how it is rarely what you most expect. Connie Willis writes with the most skilful of voices and never fails to draw you in,show you around and escorts you out with plenty to think about. A true master of the genre.
Some of these I had read before, and some were new to me. Fire Watch is still heartbreaking, although this was the first time I noticed that Kivrin from The Doomsday Book makes a brief appearance. Even the Queen made me laugh like I haven't done in a very long time.