Scan barcode
fairybookmother's review
3.0
Review coming soon!
Thanks to Netgalley and Tachyon for the review copy!
Thanks to Netgalley and Tachyon for the review copy!
jhstack's review
4.0
A solid collection from Lauren Beukes, who has written some stellar weird urban fiction novels (and a very on-point horror graphic novel).
laralibrarian's review
5.0
I thought this would be a 4 star review because some of the stories are REALLY out there, but even some of the strangest pieces of science fiction hit me in a way that kept me thinking. Any author who can mix South African and Japanese culture in with multiple genres like this deserves 5 stars. Plus the non fiction pieces at the end are truly worth it.
taniabotes's review
3.0
3.5 stars. Normally I don't read short stories, but as I am a huge fan of fellow South African, Lauren Beukes, I was ecstatic when netgalley approved me for an ARC. The title story is Lauren at her best, and I ended up wishing it was a full-length novel - imagine a very dark and twisted Hunger Games. Although the stories are all very different (some dealing with the harsh reality of living in SA, some sci-fi, some fantasy etc), most of them focuses on the theme of how technology and social media has changed the way we life, and taking this reality to a fantasy level. Some of the stories also really reminded me of her previous work: Moxyland and Branded, Zoocity and Easy touch for instance. So this is a quick way to see if you will enjoy her novels.
The three things I enjoy most about this unique author is her edgy and avant-garde imagination, her tongue in cheek sense of humour and the fact that she uses South Africa as the setting for most of her stories. The non-fiction writing was interesting as she shows us how she uses information received as a journalist when writing fiction.
Some of my favorite stories were: Slipping, Princess, Pop tarts, Easy touch, Unathi battles the black hairballs (this one was so ridiculously over the top, I had to love it) and Tankwa-Karoo.
If you have not tried this author before, and you sometimes enjoy reading weird and wonderful, sometimes wacky, but almost always a little bit sinister stories, I highly recommend that you try this out.
*ARC from Netgalley
The three things I enjoy most about this unique author is her edgy and avant-garde imagination, her tongue in cheek sense of humour and the fact that she uses South Africa as the setting for most of her stories. The non-fiction writing was interesting as she shows us how she uses information received as a journalist when writing fiction.
Some of my favorite stories were: Slipping, Princess, Pop tarts, Easy touch, Unathi battles the black hairballs (this one was so ridiculously over the top, I had to love it) and Tankwa-Karoo.
If you have not tried this author before, and you sometimes enjoy reading weird and wonderful, sometimes wacky, but almost always a little bit sinister stories, I highly recommend that you try this out.
*ARC from Netgalley
alexanderpaez's review
4.0
4,5
Reseña completa
Los relatos que más me han gustado son los de ciencia ficción, aunque hay un par que a priori no son de género que me han parecido espectaculares, en especial el de la chica que sale a correr y ... Bueno, ya lo veréis, espero. Incluso el microrrelato del principio es genial. Ah, y Branded, el tercer o cuarto relato, lo podéis conseguir en castellano en aquel minirecopilatorio de 3 cuentos que sacó RBA. Suerte encontrándolo.
Aunque interesante, quizá la parte que menos me atraía era la de los ensayos pero me ha sorprendido gratamente.
Beukes es una de las autoras contemporáneas que más disfruto leyendo, con un estilo que varía dependiendo del tono de la obra pero que en general es muy, muy bueno.
Reseña completa
Los relatos que más me han gustado son los de ciencia ficción, aunque hay un par que a priori no son de género que me han parecido espectaculares, en especial el de la chica que sale a correr y ... Bueno, ya lo veréis, espero. Incluso el microrrelato del principio es genial. Ah, y Branded, el tercer o cuarto relato, lo podéis conseguir en castellano en aquel minirecopilatorio de 3 cuentos que sacó RBA. Suerte encontrándolo.
Aunque interesante, quizá la parte que menos me atraía era la de los ensayos pero me ha sorprendido gratamente.
Beukes es una de las autoras contemporáneas que más disfruto leyendo, con un estilo que varía dependiendo del tono de la obra pero que en general es muy, muy bueno.
monty_reads's review
3.0
Lauren Beukes wrote the best book I read in 2019, the wildly inventive mystery Broken Monsters (originally published in 2014). Just when you think you've got it pegged as a police procedural (which was perfectly satisfying on its own), it veers off into the world of fantasy and magic realism and confirms in the process that Beukes is one of the most imaginative writers working today.
Slipping, an odds 'n sods collection of short stories and nonfiction, doesn't dispel that notion. But like a lot of collections of this type, it's a little too hit and miss to be totally successful. And look: some of that is probably my fault. Unless it's written by someone named King, Ellison, or Bradbury, I usually find most short prose collections to be hard going. Even writers I otherwise love – Amy Hempel, Michael Chabon, T.C. Boyle – occasionally leave me scratching my head or otherwise disappointed when I close the cover for good. It's entirely possible the problem is me.
Because a lot of Slipping is really fantastic. The title story explores the ethical cost of body augmentation through the lens of high-stakes athletics. "Ghost Girl" is a funny/sad story about a guy who suddenly finds himself haunted by an unusually sarcastic teenage apparition. "Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs" is a fun meta exercise in science-fiction that may or may not feature Haruki Murakami as a character. And my favorite, "The Green," is the creepy science-centric post-apocalyptic story I wish Jeff VanderMeer's Area X trilogy had been.
But some of the stories are a little slight, a little inconclusive. To be fair, this is often a problem I have with short fiction. More often than not with some authors I find myself wanting more of a "So what?" at the end. And that's true of a good third of the stories in Slipping. The back half especially – "Dear Mariana," "Unaccounted," "Tankwa-Karoo," among them – made zero impact on me. Just now I even had to flip back through the book to remind myself what I read.
Some of this may be due to the nature of the book itself – essentially a roundup of Beukes' early work published in a variety of places – and some of it may just be down to my own ambivalence about short fiction. In the end, Slipping is just about half a satisfying read. If it were a baseball player, that would be an amazing average. How you feel about it as a collection of short fiction will certainly vary.
Slipping, an odds 'n sods collection of short stories and nonfiction, doesn't dispel that notion. But like a lot of collections of this type, it's a little too hit and miss to be totally successful. And look: some of that is probably my fault. Unless it's written by someone named King, Ellison, or Bradbury, I usually find most short prose collections to be hard going. Even writers I otherwise love – Amy Hempel, Michael Chabon, T.C. Boyle – occasionally leave me scratching my head or otherwise disappointed when I close the cover for good. It's entirely possible the problem is me.
Because a lot of Slipping is really fantastic. The title story explores the ethical cost of body augmentation through the lens of high-stakes athletics. "Ghost Girl" is a funny/sad story about a guy who suddenly finds himself haunted by an unusually sarcastic teenage apparition. "Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs" is a fun meta exercise in science-fiction that may or may not feature Haruki Murakami as a character. And my favorite, "The Green," is the creepy science-centric post-apocalyptic story I wish Jeff VanderMeer's Area X trilogy had been.
But some of the stories are a little slight, a little inconclusive. To be fair, this is often a problem I have with short fiction. More often than not with some authors I find myself wanting more of a "So what?" at the end. And that's true of a good third of the stories in Slipping. The back half especially – "Dear Mariana," "Unaccounted," "Tankwa-Karoo," among them – made zero impact on me. Just now I even had to flip back through the book to remind myself what I read.
Some of this may be due to the nature of the book itself – essentially a roundup of Beukes' early work published in a variety of places – and some of it may just be down to my own ambivalence about short fiction. In the end, Slipping is just about half a satisfying read. If it were a baseball player, that would be an amazing average. How you feel about it as a collection of short fiction will certainly vary.
thiefofcamorr's review
5.0
This is, as the by-line says, a collection of stories, essays and other writing (such as poems). We start off with a poem titled Muse, about fishhooks in the fingers of gloves that embed themselves a little more with every keystroke, and it's beautiful.
From there we have the first short story, about a girl who, instead of the lower half of her legs, has neurocircuitry. She's come to Pakistan as one of the runners (as the taxi driver oh so cleverly works out), in a futuristic version of the Paralympics. It's hard hitting and interesting, character-driven like Beukes does best, and the perfect start to the collection.
Each part in the collection after this is totally different, and yet utterly enthralling and manages to keep you reading though the easy way you slip into each narrative. Usually when there's huge changes in short story to short story I usually need a break, but this collection works perfectly at holding you down to devour the first half easily within an hour - or until dinner interrupts you, at least.
Being Beukes, hard topics are described and explored, and being Beukes one can easily trust in the author to be both sensitive, intelligent and eloquent throughout.
The non-fiction shows us work that Beukes did as a journalist, and it's amazingly good - I'm picky with my non-fiction and either struggle through each paragraph or can't put it down, and this was the latter.
In this collection, though it's sometimes hard to see through the grit and the grime and the grim nature of the narrative, there is still hope and determination and people ready to struggle for what's right. And that's what makes this collection so damn powerful.
From there we have the first short story, about a girl who, instead of the lower half of her legs, has neurocircuitry. She's come to Pakistan as one of the runners (as the taxi driver oh so cleverly works out), in a futuristic version of the Paralympics. It's hard hitting and interesting, character-driven like Beukes does best, and the perfect start to the collection.
Each part in the collection after this is totally different, and yet utterly enthralling and manages to keep you reading though the easy way you slip into each narrative. Usually when there's huge changes in short story to short story I usually need a break, but this collection works perfectly at holding you down to devour the first half easily within an hour - or until dinner interrupts you, at least.
Being Beukes, hard topics are described and explored, and being Beukes one can easily trust in the author to be both sensitive, intelligent and eloquent throughout.
The non-fiction shows us work that Beukes did as a journalist, and it's amazingly good - I'm picky with my non-fiction and either struggle through each paragraph or can't put it down, and this was the latter.
In this collection, though it's sometimes hard to see through the grit and the grime and the grim nature of the narrative, there is still hope and determination and people ready to struggle for what's right. And that's what makes this collection so damn powerful.
laurenla's review
5.0
I wrote 3 tweets while reading Slipping.
Slipping by @laurenbeukes Glad it is a calm sunny day - these are ripping stories. Ripping out your heart, lungs, etc... 5⭐️
Laughing my way through Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs by @laurenbeukes hello Murakami! Thank you @TachyonPub @NetGalley
Slipping @laurenbeukes reminds me the cyberpunk I grew up on is now reality. Best story collection I've read in a long time, any genre.
Recommend to all but with warning of sad and horrific violence, as well as terminal laughter.
Slipping by @laurenbeukes Glad it is a calm sunny day - these are ripping stories. Ripping out your heart, lungs, etc... 5⭐️
Laughing my way through Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs by @laurenbeukes hello Murakami! Thank you @TachyonPub @NetGalley
Slipping @laurenbeukes reminds me the cyberpunk I grew up on is now reality. Best story collection I've read in a long time, any genre.
Recommend to all but with warning of sad and horrific violence, as well as terminal laughter.