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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
This collection of short stories is not too be missed. Science fiction and social commentary that will break your heart and remind you to hope.
rounded up from 2.5 - I love love love Janelle Monáe, but this book is VERY overwritten. the world she’s built makes more sense in musical and cinematic form than in literature. some parts felt more like a philosophical treatise and others read like YA, but it’s still full of hope, beauty, and bravery.
I like the idea of a book/album that are connected. Unfortunately I ended up liking the creativity of the idea more than the execution of either. Both the book & the album are... fine. The world is unique & the book is LGBT friendly
This book was SUCH a pleasure to read. An anthology of stories based on the visual and auditory universe of the Dirty Computer album and film that fall on the hopeful end of the afrofuturism scale. I felt uplifted by these narratives and reminded that collective resistance and collective joy is our power.
Recommended for sci-fi nerds, Queers, femmes, and those interested in resistance and Blackness.
Recommended for sci-fi nerds, Queers, femmes, and those interested in resistance and Blackness.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, Police brutality
Minor: Sexual content
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I was very close to DNFing this anthology, but the nice thing about short story anthologies is that you can just DNF one story and move on.
I'm glad I did, because I think Timebox was worth it, and by far the best story in the whole collection (and the shortest). It's tight, the characters have real personalities, and the story poses an interesting intersectional question to an ostensibly sci fi story. Tbh I feel like the ending to this story is extremely obvious and unambiguous.Akilah decided to lock herself into the pantry, after realizing the power and potential of limitless extra time. Throughout the story she's shown to be hypocritical, someone who projects the image of wokeness but does nothing to reject her own privileged background. So when Raven discovers the pantry, Akilah jealously argues that the pantry should be common property actually, then does nothing towards her that self-professed goal, and then uses it for herself. It's a super didactic story, and other people say that the anthology reminds them of Butler, but honestly, it's only this one. The fact that in the story, we follow Raven as time moves forward even though time in the pantry stands still seems to imply something quite interesting too, about relativistic time. I like that this part is a bit ambiguous.
Save Changes was also quite good, and tbh I feel like these two best exemplify the underlying theme of the anthology. There's this conflation of time and memory and how they relate to each other, and to freedom. Erasing memories erases the existence of time, as the record lives in the minds of the "computers". And so the struggle is to find freedom, to find more time, to keep the memory. It suffers from the same problem all time loop stories suffer from, but is otherwise ok, and is at least interesting and engaging.
Memory Librarian is okay, but badly needs editing. Too long by half, too self wallowing by a mile.
Timebox Altar(ed) is like an alt universe Wizard of Oz fever dream. A bit too much like listening to someone's mushroom trip, but it's hopeful and aspirational, if a bit uninteresting.
I swear I almost quit this book 10 pages into reading Nevermind. It. Drags. On. Nobody has a distinct personality at all, I had a very time hard time keeping track of who anyone is. It distinctly lacks descriptions of setting and location. Every page are these horrible tracts of dialogue that are written to capture how people "really" speak, so are full of grammatical inaccuracies that make everyone sound even more the same. I dnf'd this story - I did try to read a bit of the ending and that provided zero extra clarity. Felt like boring lefty infighting over something that has no real stakes.
Anyway. I had high hopes for this anthology. Sorry y'all. Too much of it was mindless tedium and even when I think through the themes, I'm not sure it was worth it. Audiobook is probably nice though, seems like it would make for a better vibe.
I'm glad I did, because I think Timebox was worth it, and by far the best story in the whole collection (and the shortest). It's tight, the characters have real personalities, and the story poses an interesting intersectional question to an ostensibly sci fi story. Tbh I feel like the ending to this story is extremely obvious and unambiguous.
Save Changes was also quite good, and tbh I feel like these two best exemplify the underlying theme of the anthology. There's this conflation of time and memory and how they relate to each other, and to freedom. Erasing memories erases the existence of time, as the record lives in the minds of the "computers". And so the struggle is to find freedom, to find more time, to keep the memory. It suffers from the same problem all time loop stories suffer from, but is otherwise ok, and is at least interesting and engaging.
Memory Librarian is okay, but badly needs editing. Too long by half, too self wallowing by a mile.
Timebox Altar(ed) is like an alt universe Wizard of Oz fever dream. A bit too much like listening to someone's mushroom trip, but it's hopeful and aspirational, if a bit uninteresting.
I swear I almost quit this book 10 pages into reading Nevermind. It. Drags. On. Nobody has a distinct personality at all, I had a very time hard time keeping track of who anyone is. It distinctly lacks descriptions of setting and location. Every page are these horrible tracts of dialogue that are written to capture how people "really" speak, so are full of grammatical inaccuracies that make everyone sound even more the same. I dnf'd this story - I did try to read a bit of the ending and that provided zero extra clarity. Felt like boring lefty infighting over something that has no real stakes.
Anyway. I had high hopes for this anthology. Sorry y'all. Too much of it was mindless tedium and even when I think through the themes, I'm not sure it was worth it. Audiobook is probably nice though, seems like it would make for a better vibe.
I eagerly anticipated this work, and like most anything else I’ve over hyped, it failed to meet my lofty expectations. This is not a fault of the work, so I’ll try to temper my criticism accordingly. The Memory Librarian is a collection of loosely connected short stories authored by Janelle Monáe and various coauthors. The stories revolve around the idea of Dirty Computers (i.e., nonconforming human minds – inspired by her album of the same name) living in a totalitarian world which seeks to suppress and reprogram nonconformists. Each story approaches this frame in slightly different ways, and the authorial voice varies greatly between stories thanks to the various coauthors. I found the read to be a pretty uneven experience, with some of the stories wowing me and leaving me wanting for more (I’m looking at you Timebox) but most barely developing enough to drawn me in, let alone hook me. Some great ideas here that perhaps would have benefited by novel length developments.
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:
Complicated
Interesting concept but hard to follow what was going on in all of the stories.