Scan barcode
raven_morgan's review
4.0
Favourites: Owomoyola's "Undermarket Data", Tobler's "A Box, A Pocket, A Spaceman", Liu's "State Change", Jones' "Grass Princess" and Howard's "A Meaningful Exchange".
sleeping_while_awake's review
3.0
Undermarket Data - 3 stars
Urban fantasy setting that had a slight noir feeling to it. Culin is a "contage" and works in the slums of a large city. His job involves something with data and system maintenance, although it is left rather vague. An investigator, Jace, from the "upcity" part of town approaches him, and wants to his help. Read like the origins of a crime duo.
Morning child - 4 stars
Starts off like a typical end of the world/dystopian story, yet ends in a powerful way. The author has an interesting take on the effects of exposure to alien technology. I was impressed by how succinctly well written this story was. I liked the vague ending.
A box, a pocket, a spaceman - 2 stars
A second person, experimental style. The main character is a dreaming of meeting a spaceman and the thoughts turn into an adventure on their own. Imaginative, but I wasn't into the second person narration so much.
Traveller's rest - 3 stars
A longer story, I am surprised it wasn't in the novella section, although maybe it just felt very long to me. A futuristic solider is released from his service and he aims to build a quiet life for himself. This doesn't go as planned. In the author notes, a commentator states that he was reminded of Ted Chiang in this story. I wouldn't say it quite fit that, but it was a smart reading story. It was hard for me to connect with the writing style.
State of mind - 4 stars
This was more of a literature piece. The main character's soul is in the form of an ice cube, and she must always keep it close to her. It's implied that everyone has a physical soul manifested as an object which ultimately represents their personality. It made me imagine of some sort of sci-fi rom-com about interoffice love.
The djinn who sought to kill the sun - 4 stars
A djinn kills the king and queen of a kingdom, and kidnaps the prince. He sets out to destroy the sun in order to bring back his wife. This was my favorite story of this collection. I was really surprised to see that the author was only 16 years old! I liked the writing style, it was easy to follow but held emotion.
The grass princess - 4 stars
This won the World Fantasy Award in 1996. An infant princess is lain down in the grass, and the grass envelopes itself around her. There isn't a way to free her without killing her, so she lays trapped in the grass for years. The kingdom tries to figure out how to save her, and the king and his magician craft quests for a prince to embark on, for their own greed. Damien, a prince of half-fairy blood, takes up the quests. This story ends very differently than what you would typically assume it to be.
A meaningful exchange - 2 stars
Quentin has a magical ability to tell lies and for people to believe them to be true. He sells lies, and a person has to give up something meaningful to get one. There is a twist in the end, in which Quentin is involved in an exchange.
The rules of engagement - 4 stars
After I was able to keep track of the characters, I really enjoyed this novella. I would characterize it as a fantasy of manners. There are references to dragons and magic, but they are background. It surrounds a few characters who are in the king's court. The one issue I had is that it seemed it was going to have a Stockholm Syndrome like scene. It didn't go that far, but if someone tied me up and carried me off, I would not be okay with it, no matter how handsome they were.
Urban fantasy setting that had a slight noir feeling to it. Culin is a "contage" and works in the slums of a large city. His job involves something with data and system maintenance, although it is left rather vague. An investigator, Jace, from the "upcity" part of town approaches him, and wants to his help. Read like the origins of a crime duo.
Morning child - 4 stars
Starts off like a typical end of the world/dystopian story, yet ends in a powerful way. The author has an interesting take on the effects of exposure to alien technology. I was impressed by how succinctly well written this story was. I liked the vague ending.
A box, a pocket, a spaceman - 2 stars
A second person, experimental style. The main character is a dreaming of meeting a spaceman and the thoughts turn into an adventure on their own. Imaginative, but I wasn't into the second person narration so much.
Traveller's rest - 3 stars
A longer story, I am surprised it wasn't in the novella section, although maybe it just felt very long to me. A futuristic solider is released from his service and he aims to build a quiet life for himself. This doesn't go as planned. In the author notes, a commentator states that he was reminded of Ted Chiang in this story. I wouldn't say it quite fit that, but it was a smart reading story. It was hard for me to connect with the writing style.
State of mind - 4 stars
This was more of a literature piece. The main character's soul is in the form of an ice cube, and she must always keep it close to her. It's implied that everyone has a physical soul manifested as an object which ultimately represents their personality. It made me imagine of some sort of sci-fi rom-com about interoffice love.
The djinn who sought to kill the sun - 4 stars
A djinn kills the king and queen of a kingdom, and kidnaps the prince. He sets out to destroy the sun in order to bring back his wife. This was my favorite story of this collection. I was really surprised to see that the author was only 16 years old! I liked the writing style, it was easy to follow but held emotion.
The grass princess - 4 stars
This won the World Fantasy Award in 1996. An infant princess is lain down in the grass, and the grass envelopes itself around her. There isn't a way to free her without killing her, so she lays trapped in the grass for years. The kingdom tries to figure out how to save her, and the king and his magician craft quests for a prince to embark on, for their own greed. Damien, a prince of half-fairy blood, takes up the quests. This story ends very differently than what you would typically assume it to be.
A meaningful exchange - 2 stars
Quentin has a magical ability to tell lies and for people to believe them to be true. He sells lies, and a person has to give up something meaningful to get one. There is a twist in the end, in which Quentin is involved in an exchange.
The rules of engagement - 4 stars
After I was able to keep track of the characters, I really enjoyed this novella. I would characterize it as a fantasy of manners. There are references to dragons and magic, but they are background. It surrounds a few characters who are in the king's court. The one issue I had is that it seemed it was going to have a Stockholm Syndrome like scene. It didn't go that far, but if someone tied me up and carried me off, I would not be okay with it, no matter how handsome they were.
More...