Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
Best short story book I've read this year. Each story is entire unto itself, and completely different from all of the others in this collection. The stories seem to run the range of sci-fi sub-genres, too, so there's really something for everyone.
Not all of these stories are 5-star stories. I wasn't a fan of "Spar" or "The Empress Jingu Fishes" and would probably only give each of those a single star if it weren't for the fact that Johnson has an ability to create images that amaze even if you do not particularly care for the stories themselves. When the story IS good, combined with that incredible imagery, the result is pure magic.
The title story, "At the Mouth of the River of Bees," brought me to tears. It was sad and beautiful and left me thinking about it long after I'd finished reading.
"Ponies" was the most disturbing thing I've read in a while. It made my stomach churn, as did "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change."
Others which stood out were "Wolf Trapping," "The Man Who Bridged the Mist," and "The Horse Raiders."
There is darkness and melancholy in each of these stories, and even though they were not all amazing, the effect of reading the collection will linger with me.
The title story, "At the Mouth of the River of Bees," brought me to tears. It was sad and beautiful and left me thinking about it long after I'd finished reading.
"Ponies" was the most disturbing thing I've read in a while. It made my stomach churn, as did "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change."
Others which stood out were "Wolf Trapping," "The Man Who Bridged the Mist," and "The Horse Raiders."
There is darkness and melancholy in each of these stories, and even though they were not all amazing, the effect of reading the collection will linger with me.
Stories about animals and humans, about change and loss, about time and identity, about stories. Definitely recommended.
Some good and some bad, as is usually the case with short story collections; overall a very enjoyable read. My subjective ranking, from best to worst:
• “My Wife Reincarnated as a Solitaire—Exposition on the Flaws in my Wife's Character—The Nature of the Bird—Her Final Disposition”: such delightful fun. I really enjoy short stories where the writing style (even in the title!) is a crucial element of the whole.
• “The cat who walked a thousand miles”: loved it. A simple, soothing, ghibliesque little story. Some might find it a bit dull but I love cats and I love quiet tales of travel and it makes sense to me that a cat’s adventure would have this vibe of slow-paced equanimity.
• “Names for water”: So simple, so good.
• “Chenting, in the land of the dead”: Another straightforward little story. I love any story that revolves round some sort of land of the dead.
• “26 monkeys, also the abyss”: I love monkeys and I loved this odd, puzzling story. It’s the good kind of magical realism that makes you think “the world is such a weird place, it doesn’t feel that outlandish for something like this to happen to someone”.
• “Dia Chjerman’s tale”: Good old scifi by my personal standards—I always feel a bit betrayed when I read a ‘narrow’ scifi story, and gratified when I read one that spans centuries and dozens of human generations.
• “The horse raiders”: Loved the worldbuilding while the other aspects of the story (plot, characters) were just okayish. But worldbuilding is near the bottom of my literary Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (with writing quality at the very bottom)—if a story introduces me to an interesting world I can forgive a lot of shortcomings.
• “The Empress Jingu fishes”: Non-linear plots always catch my interest and the protagonist was pretty great.
• “Fox magic”: Nicely narrated… not very original but a good read nonetheless.
• “The man who bridged the mist”: Really nice worldbuilding and atmosphere and it’s not often that we get to explore little details of a fantasy universe by focusing on a team of people building some kind of historic construction (I’m reminded of Ted Chiang’s Tower of Babylon story.) The protagonist was really bland though.
• “Wolf trapping”: would have gone from okay to good with more insight into Addie’s thought process or backstory.
• “The bitey cat”: It’s okay. Not bad, not good.
• “At the mouth of the river of bees”: Another one that I mainly liked because it is set in an interesting world, while finding the main character terribly bland.
• “Ponies”: cool concept but it fell very flat. (I loved the way another reviewer described it though: “candy-coated horror”)
• “The evolution of trickster stories”: In fairness this one wasn’t bad, but I'm too much of a cat person to enjoy a story in which dogs’ psyche is explored with interest and nuance while cats are dismissed as “pragmatic sociopaths”… (no hard feelings though! I felt so catered to with the charming story of the travelling cat)
• “Story kit”: Just bad. Kind of embarrassing.
• “Schrödinger’s cathouse”: Terrible. This one felt really amateurish.
• “Spar”: A warning: explicit, disturbing rapesex with a possibly non-sentient alien. I can sort of see how some people might get something interesting out of this story but I hated every second I spent reading it and was greatly looking forward to finishing it and never thinking about it again.
I liked reading the reviews for this book because everyone seemed to pick a different story as their favourite and get something different out of this collection. I’d recommend it for this reason, and because the majority of the stories, even the ones that didn’t entirely convince me, had such a distinct, unique atmosphere, easy to get immersed in. I also really appreciated all the female protagonists, even when the character was an animal, considering how male-by-default writing is even more rampant when authors write about animals.
• “My Wife Reincarnated as a Solitaire—Exposition on the Flaws in my Wife's Character—The Nature of the Bird—Her Final Disposition”: such delightful fun. I really enjoy short stories where the writing style (even in the title!) is a crucial element of the whole.
• “The cat who walked a thousand miles”: loved it. A simple, soothing, ghibliesque little story. Some might find it a bit dull but I love cats and I love quiet tales of travel and it makes sense to me that a cat’s adventure would have this vibe of slow-paced equanimity.
• “Names for water”: So simple, so good.
• “Chenting, in the land of the dead”: Another straightforward little story. I love any story that revolves round some sort of land of the dead.
• “26 monkeys, also the abyss”: I love monkeys and I loved this odd, puzzling story. It’s the good kind of magical realism that makes you think “the world is such a weird place, it doesn’t feel that outlandish for something like this to happen to someone”.
• “Dia Chjerman’s tale”: Good old scifi by my personal standards—I always feel a bit betrayed when I read a ‘narrow’ scifi story, and gratified when I read one that spans centuries and dozens of human generations.
• “The horse raiders”: Loved the worldbuilding while the other aspects of the story (plot, characters) were just okayish. But worldbuilding is near the bottom of my literary Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (with writing quality at the very bottom)—if a story introduces me to an interesting world I can forgive a lot of shortcomings.
• “The Empress Jingu fishes”: Non-linear plots always catch my interest and the protagonist was pretty great.
• “Fox magic”: Nicely narrated… not very original but a good read nonetheless.
• “The man who bridged the mist”: Really nice worldbuilding and atmosphere and it’s not often that we get to explore little details of a fantasy universe by focusing on a team of people building some kind of historic construction (I’m reminded of Ted Chiang’s Tower of Babylon story.) The protagonist was really bland though.
• “Wolf trapping”: would have gone from okay to good with more insight into Addie’s thought process or backstory.
• “The bitey cat”: It’s okay. Not bad, not good.
• “At the mouth of the river of bees”: Another one that I mainly liked because it is set in an interesting world, while finding the main character terribly bland.
• “Ponies”: cool concept but it fell very flat. (I loved the way another reviewer described it though: “candy-coated horror”)
• “The evolution of trickster stories”: In fairness this one wasn’t bad, but I'm too much of a cat person to enjoy a story in which dogs’ psyche is explored with interest and nuance while cats are dismissed as “pragmatic sociopaths”… (no hard feelings though! I felt so catered to with the charming story of the travelling cat)
• “Story kit”: Just bad. Kind of embarrassing.
• “Schrödinger’s cathouse”: Terrible. This one felt really amateurish.
• “Spar”: A warning: explicit, disturbing rapesex with a possibly non-sentient alien. I can sort of see how some people might get something interesting out of this story but I hated every second I spent reading it and was greatly looking forward to finishing it and never thinking about it again.
I liked reading the reviews for this book because everyone seemed to pick a different story as their favourite and get something different out of this collection. I’d recommend it for this reason, and because the majority of the stories, even the ones that didn’t entirely convince me, had such a distinct, unique atmosphere, easy to get immersed in. I also really appreciated all the female protagonists, even when the character was an animal, considering how male-by-default writing is even more rampant when authors write about animals.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
This is a short story collection and so it's dumb to evaluate it as a whole by the StoryGraph's criteria.
When skin Johnson’s writing worked, the stories were fresh and cool and unique, but otherwise they read as filler. But these highlights were great stories that I really enjoyed
26 monkeys
Fox magic
Chenting, in the land of the dead
The Empress Jingu Fishes
At the mouth of the river of bees
26 monkeys
Fox magic
Chenting, in the land of the dead
The Empress Jingu Fishes
At the mouth of the river of bees
i liked it, but not enough read through it. lending period expired twice :( wasn’t meant to be
Magical realism, sf, metaphors… This short story collection has it all!
Some of the stories, as is tradition, worked better than others, but Kij Johnson's voice is one I came to appreciate, as well as her way of playing with words, and themes.
Grab this if you can.
Some of the stories, as is tradition, worked better than others, but Kij Johnson's voice is one I came to appreciate, as well as her way of playing with words, and themes.
Grab this if you can.
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes