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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Review for the titular short story only which had me BAWLING.
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Monkey story great, liked the one about the bridge found most the rest of it not that interesting.
Very mixed collection. Some I couldn't get through. Others still haunt me (see "Ponies").
Kij Johnson, like Rachel Swirsky is a writer best known for her short fiction and is able in a very few sentences to create very memorable short, short stories that stay with you long after you have read them.
In this collection there is Spar, Names for Water and Ponies plus possibly some others that are very, very short - and wonderful. These shortest of stories are actually more than enough for this collection to be a 5 star collection overall as despite their brevity they do really linger and leave a lasting impression.
The longest story in the volume, the novella, The Man Who Bridged The Mist is a satisfying and interesting novella. I like how it is about a tradesperson rather than kings, queens, thieves or swordshands. Whilst I really liked it though it didnt leave as much of an impression with me as the very short stuff.
Story Kit is a weird experimental story that might work better for writers than for some readers. I enjoyed it and will need to reread it.
26 Monkeys, Also the abyss - probably her most popular story but whilst I enjoyed it this didnt resonate with me. Fun but not 100% my cup of tea. Still very well written and satisfying though.
In this collection there is Spar, Names for Water and Ponies plus possibly some others that are very, very short - and wonderful. These shortest of stories are actually more than enough for this collection to be a 5 star collection overall as despite their brevity they do really linger and leave a lasting impression.
The longest story in the volume, the novella, The Man Who Bridged The Mist is a satisfying and interesting novella. I like how it is about a tradesperson rather than kings, queens, thieves or swordshands. Whilst I really liked it though it didnt leave as much of an impression with me as the very short stuff.
Story Kit is a weird experimental story that might work better for writers than for some readers. I enjoyed it and will need to reread it.
26 Monkeys, Also the abyss - probably her most popular story but whilst I enjoyed it this didnt resonate with me. Fun but not 100% my cup of tea. Still very well written and satisfying though.
At the mouth of the river of bees: A magical, imaginative stroke of pure genius.
Kij Johnson's collection interweaves fantastical elements like talking animals, aliens and spaceships, journeys of discovery and transformation, Japanese myth, stories within stories, some of which are common tropes in contemporary fantasy/sci fi. But this familiarity deepens the experience as opposed to undermining it. The beauty of this collection is that each story is so unique, so varied in style, structure and setting that it almost passes off as an anthology. Monkeys, foxes, wolves, horses, bees, cats, and dogs all play significant roles in this collection and they elevate the magic and allure of storytelling, something that I absolutely adored.
Favourites from this collection:
- 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss (This story is definitely one of my most favourite story of all time, and I really feel you should read it without knowing anything about it)
- Names for Water
- Fox Magic
- At the mouth of the river of bees
- The Cat who walked a thousand miles
- The Man who bridged the mist
It's not a perfect collection and there were few stories that I didn't quite resonate with. However, I could appreciate the imaginative beauty of how each story had been crafted. For all the distances travelled, mysteries solved, journeys undertaken, those strange, inexplicable factors remain. This is Johnson’s fiction: where familiarity meets fantasy, the known and unknown collide and the result is like a brilliant display of fireworks!
Kij Johnson's collection interweaves fantastical elements like talking animals, aliens and spaceships, journeys of discovery and transformation, Japanese myth, stories within stories, some of which are common tropes in contemporary fantasy/sci fi. But this familiarity deepens the experience as opposed to undermining it. The beauty of this collection is that each story is so unique, so varied in style, structure and setting that it almost passes off as an anthology. Monkeys, foxes, wolves, horses, bees, cats, and dogs all play significant roles in this collection and they elevate the magic and allure of storytelling, something that I absolutely adored.
Favourites from this collection:
- 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss (This story is definitely one of my most favourite story of all time, and I really feel you should read it without knowing anything about it)
- Names for Water
- Fox Magic
- At the mouth of the river of bees
- The Cat who walked a thousand miles
- The Man who bridged the mist
It's not a perfect collection and there were few stories that I didn't quite resonate with. However, I could appreciate the imaginative beauty of how each story had been crafted. For all the distances travelled, mysteries solved, journeys undertaken, those strange, inexplicable factors remain. This is Johnson’s fiction: where familiarity meets fantasy, the known and unknown collide and the result is like a brilliant display of fireworks!
Some of these are 5-star stories, and some are 3-star, so I'm averaging it out. Johnson excels at world-building, and she can write in many different styles and voices. My favourites were The Horse Raiders, The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles, The Man Who Bridged the Mist, and At the Mouth of the River of Bees. I would read full-length novels of all of those (except maybe River of Bees, which would work better as a short story).
Gorgeous, exquisite, and humbling writing. GAWGEOUS. I mean, like... wow. Read this book, read it now. I'll be over in a corner sobbing about my inability to ever write such breathtakingly beautiful short stories. K?
Um... details? Right. So there were a couple Japanese folk-tale-like things that were what I cared for least in the book, though I did like the one about The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles. It paired nicely with the last story in the book, which was about the stories dogs tell after they gain the ability to speak. The titular story, "At the Mouth of the River of Bees" is also gorgeous and about human-animal companionship. I would love to write a story like that, though I wouldn't be able to have it not have a scientific explanation. Maybe that's my big problem as a writer. I've got this snotty 12-year-old in the back of my mind shouting, "But what's the REAL reason this would happen?"
There are some more science-fictiony tales, and of course I liked those best. The longest is a novella about a man building a bridge on another world where a mysterious, caustic mist, peopled by man-eating ray-sharks, covers certain water bodies. I'm a total sucker for bridges, so they had me at the first use of the word "pylon". Though I kinda wish they'd had electricity and cars and stuff. It's oddly pre-modern engineering. Another story also had pre-modern humans on a strange world - a world where the day lasts years and Noon is boiling and Night a frozen waste and the people are nomads traveling forever in the habitable strip of Morning. Such wonderful worlds!
Johnson peoples her stories with strong, competent women and men of varying races and I like that a lot, too. Almost without exception, her stories end powerfully with a one-sentence climax/ending - the magic of unexpected yet inevitable.
Um... details? Right. So there were a couple Japanese folk-tale-like things that were what I cared for least in the book, though I did like the one about The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles. It paired nicely with the last story in the book, which was about the stories dogs tell after they gain the ability to speak. The titular story, "At the Mouth of the River of Bees" is also gorgeous and about human-animal companionship. I would love to write a story like that, though I wouldn't be able to have it not have a scientific explanation. Maybe that's my big problem as a writer. I've got this snotty 12-year-old in the back of my mind shouting, "But what's the REAL reason this would happen?"
There are some more science-fictiony tales, and of course I liked those best. The longest is a novella about a man building a bridge on another world where a mysterious, caustic mist, peopled by man-eating ray-sharks, covers certain water bodies. I'm a total sucker for bridges, so they had me at the first use of the word "pylon". Though I kinda wish they'd had electricity and cars and stuff. It's oddly pre-modern engineering. Another story also had pre-modern humans on a strange world - a world where the day lasts years and Noon is boiling and Night a frozen waste and the people are nomads traveling forever in the habitable strip of Morning. Such wonderful worlds!
Johnson peoples her stories with strong, competent women and men of varying races and I like that a lot, too. Almost without exception, her stories end powerfully with a one-sentence climax/ending - the magic of unexpected yet inevitable.
Well written, many of them sad. I liked "The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles" and "The Man Who Bridged the Mist" the best.