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A review by robotswithpersonality
Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories by Naomi Kritzer
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
Showcases a creative and impactful writing talent across a broad spectrum of tone within sci fi and fantasy, contemporary (?) genres.Only the first, eponymous story, feels like the CatNet duology. After that, I appreciate Kritzer's writing but it's a heck of a tone shift. Despite the adorable title, I wouldn't say that age demographic for this collection is YA. I will talk more individually about each story but best to caveat first with personal bias, aka I finally figured out what's bugging me about short story collections, even then good ones.
I rely on library loan periods to access books and the pressure to read a book within a certain time period is exacerbated by unmodifiable interlibrary loan due dates.
There's such a difference in tone from story to story in a short story collection, but also, I feel that authors pull their punches less when the narrative arc is short. You may have several hard hitting tales in a row, whereas a novel (not in the thriller/horror genre) would ease up in the course of the narrative.
While reading a short story made to be impactful, brief or even not completely satisfying in ending every once in a while, spaced out, is reasonable for my personal reader temperament, trying to steadily work my way through a variable collection, as I would with the chapters in a linear volume, feels like it requires more energy/effort/attention. Not an experience I'm likely to repeat frequently.
The Golem - Personal choice a big one, feels like early AI, not automatically thinking like a human, but through being cared for by humans, learns to care in turn.
Ace of Spades - what does it mean to truly live your life, if you were offered a different future , would you change your decisions, your goals, your dreams?
Wind - Fantasy/fairytale/folk lore - again unexpected, but quite enjoyed it
Witches Garden - Closer to that Grimm tradition of fairy tales, but a very inventive scifi/fantasy retelling of/inspired by the Snow Queen highlighting conformity, the worst aspects of modern commercialized science.
Blessing Creek - What it can do to people raised under repressive traditions, how racism/xenophobia twists people to do things they might not otherwise consider, addresses the destruction and displacement of indigenous peoples by white 'settlers' of the Western 'fronter'
Cleanout - By far my favourite, weaving together siblings, dealing with infertility, adoption, loss of/care for elderly parents, immigrant parents and first generation americans, how being immigrant/having immigrant parents affects one's outlook, seems to be leaning towards folklore mystery, but then...maybe sci-fi? Would make an amazing novel, but is also perhaps the best structured of the short stories/ in the form it currently exists.
Artifice - The kind of sad robot story I'm used to seeing in modern sci-fi, I'm glad it's not the only kind out there, even if it makes its points well.
Perfection - A lot of points to make at once, feels like it was just getting somewhere as it ended - the obsession with a certain type of accepted physical appearance, genetic modification or plastic surgery, as a path to conformity, xenophobia, the broader, more flavour-filled world outside the pursuit of homogeneity.
The Good Son - My personal synopsis would be: 'what if the Fae/Fey were not canonically assholes?' , a few jabs at US health care system as it exists, what true love and commitment looks like in the face of illness, mortality
Scrap Dragon - Another favourite - would happily read a short story collection with all tales told in this back and forth between narrator and argumentative audience/reader/listener style; author's note just adds to the loveliness 😉
Comrade Grandmother - Not one for Russian nationalism or war stories, myself, but the idea of Bab Yaga from folklore shaping pivotal WW2 battles with other mythical figures, and dropping by a combat zone to chat with an incredibly brave young woman is honestly more palatable than the truth of warfare
Isabella's Garden - Probably the most benign version of what would happen if you had that kind of power
Bits - Somehow wholesome and a jaw dropper, the author's note gave me a giggle
Honest Man - Going to stay with me for a long time, because I had an uncanny sense of deja vu the whole time I was reading it, and the timing of its original publication makes it incredibly unlikely I would have read it previously 😨
The Wall - Ah, time travel, so often touching, about choices and what you accept you can't change
So Much Cooking - Considering this was published in 2017, this cooking blog style story about H1N1 felt frighteningly like a rehash of Covid quarantine, and all the ups and downs therein, might be a bit too close to things for people post-2020
⚠️ Descriptions of WW2 anti-semitic genocide
Three different stories set in the time of world war two, but it's obvious from the start, so easy to skip if that's not your bag
I rely on library loan periods to access books and the pressure to read a book within a certain time period is exacerbated by unmodifiable interlibrary loan due dates.
There's such a difference in tone from story to story in a short story collection, but also, I feel that authors pull their punches less when the narrative arc is short. You may have several hard hitting tales in a row, whereas a novel (not in the thriller/horror genre) would ease up in the course of the narrative.
While reading a short story made to be impactful, brief or even not completely satisfying in ending every once in a while, spaced out, is reasonable for my personal reader temperament, trying to steadily work my way through a variable collection, as I would with the chapters in a linear volume, feels like it requires more energy/effort/attention. Not an experience I'm likely to repeat frequently.
The Golem - Personal choice a big one, feels like early AI, not automatically thinking like a human, but through being cared for by humans, learns to care in turn.
Ace of Spades - what does it mean to truly live your life, if you were offered a different future , would you change your decisions, your goals, your dreams?
Wind - Fantasy/fairytale/folk lore - again unexpected, but quite enjoyed it
Witches Garden - Closer to that Grimm tradition of fairy tales, but a very inventive scifi/fantasy retelling of/inspired by the Snow Queen highlighting conformity, the worst aspects of modern commercialized science.
Blessing Creek - What it can do to people raised under repressive traditions, how racism/xenophobia twists people to do things they might not otherwise consider, addresses the destruction and displacement of indigenous peoples by white 'settlers' of the Western 'fronter'
Cleanout - By far my favourite, weaving together siblings, dealing with infertility, adoption, loss of/care for elderly parents, immigrant parents and first generation americans, how being immigrant/having immigrant parents affects one's outlook, seems to be leaning towards folklore mystery, but then...maybe sci-fi? Would make an amazing novel, but is also perhaps the best structured of the short stories/ in the form it currently exists.
Artifice - The kind of sad robot story I'm used to seeing in modern sci-fi, I'm glad it's not the only kind out there, even if it makes its points well.
Perfection - A lot of points to make at once, feels like it was just getting somewhere as it ended - the obsession with a certain type of accepted physical appearance, genetic modification or plastic surgery, as a path to conformity, xenophobia, the broader, more flavour-filled world outside the pursuit of homogeneity.
The Good Son - My personal synopsis would be: 'what if the Fae/Fey were not canonically assholes?' , a few jabs at US health care system as it exists, what true love and commitment looks like in the face of illness, mortality
Scrap Dragon - Another favourite - would happily read a short story collection with all tales told in this back and forth between narrator and argumentative audience/reader/listener style; author's note just adds to the loveliness 😉
Comrade Grandmother - Not one for Russian nationalism or war stories, myself, but the idea of Bab Yaga from folklore shaping pivotal WW2 battles with other mythical figures, and dropping by a combat zone to chat with an incredibly brave young woman is honestly more palatable than the truth of warfare
Isabella's Garden - Probably the most benign version of what would happen if you had that kind of power
Bits - Somehow wholesome and a jaw dropper, the author's note gave me a giggle
Honest Man - Going to stay with me for a long time, because I had an uncanny sense of deja vu the whole time I was reading it, and the timing of its original publication makes it incredibly unlikely I would have read it previously 😨
The Wall - Ah, time travel, so often touching, about choices and what you accept you can't change
So Much Cooking - Considering this was published in 2017, this cooking blog style story about H1N1 felt frighteningly like a rehash of Covid quarantine, and all the ups and downs therein, might be a bit too close to things for people post-2020
⚠️ Descriptions of WW2 anti-semitic genocide
Three different stories set in the time of world war two, but it's obvious from the start, so easy to skip if that's not your bag