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A review by lucyp21
Diverse Energies by Tobias S. Buckell, Joe Monti
3.0
It's been a while since I read a short story collection and I thought this one would be good to try as there were several authors I had read and enjoyed on the list. And I appreciated the sci-fi nature of these stories, there was a great variety of settings and I really enjoyed that.
The Last Day by Ellen Oh: Really interesting historical alternate universe story. I liked the ending for the main character as well, I really expected himto be the survivor and so it was a real surprise.
Freshee's Frogurt by Daniel H. Wilson: I think the world needs more robot uprising novels, they seem to have fallen out of favour (probably around the time when technology became very commonplace for everything) and this one was suitably terrifying. Also very graphic. I think I would have liked a little more focus on the police officerwho apparently joined a taskforce to fight the robot uprising rather than the main character.
Uncertainty Principle by K. Tempest Bradford: This started off so strong and then it just turned into a bit of a wandering mess. I really loved the idea of a girl who is aware of the changes in the timeline and is the only one but then I got very confused about what was going on. It's the trouble with multiple timelines.
Pattern Recognition by Ken Liu: This one felt more like a complete story that fit nicely into the length. I liked the children having a variety of different experiences and that changed what they did afterwards. I didn't like the timeskips, they seemed to happen really abruptly and I wasn't even sure there had been a timeskip until a paragraph or two had gone past.
Gods of the Dimming LIght by Greg van Eekhout: I'm not sure how to feel about the plot of this one, it didn't make too much sense to me, but I do appreciate a protagonist who is very much 'why do I have to save the world, I'm just here to save my family'.
Next Door by Rahul Kanakia: Really interesting idea of having rich people have high tech implants that make them not want to live in the real world anymore and therefore don't care about people squatting in their homes. I loved the world-building of this but I wasn't suchg a huge fan of the plot. It felt like it wasn't nearly as memorable as the world itself.
Good Girl by Malinda Lo: I wasn't sure a huge fan of this one. While I appreciated that a female/female relationship at the forefront of this story, as well as a not particularly healthy one (the love interest didn't seem to return her interest to the same extent), I kept thinking about the girl's mother who had been forced away from the man she loved and now both her children had left her.
A Pocket Full of Dharma by Paolo Bacigalupi: I didn't really know what was going on in this story (the Dalai Lama on a datacube that everyone wants?) but I enjoyed it a lot. The main character didn't seem that intelligent but that was actually quite a nice change? I appreciated it.
Blue Skies by Cindy Pon: I really liked this one. The story felt like a complete one for the length, I enjoyed what we heard about the world and I'm really intrigued about what the main character was going to do with the money. He wanted to see blue skies again but how was he going to do that? I'm very intrigued and I would read more about this.
What Arms to Hold Us by Rajan Khanna: I was a little meh on this one with the setup being one I felt like I had seen before (children work to gain credit towards being able to leave and get a better life for themselves and their family) but I really liked how the main characterrejected doing the dirty work for someone else, saving him from being the scapegoat . It was a nice change.
Solitude by Ursula K. Le Guin: I loved this one. It's all about a family going to live on Earth post-apocalypse as the mother wants to learn more about the culture that sprang up and the only way is through the children. But it becomes her daughter's culture and so when it comes time to leave, problems come up. The new culture of men and women living apart sprang up in a really interesting way. I loved the talk about learning through song, adults not able to enter other people's houses and how children are raised. Such an interesting story, probably the only one I would reread.
I did like this collection of stories but I do wish there had been slightly fewer dystopian settings. It's not like any of them were the same in anyway, but I did get some fatigue with the whole genre. It was why I liked the first three stories and the last one so much.
3.5 stars!
The Last Day by Ellen Oh: Really interesting historical alternate universe story. I liked the ending for the main character as well, I really expected him
Freshee's Frogurt by Daniel H. Wilson: I think the world needs more robot uprising novels, they seem to have fallen out of favour (probably around the time when technology became very commonplace for everything) and this one was suitably terrifying. Also very graphic. I think I would have liked a little more focus on the police officer
Uncertainty Principle by K. Tempest Bradford: This started off so strong and then it just turned into a bit of a wandering mess. I really loved the idea of a girl who is aware of the changes in the timeline and is the only one but then I got very confused about what was going on. It's the trouble with multiple timelines.
Pattern Recognition by Ken Liu: This one felt more like a complete story that fit nicely into the length. I liked the children having a variety of different experiences and that changed what they did afterwards. I didn't like the timeskips, they seemed to happen really abruptly and I wasn't even sure there had been a timeskip until a paragraph or two had gone past.
Gods of the Dimming LIght by Greg van Eekhout: I'm not sure how to feel about the plot of this one, it didn't make too much sense to me, but I do appreciate a protagonist who is very much 'why do I have to save the world, I'm just here to save my family'.
Next Door by Rahul Kanakia: Really interesting idea of having rich people have high tech implants that make them not want to live in the real world anymore and therefore don't care about people squatting in their homes. I loved the world-building of this but I wasn't suchg a huge fan of the plot. It felt like it wasn't nearly as memorable as the world itself.
Good Girl by Malinda Lo: I wasn't sure a huge fan of this one. While I appreciated that a female/female relationship at the forefront of this story, as well as a not particularly healthy one (the love interest didn't seem to return her interest to the same extent), I kept thinking about the girl's mother who had been forced away from the man she loved and now both her children had left her.
A Pocket Full of Dharma by Paolo Bacigalupi: I didn't really know what was going on in this story (the Dalai Lama on a datacube that everyone wants?) but I enjoyed it a lot. The main character didn't seem that intelligent but that was actually quite a nice change? I appreciated it.
Blue Skies by Cindy Pon: I really liked this one. The story felt like a complete one for the length, I enjoyed what we heard about the world and I'm really intrigued about what the main character was going to do with the money. He wanted to see blue skies again but how was he going to do that? I'm very intrigued and I would read more about this.
What Arms to Hold Us by Rajan Khanna: I was a little meh on this one with the setup being one I felt like I had seen before (children work to gain credit towards being able to leave and get a better life for themselves and their family) but I really liked how the main character
Solitude by Ursula K. Le Guin: I loved this one. It's all about a family going to live on Earth post-apocalypse as the mother wants to learn more about the culture that sprang up and the only way is through the children. But it becomes her daughter's culture and so when it comes time to leave, problems come up. The new culture of men and women living apart sprang up in a really interesting way. I loved the talk about learning through song, adults not able to enter other people's houses and how children are raised. Such an interesting story, probably the only one I would reread.
I did like this collection of stories but I do wish there had been slightly fewer dystopian settings. It's not like any of them were the same in anyway, but I did get some fatigue with the whole genre. It was why I liked the first three stories and the last one so much.
3.5 stars!