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quadrille 's review for:
The Only Harmless Great Thing
by Brooke Bolander
Hugos reading: Mostly, I'm confused as to how this was nominated in the Best Novelette category rather than Novella, when it was longer than The Tea Master and the Detective??
But! Regardless, this is a novelette mashing together the real history of the Radium Girls, plus Edison's electrocuting an elephant for show, plus nuclear semiotics (the linguistic question of how to universally warn future humans away from nuclear waste areas, even 10,000 years in the future) (see also: the Human Interference Task Force).
It's an intriguing blend of several things that I already knew about and am interested in -- I've been meaning to read Kate Moore's [b:The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women|31409135|The Radium Girls The Dark Story of America's Shining Women|Kate Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1496007867l/31409135._SY75_.jpg|47264110] for ages -- and I liked this alternate history where elephants are sentient enough to grasp coherent sign language and communicate in full sentences, and yet humans are such garbage that we still treat them terribly.
However!! There are three chronological threads, and I'm very picky about that sort of thing, because of how it see-saws momentum back and forth right when you're getting attached to one narrative thread. There's one in present day-ish dealing with nuclear semiotics; another set in the early 1900s with a radium girl and Topsy; and then some mythic, folkloric segments in the voice of the elephants passing down stories from the Ice Ages. And that entire section really, really did not do it for me, and is mostly what made my rating plummet (although I see that others loved those tales best). It's a very narrow balance to walk, in portraying an alien voice -- and while I thought it was convincingly mythical and inhuman, I still got pretty tired of it and started skipping paragraphs.
The novelette was alright, though; I didn't hate it, and I've really enjoyed Bolander's short fiction before, so I'll definitely keep reading her. Mostly, though, I suspect this story might be valuable for people who don't know the true stories behind it yet, and it can help spread some awareness re: some horrible chapters in human history. 2.5 stars, almost 3.
But! Regardless, this is a novelette mashing together the real history of the Radium Girls, plus Edison's electrocuting an elephant for show, plus nuclear semiotics (the linguistic question of how to universally warn future humans away from nuclear waste areas, even 10,000 years in the future) (see also: the Human Interference Task Force).
It's an intriguing blend of several things that I already knew about and am interested in -- I've been meaning to read Kate Moore's [b:The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women|31409135|The Radium Girls The Dark Story of America's Shining Women|Kate Moore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1496007867l/31409135._SY75_.jpg|47264110] for ages -- and I liked this alternate history where elephants are sentient enough to grasp coherent sign language and communicate in full sentences, and yet humans are such garbage that we still treat them terribly.
However!! There are three chronological threads, and I'm very picky about that sort of thing, because of how it see-saws momentum back and forth right when you're getting attached to one narrative thread. There's one in present day-ish dealing with nuclear semiotics; another set in the early 1900s with a radium girl and Topsy; and then some mythic, folkloric segments in the voice of the elephants passing down stories from the Ice Ages. And that entire section really, really did not do it for me, and is mostly what made my rating plummet (although I see that others loved those tales best). It's a very narrow balance to walk, in portraying an alien voice -- and while I thought it was convincingly mythical and inhuman, I still got pretty tired of it and started skipping paragraphs.
The novelette was alright, though; I didn't hate it, and I've really enjoyed Bolander's short fiction before, so I'll definitely keep reading her. Mostly, though, I suspect this story might be valuable for people who don't know the true stories behind it yet, and it can help spread some awareness re: some horrible chapters in human history. 2.5 stars, almost 3.