Category: Reviewed

Nunivak Snowflakes — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Nunivak Snowflakes -- Alastair ReynoldsYou’ll find this in the anthology, Deep Navigation.

Messages from the future found inside fish falling from the sky landing in front of the person the message was meant for.

Basically, someone from the future is being naughty and messing with the past in an indigenous community in Alaska.

Other than The Big Hello, of which i have no idea when published, this is Alastair’s first published story.   So it’s very early Alastair Reynolds, so don’t be expecting Revelation Space or anything like it.

But it’s a reasonable, quirky, little read that’ll keep you happily ensconced in you favourite reading pit for a while.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

The Big Hello — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

The Big Hello -- Alastair ReynoldsIt’s listed on Wikipedia without a date, but it’s first in the queue of Alastair’s uncollected short fiction, and it is The Big Hello, afterall, so you may as well read it first if you’re reading all of Alastair’s books: me thinks.

You’ll have to hunt around the internet for this, it was originally published in German translation in a convention program.   But, like most rare things, it’s well worth a bit of a hunt around.

Basically, it’s a greeting from the rest of the galaxy informing us stupid Homo sapiens of a bit of etiquette, manners and how to go about things outside of out little insular bubble.   But, let’s be honest, we all know people like Musk & Co. are going to ignore everything Alastair says and totally fuck it up for the rest of us.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Painted Love — Rob Thurman

By 5t4n5

Painted Love -- Rob ThurmanIn the anthology, Carniepunk.

An enjoyable little story where our narrator, Doodle, follows a sociopath around a travelling carnival.

But all is not as it seems with Doodle, and it’s a really good twist to the ending.   I’d definitely be interested in reading more stories from Doodle if Rob ever gets around to writing a series.

Rob’s Page

#robthurman

Mummy and George Go to the Park — Gaie Sebold

By 5t4n5

Mummy and George Go to the Park -- Gaie SeboldIn the anthology, Nice Day for a Picnic.

I only got this anthology for Gaie’s story, as i’m quite the fan boy.

An interesting short in that it just implies something rather than spoon feeding you it.   I believe the whole anthology is about strange picnics and if Gaie’s story is anything to go by i think i might just have a go at a few more of them when i feel like a quick read.

So the whole thing is just Mummy’s voice speaking to George as they go to the park for a picnic, which seems quite normal at first, but as Mummy keeps on speaking to George as they go through their park visit we begin to realise that things aren’t quite normal.

It’s certainly different, but really enjoyable.

Gaie’s Page

#gaiesebold

The Girl who Leapt Through Time — Yasutaka Tsutsui

By 5t4n5

The Girl who Leapt Through Time -- Yasutaka TsutsuiThere’s two short stories in this book and i’ll review each of them separately below.

The Girl who Leapt Through Time

A short while ago i read The Maid, which was my first trip into the writing of Yasutaka, and i thoroughly enjoyed it: so much that i decided to collect every book of his i could find and read them in published order.   And so i began with The Girl who Leapt Through Time from 1967.

What doesn’t get a mention when approaching this book is that it’s a children’s book, i would perhaps place it around 11-12 year old level, so that’s something to bear in mind if you do decide to read it.

So it’s very simple writing and a rather simple story about some children having a bit of a crazy time with time travel and teleportation.   I felt the best thing about this was it’s simplicity in it’s writing because as an adult you don’t have to think about anything and can just breeze along with the story itself, and it’s quite a good little story.

So yeah, i’m more than happy to have come back to Yasutaka’s earliest book that’s so far been translated into English.   Definitely worth a read if you’re a fan of his writing, or if you just want a quick and easy read of some temporal sci-fi.

The Stuff that Nightmares Are Made of

This is quite a different story to the previous one.   Once again, it’s another children’s book, but this time dealing with the theme of repressed trauma manifesting as unexplained fears.

Although it’s a book for children, i do feel that there’s a few things for most adults to learn here as well, especially parents, whose words and actions can create all kinds of unintended consequences for children.

And that’s me done with this book.   The Maid was next in the original publishing time line of Yasutaka’s translated books, but i already read that, so next up will be Paprika, which i hope to get around to reading some time soon as i’m really enjoying Yasutaka’s writing.

Yasutaka’s Page

#japan #scifi #yasutakatsutsui

A Change of Heart — Gaie Sebold

By 5t4n5

A Change of Heart -- Gaie SeboldIn the anthology, Wicked Women.

A quick trip to visit Babylon Steel, yeah, you remember her.

Sadly it’s just a short, but us Babylon Steel fans will take any words we can get from Gaie on this wonderful character.

This time Babylon takes on a necromancer, or two.

Super good, but just so wish Gaie would write a few more Babylon Steel novels.

Gaie’s Page

#fantasy #gaiesebold

Beyond the Aquila Rift — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Beyond the Aquila Rift -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in the collections, Beyond the Aquila Rift, Zima Blue and Other Stories and the anthology, Love, Death + Robots: Volume One.

Another one of Alastairs moments playing with life suspension while in space flight.   For those who have read all of the Revelation Space series you’ll know that this can cause really fucked up dreams and states of mind when you’re coming back out of suspension.   Mix this state of mind with a spacers’ rumour that one day you’ll go so far you’ll end up beyond the Aquila Rift and you can really get a good head fuck going: with a nice twist at the end as well.

And the next book in Alastair’s publishing order will be Zima Blue.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds