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Book #16 of 2016: The Fate of Mice
Mar. 22nd, 2016 08:54 amThe Fate of Mice by Susan Palwick
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
(Now that I've read the book, I hate this cover. Nothing in the book is so simple or literal -- this image does the stories a major disservice.)
[I did something different with this review. The problem with reading a book of short stories is that, by the time I get to the end, I've forgotten the early ones, so this time I started writing this review after the second story. Now that I'm done with the book, I'll add any updates in brackets.]
A complaint I often have about books is that the writer doesn't trust their readers. One of the reasons I love Susan Palwick's writing so much is that she fully trusts us. Each of the book's short stories ended at the perfect point: She leads us right up to the ending, there's no doubt how the story will turn out, but she ends it a moment too soon. Every time a story ended, I had that "Arg! Wait no! That can't be the ending! It can't stop here!" reaction. And yet every story was a complete story -- you knew how it ended, but leaving it open like that made it delicious. [Unfortunately not every story did this, but most of them did.]
While each of these short stories was sci fi, it's really interesting because they were a lot more than that. Each of the stories was actually about something normal or mundane, the sci fi was just window dressing. But it really, really worked. A short story about how some men stop loving women as the women get older and less beautiful? BORING! I'd never ever read that! But couch it in the framework of a werewolf story? And I loved it! [Turns out a couple of them were "just" sci fi, without any other message or meaning, but most of them were as I had originally described.]
[I originally wasn't going to LJ cut the descriptions of the individual stories. I tried very hard to not spoil things, but really, any mention at all of the details of the stories can be a spoiler, so I'm going to cut them. I highly suggest you get the book and read it without clicking here.]
( The book's individual stories )
Rereading my reviews of each story, I see I didn't like more than half the stories... which is odd, because I LOVED this book so much. Her writing was so strong that, even if the story didn't work for me, I still generally liked reading it.
One of the stories, Sorrel's Heart, had perhaps the oddest opening line I ever encountered:
He found the girl couched in a ditch by the side of the deserted road, using a jagged rock to try to sever the muscled cords that connected her heart to her body.
It was such a strong 'I know what each of those words mean, but together they make no sense...' moment.
Now I get to google her and see what else she's written! I can't wait to read more of her books!
Edit: Apparently this book is literary fantasy and not sci fi, which I suppose makes my comment about them not being very sci fi-ish make sense!
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
(Now that I've read the book, I hate this cover. Nothing in the book is so simple or literal -- this image does the stories a major disservice.)
[I did something different with this review. The problem with reading a book of short stories is that, by the time I get to the end, I've forgotten the early ones, so this time I started writing this review after the second story. Now that I'm done with the book, I'll add any updates in brackets.]
A complaint I often have about books is that the writer doesn't trust their readers. One of the reasons I love Susan Palwick's writing so much is that she fully trusts us. Each of the book's short stories ended at the perfect point: She leads us right up to the ending, there's no doubt how the story will turn out, but she ends it a moment too soon. Every time a story ended, I had that "Arg! Wait no! That can't be the ending! It can't stop here!" reaction. And yet every story was a complete story -- you knew how it ended, but leaving it open like that made it delicious. [Unfortunately not every story did this, but most of them did.]
While each of these short stories was sci fi, it's really interesting because they were a lot more than that. Each of the stories was actually about something normal or mundane, the sci fi was just window dressing. But it really, really worked. A short story about how some men stop loving women as the women get older and less beautiful? BORING! I'd never ever read that! But couch it in the framework of a werewolf story? And I loved it! [Turns out a couple of them were "just" sci fi, without any other message or meaning, but most of them were as I had originally described.]
[I originally wasn't going to LJ cut the descriptions of the individual stories. I tried very hard to not spoil things, but really, any mention at all of the details of the stories can be a spoiler, so I'm going to cut them. I highly suggest you get the book and read it without clicking here.]
( The book's individual stories )Rereading my reviews of each story, I see I didn't like more than half the stories... which is odd, because I LOVED this book so much. Her writing was so strong that, even if the story didn't work for me, I still generally liked reading it.
One of the stories, Sorrel's Heart, had perhaps the oddest opening line I ever encountered:
He found the girl couched in a ditch by the side of the deserted road, using a jagged rock to try to sever the muscled cords that connected her heart to her body.
It was such a strong 'I know what each of those words mean, but together they make no sense...' moment.
Now I get to google her and see what else she's written! I can't wait to read more of her books!
Edit: Apparently this book is literary fantasy and not sci fi, which I suppose makes my comment about them not being very sci fi-ish make sense!
