Felicia J

Jewels from an astonishing writer

Revisado: 06-22-21

I'm an N.K. Jemisin fangirl now, based on this astonishing and generous collection of her short stories. I'm going to hunt down everything she writes.

It's hard to pick a favorite from this book, although The Brides of Heaven and The City Born Great are near the top. I'll surely revisit several of these stories in audio and print; they're that strong.

Reviews of each story:

The Ones Who Stay and Fight, 4.5/5: Jemisin responds to and elaborates on Le Guin's classic story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." In Jemisin's utopian city, equality and harmony is preserved by executing people whose minds have been corrupted by the idea that some humans matter more than others. Jemisin provocatively asks whether a utopia could ever arise from a world in which a privileged few profit from others' suffering. How can we create a truly just society while still allowing the freedom to hate?

The City Born Great, 5/5: I loved this story. Jemisin captured all the glory and squalor of New York City and made me love it and long to visit. She managed both to romanticize the city and to reveal its squalid realness, like a metaphor for the human condition itself. She celebrated the pulsating life of a great American city without shying away from its cruelties.

Red Dirt Witch, 5/5: A tale of the malevolent fae hungry for magical children intersects with the Jim Crow South on the eve of the Civil Rights Movement. Emmaline, a witch woman who's taught her children to survive in a racist world, faces off against The White Lady, who promises prosperity for Em and her sons in exchange for her only daughter, Pauline, who shares her mother's power. Pauline, however, is determined to ensure the future she sees, of black children and white children together in classrooms, black people at the front of buses, and a black President in the White House, while Emmaline sees only police, dogs, fire hoses, and death. The story highlights the generational divide between those who have gone before, clinging to survival in a racist world, and those determined to fight for a better future. It also emphasizes the personal cost paid by thousands of civil rights marchers in fighting for equality.

L'Alchimista, 4.5/5: An underappreciated master chef meets an ancient wizard seeking new ways of doing magic. A pure delight that made me hungry for my own mystical meal.

The Effluent Engine, 3.5/5. A rich, steampunk-inspired adventure-romance with a rushed, disappointing ending that just didn't fit with what came before. It's a shame, as the worldbuilding, atmosphere and character building were all incredible. I'd read more in this setting should Jemisin ever want to revisit it.

Cloud Dragon Skies, 4/5. A little jewel of a tale about a culture clash between a technological society and one more attuned to nature. I liked how Jemisin didn't make one society right and the other wrong. Both had their weaknesses and blind spots. Also a story about finding one's own path in life, even when it means leaving what's familiar behind. A particularly unique touch was how characters viewed events as natural or supernatural, depending on their culture.

The Trojan Girl, 4/5. High-concept sci-fi centered on "wolves" - rogue AIs existing in a future version of the Internet who can hijack human minds. I didn't completely understand the tech but was able to follow the story as Jemisin kept it focused on characters and broader themes. The wolves hunt a new, weaker AI hoping to augment their code with pieces of her, but she is more than she appears.

Valedictorian, 5/5. An absolutely mind-blowing reflection on what happens to societies that cling to mediocrity, conformity, and fear of change, rather than embracing diversity and innovation. It also explores the pressure on POC to conform to lowered expectations of them. Despite the tone of despair, through the characters of Zinhle and Lemuel, Jemisin hints at ways toward a better future. I listened to this story on the podcast Levar Burton Reads (Episode 62). It's set in the same universe as The Trojan Girl but several hundred years after it.

The Storyteller's Replacement, 5/5. A dark, metaphorical story about how women have stolen power for eons by using men's vanity against them. Also a cautionary tale about weak leaders who bask in the reflected strength of people more capable than they (a timely moral for our current political landscape). Plus, it has dragons!

The Brides of Heaven, 5/5. It took a moment for me to work this story out in my head, but once I did ... Wow! An Islamic planetary colony faces extinction when all the men die. The most zealous of the women, who cannot believe Allah would abandon them, decides she will bring about a miracle. I especially loved the hints of ambiguity in the story. Is Dihya delusional or the colony's savior? This tale is amazingly well crafted, even in comparison to other strong stories in the collection.

The Evaluators, 4/5. The story of a first-contact team that mysteriously vanished, told in mission logs and fragmented messages. It was harder to put the pieces together in audiobook, but I think I got the gist, and it's chilling. I want to revisit the story in print. Jemisin examines how human hubris and greed could lead to our extinction.

Walking Awake, 5/5. "All the monsters were right here. No need to go looking for more in space." In a quest to control those seen as lesser, humanity unleashes its own destruction. Years later, Sadie, a caretaker tasked with raising human hosts for parasitic creatures, learns how to fight back through dreams. A mind-blowing story about human folly, living under a totalitarian regime, and paying the price for freedom. The story also works as an allegory for how oppressive systems harm even those who benefit from such systems.

The Elevator Dancer, 4.5/5. A security guard becomes obsessed with a woman he sees on a surveillance camera dancing in an elevator. It is gradually revealed he lives under a tightly controlled religious regime that enforces specific gender roles. Dancing is forbidden. The authorities tell the guard the woman is an illusion meant to tempt him, but just who is doing the tempting? Jemisin explores themes of resistance through joy and freedom of thought in this brief but effective piece.

Cuisine des Mémoires, 5/5. A perfect jewel of a fantasy story about how memories can be evoked through meals. Poignant and affecting. I listened to this story on the podcast Levar Burton Reads (Episode 51).

Stone Hunger, 4.5/5. A compelling tale of monsters and vengeance, with fantastic worldbuilding and imagery. A weak, impoverished girl seeks revenge against the man who stole her happy life from her. The girl has the power to manipulate matter, especially stone and earth, and she has also hurt others in her struggle to survive. I would have liked more detail about the stone eaters, particularly about the motivations of the stone eater who chose to help the girl.

On the Banks of the River Lex, 4.5/5. A hopeful story about the persistence of life in new forms that uses a favorite trope of mine. Humanity has died out, leaving creatures of myth to gradually fade in the absence of belief and worship. Death considers giving some of them a merciful end but wonders if other intelligences might eventually come to believe in legends.

The Narcomancer, 5/5. This story simultaneously broke my heart and made it sing. Cet is a Gatherer, sworn to serve a dream goddess whose only law is peace. When he is assigned to help a desperate village under repeated attacks by brigands, he finds his beliefs challenged while also facing a personal crisis. How Cet meets these challenges is humane and life-affirming.

Henosis, 4/5. A misguided fan (or is she?) kidnaps a famous author on the way to a major award ceremony. This twisty tale, told in out-of-order chapters, satirizes literary culture and examines how authors are critiqued and immortalized.

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows, 4.5/5. Manages to be both mind-blowing and startlingly intimate. Something unexplainable has happened to space-time, trapping a handful of survivors in their own mini-realities, each with its own landscape and climate. Every 10 hours, reality resets, which erases actions in the physical world. People can only communicate online. A thoughtful story about loneliness and true connection. Despite its brevity, I quickly came to care for the main characters.

The You Train, 3.5/5. A story about getting lost in the mundane and daring to discover new possibiities (represented by phantom NYC subway trains). The story suggests that taking risks not only leads to personal growth, but to a clearer understanding of others' circumstances. I wished it were longer; I was just getting into the idea, and then it was over.

Non-Zero Probabilities, 5/5. Clever and perfectly paced, this little gem plays with humans' poor perception of chance and low probabilities. An anomaly that seems to only affect New York City causes improbable events to happen on a regular basis, changing the lives of everyone there. In particular, people become more superstitious, clinging to lucky talismans like rabbits' feet while avoiding walking under ladders. However, the story slyly points out that improbable things happen all the time. With billions of people on earth, million-to-one chances will occur sometimes.

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters, 5/5. A fantastic story to close the collection, about supernatural forces battling in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Stranded in the Ninth Ward, Tookie befriends a storm dragon whose kin must battle a haint, an evil spirit that seeks to extend the death and destruction caused by the hurricane. Similarly to the protagonist of The City Born Great, Tookie draws on the power of his city to join the fight. An absolutely lovely tale of human resilience and determination.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Solid conclusion to a unique & quirky series

Revisado: 12-17-20

A solid conclusion to the Lychford series. The stakes could not have been higher (literally 25 minutes from the end of the world). I especially loved the humor in this one, and I continued to appreciate what Cornell has to say about the complexities of human beings and how they make sense of the world. The solution to the problem of warring realities was unexpected, but so delightfully British. I also liked some surprising character developments. I want to re-read the entire series again to see how it works as a continuous story, without having to wait a year for the final installment.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

The best story from a master mythmaker

Revisado: 10-22-20

Ring Shout is one of the most gut wrenching stories I've ever experienced, in a good way. One chapter in particular, in which Maryse Boudreaux confronts her deepest pain, tore me apart and put me back together again. This is a story about love, camaraderie, surviving trauma, and the power of righteous anger to remake the world.

P. Djeli Clark has become an autobuy author for me on the strength of his worldbuilding, myth-making, and how he writes fully fleshed-out female characters. At first I wasn't sure all the elements would gel - the history of the KKK, African myth, Lovecraftian monsters, and Gullah magic. But when he pulled everything together, it created something astounding and special. Ring Shout is a fresh take on the old tale of good confronting evil that centers the experiences of people of color. I thought it was his best work yet.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 13 personas

Beautifully written and devastating

Revisado: 08-07-20

In Wilson's beautifully written, emotionally devastating story, "the devil in America" is a metaphor for the evil wrought by slavery and racism. The Macks family inherited African magic from an ancestor abducted into slavery. However, they have lost the knowledge of how to control it and how to fight its malevolent entities. This mirrors the plight of the African Americans torn from their homes, left unmoored from their histories and cultures, and left vulnerable to discrimination and abuse. Their strength - their magic - is warped into continued atrocities inflicted on them.

Throughout the story, the author's father interjects, sharing his knowledge of crimes committed against people of color, showing how historical evils continue in the present day. Wilson's tale is multilayered, requiring engagement and thoughtfulness from the reader to comprehend and to take away their own meanings.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A cleverly told tale

Revisado: 08-05-20

2020 Hugo Best Novelette

I recommend reading or listening to this story having only read the book blurb first. Otherwise you risk spoiling the surprises. The experimental structure of the story - YOU are the voyager returning to Earth, but the voice you hear is the AI inside your head - totally worked for me, as did the social message. I considered deducting a half star for the times the story got a little heavy handed, but Jemisin had me so thoroughly invested that I had to award all five stars. This was a story so cleverly told that I laughed out loud in delight more than once.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A fitting and rich conclusion

Revisado: 07-08-20

The final book in the Winternight Trilogy was all that I could have wished. Pushed to her limits, Vasya comes into her wild, terrifying power. Through her many trials by fire, she finally learns of her own strength and unique nature. Her relationship with Morozko deepens, as both learn how to stay true to themselves while loving each other. Finally, Katherine Arden resolves the conflicts between men and cheryti, church and spirit world, in unexpected ways.

Besides the strong worldbuilding and character growth, I truly appreciated how well the author wove together history, mythology and folktales to create her medieval world.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Murderbot comes full circle

Revisado: 06-16-20

"Possibly I was overthinking this. I do that. It's the anxiety that comes with being a part-organic Murderbot. The upside was paranoid attention to detail. The downside was also paranoid attention to detail."

A pitch-perfect conclusion to the original four Murderbot novellas. These stories manage to be both wildly entertaining and thought-provoking. In this installment, Murderbot returns to Dr. Mensah, its favorite human (but not friend, never friend) with damning evidence against evil corporate baddie GrayCris. Along the way, Murderbot learns it doesn't have to have all the answers, and it might just have a place to belong.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A 'bot with heart

Revisado: 06-15-20

"Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas? (PAUSE) Yes, that was sarcasm."

Another fast-paced, mindbending Murderbot novella with an explosive and poignant ending. In between the security hacking and nail-biting escapes, these stories have a lot to say about the ethics of creating A.I.s and their possible relationships to humans. And despite what Murderbot itself may insist, these stories have heart.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Paranoid android

Revisado: 06-12-20

I love Murderbot. Full stop.

This second installment about the fiercely protective, socially awkward android was even better than the first: More assured, with a stronger plot and a deeper exploration of what it means to have humanity. Murderbot's new "friend" ART (a research ship A.I.) nearly stole the show, and seeing them work together made me wonder how much humans actually control what's going on in this world.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A cranky A.I. is my kind of A.I.

Revisado: 06-09-20

I'm glad to have finally met Murderbot and to learn what all the fuss is about. I can't help but to feel affection for this cranky, introverted android who has to keep a crew of humans alive when their survey mission goes terribly wrong, when all it really wants to do is watch its soaps. Although I enjoyed the story overall, I deducted one star for some frustrating logical leaps without enough explanation as to how the characters got from Point A to Point B. There's a lot hinted at here about autonomy and the ethics of sentient A.I. that I hope will be explored in later installments.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña