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amlibera's review
3.0
More idea short story than novella even -but interesting in concept. Like an episode of The Twilight Zone.
bethtabler's review
3.0
I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land is a special edition hardcover novella from Connie Willis published by Subterranean Press. I received this ebook from Netgalley.com for an honest review.
I hate giving Connie Willis's work a "meh" rating. Normally her work is absolutely wonderful and you can't put it down. This time the novella fell very flat. It felt much more like a rough draft that needed some buffing out and pruning. It probably would have worked much better as a short story.
To her credit though, I love the idea of a depository for books. No book shall be lost to damage or antiquity. I am a book lover myself and the story resonated with me deeply on that level. That is where the idea ends though. It is one note.
I hate giving Connie Willis's work a "meh" rating. Normally her work is absolutely wonderful and you can't put it down. This time the novella fell very flat. It felt much more like a rough draft that needed some buffing out and pruning. It probably would have worked much better as a short story.
To her credit though, I love the idea of a depository for books. No book shall be lost to damage or antiquity. I am a book lover myself and the story resonated with me deeply on that level. That is where the idea ends though. It is one note.
dantastic's review
3.0
A blogger wanders into what he thinks is a used bookstore to get out of the rain. Turns out the building is the refuge for the very last copies of books in existence.
The passage from Ozymandias is a clue to the name of the bookstore/refuge/whatever and also a clue to what it houses, relics from ages past, books in this case.
The teaser I wrote is pretty much it. I love the idea of there being a storehouse somewhere that houses books that would otherwise be lost forever. There isn't all that much of a story, though. Guy wanders into mysterious bookshop, looks around, leaves. Overall, it was a forgettable experience. I did like the ending quite a bit, though.
Thanks to the fine folks at Subterranean Press and Netgalley for this ARC. Three stars but it's a weak three.
The passage from Ozymandias is a clue to the name of the bookstore/refuge/whatever and also a clue to what it houses, relics from ages past, books in this case.
The teaser I wrote is pretty much it. I love the idea of there being a storehouse somewhere that houses books that would otherwise be lost forever. There isn't all that much of a story, though. Guy wanders into mysterious bookshop, looks around, leaves. Overall, it was a forgettable experience. I did like the ending quite a bit, though.
Thanks to the fine folks at Subterranean Press and Netgalley for this ARC. Three stars but it's a weak three.
helpfulsnowman's review
3.0
[Pete cracks his knuckles, starts typing]
Before you read this review, if you want to read this book, do that first. It's short, it's cheap, and the less you know about it, the better. The synopsis kinda spoils a significant portion, if you ask me, so ignore that shit.
Everyone else who's still with me:
First thing, I'd like to say the librarian/library-lover response to this story is pretty disappointing. I thought my fellow librarians were tough, free-thinking people who could take a little criticism here and there. I mean, this isn't like an ill-conceived article about Amazon running libraries or something. This is a thought-out, science-fiction tale from a master.
Speaking of, Connie Willis is no enemy of libraries. Doomsday Book is dedicated to a former head librarian at the library where I now work. Connie's name is on a donor wall at the library where I now work. She's been very generous with her time, speaking at staff days, library events, and doing an interview with us, all of which she refused to be paid for. She's a good person, and just generally a delight, and I don't appreciate all the bad-mouthing going on here. If you want to talk bad about this story, go right ahead, but if you want to talk bad about Connie Willis, go right ahead and fuck yourself.
*Spoilers Ahoy!*
The basic premise here is this dude stumbles upon a book depository, a bookstore or library, which turns out to be a holding place for every last copy of something that's been eliminated one way or another. The ending is interesting, because although you, as a reader, figure out what's happening before the protagonist, you don't quite know that this is essentially a book graveyard, a book purgatory, from which it seems the titles will never emerge.
Throughout the story, a character is giving a sort of tour to our protagonist, and she's explaining where all these books come from. And she has some unkind things to say about libraries, that they're all tossing books willy-nilly, and that libraries trashing books is one of the bigger sources of titles in this book hellscape (I've already upgraded from "purgatory" to "hellscape").
And if we step back from all this, she (the tour guide) makes some good points.
For one, yes, we soften the language a lot. We don't call it trashing books or throwing them out. We call it "weeding" or "pruning the collection" or the very technical, bloodless "de-accessioning." Maybe that allows us to keep a distance from what we're doing, like we're taking Old Yeller out to "Help him over the rainbow bridge." The truth is, sometimes your dog gets rabies, and sometimes you gotta put him down, and sometimes a book has to go in the garbage.
I also happen to know that Connie Willis wrote a blog post about some libraries engaging in weeding practices where the weeding lists were all set by machines. Numbers of checkouts and so on were calculated, but none of this stuff was really examined by humans, or the humans working there were forbidden from going "off list." I suspect a lot of the impetus for this story came from that, and I think this is bad practice and deserves to be shit-talked a little.
Also, there's a good point made about the shortcomings of digitization. Digitization works great for the big guys, the classics, and so on, and it works for the very small stuff (a thesis, local history, etc.), but it misses a lot of the niche, middleground stuff out there. You can fill in the title of a book or a movie or a TV show here. Take your time.
This story's readers, you all, need to lighten up a little. Take a little criticism, consider what is and is not applicable, and move on with your lives.
More to the point, I don't mean to talk down to everyone here about what sci-fi can do, but what sci-fi can do is to take a real-life situation, amplify it, and then show us what out world looks like with the volume turned up to 11. That way, after we leave the story, we can still see some of the ridiculous things about our world as being truly ridiculous.
The story presents an all-or-nothing proposition: keep everything or keep nothing. I think the story presents this as an all-or-nothing proposition because that makes an interesting story, and goddammnit, isn't that what a story is supposed to do? Be interesting?
The literal interpretation of this story is that there's a tragic thing happening, which is that books are being lost at an alarming pace. That's what you read when you read the surface of the book. However, I think it's most likely a mis-reading of sci-fi when we take away the most literal version of what happens.
The thing this book is trying to say, in my estimation, is that we should find ways to be more thoughtful about what we eliminate to make room for new things.
Before you read this review, if you want to read this book, do that first. It's short, it's cheap, and the less you know about it, the better. The synopsis kinda spoils a significant portion, if you ask me, so ignore that shit.
Everyone else who's still with me:
First thing, I'd like to say the librarian/library-lover response to this story is pretty disappointing. I thought my fellow librarians were tough, free-thinking people who could take a little criticism here and there. I mean, this isn't like an ill-conceived article about Amazon running libraries or something. This is a thought-out, science-fiction tale from a master.
Speaking of, Connie Willis is no enemy of libraries. Doomsday Book is dedicated to a former head librarian at the library where I now work. Connie's name is on a donor wall at the library where I now work. She's been very generous with her time, speaking at staff days, library events, and doing an interview with us, all of which she refused to be paid for. She's a good person, and just generally a delight, and I don't appreciate all the bad-mouthing going on here. If you want to talk bad about this story, go right ahead, but if you want to talk bad about Connie Willis, go right ahead and fuck yourself.
*Spoilers Ahoy!*
The basic premise here is this dude stumbles upon a book depository, a bookstore or library, which turns out to be a holding place for every last copy of something that's been eliminated one way or another. The ending is interesting, because although you, as a reader, figure out what's happening before the protagonist, you don't quite know that this is essentially a book graveyard, a book purgatory, from which it seems the titles will never emerge.
Throughout the story, a character is giving a sort of tour to our protagonist, and she's explaining where all these books come from. And she has some unkind things to say about libraries, that they're all tossing books willy-nilly, and that libraries trashing books is one of the bigger sources of titles in this book hellscape (I've already upgraded from "purgatory" to "hellscape").
And if we step back from all this, she (the tour guide) makes some good points.
For one, yes, we soften the language a lot. We don't call it trashing books or throwing them out. We call it "weeding" or "pruning the collection" or the very technical, bloodless "de-accessioning." Maybe that allows us to keep a distance from what we're doing, like we're taking Old Yeller out to "Help him over the rainbow bridge." The truth is, sometimes your dog gets rabies, and sometimes you gotta put him down, and sometimes a book has to go in the garbage.
I also happen to know that Connie Willis wrote a blog post about some libraries engaging in weeding practices where the weeding lists were all set by machines. Numbers of checkouts and so on were calculated, but none of this stuff was really examined by humans, or the humans working there were forbidden from going "off list." I suspect a lot of the impetus for this story came from that, and I think this is bad practice and deserves to be shit-talked a little.
Also, there's a good point made about the shortcomings of digitization. Digitization works great for the big guys, the classics, and so on, and it works for the very small stuff (a thesis, local history, etc.), but it misses a lot of the niche, middleground stuff out there. You can fill in the title of a book or a movie or a TV show here. Take your time.
This story's readers, you all, need to lighten up a little. Take a little criticism, consider what is and is not applicable, and move on with your lives.
More to the point, I don't mean to talk down to everyone here about what sci-fi can do, but what sci-fi can do is to take a real-life situation, amplify it, and then show us what out world looks like with the volume turned up to 11. That way, after we leave the story, we can still see some of the ridiculous things about our world as being truly ridiculous.
The story presents an all-or-nothing proposition: keep everything or keep nothing. I think the story presents this as an all-or-nothing proposition because that makes an interesting story, and goddammnit, isn't that what a story is supposed to do? Be interesting?
The literal interpretation of this story is that there's a tragic thing happening, which is that books are being lost at an alarming pace. That's what you read when you read the surface of the book. However, I think it's most likely a mis-reading of sci-fi when we take away the most literal version of what happens.
The thing this book is trying to say, in my estimation, is that we should find ways to be more thoughtful about what we eliminate to make room for new things.
annieb123's review
4.0
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land is a special edition hardcover novella from Connie Willis published by Subterranean Press.
I've been a fan of the author for decades, and this piece, though only 88 pages, shines with her humor, sharp wit, and style.
I was always the Luddite who swore I'd never own an e-book reader. I adore libraries full of old books. When my university medical library was moving to new digs, I rehomed literally hundreds of the deaccessioned books and felt badly that there were, sadly, thousands more which I couldn't adopt. I now own several ebook readers (a pack of Kindles and a Kobo for bathtime reading), but I still love everything about books from the smell to the tactile joy and solidity of sitting down with a book.
Neil Gaiman says it so much better than I can (that's why he's a world famous author and I'm a professional labrat bionerd):
The entire essay is available here.
Beautiful dust jacket art by Jon Foster.
I received an early e-ARC of this book and while I did find an error (Great Fire of London was in 1666, not 1665; it's pretty obviously a typo), I assume it'll be corrected before release.
Love the author, enjoyed the novella very much.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land is a special edition hardcover novella from Connie Willis published by Subterranean Press.
I've been a fan of the author for decades, and this piece, though only 88 pages, shines with her humor, sharp wit, and style.
I was always the Luddite who swore I'd never own an e-book reader. I adore libraries full of old books. When my university medical library was moving to new digs, I rehomed literally hundreds of the deaccessioned books and felt badly that there were, sadly, thousands more which I couldn't adopt. I now own several ebook readers (a pack of Kindles and a Kobo for bathtime reading), but I still love everything about books from the smell to the tactile joy and solidity of sitting down with a book.
Neil Gaiman says it so much better than I can (that's why he's a world famous author and I'm a professional labrat bionerd):
I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle turned up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand: they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them.
The entire essay is available here.
Beautiful dust jacket art by Jon Foster.
I received an early e-ARC of this book and while I did find an error (Great Fire of London was in 1666, not 1665; it's pretty obviously a typo), I assume it'll be corrected before release.
Love the author, enjoyed the novella very much.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
wunder's review
2.0
Mostly a short story padded by listing lots and lots of book titles. Just OK, not great.
coboshimself_'s review
4.0
"We can't just let books disappear without a trace, can we? All those histories and plays and adventures and sentimental novels and textbooks and biographies? We can't just let them die."
kieralesley's review
3.0
I had mixed feelings about this issue. I loved some stories and disliked others, which means there's a good range of material, but the whole was a bit uneven. There were a few consistent themes running through the stories which helped hold it together - my favourite of which was different takes on the impact of incoming technologies on future labour markets. The pieces vary from 20-minutes in the future speculative takes, to emotional and broad-reaching scifi explorations of things like gender or death, to historical fiction.
Highlight pieces for me this issue were:
"I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land" by Connie Willis (Special mention for this one - a wonderful trip through thinking about what happens to the books society collectively decides to let die).
"The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine" by Greg Egan
"Operators" by Joel Richards
"The Nanny Bubble" by Norman Spinrad
I am reviewing each of the stories in this issue individually for SFF Reviews. They are forthcoming here: (https://sffreviews.com/tag/kiera-lesley/)
Highlight pieces for me this issue were:
"I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land" by Connie Willis (Special mention for this one - a wonderful trip through thinking about what happens to the books society collectively decides to let die).
"The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine" by Greg Egan
"Operators" by Joel Richards
"The Nanny Bubble" by Norman Spinrad
I am reviewing each of the stories in this issue individually for SFF Reviews. They are forthcoming here: (https://sffreviews.com/tag/kiera-lesley/)
lonecayt's review
3.0
Certainly not her best - more a rant about the disappearance of books in our society than anything else. Made me feel a little bit guilty, because part of my current job working at the library involved testing up and disposing books that are too damaged to be in general circulation any longer.
tarana's review
3.0
Just an average read, but these were the ones that I particularly liked (and I really loved the first one!).
I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land - Connie Willis
Skipped by Emily Taylor
A Float Above A Floor of Stars - Tom Purdom
Operators - Joel Richards
Nanny Bubble - Norman Spinrad
I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land - Connie Willis
Skipped by Emily Taylor
A Float Above A Floor of Stars - Tom Purdom
Operators - Joel Richards
Nanny Bubble - Norman Spinrad