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arturourbanos's review
3.0
Me ha gustado mucho la ambientación y los mensajes que pretende transmitir la autora con la historia. También me ha encantado el planteamiento de "la parte ci-fi" pero el relato en sí se me ha hecho demasiado corto. Leeré más relatos ambientados en este universo, seguro <3
catevari's review
3.0
This review is ONLY for the story "Scattered Along the River of Heaven" by Aliette de Bodard. I'm making my way through her uncollected Xuya stories & this one has no solo entry. I think that, although by the end, it hit with exactly the sort of bang you want from a well-written short story, this is my least favorite (so far) story by de Bodard and my least favorite of the Xuyan stories.
Like many of de Bodard's stories, this is a winding narrative, going back between two different POVs without really making the connection between them until the end...though, in the end, ha, this story is about connections never made, how quickly and irrevocably the knowledge and memories of our ancestors fall into the gaps of time and forgetfulness.
Like the later Xuya stories, it's hard to find the connective ligature to the earlier stories; the earlier stories are centered on Earth, whereas the later stories are in a universe that has spaceflight and interstellar colonization and I have yet to really find the story or stories that logically bridge that gap...which in its own way, also feeds back into the idea of this story.
My main complaint is that the gap between the two story POVs was too wide until too late in the story. The sections with Wen were slow and largely non-moving, so they made the story drag until their purpose became clear, but it was so late in the story that it's taken me longer to read this not-very-long story than any of the others. The ending is satisfying and heartbreaking enough that I can't say it wasn't worth reading (I'm coming to suspect there's very little--if anything--by de Bodard that's 'not worth it') but it was a bit of a slog.
Like many of de Bodard's stories, this is a winding narrative, going back between two different POVs without really making the connection between them until the end...though, in the end, ha, this story is about connections never made, how quickly and irrevocably the knowledge and memories of our ancestors fall into the gaps of time and forgetfulness.
Like the later Xuya stories, it's hard to find the connective ligature to the earlier stories; the earlier stories are centered on Earth, whereas the later stories are in a universe that has spaceflight and interstellar colonization and I have yet to really find the story or stories that logically bridge that gap...which in its own way, also feeds back into the idea of this story.
My main complaint is that the gap between the two story POVs was too wide until too late in the story. The sections with Wen were slow and largely non-moving, so they made the story drag until their purpose became clear, but it was so late in the story that it's taken me longer to read this not-very-long story than any of the others. The ending is satisfying and heartbreaking enough that I can't say it wasn't worth reading (I'm coming to suspect there's very little--if anything--by de Bodard that's 'not worth it') but it was a bit of a slog.
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