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mshield's review
4.0
A conflicted 4.
Some fascinating ideas sketched out in these short stories, filled with succinct and captivating world-building, while also managing to touch upon a whole host of ethical and moral themes and questions.
Where's the conflict in the rating?
The majority of these stories draw you in with the pitch, have you invested in the world, the topics and budding characters, just to then end. There are few satisfactory (or even definitive) endings. This may have been the point. Sadly, it is a point I'm missing, or otherwise not enamoured by.
I can see and would accept a rating of 3, but would also give little contention to a 5.
It is one I'll be thinking about for some time, I feel.
Some fascinating ideas sketched out in these short stories, filled with succinct and captivating world-building, while also managing to touch upon a whole host of ethical and moral themes and questions.
Where's the conflict in the rating?
The majority of these stories draw you in with the pitch, have you invested in the world, the topics and budding characters, just to then end. There are few satisfactory (or even definitive) endings. This may have been the point. Sadly, it is a point I'm missing, or otherwise not enamoured by.
I can see and would accept a rating of 3, but would also give little contention to a 5.
It is one I'll be thinking about for some time, I feel.
jon288's review
5.0
Lent to me by Will. A great little twisting sci-fi story that's almost a thought experiment, but well written. Read while in a guest house in Mestia, Georgia
tusenord's review
4.0
Just as good as all Elastic Press books I've read. Great writing as always, with a thorough knowledge of techniques that few authors today possess. The stories have a mix of just-like-normal and paranormal stuff that I love, and something some of the stories in the anthalogy itself reflects on (the things that are just a little different from ordinary). A great read, and lots of snapshots of lives that could be real. Believable, touching, enchanting and great.
encima's review
2.0
Some interesting points are made and, while being aware of the nature of small story collections, there is not much beyond the surface. Most points made have been made before and, maybe it is the style of writing, but I could not get into many of them beyond the surface level they explored.
A perceptive start, though, but it did not tempt me to read the author's other work.
A perceptive start, though, but it did not tempt me to read the author's other work.
macbean221b's review
4.0
Despite some editing errors (which can actually ruin a book for me if there are too many) this is one of the best short story collections I've read in a while. It took a story or two to get used to the abrupt endings (which is how I write, but I'm not used to seeing other writers use that method very often) but I loved the interconnectedness between some of them. Almost all of them made me put the book down and think for a while before going on to the next, and one of them—Valour—made me feel disappointed that it ended. I could have read a whole novel set in that world, with those characters.
nwhyte's review
5.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1385963.html
it is very good; I like Beckett's writing for the same reason I like Brian Aldiss, that very English way of looking askance at the world as it is and as it could be. Particular gems here include the fading provincial horrors of 'Monsters', 'Karel's Prayer' which is a Philip K. Dick piece for our times, and 'The Marriage of Sky and Sea' whose unpleasant protagonist gets exactly what he asks for. There's also a flattering introduction by Alastair Reynolds. Well worth hunting down.
it is very good; I like Beckett's writing for the same reason I like Brian Aldiss, that very English way of looking askance at the world as it is and as it could be. Particular gems here include the fading provincial horrors of 'Monsters', 'Karel's Prayer' which is a Philip K. Dick piece for our times, and 'The Marriage of Sky and Sea' whose unpleasant protagonist gets exactly what he asks for. There's also a flattering introduction by Alastair Reynolds. Well worth hunting down.
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