Scan barcode
morgy24's review against another edition
3.0
First time I’ve read a short story collection remotely like this- very SciFi with language & perspectives not familiar to me. Some stories were harder to follow than others, but all very interesting & incredibly descriptive.
100pagesaday's review against another edition
4.0
Woop Woop is an Australian phrase for a destination outside your area. The Road to Woop Woop is a collection of short stories by Australian writers that fall somewhere into the speculative fiction category. Each story led me on a journey; some of the journeys were to places very familiar and some were to places unknown. Like any collection of short stories, there were some stories that I liked better than others and characters that I wanted to stay with longer. Most of these stories had me thinking deeply about humanity and the state of the world.
Some of my favorite stories are: A Maji Maji Chronicle, A Case of Seeing, Five-Second Button, Being Marcus and Dying. A Maji Maji Chronicle follows a magician father and son as they travel back in time to a native village in 1905 as they are being invaded by white men. The father gives the village leader a magical gift that alters the timeline. This story had me thinking about the effects of a single moment in history as well as greed and the balance of power. A Case of Seeing is a great science-fiction mystery that had me wanting more as a Detective with a supernatural gift is called to the crime scene for the death of a Nobel Prize candidate. Five-Second Button delves into a fantasy that we have probably all wanted to discover at some point, a chance to see your future. What the character chooses to do with her life knowing her future is really interesting. Being Marcus is a take on Brutus' betrayal of Caesar where Brutus was given a sentence of eternal life. It was really interesting to see this character in the present day and the decisions he made. Dying is a Groundhog's Day-esque humorous take on life, fate and who is ultimately pulling the strings.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
Some of my favorite stories are: A Maji Maji Chronicle, A Case of Seeing, Five-Second Button, Being Marcus and Dying. A Maji Maji Chronicle follows a magician father and son as they travel back in time to a native village in 1905 as they are being invaded by white men. The father gives the village leader a magical gift that alters the timeline. This story had me thinking about the effects of a single moment in history as well as greed and the balance of power. A Case of Seeing is a great science-fiction mystery that had me wanting more as a Detective with a supernatural gift is called to the crime scene for the death of a Nobel Prize candidate. Five-Second Button delves into a fantasy that we have probably all wanted to discover at some point, a chance to see your future. What the character chooses to do with her life knowing her future is really interesting. Being Marcus is a take on Brutus' betrayal of Caesar where Brutus was given a sentence of eternal life. It was really interesting to see this character in the present day and the decisions he made. Dying is a Groundhog's Day-esque humorous take on life, fate and who is ultimately pulling the strings.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
nuhafariha's review against another edition
2.0
Thank you to Meerkat Press and NetGalley for the Reader's Copy!
Now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble & Indie Bookstore!
Eugen Bacon's "The Road to Woop Woop" is one hell of a roadtrip to go on. I don't even know how to describe the unique journey through time, space, language, and genre. There is a focus on relationships, gender, and indigeneity which I greatly appreciated as a reader. Stylistically, though, the language felt a little bit dated and forced, kind of like steampunk. Personally, it was not the right book for me.
Now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble & Indie Bookstore!
Eugen Bacon's "The Road to Woop Woop" is one hell of a roadtrip to go on. I don't even know how to describe the unique journey through time, space, language, and genre. There is a focus on relationships, gender, and indigeneity which I greatly appreciated as a reader. Stylistically, though, the language felt a little bit dated and forced, kind of like steampunk. Personally, it was not the right book for me.
radicalrachelreads's review against another edition
5.0
My kind of stories - truly unique and often strange! Bacon’s vivid writing style requires your full attention but it pays off as you’re brought to amazing times and places while reading.
Favorite stories include: Swimming with Daddy, A Nursery Rhyme, and The Enduring.
Looking forward to reading more from Eugene Bacon!
Thank you to Eugen Bacon, Meerkat Press, and #NetGallery for an eARC of #TheRoadtoWoopWoopandOtherStories in exchange for an honest review. Review will be posted on NetGallery, Goodreads, and Facebook.
Favorite stories include: Swimming with Daddy, A Nursery Rhyme, and The Enduring.
Looking forward to reading more from Eugene Bacon!
Thank you to Eugen Bacon, Meerkat Press, and #NetGallery for an eARC of #TheRoadtoWoopWoopandOtherStories in exchange for an honest review. Review will be posted on NetGallery, Goodreads, and Facebook.
myweereads's review against another edition
4.0
"You know how things happen and it feels like a dream you’re witnessing? But, somehow, you’re also in the dream that is most thoroughly a nightmare?"
The Road To Woop Woop and Other Stories by Eugen Bacon is a collection of speculative stories which range from the strange to the absolute peculiar covering untraditional ground to bring a voice to these unique tales.
In an interview with author Eugen Bacon we gather some insight into what drove her to write this unique collection.
When I came up with the idea of a collection, I wanted The Road To Woop Woop and Other Stories to be a body of longing, a sea of memories. I sought an overarching theme of something dying—be it a past, a future, a connection.
Some stories like “Dying”, “A Case of Seeing”, “Scars of Grief” and “A Nursery Rhyme” are splattered with literal deaths:
It hurt each time he died. The first time it happened, Bluey was on his way to Kinetic, the insurance firm he worked for. That morning he woke up to the alarm at 6 a.m. Showered, cerealed, took the lift to the ground floor. He was crossing the road to catch a No. 78 tram into the city when he went splat, flattened by a truck. A mural on the pavement: flesh, blood, brain and bile. (“Dying”)
Some like “The Road to Woop Woop”, “Beatitudes”, “Mahuika” and “The Enduring” have the metaphoric death, perhaps of a relationship, and an ensuring transformation.
Tumbling down the stretch, a confident glide, the 4WD is a beaut, over nineteen years old.
The argument is brand-new. Maps are convolutions, complicated like relationships. (“The Road to Woop Woop”)
Some like “He Refused to Name It”, “Being Marcus” and “Playback, Jury of the Heart” have both physical and metaphoric deaths that are also awakenings.
Today, he does not bear the persona of Marcus, the fine gym instructor. He feels like Brutus. And most Brutuses he’s come across in this world are canine. “Here, Brutus! Fetch!”
So today Marcus feels like a dog. Same one that bit the hand off its adoring master. Same one that joined the inner circle centuries ago in a conspiracy that shore an empire of its hero. Caesar was a god. He could have saved himself. Almost did too. With a single sword, he could have taken them all, sliced their treacherous hearts one by one. But the moment he saw Brutus approaching with a dagger, “You too, child?” he said, and covered his face. Heartbroken and resigned.
But Marcus is changed. He is not Brutus anymore. (“Being Marcus”)
Others like “A Pining”, “Swimming with Daddy”, “The Animal I Am”, “Swimming with Daddy” and “The One Who Sees” are filled with yearning and memory, perhaps inside an unsayable dirge.
The rest like “A Good Ball” and “A Maji Maji Chronicle” have a hint of one or the other: a longing, a memory, a transformation, even death and transcendence in fragmentation and wholeness.
But even the darkness is a playfulness that extends Roland Barthes’ pleasure of the text, where things are made and unmade; Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction that interrogates the meaning of text; Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s rhizome that has no beginning or end—it has no centre, but spreads, as epitomized in A Thousand Plateaus (1987).
In writing, mine is a principle of multiplicity. A rhizome that has no rules or laws—it is between things, interbeing, intermezzo. It continuously adapts to embrace other multiplicities.
I am always curious, experimenting. My writing can be a distortion that is a wholeness, a divergence that finds its own synchrony in a textual quest for answers.
And readers get it—reviews tell me this. For which I’m grateful.
The Road To Woop Woop and Other Stories by Eugen Bacon is a collection of speculative stories which range from the strange to the absolute peculiar covering untraditional ground to bring a voice to these unique tales.
In an interview with author Eugen Bacon we gather some insight into what drove her to write this unique collection.
When I came up with the idea of a collection, I wanted The Road To Woop Woop and Other Stories to be a body of longing, a sea of memories. I sought an overarching theme of something dying—be it a past, a future, a connection.
Some stories like “Dying”, “A Case of Seeing”, “Scars of Grief” and “A Nursery Rhyme” are splattered with literal deaths:
It hurt each time he died. The first time it happened, Bluey was on his way to Kinetic, the insurance firm he worked for. That morning he woke up to the alarm at 6 a.m. Showered, cerealed, took the lift to the ground floor. He was crossing the road to catch a No. 78 tram into the city when he went splat, flattened by a truck. A mural on the pavement: flesh, blood, brain and bile. (“Dying”)
Some like “The Road to Woop Woop”, “Beatitudes”, “Mahuika” and “The Enduring” have the metaphoric death, perhaps of a relationship, and an ensuring transformation.
Tumbling down the stretch, a confident glide, the 4WD is a beaut, over nineteen years old.
The argument is brand-new. Maps are convolutions, complicated like relationships. (“The Road to Woop Woop”)
Some like “He Refused to Name It”, “Being Marcus” and “Playback, Jury of the Heart” have both physical and metaphoric deaths that are also awakenings.
Today, he does not bear the persona of Marcus, the fine gym instructor. He feels like Brutus. And most Brutuses he’s come across in this world are canine. “Here, Brutus! Fetch!”
So today Marcus feels like a dog. Same one that bit the hand off its adoring master. Same one that joined the inner circle centuries ago in a conspiracy that shore an empire of its hero. Caesar was a god. He could have saved himself. Almost did too. With a single sword, he could have taken them all, sliced their treacherous hearts one by one. But the moment he saw Brutus approaching with a dagger, “You too, child?” he said, and covered his face. Heartbroken and resigned.
But Marcus is changed. He is not Brutus anymore. (“Being Marcus”)
Others like “A Pining”, “Swimming with Daddy”, “The Animal I Am”, “Swimming with Daddy” and “The One Who Sees” are filled with yearning and memory, perhaps inside an unsayable dirge.
The rest like “A Good Ball” and “A Maji Maji Chronicle” have a hint of one or the other: a longing, a memory, a transformation, even death and transcendence in fragmentation and wholeness.
But even the darkness is a playfulness that extends Roland Barthes’ pleasure of the text, where things are made and unmade; Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction that interrogates the meaning of text; Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s rhizome that has no beginning or end—it has no centre, but spreads, as epitomized in A Thousand Plateaus (1987).
In writing, mine is a principle of multiplicity. A rhizome that has no rules or laws—it is between things, interbeing, intermezzo. It continuously adapts to embrace other multiplicities.
I am always curious, experimenting. My writing can be a distortion that is a wholeness, a divergence that finds its own synchrony in a textual quest for answers.
And readers get it—reviews tell me this. For which I’m grateful.
nerdontheloose's review against another edition
4.0
Alright, first things first, I just love the cover, so unique and eye-grabbing, and the title too, very creative and just perfect for this short story collection. This is the kind of book I would love to keep on my bookshelf.
It’s a collection of 20 short stories, on a wide array of subjects, all unique, and out of the box in their ideas. What’s special about this collection is the writing style, so lyrical, poetic, and kind of abstract. It’s not something that I often like to read, I like my stories, especially the short ones, very clear in what they want to convey. These stories really made me turn the gears of my mind and read between the lines to fully understand what was happening, but it did not take away the beauty of the prose, at times it was the only thing that kept me going, just to see how these words would carry the story that's so out there, and this lyrical prose only added more feel to it.
I’m not a big fan of abstract stories but for those of us who are, this is a must-read, one after another, this is a treasure trove of mind-boggling, strange, yet captivating stories, and even though I wasn’t able to fully appreciate them I can tell there’s something really beautiful about both the writing style and these ideas. I’m rating this 3.5 stars rounded off to 4.
I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley, authors, and publishers. All opinions are my own. Pub date Dec 1st, 2020.
It’s a collection of 20 short stories, on a wide array of subjects, all unique, and out of the box in their ideas. What’s special about this collection is the writing style, so lyrical, poetic, and kind of abstract. It’s not something that I often like to read, I like my stories, especially the short ones, very clear in what they want to convey. These stories really made me turn the gears of my mind and read between the lines to fully understand what was happening, but it did not take away the beauty of the prose, at times it was the only thing that kept me going, just to see how these words would carry the story that's so out there, and this lyrical prose only added more feel to it.
I’m not a big fan of abstract stories but for those of us who are, this is a must-read, one after another, this is a treasure trove of mind-boggling, strange, yet captivating stories, and even though I wasn’t able to fully appreciate them I can tell there’s something really beautiful about both the writing style and these ideas. I’m rating this 3.5 stars rounded off to 4.
I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley, authors, and publishers. All opinions are my own. Pub date Dec 1st, 2020.
gyeranbbang's review against another edition
1.0
I am sad to say this was very much not for me. The book had been on my radar for quite a while and I finally picked it up only to be disappointed; maybe my expectations were too high? I was expecting wacky speculative fiction and I guess a few creepy stories (due to the horror tags), but it was just... meh speculative fiction.
I did not especially like the writing, it felt very plain, there was not enough exposition, and it felt like a lot of telling and not showing - this is just my opinion obviously, and it didn't do it for me personally.
At one point she writes about an author: The author wants to build a set of events. (...) He wants to be true to his learnings on the art of suspense. He wants to make sure that all is not revealed at the start. He worries. If he manages the use of suspense well, what if the reveal comes too late? He is nervous. What if he runs out of story? He is restless. What if the reader gets unhooked? And I just felt like most of the stories ran 'out of story' before they ever began.
Anyways, I rated everything 1-2 stars except Snow Metal which was a 3 stars.
I did not especially like the writing, it felt very plain, there was not enough exposition, and it felt like a lot of telling and not showing - this is just my opinion obviously, and it didn't do it for me personally.
At one point she writes about an author: The author wants to build a set of events. (...) He wants to be true to his learnings on the art of suspense. He wants to make sure that all is not revealed at the start. He worries. If he manages the use of suspense well, what if the reveal comes too late? He is nervous. What if he runs out of story? He is restless. What if the reader gets unhooked? And I just felt like most of the stories ran 'out of story' before they ever began.
Anyways, I rated everything 1-2 stars except Snow Metal which was a 3 stars.
abetterjulie's review against another edition
3.0
A collection with a unique voice and wide-ranging styles and themes. This would be a good pick for someone looking for unusual and evocative stories to read between times. The whole book feels liminal. If you read these before bed, you'd have weird dreams. If you read them on the commute, you'd spin tales about the people around you and their relationships and secrets. There's a slant-wise syntax happening, but you get used to it and it become its own rhythm.
Thank you to NetGalley and Meerkat Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Meerkat Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.