Reviews

Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction by Grace L. Dillon

mythaster's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

jenny14's review

4.0

I was interested to find that this is a very academic text. The editor has collected stories and excerpts as examples of five common themes in Indigenous sf, and the book's introduction (as well as mini-intros to each story) are not written in layperson's terms. Without having read more on these topics, I felt that I got the gist of the ideas but not the full nuance.

I found the anthology to be very interesting (although I wish I understood more!) and also enjoyed most of the stories.

hfeproductions's review

3.0

Organized by topic, so if you don’t vibe with one section, there’s a whole bunch more for you to experience.

Each piece follows an introduction of the author, their credentials, and their impact. For those who love additional context for their reading.

lddecker's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

espbear's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

matthew_p's review

3.0

The stories and excerpts are excellent, but the anthology is written as a textbook with lots of introductory material that was of little value to me.

wordesmith's review

This was incredible. It was kind of like a buffet or a trailer reel of so much incredible indigenous sf in that you had carefully-chosen passages from a lot of other amazing full-length works by various authors, which then gives you a sense of what you're interested in reading more of (in my case, everything, which is saying something since I'm not always interested in contact narratives and other sub-genres of sf). At first, I worried the book might be too academic for pleasure reading for me in that each excerpt is introduced with some commentary, but once I actually started reading it, I felt that those passages gave so much context and situation for what I was reading that it really added to the enjoyment.

bmatzke's review

4.0

Great collection. Really well organized, with great framing in the introductions to the volume and the individual selections. My one complaint is that it's a little heavy on novel excerpts rather than short stories, and I often felt that I wasn't getting enough context to fully appreciate the excerpts. On the other hand I now have a dozen new novels on my "to read" list.

dzana's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

mslaureeslibrary's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75