John W

Very weird ride

Reviewed: 02-15-20

So, I often don't like short story anthologies, and especially don't like reviewing them, because some of the stories are almost always significantly better than others (that's even true when they're all by a single author). I'm also more of a novel/novella reader than a short story reader, because I tend to feel like short stories are lacking something in their resolutions. With those two general caveats, here's my attempt to review this collection.

First off (and probably most important for an audiobook), the performances were great. Some of them were better than others, especially in terms of differentiating character voices, and I found some of the voices preferable to others for whatever reason, but none of their voices are grating on the nerves, and they all read well and at good paces (and reading properly is more important to me than doing good character voices).

But the stories are a mixed bag (3 stars is the average - hence that rating both for story and overall - I did not like some of them). In descending order:
"Ark" (the first) was good - it left me simultaneously satisfied and wanting more. I don't understand the hate it gets - people say it's boring, but the story is entirely about the characters and what it is to face the end of the world. It's not about the action. 5 stars!
"Randomize" (the last) was at least entertaining - I just felt like it was a bit underdeveloped and rushed and didn't really explore the implications of what it was dealing with. I was mostly, but not fully, satisfied, and definitely wanted more. 4.25 stars.
"Emergency Skin" (the third) was decent, especially considering how hard it is to do second-person present perspective (it's probably the best attempt at it I've ever seen), but it felt a bit preachy and also a bit underdeveloped (I now know NK Jemisin's political views, because one of the characters told us that's the way to an ideal society, but the proof of that was lacking), and it cut off at a weird point. I was not fully satisfied, but I may have been satisfied if there had been more. 3.5 stars.
"You Have Arrived at Your Destination" (the fourth) was okay for a while, but then it spun out of control and ended way too jarringly and on the wrong foot. Weird ending, wasn't satisfied, but I at least found myself wanting to see where things went beyond it. 3 stars.
"The Last Conversation" (the fifth) wasn't jarring, but it had the opposite problem - it was predictable. Attempted second-person present, but didn't do it as well as "Emergency Skin." And it was creepy. Creepy predictable and something lacking in the its ? Not a good mix, at least not for me. But it wasn't terrible. Because the conclusion was as expected, the story was at least done, but I did not find myself wanting anything more to do with it and kind of wished I hadn't spent the time. 2 stars.
"Summer Frost" (the second), well, it's a weird case. This is worth a kind-of spoiler warning - I'm not going to say how it ended, but I am going to describe how the ending felt. I thought I was going to like it. I initially thought it was striking a good balance between being predictable and being jarring. It was moody at times, but also optimistic. Then it ended. Jarringly, creepily, on a major downer. Presumably, it's meant to be a plot twist, but wrapping things up on such a big plot twist and tone shift left me saying, "Wait, what? What did I just listen to?" And it left some plot holes. Not satisfying, and I wanted my time back. 1 star.

I mention them in descending order of rating, and therefore put "Summer Frost" last, because my assessment of "Summer Frost" kind of sums up how I felt about the experience as a whole, and why my overall rating matches the story rating despite liking the readers so well. It was a jarring book on the whole - a weird ride, as I put it in my title. Lovely, poignant piece, followed by a "wait, what the heck did I just listen to?", followed by fun and overly optimistic, followed by odd piece that degenerates weirdly somewhere in the middle, followed by creepy but predictable, followed by some fun, but short, entertainment. Kind of felt like the order was intended, so as to give the listener emotional whiplash. So overall, the collection was okay, and some parts were even good, but I wanted about half of my 8 and a half hours back.

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