Reviews

Cosmogramma by Courttia Newland

Only show reviews with written explanations

hannah_doc's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

thecolourblue's review

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adventurous challenging reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Kind of a mixed bag. There were a couple of stories here I really enjoyed, and I like the sci-fi concepts Newland is exploring - identity, exploitation, technology and humanity in struggle or harmony with nature - but honestly most of the stories haven't really stayed with me since I read the book.

I enjoyed the opening story, Percipi (I just love some robot morality) and the mermaid love/breeding story Nommo was actually quietly compelling in its characters. Seed, drawing from a rich history of horror stories about replacement doppelgangers and invading plantlife, was one of the more developed longer stories.

Several of the stories - Control, The Difference Between You and Me - are direct explorations of modern-world racism and xenophobia transplanted into near-future dystopias. Another strong entry, The Sankofa Principle, raises the moral dilemma of a group of space travellers cast back in time who have the power to stop some of humanities past racial violence.

My personal favourite, for purely self-centred reasons (as someone who practices circus arts) is Cirrostratus. All the augmented sci-fi circus circus performers please.

kittyka0s's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

om_nom_nomigon's review against another edition

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challenging reflective fast-paced

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

1.0

samdalefox's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I was so looking forward to this series; scifi short stories by a Black British author! Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the collection. That's not to say that they're bad, they're just not very good. I found most of the stories shallow, with the occasional good premis but ultimately not fleshed out or intiguing enough to hold my attention. A fair few actually repeated the same concepts, such as

Spoiler

alien breeding programs

in 'Buck' and 'Nommo'. And the others never struck the right balance between world building and plot, so much seemed like it was just being explained to me rather than being immersed in the story. Looking back at these I actually can't remember most of the stories, which indicates the average rating should really be lowered.

Two stories do stand out however, 'Control' is a chilling vignette of racist Britain, and 'Seed' was a fabulously surreal and mildly threatening story. I actually think 'Seed' had potential to have more done with it! I would recommend reading both.

Individual ratings: