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A review by chirson
Not For Use In Navigation: Thirteen Stories by Iona Datt Sharma
4.0
I received an e-ARC of this collection of short stories from the author, in exchange for an honest review.
Before reading this collection, my familiarity with Datt Sharma's fiction was based on having read their excellent contribution to [b:The Underwater Ballroom Society|38201274|The Underwater Ballroom Society|Stephanie Burgis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516891327s/38201274.jpg|59869623] and a story or two read online (most recently: "Refugee...", also contained in this collection). These stories made me profoundly curious and gave me exceedingly high expectations; based on "Not for Use in Navigation", I intend to keep a close eye on all of Datt Sharma's future projects.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories contained here. I didn't find them uniformly excellent: some of them felt more polished than others. In many of their stories, Datt Sharma leaves a lot to the imagination, allowing the world and its rules to be implied rather than explicitly on the page. That is a tricky thing to pull off, and to me, some of these stories were more successful at it than others. "Refugee" is an example of a story that invites the reader to imagine an entire world, barely suggested on the page, and that succeeds tremendously; in contrast, "Flightcraft" didn't speak to me in the same way; I didn't connect with the characters or find the worldbuilding convincing, even though I seemed to know more about them; both the world and the characters felt more unfinished to me, or not fully realised.
Among my favourites: I enjoyed "Alnwick," with its excellent first lines, and really loved the mood, setting and world of "Quarter Days." I wish it had been longer (and it's already a novella, I think? Or close to one), or accompanied by a third, fourth, fifth story set in the same world . There was something about its melody and atmosphere that spoke to me, that reminded me pleasantly of my days reading much more British lit.
However, what truly deserves noting is how coherent and cohesive this feels as a collection. It showcases Datt Sharma's voice, lyrical and hopeful, nostalgic and original. It feels queer and relevant, fresh and imaginative. Datt Sharma draws upon Indian, Irish and English influences (and these are only the most obvious ones) and does so with style and enviable confidence. Their characters often feel alive, present on the page, complex and real, even when they only appear in a very short story and have little space to allow themselves to be known. And even more interestingly, the worlds Datt Sharma describes always seem complex, real and possessed of history and future.
I think a lot of my friends might enjoy this collection and I hope to read more of Datt Sharma's writing soon.
Before reading this collection, my familiarity with Datt Sharma's fiction was based on having read their excellent contribution to [b:The Underwater Ballroom Society|38201274|The Underwater Ballroom Society|Stephanie Burgis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516891327s/38201274.jpg|59869623] and a story or two read online (most recently: "Refugee...", also contained in this collection). These stories made me profoundly curious and gave me exceedingly high expectations; based on "Not for Use in Navigation", I intend to keep a close eye on all of Datt Sharma's future projects.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories contained here. I didn't find them uniformly excellent: some of them felt more polished than others. In many of their stories, Datt Sharma leaves a lot to the imagination, allowing the world and its rules to be implied rather than explicitly on the page. That is a tricky thing to pull off, and to me, some of these stories were more successful at it than others. "Refugee" is an example of a story that invites the reader to imagine an entire world, barely suggested on the page, and that succeeds tremendously; in contrast, "Flightcraft" didn't speak to me in the same way; I didn't connect with the characters or find the worldbuilding convincing, even though I seemed to know more about them; both the world and the characters felt more unfinished to me, or not fully realised.
Among my favourites: I enjoyed "Alnwick," with its excellent first lines, and really loved the mood, setting and world of "Quarter Days." I wish it had been longer (and it's already a novella, I think? Or close to one), or accompanied by a third, fourth, fifth story set in the same world . There was something about its melody and atmosphere that spoke to me, that reminded me pleasantly of my days reading much more British lit.
However, what truly deserves noting is how coherent and cohesive this feels as a collection. It showcases Datt Sharma's voice, lyrical and hopeful, nostalgic and original. It feels queer and relevant, fresh and imaginative. Datt Sharma draws upon Indian, Irish and English influences (and these are only the most obvious ones) and does so with style and enviable confidence. Their characters often feel alive, present on the page, complex and real, even when they only appear in a very short story and have little space to allow themselves to be known. And even more interestingly, the worlds Datt Sharma describes always seem complex, real and possessed of history and future.
I think a lot of my friends might enjoy this collection and I hope to read more of Datt Sharma's writing soon.