A review by beththebookdragon
The Fate of Mice by Susan Palwick
3.0
A wonderful array of original stories, often taking a remarkably radical new take on fantasy standards such as werewolves and the Cinderella fairy tale. Deeply human stories, often with humor though usually of a dark sort. If you enjoy intense dark fantasy, suspense and horror with detailed characters, this is for you!
I met Susan Palwick at a science-fiction club meeting just as her first book was coming out and sat next to her afterward at the diner, talking about her involvement with starting a graduate-students' union at Yale (where she was a master's candidate in English at the time) and about life in general. I liked her instinctively and while I never read the first book, I thoroughly enjoyed her The Necessary Beggar--amazingly original and rich science fiction--and the few short stories I've read by her. This anthology shows she hasn't lost her touch.
Side note: the preface, which is by SF author Paul di Filippo, has an awesome phrase: "unless and until some uper-techonogical 'Rapture of the Nerds' rewrites the fatal certainties of the entirety of human existence..."
(I'm waiting for that Rapture!)
I met Susan Palwick at a science-fiction club meeting just as her first book was coming out and sat next to her afterward at the diner, talking about her involvement with starting a graduate-students' union at Yale (where she was a master's candidate in English at the time) and about life in general. I liked her instinctively and while I never read the first book, I thoroughly enjoyed her The Necessary Beggar--amazingly original and rich science fiction--and the few short stories I've read by her. This anthology shows she hasn't lost her touch.
Side note: the preface, which is by SF author Paul di Filippo, has an awesome phrase: "unless and until some uper-techonogical 'Rapture of the Nerds' rewrites the fatal certainties of the entirety of human existence..."
(I'm waiting for that Rapture!)