A review by thistlechaser
The Fate of Mice by Susan Palwick
5.0
A complaint I often have about books is that the writer doesn't trust their readers. One of the reasons I love Susan Palwick's writing so much is that she fully trusts us. Each of the book's short stories ended at the perfect point: She leads us right up to the ending, there's no doubt how the story will turn out, but she ends it a moment too soon. Every time a story ended, I had that "Arg! Wait no! That can't be the ending! It can't stop here!" reaction. And yet every story was a complete story -- you knew how it ended, but leaving it open like that made it delicious.
While each of these short stories was sci fi, it's really interesting because they were a lot more than that. Each of the stories was actually about something normal or mundane, the sci fi was just window dressing. But it really, really worked. A short story about how some men stop loving women as the women get older and less beautiful? BORING! I'd never ever read that! But couch it in the framework of a werewolf story? And I loved it!
Review of each individual story at my main review blog: http://thistle-chaser.livejournal.com/1539268.html
While each of these short stories was sci fi, it's really interesting because they were a lot more than that. Each of the stories was actually about something normal or mundane, the sci fi was just window dressing. But it really, really worked. A short story about how some men stop loving women as the women get older and less beautiful? BORING! I'd never ever read that! But couch it in the framework of a werewolf story? And I loved it!
Review of each individual story at my main review blog: http://thistle-chaser.livejournal.com/1539268.html