So the February reading challenge and book club ended up overlapping this month. February's challenge theme is Short Month, Short Books, where the goal is to read as many short stories and novellas as you can. It just so happened that our book club also decided to read a bunch of short stories this month as well, so that made the challenge a bit easier.
I ended up really enjoying the nine short stories I read. One of them was actually a novella, but anyway, most of them were very good, and very thought provoking stories.
Here's the list, and links for the ones that are free to read on the web.
Category: Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Children
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean
This was indeed a strange story and also the shortest of the stories we read. A couple of my fellow book clubbers pointed out that it read like a campfire story.
Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Dead bodies are found of people that died at the hands of a serial killer, People in the snapshot are shot and killed.
If you could re-create a day, what dark secrets would you uncover?
From
New York Times #1 bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes a
detective thriller in a police beat like no other. Anthony Davis and his
partner Chaz are the only real people in a city of 20 million, sent
there by court order to find out what happened in the real world 10 days
ago so that hidden evidence can be brought to light and located in the
real city today.
Within the re-created Snapshot of May 1st, Davis
and Chaz are the ultimate authorities. Flashing their badges will get
them past any obstruction and overrule any civil right of the dupes
around them. But the crimes the detectives are sent to investigate seem
like drudgery—until they stumble upon the grisly results of a mass
killing that the precinct headquarters orders them not to investigate.
That’s one order they have to refuse.
The hunt is on. And though
the dupes in the replica city have no future once the Snapshot is turned
off, that doesn’t mean that both Davis and Chaz will walk out of it
alive tonight.
Read a second time for fantasy
book club. I had forgotten more about this story than I thought, so
there were still surprises.
Original review: Sanderson and I have a rocky
relationship. At times I think his writing is incredible, but then there
have been times I have found it terribly tedious and boring. I know I'm
in the minority when it comes to that opinion, but that's just my
personal experience. I loved what he did with WoT, I enjoyed Steelheart
but didn't love it, I liked Elantris tremendously even though it had
some flaws, and so far I love the Wax and Wayne books, but the original
Mistborn trilogy was hit and miss with me and I almost didn't finish it.
I think he really shines with this story.
Snapshot is a novella
seemingly set in the same world as the Steelheart trilogy. While that
trilogy was written for young adults, snapshot is more for adults. The
only real tie here between the two is that the snapshot that is
generated in this story is generated by a person with super powers.
If you could re-create a day, what dark secrets would you uncover?
Anthony
Davis and his partner Chaz are sent into a snapshot, which is a
recreation of a certain day that looks and seems very real, to
investigate a crime that happened on that day. They can interact with
this fake world and cause deviations so they are supposed to be careful
to preserve things as they really happened. While in the snapshot they
decide to investigate a case that they have not been asked to
investigate. From there on things get more and more interesting,
resulting in a story that is utterly brilliant. I loved the whole
concept of the snapshot.
In the postscript that Sanderson wrote
at the end of this novella, he seems to think that most readers will
automatically come to certain conclusions in a certain order while
reading this story. I have to say that I was not one of those people.
I'm not sure what that says about me as a reader, or if it says anything
about me at all, but there were some twists that I didn't see coming.
Should I have seen the twists coming? I don't know, maybe. I usually
find it pretty easy to solve the mysteries in detective stories, but as I
was trying to figure this one out my mind actually went in a completely
different direction. A completely wrong one, but to me, that just made
the reading experience even better.
I'll leave it at that,
because I don't want to spoil this read for anyone. If you like
detective novels, if you like The Twlight Zone, if you like stories by
Phillip K. Dick, then you might like this novella. I've heard that film
rights have been optioned by MGM. Personally I think that's a good move
on their part, because I think this would make a great movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJDw23lHTYs
The Harlequin Tea Set (A Harley Quin Short Story) by Agatha Christie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Paranormal
Content: Clean
Waiting for his car to be fixed, Mr.
Satterthwaite sits in a tea shop called the Harlequin cafe, thinking of
his friend Harley Quin, whom he hasn't seen in many years. Then, in a
burst of sunshine, the very same Mr. Quin walks through the door, along
with his diligent dog, Hermes. Satterthwaite is telling him the very
long history of the family he is off to visit, when their conversation
is interrupted by the abrupt entrance of a member of that very same
family, intent upon replacing her harlequin cups. Satterthwaite
desperately asks Quin to accompany him on his trip, but the
ever-enigmatic Quin simply leaves his friend with one word, "Daltonism."
What does that word mean, and what is the significance of Quin turning
up at the tea shop on that day?
The Harlequin Tea Set is one of the only stories I've read by Agatha Christie that isn't a Poirot story. It features Harley Quin, who is in a few of her books. I think if I had read the other Harley Quin books first, I may have appreciated this one more. While I thought this story was ok, it wasn't on par with most of the other things I've read by Christie. It took its time to get to the point, but it was still enjoyable to listen to, and had a surprising paranormal twist to it. I may revisit this one someday, if I get around to reading all the Harley Quin stories.
https://escapepod.org/2013/09/14/ep413-why-i-left-harrys-all-night-hamburgers/
Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers by Lawrence Watt-Evans
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi
Content: Clean
The Hugo-winning short story about diners, bored teenagers, and parallel worlds.
I loved the message of appreciating where you are. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi
Content: Strong Language
The Heart of a Hero
In the wilds of a
jungle planet, the Legion fights in brutal combat as Republic marines
fly their SLICS from one tragedy to the next.
H292, a repurposed warbot, shows the heart of a hero as he wades into the battle not to destroy—but to save.
This is a great version of the tin man who gets a heart.
http://www.lem.seed.pr.gov.br/arquivos/File/livrosliteraturaingles/birthmark.pdf
The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Category: Adult, Classic
Genre: Sci-fi, horror
Content: Clean
A short story about a brilliant scientist who cannot tolerate the birthmark on his wife's lovely face and will go to any lengths to remove it.
I liked the moral of the story but not the way it's written. Hawthorne is way too wordy, and it makes this a chore to read. This story brought to mind the way so many people are unhappy with themselves, when they are perfectly beautiful the way they are, and keep trying to 'improve' themselves through surgery and fillers to get the perfect look. Only to end up looking weird and unnatural. I also enjoyed the way it showed how our opinions of ourselves can be influenced by others.
Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean
Leaf by Niggle is a short story about a painter who is working on a picture leaf by leaf. Niggle, the painter, is a kind hearted soul and goes out of his way to help his friends and neighbours but eventually finds that this prevents him from completing his masterpiece. He has a hard decision to make; when engrossed in his work, his neighbour asks him to fix his roof using his art supplies.
A
wonderful little allegorical story about our time, how we spend it, and
what it's all worth. It takes us through the culmination of one's life
on Earth and experiences in Purgatory, leading to Heaven. The more I
think about it, the more I discover.
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palmer_09_17/
In this issue of Clarkesworld Magazine, we read the story, The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-Fi
Content: Clean
Autonomous maintenance robots take on a much larger role in saving a spaceship from aliens than the ship's human crew could have ever suspected.
The Secret Life of Bots is a cute story, and I loved the bots and their clever solution to the predicament they found themselves in.
We read Letter to a Phoenix by Fredric Brown from his short story collection.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Category: Adult, Classic
Genre: Sci-fi
Content: Clean
A 180,000-year-old man writes a letter to humanity as a whole, explaining the lessons he has learned while observing the rise and fall of multiple civilizations.
This is an interesting, thought provoking story. Although there is some truth in this cyclical view of history, and the way we build only to destroy and rebuild again, the way it's presented in the story is a concept I can't completely get behind.
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