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#5 Platform: Sorry Please Thank You
Sep. 22nd, 2012 07:09 pmMore inventive science-fiction inflected short stories? I'll stick with the thank you.
Book #44: Sorry Please Thank You
Author: Charles Yu
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
It's rare these days for me to really find a new author pretty much on my own; much of my reading is from recommendations at this point. But I did find Charles Yu's first novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and read it last year. It fell in a gap in reviews, but I felt that it was a very solid book. I mean, it was a well considered plot about time travel that seemed like it was done via linguistics, just about. So I picked up his newest short story collection with some anticipation, and I wasn't at all disappointed.
Yu writes science fiction stories both that are straight-up tales, and ones that take on tropes and notions from more well-known sci-fi areas, playing around with them to fairly good effect. For example, probably my favorite tales from the collection are Yeoman, which is narrated by one of those red-shirts that's always going about dying on missions on Star Trek, and looking at how this could happen or be put up with, and Hero Absorbs Major Damage, a story about an RPG setting where the lead isn't sure he's fit to carry out the destiny that they've signed on for. They're both rather gently humorous setups, with some holding up of conventions for amused examinations. It's pretty fun.
The ones that are more his own, though, are just as insightful little tales. From these, I most enjoyed Standard Loneliness Package, about emotional transference technology, where people outsource their bad days and hard times to India; and Note to Self, which is a nice play with the multiple universe concept. There were more stories that are original takes than take-offs, and they did tend to have these nice perspectives. I never thought about zombies shopping for makeup before, for example.
Yu's writing is usually fairly concise, and the book on the whole is a fairly slim volume, although there are enough stories to make it feel worth it. He does feel quite at home with the short story format; the tales have that crafted care you see in shorter fiction. And his writing tends to be on the sparse side, cool, but you still get a good sense of the scene and the story, the emotions behind it. It's a nifty trick.
On the whole... I mean, I don't know if I'd start with this one, but if you want a feel for what Yu is trying to do as a writer, read the first four stories in this collection, and you'll get a sense. I'm definitely enjoying it, and I'm curious to see where he goes onto from here. Without apologies, I'd like more stories, please.
Next up: Uh. Um. Hard to guess. Maybe Will Grayson, Will Grayson?
Book #44: Sorry Please Thank You
Author: Charles Yu
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
It's rare these days for me to really find a new author pretty much on my own; much of my reading is from recommendations at this point. But I did find Charles Yu's first novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and read it last year. It fell in a gap in reviews, but I felt that it was a very solid book. I mean, it was a well considered plot about time travel that seemed like it was done via linguistics, just about. So I picked up his newest short story collection with some anticipation, and I wasn't at all disappointed.
Yu writes science fiction stories both that are straight-up tales, and ones that take on tropes and notions from more well-known sci-fi areas, playing around with them to fairly good effect. For example, probably my favorite tales from the collection are Yeoman, which is narrated by one of those red-shirts that's always going about dying on missions on Star Trek, and looking at how this could happen or be put up with, and Hero Absorbs Major Damage, a story about an RPG setting where the lead isn't sure he's fit to carry out the destiny that they've signed on for. They're both rather gently humorous setups, with some holding up of conventions for amused examinations. It's pretty fun.
The ones that are more his own, though, are just as insightful little tales. From these, I most enjoyed Standard Loneliness Package, about emotional transference technology, where people outsource their bad days and hard times to India; and Note to Self, which is a nice play with the multiple universe concept. There were more stories that are original takes than take-offs, and they did tend to have these nice perspectives. I never thought about zombies shopping for makeup before, for example.
Yu's writing is usually fairly concise, and the book on the whole is a fairly slim volume, although there are enough stories to make it feel worth it. He does feel quite at home with the short story format; the tales have that crafted care you see in shorter fiction. And his writing tends to be on the sparse side, cool, but you still get a good sense of the scene and the story, the emotions behind it. It's a nifty trick.
On the whole... I mean, I don't know if I'd start with this one, but if you want a feel for what Yu is trying to do as a writer, read the first four stories in this collection, and you'll get a sense. I'm definitely enjoying it, and I'm curious to see where he goes onto from here. Without apologies, I'd like more stories, please.
Next up: Uh. Um. Hard to guess. Maybe Will Grayson, Will Grayson?
