Short story collection, all about time traveling and falling in love. Some authors took the assignment literally (Theodora Goss’s A Letter to Merlin, in which time-traveling agents, sent to influence the behavior of historical figures, try to communicate with one another); others take a more roundabout route (Zen Cho’s The Past Life Reconstruction Service, in which people get to relive their past lives in search of answers for their present lives). Other standouts were Sam J. Miller’s Unabashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the Chronoverse, a poignant and unforgettable wail of pain; and Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages, which creates one of those beautiful perfect cause-and-effect time-travel loops while also pulling in themes of feminism, gay rights, and found family. Really great collection overall.
Tag: author-catherynne valente
Radiance, by Catherynne Valente
This is a hard book to encapsulate. It’s about the daughter of a filmmaker who has lived her life on camera; it’s about how we choose what stories to tell in order to control our own histories; it’s about losing yourself in the vastness of space in order to find yourself. It switches styles at a dizzying pace, from screenplay to interview to gushing magazine feature. It’s the Golden Age of film, except on an interplanetary level. It’s crazypants and beautiful. Oh, and humans are able to survive in the harsh conditions of space because they drink the milk from vast, dreaming Venusian whales; this is important later.