From Publishers Weekly
Compassion and a sly sense of humor shape the insight-filled fiction that makes up this collection from Hugo- and Nebula-winner Emshwiller (Report to the Men's Club). Skirting the border between fantasy and SF, the 12 stories, all published since 2002, feature broadly drawn characters and situations that give them the universality of fables. "Boys," one of several explorations of the theme of war, is narrated by a nameless young man who, like all boys his age, is snatched from his town by men to become a soldier. "The Library," "The Assassin or Being the Loved One" and "My General" all till the same ground, depicting men as instinctively drawn to war and women as inherently nurturing and forgiving of the boys they raise to become men. Emshwiller presents the intransigence of the sexes as both tragic and comic, especially in "Coo People" and other stories of love-smitten aliens seducing human lovers with wildly unpredictable results. Lyrical and resonant, these tales will appeal to lovers of fiction with a speculative edge. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Emshwiller's strange, often sad, and beautiful stories linger, unfolding long after reading them. Several in this collection are war stories, including one in which the "Boys" are all caught up in the game of war, while the women lead regular lives and finally take matters in hand, and "My General," in which a woman takes, as she often has before, a prisoner to help her in the fields and this time talks to and falls in love with him. Emshwiller often writes about encounters with the other: in "Gliders Though They Be," an infiltrator from a people who can't glide goes among gliders to cut their stubby wings. "I Live with You, but You Don't Know It," adopts the point of view of an intruder into the life of a woman who has become invisible, drab, and silent. The collection closes with a speech, given at the writers' gathering WisCon, about writing and why Emshwiller writes war stories as she does, that affords a chatty, personable look the inspiration and thought behind the stories. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"I've loved everything Carol Emshwiller has ever written . . . " —Connie Willis, author, To Say Nothing of the Dog and Impossible Things
"[Emshwiller] revels in the sheer taste and sound of words . . . infuses them with an extraordinary vitality and sense of life." —Newsday
"Her eye for detail and ear for poetry allow her to create compact fables that resonate beyond their immediate settings." —The San Francisco Chronicle
"Wildy colorful, disturbingly funny, impossible to predict and undeniably transformative." —Seattle Times
"The woman is a genius, period...You must, must, must not miss this collection." —Gwenda Bond, Shaken & Stirred
"Deceptively simple, yet so powerful, so subtle, so disruptive as to blow our imaginations wide open." —Strange Horizons
Book Description
A sophisticated collection of fierce, tender fiction marked by absurdist humor, these striking short stories skillfully explore themes of war, seduction, and censorship. An Eden emerges from the wreckage and destruction of burning books in "The Library." "Boys" sets a weary general and his sons against a village of determined mothers, and "I Live with You" brings a chaos from an uninvited guest. Filled with originality and lyricism, this collection is a must for science fiction and adventure fans.
About the Author
Carol Emshwiller has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Pushcart Prize. She has received the Philip K. Dick, Hugo, and Nebula awards for her novels and short stories, which include Carmen Dog, The Mount, and The Start of the End of It All. Her stories have appeared in McSweeney's, Omni, and The Voice Literary Supplement. She lives in Bishop, California.
