Customer Reviews

Skin Folk

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Review

By

Judith Woolcock Colombo

Hot and spicy with the rhythm of the Caribbean, Skin Folk is a collection of 15 short stories by Jamaican born Canadian author Nalo Hopkinson. These tales are bonded together by a common theme, change or shedding of skin. All is illusion; nothing is, as it first seems within the pages of this book.

Beginning with the first story Riding The Red, we see the illusion being stripped away by this bizarre twist on the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Here the elderly Red Riding Hood cautions her daughter to watch her granddaughter who has now begun "to ride the red." This is the time when wolfie comes around to capture and seduce. The grandmother admits "the red hood was mine, to catch his eye," but wolfie also had his dance "all hot breath and leaping flank, piercing eyes to see and strong hands to hold." Encountering wolfie is a natural consequence of riding the red or puberty. It is part of coming of age.

In Money Tree, Silky must reluctantly embrace the heritage of her Mamadjo or mermaid mother in order to save her greedy brother Morgan when he seeks to wrest pirate treasure away from River Mumma. In Something To Hitch Meat To, Artho is given the gift of seeing people and things as they really are by a strange spider-like little girl, and in Under Glass, a young girl living in a post apocalyptic world dooms another world with her careless play.

This concept of illusion and magical change continues throughout the book in stories such as Tan-Tan and Dry Bone where a soft hearted girl has pity on death disguised as a starving old man and takes him home only to learn if you pick him up you pick up trouble..

Although some stories were too similar, others were truly extraordinary. Skin Folk is a wonderful read, and I highly recommend it. ...

Nalo Hopkinson's splendid gifts as a brilliant, often unique, writer of literary fictional prose that is also intriguing fantasy and science fiction are amply shown in this fine collection of short stories. Most of these have been published previously in relatively unknown anthologies in Canada and the United States; two are unpublished, and a third is a chapter from her novel "Midnight Robber". Hopkinson has a splendid ear for dialogue and a marvellous eye for scenery, with a taut, lean prose which effectively captures the Caribbean patois of her childhood. "Skin Folk" is a fascinating look at her artistic growth as a writer; here are stories about demons and ghosts as seen through the eyes of West Indians, along with occasional glimpses of cyberpunk science fiction. One of the most memorable tales is "Greedy Choke Puppy", an incandescent look at Vampire mythology with a uniquely West Indian twist; other compelling tales include "Slow Cold Chick" and "Fisherman" which are intriguing meditations on magic and sex.

Nalo Hopkinson has made waves with some of the most offbeat and creative speculative fiction in recent memory, with her Caribbean roots adding unexpected flavor to tales of future societies and alternate realities. She's also one of the very few black women working in the field, adding a much-needed new voice to the genre. But watch out for the "sci-fi" stereotype that has been applied to Hopkinson, because she has a more well-rounded style that also includes strong elements of fantasy and horror. Those strengths are evident in this collection of short stories, which are often built upon the unique fairy tales and folklore of the Caribbean, but then proceed into all manner of great fictional speculations.

Some of the tales here are rather underdeveloped and move along too quickly, with implausible plot jumps and incomplete conclusions. Examples are "Tan Tan and Dry Bone" which is merely a distilled vignette from one of Hopkinson's later novels; or the potentially terrifying, but rushed and inconclusive, "Greedy Choke Puppy." However the day is saved by winners like "Under Glass," which has a very unique doomsday/dystopia scenario, and great sketches of expatriate Caribbean characters and culture in "Money Tree" and "A Habit of Waste." The apex of the collection is the highly disturbing erotica tale "Ganger (Ball Lightning)," in which a couple learns to overcome malfunctioning and possessed bedroom toys and work out their relationship problems the old-fashioned way. This is in fact one of Hopkinson's best running themes - as technology's got nothing on culture and humanity. [~doomsdayer520~]

If you enjoy science fiction with a different spin, then you will truly enjoy this book. The use of Caribbean folklore/mythology and science fiction make a great blend. Short stories are quick and easy to read and capture the readers imagination and will bring you into the author's world.

This book was an insightful and witty look at Caribbean spirituality, magic and stories written in typical Nalo style. Great read!

I didn't like it.

I am unfamiliar with the rest of this Author's work, so I can't tell you whether it is like her novels or not, but when I judge this work by itself I find it wanting.

This is a rather long collection of rather short stories. Most of these have not been published elsewhere. The norm for the SF field is for single author anthologies to be composed mostly if not completely of previously published work. Take this as a warning that you may not be getting what you expected.

The stories seem to follow a very common and uninteresting fairy tale format. Fairy tales can be made interesting-- for instance Italo Calvino's Italian Folk Tales. These were not.

As a point of reference, I favor "literate" SF. Some of my favorite authors are Kim Stanley Robinson, Gene Wolfe, Ursula LeGuin, Bruce Sterling, Thomas Disch, early Larry Niven...