Customer Reviews

White Time

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My second Margo Lanagan's collection of short stories. While enjoyable, it is less compelling than Red Spikes.

First, unlike Red Spikes which had a feel magical realism throughout, White Time is a blend of genres - it consists of sci-fi, fantasy and distopian stories. It makes the collection a little uneven.

And second, a couple of stories are just a little too sketchy for my taste and not very successful in bringing their points across - "Welcome Blue," for instance, a story about the arrival of aliens who get attracted by a certain shade of blue (what?).

On the other hand, some stories are fantastic and have enough "meat" in them for full-length novels. For example, "The Boy Who Didn't Yearn" is a tale of a girl who has a special ability to see the hurts people carry around, be that someone's death, or parents' expectation, or guilt. She helps people to realize and deal with them. The story is the girl's journey to uncover what her own "baggage" is.

All in all, a decedent, but not mind-blowing collection of stories that could be read one by one between novels. (I came to realize that I enjoy short stories much more when reading them one at a time, taking breaks between them to ponder on them.)

I had read one of the short stories in this book at a library, and after puchasing it and reading the rest, I am very glad I did; Margo Lanagan really outdoes herself here. The stories carefully balance science fiction and dark surrealism in a way that guarantees each story leaves the reader a little bit haunted by the ending.
It arrived in perfect condition; I might as well have bought it at a major bookstore. No dog-eared pages, rips, or markings that shouldn't have been there... as a whole, I am very satisfied with it.

For anyone who loves well-written, thought-provoking science fiction, this is the book for you. I loved "The Boy Who Didn't Yearn." I should have guessed it right off, too, but I didn't. I like stories that surprise me.