Sunday, January 8, 2012
Louise's Ghost, by Kelly Link
Louise's Ghost (part of Link's Stranger Things Happen collection) won the Nebula for best novelette in 2001, and I think I understand why. It's a really fine piece of writing for writers. The protagonist and her best friend are both named Louise, and there is much weaving of their stories, with a bit of intentional confusion. The magical elements are matter-of-factly handled yet central to the story--the ghost(s) are not mere adjuncts to character development, they are central to it. I feel like I've learned something about writing by reading this piece. The only holdback is that I normally don't want to work that hard to understand a speculative piece, and I think this story sort of needs to be studied. I would highly recommend it if you like more introspective, writerly pieces. As more of an adventure-science guy I can manage 3 stars for it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Witch King, by Martha Wells
I just finished reading this, which took a really long time. Martha Wells is a very versatile writer--the Murderbot series is all quick hits...
-
There are some interesting theories out there on what Gene Wolfe's "The Ziggurat" short story means . Indeed, Wolfe is heavil...
-
Michael Swanwick is an inspired author, and has some brilliant work out there. He has a series of very short stories called The Sleep of Re...
-
Mike Resnick's Kirinyaga series tells the story of Kikuyu who have given up life in modern Kenya to reclaim their ancestral lives in a s...
No comments:
Post a Comment