The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander

The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Brooke Bolander writes like a boxer. Punch, punch, punch. If you're ready for it, you can appreciate it. I wasn't ready when I read And You Shall Know Her By the Trail of Dead (and also I really don't think the story was that good). This time I was ready, and can appreciate what she's doing. It's a really searing look back at two unrelated historical cruel acts, one in slow motion (Radium Girls) and one faster (electrocuting an elephant). I know in my gut that this kind of lookback is coming for those of us living now (climate change, plastic, strip mining, etc, etc, etc). And in fact this take on history is supposed to make us think in just that way--how will our actions (and inactions) be seen 50 years from now. It's jumbled beyond what it needs to be to get the point across, so I can't give it 5 stars, but I'm glad I bought it.



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No Flight Without the Shatter, by Brooke Bolander

No Flight Without the Shatter by Brooke Bolander

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Brooke Bolander's work can be hard to read. Sometimes it's just in-your-face violent. At other times she crosses over into unsparing hard truth. That's when she's at her best, and this story represents that side. Life on earth is not going to come to an end because of humans, but it's going to be so different that humans as they are won't be able to live outside of bubbles. Neither will any other complex oxygen-breathing creature. That's what Bolander is describing here. It's a fable. Fables can clarify what is only dimly seen in reality. Like all apocalyptic SF, Bolander is mourning what we have not yet lost.



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No Flight Without the Shatter on TOR.com

The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat, by Brooke Bolander

The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat by Brooke Bolander

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a fun little story, still bloodthirsty like a lot of Bolander but the humor cuts through the gore. Our protagonist is a typically bright, vivacious princess betrothed to a dense as wood prince. They deal with raptors. Absolutely worth a read, but probably won't win (was nominated for both a Nebula and Hugo).



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Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies, by Brooke Bolander

So now that I have read my second Brooke Bolander story, I think I am typecasting her--she personifies Angry Woman.  Nothing especially wrong or right with that, it would be better if the stories didn't rely so much on obscenities to generate interest.  Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies is a hint at a story, as most short stories are, and its anger is directed at an entitled male serial killer.  No sympathy there.  But pretty easy as a target.  Red Meat For The Base, as they say in politics.  Though it isn't political.  It took much longer to write this than to read the story--so it goes.  2 stars.

And You Shall Know Her By the Trail of Dead, by Brooke Bolander

Continuing with the reading of Nebula award nominees for 2015, I read And You Shall Know Her By the Trail of Dead in the novelette category.  I sort of want my 40 minutes back. 

The story centers on Rhye, an artificial person in a grungy near-apocalypse world.  She expresses her nihilism in gutter prose that is not quite artful enough to be interesting or extreme enough to be a parody.  She cares for no one and nothing except Rack, a partner that somehow took an interest in her.  They are now in deep doo-doo over a virtual rescue.  She shoots a lot of criminals, he does some computer magic, and all's well that ends well.

It's not a terrible story but sure not very good.  The writing is grammatically accurate.  But really, this has all been done so very often that one can't get away with a skeleton plot and lots of f-words.  Every part of this is borrowed, and I can't make it worth the effort to track all the borrowings down.  Two stars because I could finish it, and I guess some have liked it.