Tuesday 30 January 2018

Starlings by Jo Walton

Synopsis:

An intimate first flight of short fiction from award-winning novelist Jo Walton (Among Others, The King’s Peace).

A strange Eritrean coin travels from lovers to thieves, gathering stories before meeting its match. Google becomes sentient and proceeds toward an existential crisis. An idealistic dancer on a generation ship makes an impassioned plea for creativity and survival. Three Irish siblings embark on an unlikely quest, stealing enchanted items via bad poetry, trickery, and an assist from the Queen of Cats. 
With these captivating initial glimpses into her storytelling psyche, Jo Walton shines through subtle myths and wholly reinvented realities. Through eclectic stories, subtle vignettes, inspired poetry, and more, Walton soars with humans, machines, and magic—rising from the everyday into the universe itself.


Review:

Starlings is a collection of short fiction – short stories, poetry, and everything in between. They are mostly scifi with a sprinkling of fantasy and a side of religion and mythology. There are literary allusions, historical snippets, some alternate history. Some of it's confusing and some of it's disturbing and some of it's funny and some of it's inspired, and I suspect every reader will find different ones tickles their fancy.

Personally, my favourites were Jane Austen to Cassandra, Turnover, Tradition, and A Burden Shared. It shows great talent that these four are such different stories; I never felt like this collection got dull or repetitive. If you’re looking for some entertaining light reading, pick up Starlings.

Four fragmentary stars

I received a copy of this story from the author through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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