“So she kept watching TV, trying to empty her heart and mind as she gazed upon the meaningless progression of scenes on the screen. But the well of thought taps a deep spring, and no matter how much she tried to bail them out, her thoughts kept overflowing the brim…”
This horror-ish short story collection was a wild trip. I say “horror-ish” because there’s a little bit of everything in here – fantasy, science fiction, body horror, even drama, but these stories all share the common thread of surrealism. For example, characters might not respond how we would expect them to in certain situations, which admittedly can be a little disorienting at first. But once you accept that and embrace the absurdity, it becomes less disorienting – and I ended up really liking this aspect of the book (and Chung’s writing in general).
My favorites were probably the title story, 'Cursed Bunny,' and 'The Frozen Finger.' The former is a dark spin on the classic fairy-tale genre (but I guess considering that Grimms’ Fairy Tales was originally dark, this is more of a return to form), while the latter is a surreal trip where our we are as blind as the main character, trying to figure out the circumstances surrounding a mysterious car crash. 'Ruler of the Winds and Sands' is also a highlight, exploring the mythical desert world of kings, gods, and greed.
If any of these stories sound intriguing to you, I highly recommend this short story collection!
A must-read for any Vonnegut fan – I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, as I’m normally not a short story person (maybe because the last collection I read was The Decameron Project: 29 New Stories from the Pandemic, which just didn’t really do it for me). But while those stories varied immensely in style and prose, this seemingly diverse set of stories are all connected together by Vonnegut’s signature social commentary via black humor.
Written and published anywhere from 1950-1968, they span a range of genres, including sci-fi shorts (“The Euphio Question”, “EPICAC”, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect”), dystopian futures (“Harrison Bergeron”, “Welcome to the Monkey House”, “Unready to Wear”), suburban dramas (“The Hyannis Port Story”, “Next Door”, “The Foster Portfolio”), and even purely heartwarming/emotional stories (“Long Walk to Forever”, “More Stately Mansions”, “The Manned Missiles”).
These stories are held together by the thread of critiquing the society and politics of the American dream in the 1950s. Many seem to have allusions of specific events in the early to mid-20th century, such as the development of the atomic bomb, the space race, or the Great Depression. A good number of stories also commented on the post-war American workforce, and those reminded me very much of Vonnegut’s first novel, Player Piano.
Most of these were excellent reads, and all are worth reading, but here are my personal standouts:
“Harrison Bergeron” (1960)
“All The King’s Horses” (1951): had me on the edge of my seat!
“The Euphio Question” (1951)
“Deer in the Works” (1955): such a profound statement said in such a simple story
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
Everyone quotes that opening line, and for good reason – it’s extremely well-written, it evokes this constant mood of despair, and it sets the tone perfectly for the whole rest of the novel. Henry Case, a data thief, gets called upon to do a job for an unknown boss, undergoing surgery to get his ability to upload into cyberspace back after a previous employer crippled him.
“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts . . . A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding. . .”
Many criticize Gibson’s writing style, though I quite enjoyed it, and don’t think it’s as jarring as others make it out to be. Gibson works in short bursts, quickly switching from one scene to another (which makes sense sometimes, as this is how Case experiences things). But it’s not action-packed all of the time, as there are many atmospheric passages that describe both the real and virtual world that Case finds himself in.
That mood of despair I mentioned is an integral part of the cyberpunk genre. I find that many love to explore the ‘cyber,’ but the ‘punk’ usually gets left behind. Not in this novel – images of the grimy underworld and streets, contrasted with the uncomfortable endlessness of ‘the matrix,’ perfectly capture this dichotomy in cyberpunk.
“Cold steel odor. Ice caressed his spine.
Lost, so small amid that dark, hands grown cold, body image fading down corridors of television sky.
Voices.
Then black fire found the branching tributaries of the nerves, pain beyond anything to which the name pain is given.”
If The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was the sci-fi book I wanted, then Neuromancer was the sci-fi book I needed, as it was probably one of my favorites this year. This seminal novel paved the way for other cyberpunk works – highly recommended.
Since I’ve been trying to break into reading more science fiction, I decided to pick up this book, which was recommended to me as a great entry point. I wanted something high-quality, but not dense like Dune. This book checked those boxes, as it’s cozy, with a simple plot (a new clerk, Rosemary, joins a spaceship that tunnels through spacetime) that is usually set on the back burner in favor of character development.
To me, it was almost like reading a sitcom, each chapter acting as an ‘episode’ where some new situation presents itself to the characters (exploring a new planet, dealing with character relationships, warding off enemies, etc.). The dialogue could be a bit camp at times, which isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but it was on par for the book, so I didn’t really mind it. The worldbuilding was the strongest part of the novel, and I believe Chambers has other books that take place in this universe, though not necessarily with the same characters.
I think this book works great as an introduction to the sci-fi genre, but can also be enjoyed by veterans alike, or really anyone that wants a feel-good read.
“No sapient could sustain happiness all of the time, just as no one could live permanently within anger, or boredom, or grief.”
