Re: Elegy for a Young Elk

It’s easy to talk about things you don’t like. In fact, it’s so fun you can get totally caught up in hacking a story to pieces. But even though it took me two tries to properly read “Elegy for a Young Elk,” by Hannu Rajaniemi, I liked it so much, I’m having trouble explaining why.

Re: A Serpent in the Gears

As “A Serpent in the Gears,” by Margaret Ronald opens, Charles has served as a valet to Colonel Dieterich for twenty years. Now they are sailing on the airship Regina through the Sterling Pass to the secretive land of Aaris. No one aboard is what they seem to be, and Charles is no exception. Even […]

Re: Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra

“Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra,” by Verdana Singh introduces us to Somadeva, who collected many stories into the Kathāsaritsāgara, or Ocean of Stream of Stories. I like these sort of nested stories, with layers upon narrative layers, like the Arabian Nights, or the Saragossa Manuscript. Somadeva tells us that he collected the Kathāsaritsāgara to divert […]