Wednesday, May 13, 2015

What Does That Even Mean?

Hannu Rajaniemi “Collected Fiction” (Tachyon, 2015)


I have to admit that I don’t really follow the short story market.  I’ll read things here & there, but it’s primarily stories tied into worlds that I follow in novel format.  So I’ve never read any of Rajaniemi’s short fiction before.

This collection shows that his short work isn’t substantially different than his longer fiction.  It’s challenging, it’s original, and it’s under appreciated.  Each story comes from a different place, and with each story we must work to find out the rules and meanings of that world.  It doesn’t make for an easy read, but it is rewarding.  There are so many ideas and so much originality.  

If SF is really about pushing the boundaries of what is possible and getting us to think of things differently, then surely Rajaniemi’s stories work better than most writers in the field today.

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