Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Nina Kiriki Hoffman just writes wonderful short stories. That's how it is. The stories in this anthology give you all too brief glimpses of worlds and people who are weird, uncanny, just a bit frightening and still strangely, familiar. Her characters have teeth and claws and yet, they are also somehow family. Well, in the end who is scarier or more familiar than family? Reading an NKR story is for me a bit like having a particularly vivid dream - where dream logic operates in a way that show more makes complete sense to me - until I, reluctantly, wake up. show less

I know Hoffman’s name, but I don’t think I’d read anything by her before reading this, except perhaps a story in an anthology – although none spring to mind. Which is a shame, as the contents of this short collection are actually pretty damned good. Hoffman’s approach to fiction is probably epitomised by ‘Savage Breasts’, in which a woman sends off for an exerciser after seeing an ad for “Charlotte Atlas”, but her new-found bustiness proves her undoing when her breasts show more demonstrate they have a life of their own. This is one of the most, er, savagely feminist stories I’ve ever read, and I’m surprised it didn’t appear in Sisters of the Revolution (although, weirdly, it was reprinted in an anthology of comic fantasy, Smart Dragons, Foolish Elves, edited by Alan Dean Foster and Martin H Greenberg, which looks best avoided). The other stories in Author’s Choice Monthly 14: Legacy of Fire don’t match ‘Savage Breasts’, but they’re well-written, with a slightly-sideways approach so they sit somewhere between mainstream and genre. The title story, for example, has a stranger visit a very small town in middle America, and offer an enigmatic choice to the narrator, who happens to be a person of short stature. That’s the only story that isn’t about women, although the a woman joins the narrator is accepting the stranger’s challenge. I think perhaps I should try some more Hoffman. show less

Loved it! My second book by Hoffman, and again it was wonderful. One cannot really deny that this is urban fantasy, but it is completely different from anything else with that label that I've come across. The magic is absolutely lovely. The main character talks to objects. Well, of course anyone could do that, but in her case, the objects talk back. It's making me pine for a talking house... I absolutely adore the talking house. The other magic is great as well, and has real personality. In show more one word, the magic is magical and quirky, but it is not the solution to everything and sometimes causes problems of its own. And it's not used for anything flashy. Mostly, it's used for solving the mysteries and psychological problems that the main characters are experiencing. Refreshingly different from other fantasy novels! show less

Despite being tragically out of print this has consistently been one of my favorite books since I first read it in the early '90's. Tom Renifeld is a drifter whose strange abilities force him to move from place to place in an attempt to remain annonymous. Laura Bolte has used her gifts to disappear into the world of fashion photography, secure in the knowledge that her unusual family will never pick up a copy of Vogue or Cosmo and see her smiling face. But now Laura's brother is getting show more married at the family home and Tom is the cabbie on duty at the bus station. These two unlikely allies must stand together against Laura's family and try to unpick the tangles that have twisted it out of true. show less