Carol Emshwiller (1921–2019)

This is a tough book to rate, and it's one of those collections where I think some of the short stories suffer from being paired with all of the others. Some of the stories here are ones which I fell in love with and will remember for some time--"I Live With You and You Don't Know It", "Boys", "Coo People", and "My General" all stood out to me as being fantastic. On the other hand, other stories that engaged with some of the same themes ended up feeling more like variations on a theme than show more anything because the same themes were so oft repeated within the collection. In a few other cases, the stories were hard to engage with to such an extent that while I could appreciate moments, the stories themselves were tough to decipher, and based on my overall mixed feelings, I still haven't decided whether or not to revisit them at a later date. Certainly, if I do, I think I'll read them in isolation rather than dealing with the potential issue of a single theme becoming tiresome within the larger work.

All told, I think many of the stories here are worth reading and rereading, and I'm surprised it took me so long to have discovered Emshwiller's work, though I'm glad I finally did. show less

Thoughtful science fiction, the way it should be.

A fascinating adventure that explores what it means to be human, and what it means to live. I appreciated how well the mentality of the conqueror was explored. The hoots aren't 'bad guys,' at least in their own minds... and the humans don't all see them that way, either. This confusion over which chains we choose in life (comfort and security, but lack of choices, or toil and difficulty, but all the choices we could want?) speaks to this era show more where we're being asked to give up more of our freedom and privacy in hopes of being safer. Tame, or Wild?

This book does what good science fiction should always do: it induces us to truly think about our assumptions, and our lives. It then goes one step further, and holds out hope. There's always a solution. show less

Weird and wonderful. This drew me in immediately with its unique tone (whimsical, tricksy, strange), with a Hoot addressing the reader as if the reader were a mount being ridden. I like that Emshwiller is able to say such poetic, profound things through such unreliable narrators (there are a few). The concept, carried out, is also unique. It has a fable-like, magical realist quality to it, where you don't need to worry too much about specific logistics in order to enjoy the larger narrative. show more And the character, culture and physiology of the Hoots is unlike any alien I've encountered in sf before. A strange and moving book. show less

A future-Earth sci-fi story where small aliens called Hoots have conquered humanity and ride humans like horses. Their legs don’t work well, so they sit on our shoulders, grip with their hands, or use bridles. The protagonist is a human child raised as the mount of the future emperor; when rebels attack, he rescues his Little Master and escapes into the woods. It's an odd book, but the unexpectedly thorough worldbuilding really worked for me. The cover art is downright unsettling (the show more shoes, I think). show less