Mirabile

This was my first encounter with Janet Kagan's work. I found "Mirabile" to be pure fun in the way a lot of science fiction isn't. The book is a compilation of several linked stories, and this form echoes the science quirk in the book itself: the idea of linking different species together, so that a plant can give birth to an animal and so on.

The main character is a woman of a certain age, which is unusual in fiction. There are no big villains to overcome, just problems to solve and puzzles to work out. It's all in a day's work for our heroine.

A collection of vignettes featuring the same basic cast of characters. These stories are told, (generally in the form of entertainments for the youngsters of the colony), by the matriarch and chief biologist of a colony established on the not always friendly world of Mirabile. So, what we have here are tales such as 'The Return of the Kangaroo Rex', 'The Loch Moose Monster', and 'Frankenswine'. All fairly entertaining and told in a humorous but occasionally too-glib manner.

Mirabile is a light & easy read where the antagonist is the environment. In a way, Mirabile comes across as a sort of "Deathworld Lite", with the exception that much of the flora and fauna is, if not outright friendly, (some is), at least ambivalent toward the show more colonists, as opposed to constantly trying to kill them, the way Harrison's Pyrrus was imagined. show less

Mirabile presents a weird and wonderful world, with a perfectly reasonable background for strange critters popping up all over the place; very solid and realistic characters, who make wrong decisions and right decisions and grow as the book goes on...wonderful worldbuilding and great stories. It is several short stories in a (somewhat weak) frame, but it works quite well as a book. The characters are consistent throughout - and they do grow and change through the course of the book.

Amusing inter-related short stories with Janet Kagan's usual trickster humor and attention to detail. I love the concept of Dragons Teeth and the visual immediacy of the discriptions. A good fast read.

Based on the high Goodreads rating I was expecting more from this book. it is a good "feel good" book but don't expect any action or suspense.

Why is it all th BEST stuff I find from authors who only publish a couple books?

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