Not So Much, Said the Cat

I would like to thank Tachyon Publications & NetGalley for a copy of this e-ARC to review. Though I received this ebook for free, that has no impact upon the honesty of my review.

Goodreads Teaser: "The master of short science-fiction follows up his acclaimed collection "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" with feline grace, precision, and total impertinence. Michael Swanwick takes us on a whirlwind journey across the globe and across time and space, where magic and science exist in possibilities that are not of this world. These tales are intimate in their telling, galactic in their scope, and delightfully sesquipedalian in their verbiage.

Join the caravan through Swanwick's worlds and into the playground of his mind. Discover a calculus problem that show more rocks the ages and robots who both nurture and kill. Meet a magical horse who protects the innocent, a confused but semi-repentant troll, a savvy teenager who takes on the Devil, and time travelers from the Mesozoic who party till the end of time..."

Truly an exquisite collection of short tales! Swanwick remains the undisputed master of this form, and you'd be doing yourself a grave disservice should you miss out on these wondrous stories. Each story is a complete world unto itself, replete with rich characters, involved plots, and creative conundrums and conclusions that both confound and astound the sharpest of minds. These tales will leave you much richer than before experiencing them, and if you're anything like me, you'll be pondering some stories long after you've reluctantly set the completed book down! show less

This man is a superlative author.

I'm deathly worried about spoiling anything about this short story collection because all I want to do is gush and gush about the transposition of ideas here, the character building there, the truly awesome amount of storytelling SKILLS that he seems to effortlessly embody. He lays out words with such clarity and beauty and beastly knowledge about the SF (and fantasy!) fields, that I'm frankly floored. He's consistently original, widely exploratory, and best of all, he is consummately entertaining.

I could gush on and on, but what I really, really want to do is discuss his stories. There's really a ton that I want to say, but spoiling anything at this point would do everyone a disservice, and that's show more precisely the opposite of what I want. I want to tell EVERYONE that Michael Swanwick has got to be one of the very best SF authors alive.

Granted, I only read a single one of his novels and I gushed over it, but I do remember reading a few years worth of Issac Asimov Magazines back in the eighties and early nineties and I remember his name as always writing the stories I most wanted to read in every issue.

It's the ideas. It's always the ideas first. Then it's the brilliance of the writing. Mind you, it's not flowery language or anything crass like that. It's all about telling wonderful stories that make you think and feel and go, "Ah!" and make you go, "Oh, that's awesome!"

So why did I ever lose track of this guy? Probably because I got into a novel kick shortly after and left all those gorgeous short stories behind. Hell if I know why. He's a better short story writer than practically any other author I've ever read, and they stick with you like neon signs or the smell of pancakes with syrup or the furry lining of your favorite winter coat as you step out into the harsh night.

Well I can tell you right now, I'm never turning my back on short stories again if this guy is still writing them. I didn't meet a single story I didn't absolutely love.

They were all a perfect marriage of classic stories and bleeding edge tech, from godlike continental AIs to the abolishment of time, clever discourse on libertarianism and zero-sum economics in a mirroring tale of humanity and alien bugs, fairy tales and one of the best futuristic con-games I've ever had the pleasure of consuming. :) There was even a literary love-story of an American Pushkin that surprised and delighted the hell out of me even as it baffled me, too. :)

Some of my absolute favorites, even though I loved them all, were:

The Dala Horse - Great worldbuilding, great fairy tale.
Passage of Earth - NICE and twisty invasion story.
The Woman Who Shook the World-Tree - I'm NOT spoiling this one, but trust me. It's COOL. :)
Tawny Pettycoats - I'm a sucker for con games.

I'm LOVING these, but don't get the idea that I didn't love the rest. Some were like having OZ step from behind the curtain, while others were a deeply emotional look at their last moments of life, as in "3 A.M. in the Mesozoic Bar", which was also funny at the same time as it was horrifying, or "Libertarian Russia" which captured the contradictory flavors of a true Russia despite a future depopulation, or the last story, "The House of Dreams", which was some of the most clever modern UF/Alternate Histories I've ever read that included magic and a literary gotcha. :)

I'm almost dancing in my seat as I write this. I want to get my hands on everything else he's ever written, now, and devour it all. :)

I can tell that he's a huge fan of the genre. He's doing all of this out of pure love. It's not like any author can survive on short stories in this day and age. He's writing awesome fiction because he's obviously driven to get this great stuff out. :) A calling, perhaps? An obsession? Great Love? Who cares! We are all the grand winners, here! :) :)

Great thanks goes to Netgalley for the opportunity of reading this great stuff! :) show less

I don't read short stories because they are too short. My reading speed is high and my contemplation index (is there such a measure?) is low and short fiction that can be inhaled in a minute or two is too ephemeral to give much pleasure. But I knew when I asked for "Not So Much Said the Cat" by Michael Swanwick that it was likely to be something special. To slow the pace, I carried the book on an intercontinental journey that involved several breaks and several short sleeps. I tried to keep my reading to one story per break and it worked pretty well.

Mr. Stanwick, in the introduction to this collection, tells a bit of his writing history. He sounds obsessive, sometimes saying that he read all of this or all of that. He has honed his show more skills by mimicking the style of other writers. He has taught writing.

All of this practice has paid off handsomely. His stories and books have won or been nominated for the highest SF awards. This book is full of excellent, creative stories that a normal reader will probably enjoy without an intercontinental journey.

I received a review copy of "Not So Much, Said the Cat" by Michael Swanwick (Tachyon) through NetGalley.com. show less

I truly enjoy this man's work. His brain provides points of view from so many odd angles. This is a compilation of his short stories, of which I think he handles masterfully. These stories have been previously published in other venues of Science Fiction, like Tor, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Asimov's Science Fiction to name a few. I particularly liked An Empty House with Many Doors that speaks of heartbreak and parallel dimensions. And Of Finest Scarlet was her Gown where a daughter travels to Hell to bargain with the Devil for her father's soul. And the Man in Grey is incredibly interesting to think about, in a way illustrating Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage. And men and women merely players" the poem from As show more You Like It. Good fun. Interesting reading. Don't miss it. show less

Well, it was difficult to rate this analogy. Some of the short stories were a lot of fun - mainly the ones toward the first half of the book. The works are sort of old school, and many are really more artsy than they are entertaining. Many were fairly predictable. Plots were generally strange without being very innovative.

If you love old-school science fiction and fantasy short stories, you'll probably find a lot to like here. If you're looking more for very engaging characters and plot with twists, maybe not as much.

There's a lot of interesting worldbuilding going on, though we get to see only slices of it, since these are short stories.

Oddly enough, I don't recall a single cat in any of them.

I read this on a flight between Phoenix and Oklahoma City, but it was a struggle. I know the author is quite accomplished and well-respected in the sci-fi and fantasy publishing circles, but I didn't connect with him on this one. The first couple of stories held my attention, but the further I got, the more difficult it became to concentrate on the stories and what he was trying to get across. I haven't read anything else by this author, and I'm not sure I'll try anything else by him for quite a while.

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories and I'm looking forward to checking out more of his work. I could actually see some of his stories being adapted to Twilight Zone and Outer Limits if he had been writing at the time of those shows. Awesome collection.