Forest of Memory, Mary Robinette Kowal
For a short novella, I actually got surprisingly invested in this — and didn’t really realise until the end, where I was rooting for… something more. A rescue, a redemption, something. The sting in the tail of the story, while most of it was obvious to me, works well and adds to the meaning of everything that comes before it, which is exactly how stories should be written — especially short ones.
The setting of the story, while not revolutionary — the whole idea of society being connected, of storing your memories practically in the cloud, of never being out of touch — is done well, too; not too obtrusive, and yet it permeates the story.
The conceit of the typewriter and the typos, etc, just drove me a bit mad, though. Nope, cannot be doing with typos, even on purpose, apparently. But that’s a personal peeve, probably driven by my editing work, and didn’t get in the way of the story itself.
In the end, I just wanted a little more. I wanted the why, and we got some of it, but I wanted the motives of people we didn’t even meet in the story. So of course it was limited by the narration, but. But. Gimme!
This sounds intriguing. I know what you mean about wanting to know more of characters just briefly sketched in, and their motivation. Of course, it’s a sure sign the author succeeded in drawing one in. Sometimes I want to know a lot more of quite a minor character.
Yep, indeed! I quite often really want to know more about minor characters.
I definitely want to give this one a try. I’ve always wanted to read more of her work after Glamour in Glass. Though your “wanting a little more” makes me a little worried, but I suppose I get that feeling with most novellas anyway 🙂
Me too… I think novellas are meant to do that, sometimes.