Starlings, Jo Walton
Received to review via Tachyon; publication date 30th January 2018
It’s no secret that I love Jo Walton’s work, and I’d better add here that I’ve spent time with her as well — I’d call her a friend. Still, I knew her work first, and this is a fun collection. Jo may say she doesn’t know how to write short stories, but all the same everything here works pretty well. I only knew ‘Relentlessly Mundane’ and some of the poetry before, I think. It was nice to re-encounter the poetry here and spend some time with it — reading it online wasn’t the same at all. I hadn’t read the play, either, ‘Three Shouts on a Hill’; entertaining stuff.
My favourite of the short stories… hmm, possibly ‘Sleeper’, and I liked ‘What Joseph Felt’ a lot too.
Really, I never know quite how to review short story collections: suffice it to say that I enjoyed it, and I think it’s worth it, especially if you’re already a fan of Walton’s work. I’m glad I got to read it ahead of time.
I’m currently reading this ARC! I struggled a bit with the first story but I have good hopes for the rest 🙂
I hope you do enjoy them! I probably wouldn’t pick the short stories as an intro to Jo’s work, but I did like the collection.
Hmm, I have yet to read any Walton. I was going to check this one out, but in light of the advice in your comment above, maybe I’ll wait until I’ve read one of her novels first!
Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum recently posted…Book Review: The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones
I probably would advise that! (Insert argument here between the wife and I about which of Jo’s books you should start with!)