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Imperfect commentaries

by Emrys, Ruthanna,

Format: Print Book 2019
Availability: Unavailable 0 copies

Summary
Sympathy with the sea, with the weird, and with monsters fills the stories of Imperfect Commentaries. Ruthanna Emrys's collection offers readers feminist and #ownvoices Neo-Lovecraftian fiction, anthropological science fiction, and fantasies of belonging, plus miscellaneous deleted scenes, poems, and secret story origins. Readers familiar with her novels (Winter Tide and Deep Roots) will see the first appearance Aphra Marsh, an Innsmouth survivor, still recovering from her losses and making a life for herself in late-1940s San Francisco in "The Litany of Earth."
Contents
Seven commentaries on an imperfect land
Interlude : sharing the moon
Correspondence
Interlude : evening prayer
The deepest rift
Interlude : at the haiku earring party
Exposure therapy
Interlude : the serpent explains the nature of tricksters to her wife
The litany of earth
Interlude : an innsmouth feast
Interlude : the return
The taste of prayer, the smell of snow
Interlude : Iʹll title this sestina after I put the baby to bed
The jesterʹs child
Interlude : lullaby
Brief candle
Interlude : Elizabethʹs tale
Ghosts and simulations
Interlude : flume vale
The two-body problem
Interlude : Gelett Burgess shale
Those who watch
Interlude : pantheon
The word of flesh and soul.
Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Encounters with the alien and human responses to them are a recurring theme across the 25 stories and poems in this captivating fantasy collection. In "Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land," the magical realm of Tikanu abuts the everyday world, revealing fantastic possibilities beyond the ordinary. "The Deepest Rift" and "Exposure Therapy" are both first-contact stories that probe the limits of understanding for humans confronting extraterrestrial species. In "The Word of Flesh and Soul," the alien takes the form of an ancient culture whose oracular language wreaks physical transformations in the bodies of its contemporary translators. Emrys's tales abound with magic and marvels, but her focus is on the nuances that define the humanity of her characters, seen most perceptibly in "The Litany of Earth," which introduces the protagonist of her novels Winter Tide (2017) and Deep Roots (2018): a descendant of the amphibious race in Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth" whose persecution has echoes of the plight of contemporary refugees. The author's frequent feminist and queer spins on familiar fantasy tropes add an exhilarating freshness. Readers looking for work that upends and challenges the genre's stalwart ideas and themes will find Emrys's commentaries suit them perfectly. Agent: Cameron McClure, Donald Maass Literary. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Fantasy fiction.
Short stories.
Publisher Amherst, MA :Lethe Press,2019
Other Titles Short stories.
Language English
Description 226 pages ; 23 cm
ISBN 9781590217023
1590217020
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