Short Stories – Page 50 – Cannonball Read 17

“Stranger than fiction – certainly more outsized, surreal and outrageous than anything you’d expect to encounter”

Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen

January 18, 2022 by blauracke Leave a Comment

A woman working in a government call center is stalked by an ex-boyfriend, a man lives in a strange woman’s apartment until he is confronted by one of her friends, and a farmer endeavours to build an airplane. A group of people have to live on a subway platform for months because the authorities won’t let them leave, and the lives of twins diverge when one of them begins to agitate against the government. There are a few overarching themes in this collection of stories […]

The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all

The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

January 11, 2022 by Caesar's Wife 1 Comment

This is a short story which, I gather, is part of a larger collection of six stories in the ‘forward collection’. But it’s worth seeking out as a stand-alone novella. Tremblay has really outdone himself here, and I’m now more determined than ever to read A Head Full of Ghosts (his most well-known work). You awake in a hospital bed. You are blind, alone, and suffering from intense pain. Slowly, you are recuperated. You are taught to think, to talk, to stand, walk, run. Your […]

The human side of Sherlock Holmes.

Observations by Gaslight: Stories From the World of Sherlock Holmes by Lyndsay Faye

January 3, 2022 by narfna Leave a Comment

Lyndsay Faye is a consummate player of The Great Game, and this book was a lovely little treat. If you’re somehow unaware, The Great Game is the practice of Sherlockians to act as if Holmes and Watson were real, and to make existing canon and facts fit together. This book plays into that in that Faye acts like she is just the editor of these stories, which are all told from the first person perspectives of people in Sherlock Holmes’s life who aren’t Dr. John […]

How do you like to rate/review short stories?

Tenth of December by George Saunders

January 2, 2022 by Claudia 1 Comment

I have no idea how to review or even rate short story collections but I will start with breaking down individual stories and then go over broader themes I suppose and hopefully have collected a general feeling by the end. This will probably have spoilers since its hard to talk about short stories sometimes without context and in such short bursts the context is…most of it. 1. Plot: The first story follows a multi shifting perspective of a girl who gets kidnapped, a kidnapper, and […]

An Afrofuturist short story trio (part 1)

The Visit (Black Stars #1) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Black Pages (Black Stars #2) by Nnedi Okorafor

Clap Back (Black Stars #5) by Nalo Hopkinson

December 31, 2021 by teresaelectro Leave a Comment

I was struggling with my Goodreads reading goal until I came across this short story collection, Black Stars. This Amazon Original contains six afro-futurist novellas from Black authors. I’m only reviewing three since I had limited kindle unlimited borrows. I’m sure some of you can relate to this problem. 🙂 I started with Clap Back (Black Stars #5) by Nalo Hopkinson since I just finished her Sandman Universe book, House of Whispers. We enter the story with news headlines about a new haute couture line that […]

“Some kindnesses you do not ever forget.”

Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

December 23, 2021 by Sophia Leave a Comment

I read Americanah back in 2014 and I really enjoyed it. So when I saw that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had written a short story, Zikora (2020), I picked it up. This is definitely only a short story, clocking in at about 30 pages or so. But Adichie has a way with words, and she explores a number of different themes including: family, pain, love, and motherhood in a very short amount of time. The story begins with Zikora, a successful lawyer in Washington D.C., in labor at the hospital. […]

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Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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