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Ragged Maps
Dust jacket illustration by Dominic Harman.
From furthest reaches of deep space in “The Memory Artist” to the jungles of Yucatan in “Lamagica,” and from the strange suburbia of “Stuff” to a Vatican where a dying pope awaits deliverance in “Sin Eater,” the worlds mapped out by these stories range far and wide.
As, from the mythic ancient city of “The God of Nothing” to the post-human futures of “Ephemera” and “The Fall of the House of Kepler,” via alternate pasts and some very twisted presents in such tales as “Selkie,” “The Mrs Innocents” and “The Chronologist,” do the times.
What holds all these pieces together, including the gripping long new novelette “Downtime” and its vision of a near-future penal system, are vivid writing, strong characters and a sense of awe and surprise. On travels that will take you from cluttered attics and strange shorelines to star-flung civilisations and beyond, let Ian R. MacLeod be your guide.
Ian R. MacLeod is the author of seven novels and five short story collections spanning the entire spectrum of fantastic fiction which have been critically acclaimed, widely anthologised and translated into many languages. His work has won the Arthur C Clarke award for the Year’s Best Novel, along with the Sidewise Award for Alternate History (twice), the World Fantasy Award (again twice), the John W Campbell Memorial Award and the Locus Award for the Year's Best First Novel. He lives in the riverside town of Bewdley in England.
Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies
Table of Contents :
Introduction: Ragged Maps
The Mrs Innocents
The Wisdom of the Group
Ephemera
Lamagica
Ouroboros
Stuff
The God of Nothing
Downtime
The Roads
The Memory Artist
Sin Eater
The Visitor from Taured
The Chronologist
Selkie
The Fall of the House of Kepler
From furthest reaches of deep space in “The Memory Artist” to the jungles of Yucatan in “Lamagica,” and from the strange suburbia of “Stuff” to a Vatican where a dying pope awaits deliverance in “Sin Eater,” the worlds mapped out by these stories range far and wide.
As, from the mythic ancient city of “The God of Nothing” to the post-human futures of “Ephemera” and “The Fall of the House of Kepler,” via alternate pasts and some very twisted presents in such tales as “Selkie,” “The Mrs Innocents” and “The Chronologist,” do the times.
What holds all these pieces together, including the gripping long new novelette “Downtime” and its vision of a near-future penal system, are vivid writing, strong characters and a sense of awe and surprise. On travels that will take you from cluttered attics and strange shorelines to star-flung civilisations and beyond, let Ian R. MacLeod be your guide.
Ian R. MacLeod is the author of seven novels and five short story collections spanning the entire spectrum of fantastic fiction which have been critically acclaimed, widely anthologised and translated into many languages. His work has won the Arthur C Clarke award for the Year’s Best Novel, along with the Sidewise Award for Alternate History (twice), the World Fantasy Award (again twice), the John W Campbell Memorial Award and the Locus Award for the Year's Best First Novel. He lives in the riverside town of Bewdley in England.
Limited: 1000 signed numbered hardcover copies
Table of Contents :
Introduction: Ragged Maps
The Mrs Innocents
The Wisdom of the Group
Ephemera
Lamagica
Ouroboros
Stuff
The God of Nothing
Downtime
The Roads
The Memory Artist
Sin Eater
The Visitor from Taured
The Chronologist
Selkie
The Fall of the House of Kepler
456 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2023
5 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Ian R. MacLeod
174 books128 followersIan R. MacLeod is the acclaimed writer of challenging and innovative speculative and fantastic fiction. His most recent novel, Wake Up and Dream, won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, while his previous works have won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the World Fantasy Award, and have been translated into many languages. His short story, “Snodgrass,” was developed for television in the United Kingdom as part of the Sky Arts series Playhouse Presents. MacLeod grew up in the West Midlands region of England, studied law, and spent time working and dreaming in the civil service before moving on to teaching and house-husbandry. He lives with his wife in the riverside town of Bewdley.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 17, 2024
This is Ian MacLeod’s sixth short story collection and the third of his that I’ve read. I first met him through his excellent novella “New Light on the Drake Equation” in one of Dozois’ Best Of anthologies and he’s been one of my favourite writers ever since.
His prose is consistently enjoyable, across multiple genres. I believe that’s because of two things. The first is the fact that his short stories (most of them actually novellas) almost always have a twist, no matter the size, which is bound to give readers a feeling of closure and pay-off. Secondly, his style contains what back cover reviewers would call “vivid descriptions”. He has a way with words, he is able to create believable characters and fascinating settings, such that even a story that isn’t plot-heavy or twist-y is still highly enjoyable and better than the best efforts of many other lesser writers.
This latest collection is no different. Released in 2023 by Subterranean Press in one of their gorgeous high quality editions (author’s signature included), it collects his latest stories, written within the last 5-6 years, and it was a joy to hold and to read during the holiday season.
Every story is followed by a short afterword that offers insights into the creative process and, of course, answers the famous question “what did the poet mean?” in almost every case. Because his stories are never experimental or cryptic. Even his more lyrical, descriptive ones still have an intelligible plot and a proper ending, rather than the open ending so trendy in modern short-form storytelling. The downside to all this is that some of the stories feel a bit overexplained (The Mrs Innocents, for instance).
The afterwords also confirm what I felt while reading the stories: that they are not only about the plot, even if all of them, in fact, do have one. They’re carefully crafted pieces, with a lot of thought put into making them work in terms of characters, atmosphere or message.
Are the stories literature with capital L? Well, they don’t go to great depths philosophically and generally do not revolve around big ideas, like the time-tested SF greats. But they’re written with great skill aestethically. MacLeod is certainly leaning more towards the “literary fiction” crowd in terms of actual writing, rather than towards the sterile, newspaper-report style characteristic to classical SF writers.
Now on to the stories themselves. Here are some I liked (out of the total of 13)
The Mrs. Innocents - an alternative history tale where the branching point happens sometime in the mid 19th century when a misterious lady (the mystery having to do with the twist at the end) establishes a foundation that helps women with giving birth and childcare. Which is enough to bring about a prosperous 20th century, where the world wars never happen. Kaiser Wilhelm turns up to be a nice king, due to not having the famous birth defect that gave him the bitter personality he is known for in our timeline, so the trigger for WW1 never manifested, which in turn led to WW2 also not happening. There’s also a Tesla subplot.
The story is written from the POV of a pregnant woman which, as the (male) author admitted, required a lot of research while at the same time ignoring the most famous writing advice - write about what you know.
Ephemera - a robot that might or might not be self-aware guards the stored human knowledge inside a hollowed-out asteroid orbiting Earth, waiting for civilization to rise again, after the war that finally ended everything on the planet. Thousands of years later, when Earth makes contact again, sentient life turns out to have risen again, but from a very unexpected niche.
The story is lyrical and is about many things, the plot is just the outline. Also, the robot at its center, who is spending centuries learning to enjoy art is reminiscent of Martha Wells’s Murderbot, except that this one is actually believable, does not speak like a millenial and is not written to be relatable to 21th century teens.
Lamagica - set in another fascinating alternate Earth, where magic was discovered and harnessed during the 19th century, replacing electricity, which exists as well, but is a niche science. The story is a period piece and a mystical adventure reminiscent of Apocalypse Now, with similar structure (and stakes), placed in a latin-american setting.
Downtime - a near-future novella-length story that explores an idea which works great as a story but whose actual utility I didn’t quite get - English prisons in partnership with a corporation introduce temporal amnesia for prison inmates as a form of… punishment? Rehabilitation? The main character, one of said inmates, tries to piece together clues about himself to get some grasp about his identity. The story has a very cinematic twist (I can see it as a Black Mirror episode), but I am just as confused as the main character as to the why.
The Memory Artist - another long story, a lyrical piece, light on plot (but, as I mentioned in the introduction, even a story such as this ends with a bang). It returns to MacLeod’s universe where stories like Breathmoss (an absolute favorite of mine) and Isabell of the Fall were set - a far future with Islamic flavor, where men are an extreme rarity, being made obsolete by the possibility of reproduction through genetic engeneering… now that I think about it, if I didn’t know, I could have sworn that this collection was written by a modern feminist-activist woman.
Anyway, the story itself is about an old woman’s travels through places from her past, across a Dyson sphere, accompanied by the digital ghost of a young boy.
The Visitor from Taured - an elegy set in another version of the near-future, where books and astronomy are completely obsolete, the experience offered by books having been surpassed by more interactive forms of learning/entertainment and astrophysics and space exploration having been confirmed as dead ends. It’s the story of the friendship throughout the years of two characters obsessing over things that everyone else finds quaint - literature and finding the nature of the dark matter. It’s a good example of what is called “literary SF” - a story with an un-sensationalistic plot that’s centered more on characters than on its science-fictional premise and setting. I find MacLeod to be among the best writers of this type of literature, up there with Lavie Tidhar, Lucius Shepard or Kazuo Ishiguro.
His prose is consistently enjoyable, across multiple genres. I believe that’s because of two things. The first is the fact that his short stories (most of them actually novellas) almost always have a twist, no matter the size, which is bound to give readers a feeling of closure and pay-off. Secondly, his style contains what back cover reviewers would call “vivid descriptions”. He has a way with words, he is able to create believable characters and fascinating settings, such that even a story that isn’t plot-heavy or twist-y is still highly enjoyable and better than the best efforts of many other lesser writers.
This latest collection is no different. Released in 2023 by Subterranean Press in one of their gorgeous high quality editions (author’s signature included), it collects his latest stories, written within the last 5-6 years, and it was a joy to hold and to read during the holiday season.
Every story is followed by a short afterword that offers insights into the creative process and, of course, answers the famous question “what did the poet mean?” in almost every case. Because his stories are never experimental or cryptic. Even his more lyrical, descriptive ones still have an intelligible plot and a proper ending, rather than the open ending so trendy in modern short-form storytelling. The downside to all this is that some of the stories feel a bit overexplained (The Mrs Innocents, for instance).
The afterwords also confirm what I felt while reading the stories: that they are not only about the plot, even if all of them, in fact, do have one. They’re carefully crafted pieces, with a lot of thought put into making them work in terms of characters, atmosphere or message.
Are the stories literature with capital L? Well, they don’t go to great depths philosophically and generally do not revolve around big ideas, like the time-tested SF greats. But they’re written with great skill aestethically. MacLeod is certainly leaning more towards the “literary fiction” crowd in terms of actual writing, rather than towards the sterile, newspaper-report style characteristic to classical SF writers.
Now on to the stories themselves. Here are some I liked (out of the total of 13)
The Mrs. Innocents - an alternative history tale where the branching point happens sometime in the mid 19th century when a misterious lady (the mystery having to do with the twist at the end) establishes a foundation that helps women with giving birth and childcare. Which is enough to bring about a prosperous 20th century, where the world wars never happen. Kaiser Wilhelm turns up to be a nice king, due to not having the famous birth defect that gave him the bitter personality he is known for in our timeline, so the trigger for WW1 never manifested, which in turn led to WW2 also not happening. There’s also a Tesla subplot.
The story is written from the POV of a pregnant woman which, as the (male) author admitted, required a lot of research while at the same time ignoring the most famous writing advice - write about what you know.
Ephemera - a robot that might or might not be self-aware guards the stored human knowledge inside a hollowed-out asteroid orbiting Earth, waiting for civilization to rise again, after the war that finally ended everything on the planet. Thousands of years later, when Earth makes contact again, sentient life turns out to have risen again, but from a very unexpected niche.
The story is lyrical and is about many things, the plot is just the outline. Also, the robot at its center, who is spending centuries learning to enjoy art is reminiscent of Martha Wells’s Murderbot, except that this one is actually believable, does not speak like a millenial and is not written to be relatable to 21th century teens.
Lamagica - set in another fascinating alternate Earth, where magic was discovered and harnessed during the 19th century, replacing electricity, which exists as well, but is a niche science. The story is a period piece and a mystical adventure reminiscent of Apocalypse Now, with similar structure (and stakes), placed in a latin-american setting.
Downtime - a near-future novella-length story that explores an idea which works great as a story but whose actual utility I didn’t quite get - English prisons in partnership with a corporation introduce temporal amnesia for prison inmates as a form of… punishment? Rehabilitation? The main character, one of said inmates, tries to piece together clues about himself to get some grasp about his identity. The story has a very cinematic twist (I can see it as a Black Mirror episode), but I am just as confused as the main character as to the why.
The Memory Artist - another long story, a lyrical piece, light on plot (but, as I mentioned in the introduction, even a story such as this ends with a bang). It returns to MacLeod’s universe where stories like Breathmoss (an absolute favorite of mine) and Isabell of the Fall were set - a far future with Islamic flavor, where men are an extreme rarity, being made obsolete by the possibility of reproduction through genetic engeneering… now that I think about it, if I didn’t know, I could have sworn that this collection was written by a modern feminist-activist woman.
Anyway, the story itself is about an old woman’s travels through places from her past, across a Dyson sphere, accompanied by the digital ghost of a young boy.
The Visitor from Taured - an elegy set in another version of the near-future, where books and astronomy are completely obsolete, the experience offered by books having been surpassed by more interactive forms of learning/entertainment and astrophysics and space exploration having been confirmed as dead ends. It’s the story of the friendship throughout the years of two characters obsessing over things that everyone else finds quaint - literature and finding the nature of the dark matter. It’s a good example of what is called “literary SF” - a story with an un-sensationalistic plot that’s centered more on characters than on its science-fictional premise and setting. I find MacLeod to be among the best writers of this type of literature, up there with Lavie Tidhar, Lucius Shepard or Kazuo Ishiguro.
Want to read
July 24, 2025High marks from Jo Walton: https://reactormag.com/jo-waltons-rea...
"Another stellar collection of short stories from Ian MacLeod, who is a terrific writer with the enviable ability to take an SF idea, work out the secondary and tertiary implications, and apply it to real characters living in the interesting world he’s come up with. I’d read some of these before but read them again with pleasure, and others were new to me and very good. MacLeod is one of our best writers, and we should pay attention to him."
2023 book. Not at our libraries, boo hoo. $6 Kindle available.
"Another stellar collection of short stories from Ian MacLeod, who is a terrific writer with the enviable ability to take an SF idea, work out the secondary and tertiary implications, and apply it to real characters living in the interesting world he’s come up with. I’d read some of these before but read them again with pleasure, and others were new to me and very good. MacLeod is one of our best writers, and we should pay attention to him."
2023 book. Not at our libraries, boo hoo. $6 Kindle available.
December 24, 2025
Ragged Maps no es la típica colección de cuentos de "naves espaciales y rayos láser". Es más bien un viaje por los pliegues del tiempo y la memoria. MacLeod nos propone que todos somos viajeros temporales que navegamos el presente usando mapas gastados —nuestros recuerdos— que a veces nos engañan. Tampoco es un libro para leer de un tirón. Cada relato de MacLeod es un mundo entero con sus propias leyes. Lo mejor es leer uno, dejar el libro en la mesilla y rumiarlo un par de días.
A lo largo del libro, verás mundos que se parecen al nuestro pero tienen "truco": una Segunda Guerra Mundial donde la maternidad es casi una cuestión de estado mística, futuros donde las máquinas son las únicas que recuerdan a Beethoven, o pueblos donde el tiempo se rompe y un relojero puede ser la persona más peligrosa del lugar. Es un libro sobre cómo el pasado siempre está mordiéndonos los talones y cómo el futuro nunca es lo que esperábamos.
Ian R. MacLeod es un tipo curioso y un auténtico artesano de las letras. Aunque ha ganado los premios más importantes del género (como el World Fantasy), no es un autor de consumo rápido. Si algo define su carrera es su gusto especial por las ucronías y las historias alternativas. MacLeod disfruta deformando la realidad histórica para ver qué queda de nosotros cuando el pasado cambia de rumbo. Ya lo demostró en sus novelas más famosas, donde reimaginó una Inglaterra victoriana movida por éter mágico en lugar de vapor, y aquí, en Ragged Maps, vuelve a jugar con ese "qué pasaría si..." para diseccionar la condición humana con una elegancia envidiable.
Aquí dejo una pincelada de cada una de las historias que componen este volumen. Cada uno de los quince relatos cuenta con un epílogo escrito por el propio MacLeod. En estas breves notas, el autor nos explica de dónde surgió la idea, qué buscaba transmitir o qué estaba pasando en su vida cuando lo escribió:
-The Mrs Innocents: Una periodista embarazada viaja al Berlín de 1940 en una realidad alternativa donde existen los "Birthplaces", lugares casi sagrados y burocráticos para dar a luz. Es una ucronía fascinante y perturbadora.
-The Wisdom of the Group: Un relato que juega con la precognición aplicada a algo tan poco poético, pero tan humano, como la bolsa y las inversiones.
-Ephemera: Una inteligencia artificial llamada KAT custodia los restos de la cultura humana en una estación espacial mientras espera una señal de una Tierra que quizá ya no exista.
-Lamagica: Una aventura con sabor a expedición antigua por las selvas de Centroamérica, buscando un lugar donde la magia —o una energía llamada "aether"— todavía funciona de forma salvaje.
-Ouroboros: Como su nombre indica, es un relato sobre ciclos y retornos, donde el tiempo se muerde la cola.
-Stuff: Una reflexión sobre nuestra adicción a las "cosas", a acumular objetos para intentar que el tiempo no nos borre.
-The God of Nothing: Un cuento con aire de fábula sobre un administrador real que debe enfrentarse a un vacío que, paradójicamente, lo contiene todo.
-Downtime: Trata sobre esos huecos en la memoria, los tiempos perdidos que intentamos recuperar a toda costa para saber quiénes somos.
-The Roads: Un relato muy emotivo que mezcla los recuerdos de la Primera Guerra Mundial con la figura del padre y la sensación de volver a un hogar que ya no existe.
-The Memory Artist: En un futuro lejano y colorista, un artista crea obras usando fragmentos de recuerdos ajenos, explorando la identidad como si fuera un collage.
-Sin Eater: Un relato potente sobre un robot que debe absorber los pecados (y los recuerdos) de un Papa moribundo, sufriendo en sus circuitos el peso de toda una vida.
-The Visitor from Taured: Basado en una leyenda urbana real, MacLeod lo lleva al terreno de la física cuántica y los universos paralelos de una forma muy inteligente.
-The Chronologist: La historia de un niño fascinado por un relojero en un pueblo donde el tiempo parece estancado, hasta que se desata una tormenta temporal.
-Selkie: Una vuelta de tuerca al mito escocés, donde la nostalgia y los cambios sociales se mezclan con lo fantástico. Una muy buena ucronía.
-The Fall of the House of Kepler: El telescopio Kepler, dotado de consciencia, se vuelve loco de soledad en el espacio profundo mientras descubre que la humanidad ha desaparecido.
A lo largo del libro, verás mundos que se parecen al nuestro pero tienen "truco": una Segunda Guerra Mundial donde la maternidad es casi una cuestión de estado mística, futuros donde las máquinas son las únicas que recuerdan a Beethoven, o pueblos donde el tiempo se rompe y un relojero puede ser la persona más peligrosa del lugar. Es un libro sobre cómo el pasado siempre está mordiéndonos los talones y cómo el futuro nunca es lo que esperábamos.
Ian R. MacLeod es un tipo curioso y un auténtico artesano de las letras. Aunque ha ganado los premios más importantes del género (como el World Fantasy), no es un autor de consumo rápido. Si algo define su carrera es su gusto especial por las ucronías y las historias alternativas. MacLeod disfruta deformando la realidad histórica para ver qué queda de nosotros cuando el pasado cambia de rumbo. Ya lo demostró en sus novelas más famosas, donde reimaginó una Inglaterra victoriana movida por éter mágico en lugar de vapor, y aquí, en Ragged Maps, vuelve a jugar con ese "qué pasaría si..." para diseccionar la condición humana con una elegancia envidiable.
Aquí dejo una pincelada de cada una de las historias que componen este volumen. Cada uno de los quince relatos cuenta con un epílogo escrito por el propio MacLeod. En estas breves notas, el autor nos explica de dónde surgió la idea, qué buscaba transmitir o qué estaba pasando en su vida cuando lo escribió:
-The Mrs Innocents: Una periodista embarazada viaja al Berlín de 1940 en una realidad alternativa donde existen los "Birthplaces", lugares casi sagrados y burocráticos para dar a luz. Es una ucronía fascinante y perturbadora.
-The Wisdom of the Group: Un relato que juega con la precognición aplicada a algo tan poco poético, pero tan humano, como la bolsa y las inversiones.
-Ephemera: Una inteligencia artificial llamada KAT custodia los restos de la cultura humana en una estación espacial mientras espera una señal de una Tierra que quizá ya no exista.
-Lamagica: Una aventura con sabor a expedición antigua por las selvas de Centroamérica, buscando un lugar donde la magia —o una energía llamada "aether"— todavía funciona de forma salvaje.
-Ouroboros: Como su nombre indica, es un relato sobre ciclos y retornos, donde el tiempo se muerde la cola.
-Stuff: Una reflexión sobre nuestra adicción a las "cosas", a acumular objetos para intentar que el tiempo no nos borre.
-The God of Nothing: Un cuento con aire de fábula sobre un administrador real que debe enfrentarse a un vacío que, paradójicamente, lo contiene todo.
-Downtime: Trata sobre esos huecos en la memoria, los tiempos perdidos que intentamos recuperar a toda costa para saber quiénes somos.
-The Roads: Un relato muy emotivo que mezcla los recuerdos de la Primera Guerra Mundial con la figura del padre y la sensación de volver a un hogar que ya no existe.
-The Memory Artist: En un futuro lejano y colorista, un artista crea obras usando fragmentos de recuerdos ajenos, explorando la identidad como si fuera un collage.
-Sin Eater: Un relato potente sobre un robot que debe absorber los pecados (y los recuerdos) de un Papa moribundo, sufriendo en sus circuitos el peso de toda una vida.
-The Visitor from Taured: Basado en una leyenda urbana real, MacLeod lo lleva al terreno de la física cuántica y los universos paralelos de una forma muy inteligente.
-The Chronologist: La historia de un niño fascinado por un relojero en un pueblo donde el tiempo parece estancado, hasta que se desata una tormenta temporal.
-Selkie: Una vuelta de tuerca al mito escocés, donde la nostalgia y los cambios sociales se mezclan con lo fantástico. Una muy buena ucronía.
-The Fall of the House of Kepler: El telescopio Kepler, dotado de consciencia, se vuelve loco de soledad en el espacio profundo mientras descubre que la humanidad ha desaparecido.
February 27, 2023
Ragged Maps is the new science fiction collection by Ian R. MacLeod. MacLeod has a gift for outstanding writing, interesting characters and unpredictable plots. The stories go from deep space to alternate history to time travel to stories that cannot be described. Some are light, some can be dark, but always interesting and surprising. The original story “Downtime” is a good example, the story takes place in a future British prison, and goes places I would never predict.
I have enjoyed Ian MacLeod’s novels and his other collections, and this book is MacLeod writing at the top of the field. Enjoy.
This e-ARC was provided by NetGalley for review.
@SubPress
I have enjoyed Ian MacLeod’s novels and his other collections, and this book is MacLeod writing at the top of the field. Enjoy.
This e-ARC was provided by NetGalley for review.
@SubPress
November 8, 2023
I only listened to the short story Sin Eater from this collection through the LeVar Burton Reads podcast. In this story, a robot "sin eater" is called to perform the last rites for the Pope at the Vatican, who happens to be the last human on Earth. Technology has advanced so far that human consciousness can now be downloaded, leaving all corporeal bodies behind. The story reminded me of another short story, Staying Behind by Ken Liu, which was shared on the podcast in an earlier season. I didn't quite connect with this story, although it could lead to some points to ponder about humanity and religion.
March 16, 2023
Aa someone who is trying to expand my reading of short stories, this was a welcome surprise. It was not perfect, but it had moments that were incredible. The one story that stuck with me the most was the story about the future prison, in England (I believe) It took things in such a different direction than I was expecting, and I was very impressed.
My problem is just this; I am not a huge fan of short stories, as i read mostly large epic fantasy series (currently reading malazan book of the fallen, for a bit of context) and really feel like most stories could do with a few hundred (or thousand) pages to fully explore the idea,
Thats not what short story collections are, so I understand that is a me thing.
I absolutely adored ken liu's hidden girl, and paper menagerie short stories collections. And while i don't think this is up to that bar set, for some readers I could see this being an absolutely incredible experience.
All in all. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and will take a look at Ian R. MacLeod's full length offerings sometime in the not too distant future!
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
My problem is just this; I am not a huge fan of short stories, as i read mostly large epic fantasy series (currently reading malazan book of the fallen, for a bit of context) and really feel like most stories could do with a few hundred (or thousand) pages to fully explore the idea,
Thats not what short story collections are, so I understand that is a me thing.
I absolutely adored ken liu's hidden girl, and paper menagerie short stories collections. And while i don't think this is up to that bar set, for some readers I could see this being an absolutely incredible experience.
All in all. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and will take a look at Ian R. MacLeod's full length offerings sometime in the not too distant future!
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
April 6, 2023
This collection of short stored by Ian MacLeod brings together several pieces published since 2017 as well as two works first published here.
As a fan of MacLeods writing, I found these stories to be enjoyable (even those of read before) and the authors reflection after each was a great insight into his creative process. My favorite was 'Ephemera', a story of appreciation for humanity's accomplishments. This is followed closely (and happens to be followed in the book) by Lamagica, which is a fantasy/alternate history story where magic has replaced electricity in paying the industrial age.
I would recommend these to anyone who enjoys short fiction and a bit of escape from the world you inhabit day-to-day.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.
#RaggedMaps #NetGalley
As a fan of MacLeods writing, I found these stories to be enjoyable (even those of read before) and the authors reflection after each was a great insight into his creative process. My favorite was 'Ephemera', a story of appreciation for humanity's accomplishments. This is followed closely (and happens to be followed in the book) by Lamagica, which is a fantasy/alternate history story where magic has replaced electricity in paying the industrial age.
I would recommend these to anyone who enjoys short fiction and a bit of escape from the world you inhabit day-to-day.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.
#RaggedMaps #NetGalley
March 10, 2023
Short story collections can always be a little hit and miss for me. This one is in odd territory where I didn’t strongly dislike anything, but I didn’t strongly like anything either. The writing is good, but I wasn’t particularly interested by any of the stories. That makes me think the author’s style just isn’t for me in this case.
Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review
Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review
March 22, 2023
MacLeod has been around a while, and knows how craft a story. This is a solid collection of stories. There's a good variety of settings and characters. Recommended.
I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!
I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!
October 19, 2024
"To my mind, real experience and what we think we actually know about reality is all too often vague and contradictory. This being one of the main reasons why we have fiction, which generally makes much better sense."
I like Ian R. MacLeod's writing. The Summer Isles was alternate History magic. This is a collection of short fiction, including short stories and novelettes; I bought both the (gorgeous as usual) Subterranean Press physical book, one of theirs remarkable tradition of limited, signed editions, and the ebook. I mostly read the ebook, on the Kindle app in my Android's phone. I started reading in Lisbon, Portugal and just finished it, in a roadside restaurant and bar near the beach, "Flor do Duke", in Luanda, Angola. The book remained at home.
I also found audio versions for 6 of the tales, notably The Sin Eater, performed by LeVar Burton on his podcast. In the book, the author wrote afterwords for each of the pieces, for context, namely from a creative standpoint. These pieces are interesting and enrich the experience of the reading. In the case of The Sin Eater, we also have LeVar Burton's own afterword, which includes musings on this slice of text: "The robot had discovered many times through its dealings with clients that humans were capable of believing things which went against the evidence of their own senses and intellect." Fantastically reasoned (and the tale itself is intriguing).
My favorite tales were the two alternate History ones ("The Mrs. Innocents" and "Selkie"), but everything is at least very, very good.
And then, conflated with the imagination, there's the writing...
"But there was one planet which Kepler believed transcended even this, and the half-alive voice grew yet more agitated as it enumerated the beauty of her oceans, the purity of her glaciers, the shimmer of her deserts, the ever-changing glory of her clouds, and, above all, her teeming, endless life. Vast forests. Creatures of all sizes, shapes and hues. And flowers, yes, flowers, and insects, and pulsing amoebae, and trillions of humble bacteria, and strange things that dwelled in places harsh and remote. (...) But the problems of getting human beings even as far as Mars, let alone reaching another star system, are not so much dauntingly large as near-insurmountable, at least for as long as we remain the vulnerable, fleshy, warm-blooded, oxygen-breathing beings we currently are. Not only is space a hard vacuum, but it’s filled with lethal radiation, and the distances involved in crossing the void between the stars are incomprehensibly vast. (...) But the true message that space is giving us humans—with all its great beauties and incredible mysteries, its hard radiations and mind-boggling scale—isn’t about little green men or strange civilisations, but that what really matters is what we have down here on our fragile planet, and in the wondrous storehouses of our own minds."
"Jim Vaughan simply isn’t that kind of guy. He’s a good dad, a decent husband, a diligent employee, a loyal friend. All the rest, the white rages, the bleak black days, the smashed coffee machine, the expensive counselling sessions, the even more expensive lawyers, the social workers, the restraining orders, the supervised access to see my own kids, and that guy with the fat-tyred Toyota, the visits from the police, they’re not us, and they’re certainly not me. They’re just… Something that sometimes happens. Something I wish would disappear."
"Gold and silver, obviously. Gum and tobacco, for sure. And emeralds, yes, and obsidian and turquoise. Zinc, copper and lead, too. That, and maybe a few members of what was left of the native Mayan race to work as servants, although they were notoriously unreliable and illness-prone. All of this was taken, but were mere distractions compared to the thing that the Company, that Calahorra & Calante, wanted most of all."
“(...) overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”
I like Ian R. MacLeod's writing. The Summer Isles was alternate History magic. This is a collection of short fiction, including short stories and novelettes; I bought both the (gorgeous as usual) Subterranean Press physical book, one of theirs remarkable tradition of limited, signed editions, and the ebook. I mostly read the ebook, on the Kindle app in my Android's phone. I started reading in Lisbon, Portugal and just finished it, in a roadside restaurant and bar near the beach, "Flor do Duke", in Luanda, Angola. The book remained at home.
I also found audio versions for 6 of the tales, notably The Sin Eater, performed by LeVar Burton on his podcast. In the book, the author wrote afterwords for each of the pieces, for context, namely from a creative standpoint. These pieces are interesting and enrich the experience of the reading. In the case of The Sin Eater, we also have LeVar Burton's own afterword, which includes musings on this slice of text: "The robot had discovered many times through its dealings with clients that humans were capable of believing things which went against the evidence of their own senses and intellect." Fantastically reasoned (and the tale itself is intriguing).
My favorite tales were the two alternate History ones ("The Mrs. Innocents" and "Selkie"), but everything is at least very, very good.
And then, conflated with the imagination, there's the writing...
"But there was one planet which Kepler believed transcended even this, and the half-alive voice grew yet more agitated as it enumerated the beauty of her oceans, the purity of her glaciers, the shimmer of her deserts, the ever-changing glory of her clouds, and, above all, her teeming, endless life. Vast forests. Creatures of all sizes, shapes and hues. And flowers, yes, flowers, and insects, and pulsing amoebae, and trillions of humble bacteria, and strange things that dwelled in places harsh and remote. (...) But the problems of getting human beings even as far as Mars, let alone reaching another star system, are not so much dauntingly large as near-insurmountable, at least for as long as we remain the vulnerable, fleshy, warm-blooded, oxygen-breathing beings we currently are. Not only is space a hard vacuum, but it’s filled with lethal radiation, and the distances involved in crossing the void between the stars are incomprehensibly vast. (...) But the true message that space is giving us humans—with all its great beauties and incredible mysteries, its hard radiations and mind-boggling scale—isn’t about little green men or strange civilisations, but that what really matters is what we have down here on our fragile planet, and in the wondrous storehouses of our own minds."
"Jim Vaughan simply isn’t that kind of guy. He’s a good dad, a decent husband, a diligent employee, a loyal friend. All the rest, the white rages, the bleak black days, the smashed coffee machine, the expensive counselling sessions, the even more expensive lawyers, the social workers, the restraining orders, the supervised access to see my own kids, and that guy with the fat-tyred Toyota, the visits from the police, they’re not us, and they’re certainly not me. They’re just… Something that sometimes happens. Something I wish would disappear."
"Gold and silver, obviously. Gum and tobacco, for sure. And emeralds, yes, and obsidian and turquoise. Zinc, copper and lead, too. That, and maybe a few members of what was left of the native Mayan race to work as servants, although they were notoriously unreliable and illness-prone. All of this was taken, but were mere distractions compared to the thing that the Company, that Calahorra & Calante, wanted most of all."
“(...) overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”
February 20, 2023
Ragged Maps by Ian R. MacLeod- Wow! A brilliant collection of short stories from this British science fiction writer. The language is thoughtfully poetic with a somber dark nebulous background. Sometimes light and cheery and other times deep and foreboding. My own favorites were The Chronologist and The Fall of the House of Kepler. But there are many more very good stories. Thanks to NetGalley for this entertaining ARC
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