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Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies
Over 150,000 words of multiple award-winner Lucy Sussex's best stories.
Includes
Lipton Village Society
Montage
My Lady Tongue
God and Her Black Sense of Humour
The Lottery
Merlusine
The Queen of Erewhon
Absolute Uncertainty
Frozen Charlottes
La Sentinelle
Matricide
The Revenant
Mist and Murder
Something Better than Death
Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies
Albert and Victoria
Robots and Zombies, Inc
Ardent Clouds
Kay and Phil
A Tour Guide in Utopia
The Parish and Mrs Brown
Runaways
Red Ochre
Duchess
A must for any Lucy Sussex fan. Published June 2011.
Introduction by Delia Sherman
Includes
Lipton Village Society
Montage
My Lady Tongue
God and Her Black Sense of Humour
The Lottery
Merlusine
The Queen of Erewhon
Absolute Uncertainty
Frozen Charlottes
La Sentinelle
Matricide
The Revenant
Mist and Murder
Something Better than Death
Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies
Albert and Victoria
Robots and Zombies, Inc
Ardent Clouds
Kay and Phil
A Tour Guide in Utopia
The Parish and Mrs Brown
Runaways
Red Ochre
Duchess
A must for any Lucy Sussex fan. Published June 2011.
Introduction by Delia Sherman
516 pages, Paperback
First published June 10, 2011
1 person is currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Sussex
82 books17 followersLucy Sussex's books include Blockbuster! Fergus Hume and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, which won the 2015 Victorian Community History Award, Women Writers and Detectives in the Nineteenth Century and Saltwater in the Ink: Voices from the Australian Seas. She has a PhD from the University of Wales and is an honorary fellow at La Trobe University. Her forthcoming book is Outrageous Fortunes.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 5, 2013
Completely convinced this is the best collection of short stories by an Australian I've ever read.
Huge variety of stories, and while not all agreed with me, the ones that did were just absolutely amazing.
My partner tells me I stood up in front of a crowded room and said "if you don't buy this book you're a fucking moron". Apparently enough people believed me. The next day the publisher thanked me, gave me a discount on buying some of his other books and then when I stopped by the day after said they'd completely sold out. Guess I was right?
(Okay, not the most critical review, but it was so beautiful and I still can't believe people listened to me, so I just don't give a fuck.)
Huge variety of stories, and while not all agreed with me, the ones that did were just absolutely amazing.
My partner tells me I stood up in front of a crowded room and said "if you don't buy this book you're a fucking moron". Apparently enough people believed me. The next day the publisher thanked me, gave me a discount on buying some of his other books and then when I stopped by the day after said they'd completely sold out. Guess I was right?
(Okay, not the most critical review, but it was so beautiful and I still can't believe people listened to me, so I just don't give a fuck.)
November 8, 2013
Finally finished it! Such a huge book. Because of its size, plenty of the stories didn't work for me, but the ones that did more than made up for it: "The Queen of Erewhon", "A Tour Guide in Utopia" and "My Lady Tongue" doing some different and very interesting things with utopias, "Ardent Clouds" with volcanoes and lesbians, "Merlusine" and "Absolute Uncertainty" with history, "Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies" with folklore... It's a good mix and there are lots of lesbians and though some stories are quite blandly told, in some Lucy Sussex's voice - loud and direct and fun - really comes through, and then the stories are excellent. I love a writer who actually has voice.
May 14, 2013
Standard Ticonderoga Disclaimer: We published this book because we loved it!
December 29, 2018
I thoroughly expected to like this, and was really excited when I found it at the library. Unfortunately, after struggling through the first story, it took me a while to want to go back to it. I finally decided I had to give it a fair shake, so I read the second story-- or rather, tried to. It was so tiresome I couldn't make it all the way through. The plot was some kinda thinly disguised alternate history of Philip K. Dick trying to write Man in The High Tower, but charmless and trying too hard to be cute.
I gave the collection one last shot by flipping to a random story in the middle, which was also just... disappointing. The premise was interesting, involving tachyons and visions of a post-apocalyptic future, but it's just incredibly boring and nothing about any of the characters makes me care about what they're doing or why.
Overall, occasional brilliant turns of phrase, but mostly just tons of clunky exposition or quotes from source material that are drier than dust; bloodless characters doing things for reasons I can't divine; and in the first 2 stories, a fair amount of exotification of non-white characters, which set my teeth on edge.
I gave the collection one last shot by flipping to a random story in the middle, which was also just... disappointing. The premise was interesting, involving tachyons and visions of a post-apocalyptic future, but it's just incredibly boring and nothing about any of the characters makes me care about what they're doing or why.
Overall, occasional brilliant turns of phrase, but mostly just tons of clunky exposition or quotes from source material that are drier than dust; bloodless characters doing things for reasons I can't divine; and in the first 2 stories, a fair amount of exotification of non-white characters, which set my teeth on edge.
April 12, 2012
The Essential Lucy Sussex is 500-odd pages of some of the most textured, intelligent, witty, erudite and imaginative spec fic ever produced. That’s not what took me so long to read it, though. The book is also bloody heavy, which created certain problems with trying to keep it open as I read over breakfast. The whole experience prompted a blog post about some things I really like about e-books.
The physical weight of the thing notwithstanding, this collection is full of heft on its own accord. Which isn’t to say it isn’t also sometimes melancholy, funny or even surprising. The 25 stories that make up this collection are textured and fabulous.
Particular favourites in a book stuffed full of goodness are:
My Lady Tongue: This SF story about the vibrant Saffy, from a wimmin’s commune, getting injured and ending up in the care of her natural enemy, a man remains as fresh and exciting as the first time I read it. It references Shakespeare, particularly Beatrice and Benedick and their sharp, sparring dialogue. Such a fresh, lively voice in Saffy, is a joy to read and re-read.
Duchess: I’m not much into fashion, but this story make me see the attraction, with this intelligent, outrageous character and the suggestions of displacement in time, though it could just be madness.
Ardent Clouds: Love, volcanoes and disaster. Beautiful.
La Sentinelle: An intriguing take on the legendof the golem. I’ve always thought lifelike dolls were kind of creepy. This story has set the seal on that opinion.
Something Better than Death: This is a modern take and entertaining analysis of the folk tale of The Musicians of Bremen. It demonstrates Lucy’s capacity to go off in surprising directions, though admittedly, most of her stories do that.
Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies: A sly and entertaining retelling of the Waltzing Matilda story by the other witness to those (and related) events.
The collection contains a lot of stories playing with history, versions of reality, research and discovery, and twists on old folk tales. Every story shines a lot on something you knew nothing about, or thought you knew but didn’t really.
LucySussex was born in New Zealand but now lives in Melbourne. She’s researched and travelled widely, and has done Australian literature the great service of rediscovering one of the nation’s (and first) nineteenth century crime writers, Mary Fortune. Her awesomeness has many facets and very possibly no limits.
If you haven’t heard of Lucy Sussex, you should have. This amazing collection of her body of work spannign almost 20 year is not the whole of Lucy Sussex, but I’d agree it’s essential.
If you feel a bit daunted by the size of the book, get Lucy’s Twelve Planets book, Thief of Lives, first. You’ll be rushing to get her back catalogue once you’ve whet your appetite.
The physical weight of the thing notwithstanding, this collection is full of heft on its own accord. Which isn’t to say it isn’t also sometimes melancholy, funny or even surprising. The 25 stories that make up this collection are textured and fabulous.
Particular favourites in a book stuffed full of goodness are:
My Lady Tongue: This SF story about the vibrant Saffy, from a wimmin’s commune, getting injured and ending up in the care of her natural enemy, a man remains as fresh and exciting as the first time I read it. It references Shakespeare, particularly Beatrice and Benedick and their sharp, sparring dialogue. Such a fresh, lively voice in Saffy, is a joy to read and re-read.
Duchess: I’m not much into fashion, but this story make me see the attraction, with this intelligent, outrageous character and the suggestions of displacement in time, though it could just be madness.
Ardent Clouds: Love, volcanoes and disaster. Beautiful.
La Sentinelle: An intriguing take on the legendof the golem. I’ve always thought lifelike dolls were kind of creepy. This story has set the seal on that opinion.
Something Better than Death: This is a modern take and entertaining analysis of the folk tale of The Musicians of Bremen. It demonstrates Lucy’s capacity to go off in surprising directions, though admittedly, most of her stories do that.
Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies: A sly and entertaining retelling of the Waltzing Matilda story by the other witness to those (and related) events.
The collection contains a lot of stories playing with history, versions of reality, research and discovery, and twists on old folk tales. Every story shines a lot on something you knew nothing about, or thought you knew but didn’t really.
LucySussex was born in New Zealand but now lives in Melbourne. She’s researched and travelled widely, and has done Australian literature the great service of rediscovering one of the nation’s (and first) nineteenth century crime writers, Mary Fortune. Her awesomeness has many facets and very possibly no limits.
If you haven’t heard of Lucy Sussex, you should have. This amazing collection of her body of work spannign almost 20 year is not the whole of Lucy Sussex, but I’d agree it’s essential.
If you feel a bit daunted by the size of the book, get Lucy’s Twelve Planets book, Thief of Lives, first. You’ll be rushing to get her back catalogue once you’ve whet your appetite.
November 12, 2011
Katharine is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This review is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.
To be safe, I won't be recording my review here until after the AA are over.
I think I should re-read this in time to come, and my review may change, but currently, though most if not all the stories within were to a high quality, they just didn't always hold my attention. I'm not even sure whether I could say whether the collection was cohesive or not.
A simple mark of what happens when one has to judge many books of collections at once, and some just pale by comparison.
I think I should re-read this in time to come, and my review may change, but currently, though most if not all the stories within were to a high quality, they just didn't always hold my attention. I'm not even sure whether I could say whether the collection was cohesive or not.
A simple mark of what happens when one has to judge many books of collections at once, and some just pale by comparison.
November 14, 2012
Love, love, love Lucy's short stories. My only complaint is that it doesn't include every one she's ever written! Excellent afterword where she says a few lines about each story and includes suggested music to listen to while reading.
February 3, 2016
I adore the title of this, which is why I picked it up, knowing nothing about it. Unfortunately, while the titles grabbed me, the tales didn't, and I gave up after five stories. Maybe one at a time they'd be more palatable, but en masse they were too much for me to get through.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews