Like Smoke, Like Light: Stories

by Yukimi Ogawa, Francesca Forrest (Foreword), Paula Arwen Owen (Illustrator)

Publishers Weekly Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror title of 2023!

“Ogawa’s debut collection of 17 speculative shorts stuns with its delicacy … Harkening back to the oldest folk and fairy tales and raising pointed questions about how humans value and devalue each other, this is a showstopper.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Her work is unexpected, often horrific, and always enthralling. Weaving Japanese folklore in with the new, the weird, and science fiction horror elements, Ogawa's body of work is prolific and evergreen." —Thea James, Tor.com



A monster wearing the stolen dress of a deceased mother agrees to help the woman's orphaned son. A girl whose blood can cause hallucinogenic visions makes a daring escape from the merchants who traffic her. In a society where people are prized for their jewel-hued skins—indigo, silver, amber, emerald—one girl endures brutal bruises to shine brightest of all, while another, her eyes sealed inside a featureless helmet, risks death to retrieve colors from the outside world. In the future of that culture, one where androids serve with brimming resentment and artificially altering one's skin color can be a crime, the most ordinary in appearance can prove the best detectives, and the most subtly effective rebels. On a far distant space station, another android encounters a goddess humans forgot.

"At pure surface level, these works appear rooted in the fantastical and magical, but as soon as you think you've found your footing and understand where you are, Ogawa warps your perception almost imperceptibly until the world is completely unfamiliar again." —Haralambi Markov, Tor.com

Like Smoke, Like Light, the debut collection of short fiction from Japanese author Yukimi Ogawa, gathers seventeen tales that Locus Magazine has described as constructed in a "wild—but still grounded, feeling more like SF than fantasy—fashion." As novelist and poet Francesca Forrest writes in her introduction, "Ogawa is a remarkable light in the science fiction and fantasy firmament," who "writes unsettling stories that are by turns horrifying and touching." This book "give us space and time to think about how we really feel about tricky questions—like what makes a monster" and how loving families can be found when one accepts "the forms they choose to wear."

Cover and interior illustrations by Paula Arwen Owen

More praise for Like Smoke, Like Light“Inventive, fantastical, and original; Ogawa transforms mythology, ghost stories, and the tropes of science fiction into fresh, new visions.”
—A. C. Wise, Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy award-nominated author of The Ghost Sequences

“Yukimi Ogawa’s first collection reveals her as a superb talent. These unsettling, sometimes harrowing journeys lead always toward grace and strange beauty.”
—C. C. Finlay, winner of the World Fantasy Award and author of the Traitor to the Crown series

“These luminous stories—playful one minute, tragic the next—feel like the folklore of some alternate reality world. Often, they explore themes of how our identity is linked with our physicality … how others perceive us, and the ways in which that outside perception affects how we perceive ourselves.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Asian Literature, Science Fiction, Collections

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2023

Reviews

[Ian Mond]

Excellent collection of 17 stories. Ogawa is a bit of an anomaly as she’s a Japanese author who writes almost exclusively in English and, as such, has been published in a bunch of English language genre mags. (You know the ones). Because she writes in English, her work has only just been translated into Japanese. Her stories can be split into three. There are those dealing with Japanese folklore — ghosts and monsters — all of which are decidedly creepy. And there are those set on an island (at some point in the future) where the residents who are born with colourful patterns are considered the elite. Tourists come to gawk at all the beautiful hues, while those not born with a design are regarded as second-class citizens. The best of these stories feature a colourless apprentice and her mentor who modify patterns to heal patterned individuals. These stories are about injustice and discrimination, but they’re also wildly inventive. And that leads me to the third grouping of stories that don’t meet either category. Some are set in the future or the multiverse or involve celestial beings, and all of them are delightfully barmy, reminding me of the work of Karin Tidbeck. This is how I want my fantasy and SF, not in conversation with old tropes but doing something different and new.

[Peter Tillman]

Here's the author, at Scalzi's: https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/05/2...
(with the cover art)
Excerpt:
"I think one of the reasons I chose English as my writing language lies near this conversation. English is my second language, as you can probably see when you read this book, and I still fumble for command of it. I cannot speak it most of the time. I’ve been wondering why I do this; I’m a slow writer to start with, and engaging in the second language further slows the process. There are things I cannot express in English.

But after seeing my stories gathered in one book, the stories that I had to take so much trouble, to go so out of my way, to complete, I think I have a better idea of why. I did not, do not, like many things about myself and my life, and I needed a way to change it, even if in fiction: chiseling it and pruning it, and painting it over and polishing it."

I'll take a look, when/if the library gets a copy. Which is doubtful.

[Erin Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read most of the stories in this collection but did lose interest by the end. I found the stories that the introduction called the “colorful-island tales” the least interesting, with some exceptions. Those ones often had a lot less actually *happening* in the story. The idea of colorful skin didn’t hold my attention that much.

The ones I liked the most were like dark fairy tales or folk tales. Creepy but often the “monsters” are not as monstrous as the humans.

My favorites were:
1. Rib - Skeleton woman helps a kid steal back what’s his 😤
2. The Flying Head at the Edge of Night - A head and body (separate entities) help a girl avoid being a sacrifice
3. Like Smoke, Like Light - A woman takes apart a man’s manipulation and exploitation of ghosts
4. In Her Head, In Her Eyes - A woman with a pot on her head suffers abuse as a servant but gets what she wants in the end 😈

[Avarla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the patterned, colourful islanders stories and the patternmakers. This was such a creative collection and I want to hear more about this world.
For me, this wasn't a collection to read in one go but to pick up when I feel like a bit more magic and colours in my reading.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yukimi Ogawa is Japanese, writing in English but not speaking it. It makes for an intriguing linguistic blend, where the author is drawing from her native mythic tales and incorporating them into contemporary settings, written in a language that's not her native one. The syntax and vocabulary is different enough so that if I hadn't known she was writing in English, I would have thought it was a translation.

Of course, she's probably translating it in her head as she writes, if you count that as 'translating'.

Anyhow, the stories are interesting and somewhat creepy, bordering on horror. The most interesting are the series of linked stories about two craftspeople, a mentor and apprentice, who are themselves looked down upon as 'colorless' but cater to the 'colorful' people by creating new patterns for them to heal their ailments or otherwise adjust them.

I was not as absorbed in these stories as much as I am by others who write fiction in English as their non-native language (like Karin Tidbeck), but I'm glad I read this book. It had some really interesting character perspectives.

[Jon Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beguilingly odd collection of short stories, which refreshingly avoids standard SF takes. At its best when dealing with oddness and horror, or using the idea of an island where the beauty of skin colour is social currency to explore prejudice at one remove. Might have benefitted from trimming a story or two, but a fascinating experience which gives the experience of Japanese weird fiction without the intermediary of a translator.

[Bella Azam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a brilliant short stories and as someone who enjoyed short stories, this was nice to read. Science fiction with horror supernatural elements in some of the stories are very intriguing. I like the story of the woman stealing beauty from others and replacing it with one of her expensive items. This was so good! Would love to see more of the author's work

Thank you to Edelweiss and publisher for e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Jay Batista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique Science fiction-fantasy-ghost stories that blend Japanese mythology with modern sensibility and scientific speculation. Thought-provoking, I enjoyed these immaginative short stories, their premises and in some cases their horrific endings. I highly recommend these short stories for craft and imagination.

[John Rennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are charming stories. I found them fairly straightforward and I didn't find myself having to reread them to work out what the underlying message was, but I thoroughly enjoyed them and I can recommend them as an entertaining way to spend a few hours. The stories are mostly quite short so they are ideal to dip into when you have only a few minutes free.

[Aimi Breedt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating and eery short stories set in a fantasy culture written in her own English by this Japanese author. Ghosts, 'monsters' and an island of people who are colourful gems to be coveted and exploited. Yukimi crafts a world that is completely new to this reader from the UK!

[Roy Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting science fiction short stories blending elements of Japanese folklore, belonging and human value.
Lots of twists and surprises along the way.

[Justin Isis · Rating 5 out of 5]

「小川パワー」しか言えない　( ・∇・)
偉い、この群馬人

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still think about the tree story... absolutely loved this collection. Grateful to have stumbled across it in Pegasus Books!

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this collection is apt, for Ogawa’s stories are indeed like light or smoke: delicate, shifting things of beauty; slippery, hard to pin down or grasp, hard to capture into boxes or labels. These are strange, hybrid stories that blend fantasy, folklore, horror, and science fiction. There are wonderful monsters galore, as in “Hundred Eye,” a story about a thief with a hundred eyes on her long arms, and “Rib,” a story about a skeleton woman who helps an orphaned little boy. In “The Flying Head at the Edge of Night,” a head does indeed fly about unconscious each night and must be tracked down by its body each morning. There are misfits and outsiders of all types in these stories, including an artificial intelligence (AI) in “Nini,” who discovers a forgotten goddess in a space station. Some of these misfits are merciless, wreaking a deserved and cathartic revenge on humans who mistreat them. But for the most part these monsters are kind, despite their unsettling appearances. These are tales of a delightful creepiness, lightened with tenderness and warmth, where monsters and misfits reach for connection with humans and with one another.

Some of my favorite stories in this collection are the “colorful-island tales,” as writer Francesca Forrest calls them in the forward to this book. These are tales set on a nameless island where many of the inhabitants are born with strikingly colorful eyes, hair, and skin patterns. Once the inhabitants of these islands didn’t think much about their beautiful colors; they saw no status differences between those with the brightest colors and those who are “colorless” i.e. people who would look simply normal in our own human society. But the island has been discovered by foreign tourists who are enamored of the people’s bright colors, and the island has shifted to a tourist economy that caters to foreigners; the most strikingly colored islanders are now considered the most beautiful and highest status, and the “colorless” are now of lowest status. “The Colorless Thief” is the first such tale in this collection, and perhaps the most powerful. In it, an orphaned young woman finds that when she gets hurt, her bruises bloom and heal into the most beautiful of patterns—"golden needles,” “caramelized frost crystals,” and more. To earn money to survive, the girl allows herself to be beaten so that her skin can bloom into beautiful patterns for the delight of foreigners. It’s a striking, powerful tale of exoticization, exploitation, tourist economies, and the way self-image is shaped by society. Follow-up stories in this same world deepen our view of island society and its interactions with the mainland, and also introduce science-fictional elements. It would be easy to write a world where the tourists are simply “bad” and the islanders are simply a poor, exploited people. But writer Yukimi Ogawa is smarter than that, and her stories go deeper, humanizing both islanders and the “foreign” mainlanders.

The gentle humanity in these stories is perhaps the most distinctive, unifying element to these tales. While a few of these tales do go terrifically (rather thrillingly) dark, the majority twine darkness with light and compassion. Monsters show humans kindness that the monsters themselves never received at human hands, and in the soft-dystopia of the “colorful island” tales, decent humans do the best they can, pushing laws and boundaries as much as they can to treat others with kindness. Even when writing the darkest of her stories, Ogawa has a certain lightness of touch. These are lovely tales, odd in just the right way, surprising and fresh. And overall, it’s a collection filled with gentleness and warmth, a spirit of generosity and, in the end, a faith in humanity. Stories to hold to your heart, when warmth and faith are needed.

[Alan M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting collection of myth/speculative fiction stories, some of which are linked, and which explore the darker edges of fantasy. What is even more remarkable is that, although born in Japan and living in Japan, Yukimi Ogawa writes in English, and that tension of first/second language seems somehow to add to the overall impression of otherness. Stories like these make us look at ourselves anew, and open the reader to a wider view of our world as it is.