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Asymmetry
An Australian Air Force base patrolled by werewolves. A planet where wages are paid in luck. A future where copies are made of criminals to interpret their dark dreams. A medieval cavalry of mothers who are only permitted to take as many lives as they have created.
In every world, an imbalance of power. Something terribly askew between women and men, humans and wolves, citizens and constructs, light and dark.
In every world, asymmetry.
‘The combination of strange and familiar gives Dyer’s fiction the power wielded by the best SF. The stories unerringly find the human inside the bizarre. These are unsettling, poignant, marvellous. Read them. You will be glad you did.’ - Nancy Kress
What Are the Twelve Planets?
The Twelve Planets are twelve boutique collections by some of Australia’s finest short story writers. Varied across genre and style, each collection offers four short stories and a unique glimpse into worlds fashioned by some of our favourite storytellers. Each author has taken the brief of four stories and up to 40 000 words in their own direction. Some are quartet suites of linked stories. Others are tasters of the range and style of the writer. Each release will bring something unexpected to readers.
Nightsiders by Sue Isle
Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex
Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti
Showtime by Narrelle M Harris
Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren
Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan
Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer
Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott
Secret Lives by Rosaleen Love
The Female Factory by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter
Cherry Crow Children by Deborah Kalin
In every world, an imbalance of power. Something terribly askew between women and men, humans and wolves, citizens and constructs, light and dark.
In every world, asymmetry.
‘The combination of strange and familiar gives Dyer’s fiction the power wielded by the best SF. The stories unerringly find the human inside the bizarre. These are unsettling, poignant, marvellous. Read them. You will be glad you did.’ - Nancy Kress
What Are the Twelve Planets?
The Twelve Planets are twelve boutique collections by some of Australia’s finest short story writers. Varied across genre and style, each collection offers four short stories and a unique glimpse into worlds fashioned by some of our favourite storytellers. Each author has taken the brief of four stories and up to 40 000 words in their own direction. Some are quartet suites of linked stories. Others are tasters of the range and style of the writer. Each release will bring something unexpected to readers.
Nightsiders by Sue Isle
Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex
Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti
Showtime by Narrelle M Harris
Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren
Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan
Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer
Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott
Secret Lives by Rosaleen Love
The Female Factory by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter
Cherry Crow Children by Deborah Kalin
109 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
538 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 20, 2013
Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer is the latest in Twelfth Planet Press's Twelve Planets series of collections. You can read my reviews of the other collections at this link.
Asymmetry does not contain linked stories like some of the other Twelve Planets — in fact they're all very diverse. They fall in different places on the science fiction to fantasy spectrum, but one thing they have in common is sheer innovativeness. These are the first stories I've read of Dyer's and I was very impressed. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of her work in the future.
"After Hours" is a story about a vet, some army dogs and a werewolf. I think it was my favourite in the collection. It's told from two different first person perspectives which have very distinct personalities. Although the formatting kindly lets us know which narrator is speaking, I think it would have been clear even without the typographic distinction. A mark of the strong writing. Also, I appreciated how Dyer's veterinary experience clearly came out in this story.
"Zadie, Scythe of the West" is a gender-flip story set in a fantasy world. To put it simplistically, it's a world where women are warriors and men are housekeepers but the worldbuilding is more complex than that. There are very clear ideological reasons for why the women go to war and also for the rules constraining their abilities to do so. I suspect it's the sort of story others might compare with Ursula Le Guin or Joanna Russ but I don't feel well-versed enough in those authors' works to do so.
"Wish Me Luck" is a science fiction story set in another solar system in a time when interstellar travel exists (but is rare and expensive). The science element is fairly esoteric (in the quantum mechanical sense) and, were it a longer piece, one might call it space opera. In a way, it's a story about a man who just wants to get home. There's more to it, of course.
"Seven Days in Paris" is hard to explain properly without spoilers. It's the sort of story where almost every aspect becomes apparently only gradually. I'll say it's about a disposable clone created somewhat illegally and ostensibly for the greater good. It's told from the clone's perspective, interesting because the clone does not (at first) have any idea what's going on.
~
Overall the stories deal with themes of identity and belonging in different ways, a trend I noticed only now as I was writing the mini-reviews above. I like how the more I think about them, the more I'm finding things to think about in them. There is nothing simple here. An excellent collection.
Asymmetry is a quick read, with all four stories of the short variety rather than longer novelettes or novellas. It's also a highly enjoyable read which I recommend to anyone interested in modern Australian speculative fiction. Reading and thinking about Dyer's stories made me want to be able to write like that. Dyer is definitely a writer I will be keeping an eye on.
5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
Asymmetry does not contain linked stories like some of the other Twelve Planets — in fact they're all very diverse. They fall in different places on the science fiction to fantasy spectrum, but one thing they have in common is sheer innovativeness. These are the first stories I've read of Dyer's and I was very impressed. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of her work in the future.
"After Hours" is a story about a vet, some army dogs and a werewolf. I think it was my favourite in the collection. It's told from two different first person perspectives which have very distinct personalities. Although the formatting kindly lets us know which narrator is speaking, I think it would have been clear even without the typographic distinction. A mark of the strong writing. Also, I appreciated how Dyer's veterinary experience clearly came out in this story.
"Zadie, Scythe of the West" is a gender-flip story set in a fantasy world. To put it simplistically, it's a world where women are warriors and men are housekeepers but the worldbuilding is more complex than that. There are very clear ideological reasons for why the women go to war and also for the rules constraining their abilities to do so. I suspect it's the sort of story others might compare with Ursula Le Guin or Joanna Russ but I don't feel well-versed enough in those authors' works to do so.
"Wish Me Luck" is a science fiction story set in another solar system in a time when interstellar travel exists (but is rare and expensive). The science element is fairly esoteric (in the quantum mechanical sense) and, were it a longer piece, one might call it space opera. In a way, it's a story about a man who just wants to get home. There's more to it, of course.
"Seven Days in Paris" is hard to explain properly without spoilers. It's the sort of story where almost every aspect becomes apparently only gradually. I'll say it's about a disposable clone created somewhat illegally and ostensibly for the greater good. It's told from the clone's perspective, interesting because the clone does not (at first) have any idea what's going on.
~
Overall the stories deal with themes of identity and belonging in different ways, a trend I noticed only now as I was writing the mini-reviews above. I like how the more I think about them, the more I'm finding things to think about in them. There is nothing simple here. An excellent collection.
Asymmetry is a quick read, with all four stories of the short variety rather than longer novelettes or novellas. It's also a highly enjoyable read which I recommend to anyone interested in modern Australian speculative fiction. Reading and thinking about Dyer's stories made me want to be able to write like that. Dyer is definitely a writer I will be keeping an eye on.
5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
April 3, 2013
I totally intended to read this slowly. Honestly I did. I meant to savour it, and contemplate each story.
Is it my fault that I ripped through each story, eager to know where it was going? It is my fault that each story is short enough that before I knew it I had finished one, turned the page, and started another?
I think not.
In the interests of, etc, I should point that I do know both Thoraiya Dyer, the author, and Alisa Krasnostein, the publisher. If I didn't like what I had read, I just wouldn't write anything... ;)
So. Asymmetry. In each story, a lack of balance, especially in power; sometimes, also, a lack of balance in an individual's life, making them particularly vulnerable to direct manipulation or simply life's vicissitudes.
The first story is "After Hours," and I'm so pleased to finally read something of Dyer's that makes use of her veterinary skills! I've been wondering when they would find an outlet in her fiction. Didn't necessarily expect to find it in a story about werewolves, but that's fine. I do wonder whether there's a little hint of Dyer's own experiences here, or those of friends, with how one of the senior, rather unpleasant, men treats one of the women - commenting that women aren't worth training because they just up and leave to have babies. Anyway, Jess is a new vet in a rural town, where the clinic's biggest client is the local RAAF base with its patrol dogs. Werewolves are involved, but I won't spoil how. The asymmetric power dynamic comes in its experience/newbie aspect, as well as in its gender aspect. Dyer hints at the difficulties of being new to a job as well as being new to a small town - actually I'm just presuming it's a small town, but that's definitely the vibe I got - very effectively. You probably don't want to read this if you're going to be squeamish about matter-of-fact descriptions of veterinary procedures.
In "Zadie, Scythe of the West," Dyer wrenches us out of a relatively familiar world into one where only women are soldiers, and they're only allowed to kill as many enemies as children they have borne. The tiny detail in this story that delighted me was the rather obvious point that, as a consequence of this prohibition, the women have developed great skills at harming rather than killing. The asymmetric power here is once again a gendered one, as women have power because of their martial position, and presumably also because of the worship of a goddess who orders society and doles out punishment as necessary. The focus is on someone with a skerrick of power - an artist - whose expertise gets abused by someone with more power, for her own ends. The world of this story totally fascinated me, because there is so little back story: why the fighting? is this a fantasy or a SF world? And the story, in skipping to vignettes within the artist's and Zadie's life, suggest interesting ways for men and women, state and individual, to relate.
Having interviewed Dyer on my blog before I read this, I already know that she's working on a longer treatment of the world she depicts in "Wish me Luck," which is intriguing all by itself. Here, somehow, luck is a form of currency: it can be transferred between individuals, and used to purchase goods. As with the previous story, it's unclear whether this is more of a fantasy or SF conceptualisation, although the ending suggests SF - as does, now I think about it, the fact that Kvivik is expressly discussed as another planet, and our narrator has come from Earth. Still, the luck aspect suggests a blurring of genres. Anyway! Our narrator begins sympathetically enough, but it must be said that much of my sympathy had transmuted to distaste by the end of the story. He's one of those unpleasant people who keeps making promises... for tomorrow. But the world - oh, the world. Kvivik is a water world, with a human colony that appears to exist solely to supply water to its waterless sister-planet. Why these planets are worth the effort is unclear, and will perhaps be revealed by Dyer in her longer work. The story is mostly set amongst the dregs of society on Kvivik, which of course is where most of the best stories are found, and there are some distinctly unpleasant people there - and robots, and possibly half-humans, and a thoroughly mysterious Lady Adelaide. The asymmetry is found in the haves vs the have-nots, and in intention vs action. I think this is probably my favourite story of the quartet.
Finally, "Seven Days in Paris" gives the cover its Eiffel Tower. We're back on Earth, some time - but not too far? - into the future. The story comes from the perspective of Marwa B, who first appears to the reader while looking at someone identified as Marwa. Marwa B is taken out into Paris, to have experiences which her captors/handlers/users hope will stimulate dreams that in turn will help them to understand the original Marwa. Exactly who or what Marwa B is, or how her operators use her, is left opaque - what matters is that they do, and they believe it's necessary to do so. The asymmetry is a riff, I think, on that philosophic conundrum of whether it is permissible to torture one to save many. There's also a huge knowledge imbalance, with Marwa B having no real understanding of what she is being used for until right at the end; and of course it's a state vs individual thing, too. I enjoyed the development of Marwa B over her seven days - she's not an entirely clean slate, but she still gets to experience things relatively innocently - and Paris is a sensation-filled place to do that. I also really appreciated the point at which Dyer left this story.
This is an entirely worthy eighth volume in the Twelve Planets series. It's different from the others (that I have read... still haven't brought myself to read the Warren or the Lanagan...), as it should be, but fits in with the overall scope of the project - quality writing from Australian women.
Is it my fault that I ripped through each story, eager to know where it was going? It is my fault that each story is short enough that before I knew it I had finished one, turned the page, and started another?
I think not.
In the interests of, etc, I should point that I do know both Thoraiya Dyer, the author, and Alisa Krasnostein, the publisher. If I didn't like what I had read, I just wouldn't write anything... ;)
So. Asymmetry. In each story, a lack of balance, especially in power; sometimes, also, a lack of balance in an individual's life, making them particularly vulnerable to direct manipulation or simply life's vicissitudes.
The first story is "After Hours," and I'm so pleased to finally read something of Dyer's that makes use of her veterinary skills! I've been wondering when they would find an outlet in her fiction. Didn't necessarily expect to find it in a story about werewolves, but that's fine. I do wonder whether there's a little hint of Dyer's own experiences here, or those of friends, with how one of the senior, rather unpleasant, men treats one of the women - commenting that women aren't worth training because they just up and leave to have babies. Anyway, Jess is a new vet in a rural town, where the clinic's biggest client is the local RAAF base with its patrol dogs. Werewolves are involved, but I won't spoil how. The asymmetric power dynamic comes in its experience/newbie aspect, as well as in its gender aspect. Dyer hints at the difficulties of being new to a job as well as being new to a small town - actually I'm just presuming it's a small town, but that's definitely the vibe I got - very effectively. You probably don't want to read this if you're going to be squeamish about matter-of-fact descriptions of veterinary procedures.
In "Zadie, Scythe of the West," Dyer wrenches us out of a relatively familiar world into one where only women are soldiers, and they're only allowed to kill as many enemies as children they have borne. The tiny detail in this story that delighted me was the rather obvious point that, as a consequence of this prohibition, the women have developed great skills at harming rather than killing. The asymmetric power here is once again a gendered one, as women have power because of their martial position, and presumably also because of the worship of a goddess who orders society and doles out punishment as necessary. The focus is on someone with a skerrick of power - an artist - whose expertise gets abused by someone with more power, for her own ends. The world of this story totally fascinated me, because there is so little back story: why the fighting? is this a fantasy or a SF world? And the story, in skipping to vignettes within the artist's and Zadie's life, suggest interesting ways for men and women, state and individual, to relate.
Having interviewed Dyer on my blog before I read this, I already know that she's working on a longer treatment of the world she depicts in "Wish me Luck," which is intriguing all by itself. Here, somehow, luck is a form of currency: it can be transferred between individuals, and used to purchase goods. As with the previous story, it's unclear whether this is more of a fantasy or SF conceptualisation, although the ending suggests SF - as does, now I think about it, the fact that Kvivik is expressly discussed as another planet, and our narrator has come from Earth. Still, the luck aspect suggests a blurring of genres. Anyway! Our narrator begins sympathetically enough, but it must be said that much of my sympathy had transmuted to distaste by the end of the story. He's one of those unpleasant people who keeps making promises... for tomorrow. But the world - oh, the world. Kvivik is a water world, with a human colony that appears to exist solely to supply water to its waterless sister-planet. Why these planets are worth the effort is unclear, and will perhaps be revealed by Dyer in her longer work. The story is mostly set amongst the dregs of society on Kvivik, which of course is where most of the best stories are found, and there are some distinctly unpleasant people there - and robots, and possibly half-humans, and a thoroughly mysterious Lady Adelaide. The asymmetry is found in the haves vs the have-nots, and in intention vs action. I think this is probably my favourite story of the quartet.
Finally, "Seven Days in Paris" gives the cover its Eiffel Tower. We're back on Earth, some time - but not too far? - into the future. The story comes from the perspective of Marwa B, who first appears to the reader while looking at someone identified as Marwa. Marwa B is taken out into Paris, to have experiences which her captors/handlers/users hope will stimulate dreams that in turn will help them to understand the original Marwa. Exactly who or what Marwa B is, or how her operators use her, is left opaque - what matters is that they do, and they believe it's necessary to do so. The asymmetry is a riff, I think, on that philosophic conundrum of whether it is permissible to torture one to save many. There's also a huge knowledge imbalance, with Marwa B having no real understanding of what she is being used for until right at the end; and of course it's a state vs individual thing, too. I enjoyed the development of Marwa B over her seven days - she's not an entirely clean slate, but she still gets to experience things relatively innocently - and Paris is a sensation-filled place to do that. I also really appreciated the point at which Dyer left this story.
This is an entirely worthy eighth volume in the Twelve Planets series. It's different from the others (that I have read... still haven't brought myself to read the Warren or the Lanagan...), as it should be, but fits in with the overall scope of the project - quality writing from Australian women.
May 2, 2013
Asymmetry is the latest of the top shelf Twelve Planets series to emerge from Twelve Planet Press. It continues what I have found to be an outstanding showcase of Australian women writers in the speculative fiction field.
Thoraiya has been well supported by the team at Twelfth Planet Press for some time; she appeared in the anthologies, New Ceres Nights and Sprawl(her short, Yowie, won an Aurealis), had a novella, The Company Articles of Edward Teach (which won the Ditmar Novella Category in 2011) published as part of a double with Matthew Chrulew and now she’s produced Asymmetry. Thoraiya also picked up a Ditmar this year for her The Wisdom of Ants published published in Clarkesworld.
So as you would expect this collection of shorts is worthy of someone who is generating a lot of good work. There’s four stories that showcase Thoraiya’s versatility within the genre and I would be stretched to find a less than brilliant one amongst them:
Asymmetry is the latest of the top shelf Twelve Planets series to emerge from Twelve Planet Press. It continues what I have found to be an outstanding showcase of Australian women writers in the speculative fiction field.
Thoraiya has been well supported by the team at Twelfth Planet Press for some time; she appeared in the anthologies, New Ceres Nights and Sprawl(her short, Yowie, won an Aurealis), had a novella, The Company Articles of Edward Teach (which won the Ditmar Novella Category in 2011) published as part of a double with Matthew Chrulew and now she’s produced Asymmetry. Thoraiya also picked up a Ditmar this year for her The Wisdom of Ants published published in Clarkesworld.
So as you would expect this collection of shorts is worthy of someone who is generating a lot of good work. There’s four stories, that showcase Thoraiya’s versatility within the genre and I would be stretched to find a less than brilliant one amongst them:
I fell into After Hours, a story of a young vet attached to a practice that has a special relationship with the nearby military base. They house and train “special” dogs. It’s a sign of very good writing that a novel, let alone a short can draw you in and immerse you when you are tired. I had a distinct yearning for more of the interesting the world and characters Thoraiya has delivered here. Very smooth and subtle writing, great characterization and a tantalizing idea. It’s hard to pull off a werewolf tale and make it fresh but Thoraiya does.
Zadie, Scythe of the West, could not be further from the setting of After Hours. Thoraiya gives us a female dominated warrior society where to participate in battle a woman must have given birth for every life she takes. This set up is not as desirous as some might think though and the emotional core of this story comes from the tension that this society creates around relationships and that despite having to give a life before you take one, war and killing is still horrendous and perhaps unjustified. This short could I think spawn an entirely original Dark Fantasy series if Thoraiya were so inclined.
Wish Me Luck somehow manages to fuse a steampunk-ish future with trans-dimensional travel where you pay your way with physically manifesting luck. It felt very Final Fantasy to me a fusion of science and magic, with pseudo-victorian trappings. Again entirely different to the preceding stories.
And rounding out the quartet is Seven Days in Paris, which is partly about counter terrorism and partly about human cloning. It raises questions about the acceleration of organisms (tips its hat toward current issues on GMO) and what boundaries governments will cross when they think it necessary to save lives. Somewhat evocative of the questions raised by Blade Runner.
I would be very surprised if this weren’t on the awards list next year. The only regret I have after reading it was that it was so easily consumed. For a collection that is thematically about imbalance, Twelfth Planet Press has produced one of the most balanced collections I have come across in recent times.
Kudos to Amanda Rainey for cover design and Charles A. Tan for the eBook layout.
This review copy was made available by the publisher at no cost.
January 11, 2017
Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer is the eighth book in Twelfth Planet Press’s Twelve Planets series.
Thoraiya Dyer is an author whose short fiction I’ve loved in the past, and I very much looked forward to reading her volume of the Twelve Planets (and as an aside, I very much anticipate reading her debut novel, Crossroads of Canopy, which is in my review queue right now). This collection includes four unrelated short stories, all of which fall under the general speculative fiction umbrella, but are otherwise varied. There is, however, a thread that winds through all of the stories, in that all contain an asymmetry, an imbalance of power.
The collection opens with After Hours, which on the surface is the experience of a female veterinarian new at her job in a rural town. The speculative threads move beneath the surface of the events of the story, with much of the focus on Jess, the vet, who is working against a culture that treats her, as a woman, as very much not worth training, especially when it comes to work with the RAAF and their patrol dogs. This is a deeply powerful story, with much sympathy both for Jess and her co-workers, even as those who disparage her. I read this one, and immediately went back to the beginning and read it over again.
Zadie, Scythe of the West, takes a turn into a pure fantasy world. Dyer has inverted the gender roles in this world, with women acting as warriors, and men homekeepers (with much of their self worth being tied up in this role). There is a wonderful twist to this inversion, where the female warriors are only allowed to kill as many people as children they have birthed. I loved this concept, and adored this story and was utterly fascinated by this world. I’d love to see more of this world, and would pay good money for a novel (or ten) set in it.
Another deeply fascinating world is presented in Wish Me Luck, where luck itself works as a currency. I was quite frankly in awe of this story, and how Dyer managed to bring so many deeply interesting ideas and images into a short work, where many authors have struggled to present half as many in longer works. This was my favourite in the collection, and another world I’d love to see more works set in.
The final story in the collection is Seven Days in Paris. I feel that this is a story that it is best to come into with as little foreknowledge as possible. This is an incredibly powerful story, wrenching and deeply emotional. This one will linger long after you’ve read the final word.
Thus far, the collections published as part of the Twelve Planets have been truly outstanding, and Asymmetry rises easily to that high standard. If you’ve not read anything by Dyer before, this is a great place to start. Dyer stands with Australia’s best writers of short fiction, and Asymmetry presents her talent wonderfully.
Thoraiya Dyer is an author whose short fiction I’ve loved in the past, and I very much looked forward to reading her volume of the Twelve Planets (and as an aside, I very much anticipate reading her debut novel, Crossroads of Canopy, which is in my review queue right now). This collection includes four unrelated short stories, all of which fall under the general speculative fiction umbrella, but are otherwise varied. There is, however, a thread that winds through all of the stories, in that all contain an asymmetry, an imbalance of power.
The collection opens with After Hours, which on the surface is the experience of a female veterinarian new at her job in a rural town. The speculative threads move beneath the surface of the events of the story, with much of the focus on Jess, the vet, who is working against a culture that treats her, as a woman, as very much not worth training, especially when it comes to work with the RAAF and their patrol dogs. This is a deeply powerful story, with much sympathy both for Jess and her co-workers, even as those who disparage her. I read this one, and immediately went back to the beginning and read it over again.
Zadie, Scythe of the West, takes a turn into a pure fantasy world. Dyer has inverted the gender roles in this world, with women acting as warriors, and men homekeepers (with much of their self worth being tied up in this role). There is a wonderful twist to this inversion, where the female warriors are only allowed to kill as many people as children they have birthed. I loved this concept, and adored this story and was utterly fascinated by this world. I’d love to see more of this world, and would pay good money for a novel (or ten) set in it.
Another deeply fascinating world is presented in Wish Me Luck, where luck itself works as a currency. I was quite frankly in awe of this story, and how Dyer managed to bring so many deeply interesting ideas and images into a short work, where many authors have struggled to present half as many in longer works. This was my favourite in the collection, and another world I’d love to see more works set in.
The final story in the collection is Seven Days in Paris. I feel that this is a story that it is best to come into with as little foreknowledge as possible. This is an incredibly powerful story, wrenching and deeply emotional. This one will linger long after you’ve read the final word.
Thus far, the collections published as part of the Twelve Planets have been truly outstanding, and Asymmetry rises easily to that high standard. If you’ve not read anything by Dyer before, this is a great place to start. Dyer stands with Australia’s best writers of short fiction, and Asymmetry presents her talent wonderfully.
May 5, 2013
This was a great set of short stories.
The writing was clear and to the point. I enjoyed the style of starting halfway through a story kind of feel in the beginning of each short story.
My favorite stories out of the four have to be "Zadie, Scythe of the West" and "Seven Days in Paris".
"Zadie" had a Game of Thrones feel to it and reminded me of a Valhalla type world. "Seven Days" was great and very futuristic with the use of clones. It also connected with current affairs because it involves terrorist groups and bomb threats.
I really enjoyed Dyer's writing style and definitely recommend this for a funny and thought provoking read.
*This was sent to me by Tamara through a contest here on Goodreads and is apart of First Reads.
The writing was clear and to the point. I enjoyed the style of starting halfway through a story kind of feel in the beginning of each short story.
My favorite stories out of the four have to be "Zadie, Scythe of the West" and "Seven Days in Paris".
"Zadie" had a Game of Thrones feel to it and reminded me of a Valhalla type world. "Seven Days" was great and very futuristic with the use of clones. It also connected with current affairs because it involves terrorist groups and bomb threats.
I really enjoyed Dyer's writing style and definitely recommend this for a funny and thought provoking read.
*This was sent to me by Tamara through a contest here on Goodreads and is apart of First Reads.
May 17, 2013
Excellent collection of four strong and varied SF stories. My favourite was "Seven Days In Paris", which dealt with the response to terrorism in a way I'd never imagined before. I read the whole short book in a day, and it was a joy.
August 7, 2016
Asymmetry is the eighth book in the Twelve Planets series, released by Twelfth Planet Press, which showcase the talent of female Australian authors. There is now to be a thirteenth in the series, but that's a review for another time. The brief given to authors was to write 4 short stories of up to 40,000 words in total. The stories could be separate, discrete narratives or linked through character, setting or theme.
This collection contains four short stories that deal with identity, the rules that we obey because that's how we've been raised to be or aren't conditioned to question, whether the ends justify the means and all over, the asymmetry in life that we both strive to achieve or that will happen regardless.
After Hours
Jess is a vet, a little new and very serious about someday being a specialist surgeon, and working with a man with 37 years of experience called Bradley, who is quick and excellent at surgery. They have a military contract that they bend over backwards for, looking after the bomb squad dogs with very dedicated care and concern.
It's through this that a dog is brought in late one night - Jess lives above the vet clinic itself so she can be on call after hours, so she receives the dog who's acting strangely. Very strangely, considering she saw the dog only yesterday and it was perfectly behaved thanks to his handler Nadia, a somewhat eerie woman who lost a brother to a bomb, once. Then the next night, there's another dog, brought in by Nadia herself. And through this, Jess decides that maybe she'll stay on in this vet clinic after all.
Zadie, Scythe of the West
In this world, women are the warriors and men bring great shame upon them if they aren't perfect housekeepers. Women are the warriors for they also bring life into the world, and hence, equal everything out in perfect balance. They have seven children, so they can then take seven lives. Zadie is determined to take the life of a King as there is a prophecy that on his death, there shall be peace for many years.
She first tries to get there without having the children, and hence commits the sin of not being allowed to be a warrior just yet. However, once she's had children she then realises how wealthy each life really is, once she has held children and fed them from her own body.
The goddess in this world is harsh yet suitable, and I'd love to see more set in this world some day.
Wish Me Luck
According to Alex, Thoraiya is currently working on turning this piece into a longer piece of work - yay! Here we have a world where luck is a currency. You can transfer it between different people with a simple blessing, freely given... or there are tiny slower ways to earn it using animals but this is barely worth it. This is a planet other than Earth, where our main character is from, a man who is utterly hopeless, selfish and full of empty promises.
Lady Adelaide is marvellous, and I can't wait to see more of her. Set on a water planet, we see mostly the dregs of society where travel between other planets is possible but relies on having enough luck to pay for such a thing - or, at least, that's what they've been led to believe.
Seven Days in Paris
It's hard to decide which of the four is my favourite, but I think it's this one - futuristic sci-fi thriller where a criminal is of no use to the police to figure out where a bomb is before it goes off, so they make a copy of her which is easier to control so they can try to unearth information from her that way instead. Mawra is the original, and the character we follow is known only as Mawra B, and is treated with little to no regard - certainly barely as a 'real' human - as she pieces together what exactly is going on and who she is.
What I loved about this one was the questions it raised, and how realistic it all was, as well as being utterly possible. The collection as a whole benefits from Dyer's medical background as she's able to tie little facts and word choices throughout, giving it a reliable depth of 'yup, this could happen'.
This collection contains four short stories that deal with identity, the rules that we obey because that's how we've been raised to be or aren't conditioned to question, whether the ends justify the means and all over, the asymmetry in life that we both strive to achieve or that will happen regardless.
After Hours
Jess is a vet, a little new and very serious about someday being a specialist surgeon, and working with a man with 37 years of experience called Bradley, who is quick and excellent at surgery. They have a military contract that they bend over backwards for, looking after the bomb squad dogs with very dedicated care and concern.
It's through this that a dog is brought in late one night - Jess lives above the vet clinic itself so she can be on call after hours, so she receives the dog who's acting strangely. Very strangely, considering she saw the dog only yesterday and it was perfectly behaved thanks to his handler Nadia, a somewhat eerie woman who lost a brother to a bomb, once. Then the next night, there's another dog, brought in by Nadia herself. And through this, Jess decides that maybe she'll stay on in this vet clinic after all.
Zadie, Scythe of the West
In this world, women are the warriors and men bring great shame upon them if they aren't perfect housekeepers. Women are the warriors for they also bring life into the world, and hence, equal everything out in perfect balance. They have seven children, so they can then take seven lives. Zadie is determined to take the life of a King as there is a prophecy that on his death, there shall be peace for many years.
She first tries to get there without having the children, and hence commits the sin of not being allowed to be a warrior just yet. However, once she's had children she then realises how wealthy each life really is, once she has held children and fed them from her own body.
The goddess in this world is harsh yet suitable, and I'd love to see more set in this world some day.
Wish Me Luck
According to Alex, Thoraiya is currently working on turning this piece into a longer piece of work - yay! Here we have a world where luck is a currency. You can transfer it between different people with a simple blessing, freely given... or there are tiny slower ways to earn it using animals but this is barely worth it. This is a planet other than Earth, where our main character is from, a man who is utterly hopeless, selfish and full of empty promises.
Lady Adelaide is marvellous, and I can't wait to see more of her. Set on a water planet, we see mostly the dregs of society where travel between other planets is possible but relies on having enough luck to pay for such a thing - or, at least, that's what they've been led to believe.
Seven Days in Paris
It's hard to decide which of the four is my favourite, but I think it's this one - futuristic sci-fi thriller where a criminal is of no use to the police to figure out where a bomb is before it goes off, so they make a copy of her which is easier to control so they can try to unearth information from her that way instead. Mawra is the original, and the character we follow is known only as Mawra B, and is treated with little to no regard - certainly barely as a 'real' human - as she pieces together what exactly is going on and who she is.
What I loved about this one was the questions it raised, and how realistic it all was, as well as being utterly possible. The collection as a whole benefits from Dyer's medical background as she's able to tie little facts and word choices throughout, giving it a reliable depth of 'yup, this could happen'.
June 8, 2013
This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.
Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer is the latest in the excellent Twelve Planets series from Twelfth Planet Press. It is one of the shorter books in the series, and includes the following stories:
- After Hours
- Zadie, Scythe of the West
- Wish Me Luck
- Seven Days in Paris
Dyer has been winning a lot of awards over the last few years (e.g. recently won the Aurealis Award for her short piece The Wisdom of Ants) and I was keen to read this collection to get exposed to more of her writing. It is a diverse collection, from secondary world fantasy to science fiction (both far and near future) and with some urban fantasy thrown in for good measure.
After Hours starts the collection, with a tale set in rural Australia where werewolves guard an Australian army base. One of the point of view characters, Jess, is a newly minted vet, looking after the army base guard dogs (amongst other patients). Dyer captures the sense of a newly graduated professional quite well - many years of training behind you, but realising how little it actually applies to the real world. The changing point of view between the vet and a werewolf is effective, and the story conjures a sense of the Australian outback well.
Zadie, Scythe of the West is based in a matriarchal society where women are the warriors, and only able to kill as many people as they have brought into the world to create balance (although interestingly they can severely hurt as many people as they like). None of the characters is entirely sympathetic, but they are all very engaging. Issues of gender imbalance are thrown into sharp relief.
Wish Me Luck is set in a far future when an area of space has been discovered where luck can be harvested and commoditised. Another very engaging character, who starts the story in a very sympathetic light but is a very unreliable narrator. The premise of the world is interesting with a lot of background work done to underpin the story.
Seven Days in Paris explores near future use of technology to seek out terrorists. It is a slow-reveal story, so I can't say too much about the plot without spoiling. I enjoyed the manner in which information is divulged and the ending of the story is lovely. Probably my favourite story of the collection.
I can see why Dyer is gathering such praise. The writing is tight, but very evocative and her development of characters across very short story arcs is enviable. Her thematic exploration of power imbalances in this collection is impressive; to create such an array of very different stories that each throws a contrasting light on the asymmetric theme is quite an achievement.
All in all a very interesting read and a great way to get exposed to one of Australia's most talented writers in the short form. Highly recommended.
I also reviewed this book on my website.
Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer is the latest in the excellent Twelve Planets series from Twelfth Planet Press. It is one of the shorter books in the series, and includes the following stories:
- After Hours
- Zadie, Scythe of the West
- Wish Me Luck
- Seven Days in Paris
Dyer has been winning a lot of awards over the last few years (e.g. recently won the Aurealis Award for her short piece The Wisdom of Ants) and I was keen to read this collection to get exposed to more of her writing. It is a diverse collection, from secondary world fantasy to science fiction (both far and near future) and with some urban fantasy thrown in for good measure.
After Hours starts the collection, with a tale set in rural Australia where werewolves guard an Australian army base. One of the point of view characters, Jess, is a newly minted vet, looking after the army base guard dogs (amongst other patients). Dyer captures the sense of a newly graduated professional quite well - many years of training behind you, but realising how little it actually applies to the real world. The changing point of view between the vet and a werewolf is effective, and the story conjures a sense of the Australian outback well.
Zadie, Scythe of the West is based in a matriarchal society where women are the warriors, and only able to kill as many people as they have brought into the world to create balance (although interestingly they can severely hurt as many people as they like). None of the characters is entirely sympathetic, but they are all very engaging. Issues of gender imbalance are thrown into sharp relief.
Wish Me Luck is set in a far future when an area of space has been discovered where luck can be harvested and commoditised. Another very engaging character, who starts the story in a very sympathetic light but is a very unreliable narrator. The premise of the world is interesting with a lot of background work done to underpin the story.
Seven Days in Paris explores near future use of technology to seek out terrorists. It is a slow-reveal story, so I can't say too much about the plot without spoiling. I enjoyed the manner in which information is divulged and the ending of the story is lovely. Probably my favourite story of the collection.
I can see why Dyer is gathering such praise. The writing is tight, but very evocative and her development of characters across very short story arcs is enviable. Her thematic exploration of power imbalances in this collection is impressive; to create such an array of very different stories that each throws a contrasting light on the asymmetric theme is quite an achievement.
All in all a very interesting read and a great way to get exposed to one of Australia's most talented writers in the short form. Highly recommended.
I also reviewed this book on my website.
June 10, 2013
By now it should be obvious to anyone who reads my reviews that I have complete faith in the Twelve Planets Series from Twelfth Planet Press. This volume - Asymmetry - presents four new stories from Thoraiya Dyer, whose short story 'The Wisdom of Ants' (first published by Clarkesworld Magazine) was the winner for Best Short Story at the 2013 Ditmar Awards for Australian science fiction and fantasy. I wouldn't be surprised to see any of the stories in this collection in the running next year.
Asymmetry is excellent. If there's a unifying theme, I'm not up to the job of identifying it, though Nancy Kress takes a good stab at it in her introduction. Then again, I'm quite content with no theme at all, if the stories are this good. I'm going to do my best not to spoil any of them.
'After Hours' is the story of a veterinarian assigned to treat security dogs on a military airbase. She struggles to cope with the military mindset of her patients' handlers, only to discover that their belligerent, obstructive attitudes have an uncanny explanation. 'Zadie, Scythe of the West' is a military fantasy about a character trying to escape the rigid expectations of her family, society and religion - and the costs of taking shortcuts. In 'Wish Me Luck', a man begs and borrows luck from sympathetic passers-by so that he can be reunited with his lost love. (It may not sound like hard science fiction, but it is). Finally, in 'Seven Days in Paris' a woman is subjected to what seems like a pointless and grotesque social experiment, but her impatient handlers have a desperate purpose.
'After Hours' is probably my favourite story ever of its kind, though I won't say what kind that is (even if the back cover blurb does kind of give it away). However all four stories are excellent (and the sample chapters from Dyer's novella 'The Company Articles of Edward Teach' are an intriguing bonus).
Like the rest of the Twelve Planets books, Asymmetry does a fantastic job of showcasing the talents of a remarkable Australian speculative fiction writer. I am comfortable adding Thoraiya Dyer's name to my list of must-read authors on the basis of this collection.
Asymmetry is excellent. If there's a unifying theme, I'm not up to the job of identifying it, though Nancy Kress takes a good stab at it in her introduction. Then again, I'm quite content with no theme at all, if the stories are this good. I'm going to do my best not to spoil any of them.
'After Hours' is the story of a veterinarian assigned to treat security dogs on a military airbase. She struggles to cope with the military mindset of her patients' handlers, only to discover that their belligerent, obstructive attitudes have an uncanny explanation. 'Zadie, Scythe of the West' is a military fantasy about a character trying to escape the rigid expectations of her family, society and religion - and the costs of taking shortcuts. In 'Wish Me Luck', a man begs and borrows luck from sympathetic passers-by so that he can be reunited with his lost love. (It may not sound like hard science fiction, but it is). Finally, in 'Seven Days in Paris' a woman is subjected to what seems like a pointless and grotesque social experiment, but her impatient handlers have a desperate purpose.
'After Hours' is probably my favourite story ever of its kind, though I won't say what kind that is (even if the back cover blurb does kind of give it away). However all four stories are excellent (and the sample chapters from Dyer's novella 'The Company Articles of Edward Teach' are an intriguing bonus).
Like the rest of the Twelve Planets books, Asymmetry does a fantastic job of showcasing the talents of a remarkable Australian speculative fiction writer. I am comfortable adding Thoraiya Dyer's name to my list of must-read authors on the basis of this collection.
December 29, 2015
Three and a half stars. A mixed bag of stories, though I have a feeling some of them are going to grow on me, or stick with me.
After Hours, the first story, was my favourite. A heady tale of werewolves, vets, and a military base, it unfolds in delightfully dark and unpredictable ways. If the others had all been this good, this would have been a five-star read.
Zadie, Scythe of the West has one problem that holds it back: it's too short to do justice to its world and concepts. Which is a shame, because that world and those concepts are genuinely fascinating, unlike anything I've encountered in a fantasy world before. I think I've only said this maybe once before, but this cries out to be an epic. I feel like I'll be thinking about this one later on more than any of the others.
Wish Me Luck has a the same problem as the previous story, but to a lesser degree. Its luck-based universe is engaging, and the strange sci-fi universe that gets revealed has surprising depth. It heads in a direction that I'm not entirely sure gels with what's been set up, but it's never dull, and everything that's introduced is full of delightful complications and implications.
Seven Days in Paris is a surprisingly affecting tale of cloning being used to stop terrorism. It features a narrator who can barely keep her thoughts together, which could have gone terribly, but ends up being all the more effective because of it. It's got a few predictable beats and a few somewhat less so, but more importantly, it made me smile.
After Hours, the first story, was my favourite. A heady tale of werewolves, vets, and a military base, it unfolds in delightfully dark and unpredictable ways. If the others had all been this good, this would have been a five-star read.
Zadie, Scythe of the West has one problem that holds it back: it's too short to do justice to its world and concepts. Which is a shame, because that world and those concepts are genuinely fascinating, unlike anything I've encountered in a fantasy world before. I think I've only said this maybe once before, but this cries out to be an epic. I feel like I'll be thinking about this one later on more than any of the others.
Wish Me Luck has a the same problem as the previous story, but to a lesser degree. Its luck-based universe is engaging, and the strange sci-fi universe that gets revealed has surprising depth. It heads in a direction that I'm not entirely sure gels with what's been set up, but it's never dull, and everything that's introduced is full of delightful complications and implications.
Seven Days in Paris is a surprisingly affecting tale of cloning being used to stop terrorism. It features a narrator who can barely keep her thoughts together, which could have gone terribly, but ends up being all the more effective because of it. It's got a few predictable beats and a few somewhat less so, but more importantly, it made me smile.
February 2, 2015
I thought this collection of short stories got better as it went along. The first couple both showed promise but, for me, failed to deliver on their interesting premises. It seemed to me as if the author was trying in both cases to build a bigger and more complex world than she had the space for given the length of the work. I'm all for world-building via implication and letting the reader fill in the blanks, but in both cases there was so much left unsaid that I was left unsure of the motives and reasons for many of the characters' actions.
The latter stories are a bit longer, and do a better job of fleshing these things out. The highlight of the book for me was "Wish Me Luck," which manages to fit several compelling characters, a great setting, an interesting concept, and some fun multiple-universe musing into a small package. "Seven Days in Paris" is also a solid piece of sci-fi and surprisingly touching.
I would love to read a novel-length work from this author, and am excited to hear she's working on one.
The latter stories are a bit longer, and do a better job of fleshing these things out. The highlight of the book for me was "Wish Me Luck," which manages to fit several compelling characters, a great setting, an interesting concept, and some fun multiple-universe musing into a small package. "Seven Days in Paris" is also a solid piece of sci-fi and surprisingly touching.
I would love to read a novel-length work from this author, and am excited to hear she's working on one.
June 1, 2013
I keep thinking about some of the stories in this collection weeks afterward. There is a distinctive intelligent, poetic, undefinable something running through these stories that was very appealing to little old me.
To my mind this collection was about 5 parts fantasy to 3 parts science fiction (plus dash of Angostura bitters).
And, it was too short. Which was my main - and perhaps petty - reason for not giving it five stars.
To my mind this collection was about 5 parts fantasy to 3 parts science fiction (plus dash of Angostura bitters).
And, it was too short. Which was my main - and perhaps petty - reason for not giving it five stars.
May 30, 2013
Again, more short stories by Thoraiya which describe worlds that I want to find out MORE about!! Werewolf guard dogs on army bases, female warriors with subservient men, worlds where luck is a form of currency and last of all self aware human robots that escaped her captors...wow! My only complaint is they weren't long enough. Especially the werewolves...that story was particularly cool.
November 4, 2013
The stories were each unique. Wonderful collection and a quick read. In order of preference (not book order).
After Hours
Seven Days in Paris
Wish Me Luck
Zadie, Scythe of the West
After Hours
Seven Days in Paris
Wish Me Luck
Zadie, Scythe of the West
August 8, 2013
Splendid!
March 28, 2013
A stylish collection of strikingly different short stories. Terrific stuff.
April 26, 2014
Fabulous - four perceptive stories, each with a strange punch of its own. World-building, real characters, strong plots - it's all here. You'll zip through this small but perfectly formed book.
May 14, 2013
Lovely set of SF stories, each one with a unique setting and leaving the reader with something to think about. My favourite is the third, "Wish Me Luck."
February 25, 2017
Unsurprisingly, a great collection from a great writer. I loved the werewolves particularly.
August 16, 2013
A number of fascinating concepts that just make me want more, but that also work really well just as they are
October 17, 2014
Really interesting collection of thought-provoking stories. I particularly enjoyed "Seven Days In Paris". And there's an intro by Nancy Kress...wow!
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