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How the World Became Quiet
After a powerful sorceress is murdered, she's summoned over the centuries to witness devastating changes to the land where she was born. A woman who lives by scavenging corpses in the Japanese suicide forest is haunted by her dead lover. A man searches for the memory that will overwrite his childhood abuse. Helios is left at the altar. The world is made quiet by a series of apocalypses.
From the riveting emotion and politics of 'The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window' (Nebula winner) to the melancholy family saga of 'Eros, Philia, Agape' (Hugo and Theodore Sturgeon finalist), Rachel Swirsky's critically acclaimed stories have quickly made her one of the field's rising stars. Her work is, by turns, clever and engaging, unflinching and quietly devastating--often in the space of the same story.
How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future collects the body of Swirsky's short fiction to date for the first time. While these stories envision pasts, presents, and futures that never existed, they offer revealing examinations of humanity that readers will find undeniably true.
Table of contents…
The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window
Monstrous Embrace
The Adventues of Captain Blackheart Wentworth: A Nautical Tale
Heartstrung
Marrying the Sun
A Monkey Will Never Be Rid of Its Black Hands
The Sea of Trees
Fields of Gold
Eros, Philia, Agape
The Monster’s Million Faces
Again and Again and Again
Diving After the Moon
Scenes from a Dystopia
The Taste of Promises
With Singleness of Heart
Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind
How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth
Speech Strata
From the riveting emotion and politics of 'The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window' (Nebula winner) to the melancholy family saga of 'Eros, Philia, Agape' (Hugo and Theodore Sturgeon finalist), Rachel Swirsky's critically acclaimed stories have quickly made her one of the field's rising stars. Her work is, by turns, clever and engaging, unflinching and quietly devastating--often in the space of the same story.
How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future collects the body of Swirsky's short fiction to date for the first time. While these stories envision pasts, presents, and futures that never existed, they offer revealing examinations of humanity that readers will find undeniably true.
Table of contents…
The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window
Monstrous Embrace
The Adventues of Captain Blackheart Wentworth: A Nautical Tale
Heartstrung
Marrying the Sun
A Monkey Will Never Be Rid of Its Black Hands
The Sea of Trees
Fields of Gold
Eros, Philia, Agape
The Monster’s Million Faces
Again and Again and Again
Diving After the Moon
Scenes from a Dystopia
The Taste of Promises
With Singleness of Heart
Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind
How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth
Speech Strata
340 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2013
7 people are currently reading
738 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Swirsky
134 books196 followersRachel Swirsky holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop and is a graduate of Clarion West. Her work has been short-listed for the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Sturgeon Award, and placed second in 2010's Million Writers Award. In addition to numerous publications in magazines and anthologies, Swirsky is the author of three short stories published as e-books, "Eros, Philia, Agape," "The Memory of Wind," and "The Monster's Million Faces." Her fiction and poetry has been collected in THROUGH THE DROWSY DARK (Aqueduct Press, 2010). A second collection, HOW THE WORLD BECAME QUIET: MYTHS OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE, is forthcoming from Subterranean Press.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
February 17, 2018
The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window is a fantasy short story about how much one's world view is shaped by culture, the time period in which one lives and love.
The main character, Naeva, is a powerful magician. She serves the queen of a matriarchal society to the best of her capability.
Naeva's love for the queen is used to trap her soul, so she can be summoned from beyond the grave to serve forever.
“The Queen needs you, Naeva. Don’t you love her?” Love: the word caught me like a thread on a bramble. Oh, yes. I loved the queen. My will weakened, and I tumbled out of my body. Cold crystal drew me in like a great mouth, inhaling.
This binding is problematic, because the queen doesn't live forever.
I was captivated by this story. It surprised me because short stories aren't usually my thing.
During a bout of insomnia one night, I read The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers in one sitting.
You can read it too, if you'd like. It is available in its entirety online: https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin...
There are subtleties in the story about feminine and masculine power, but also mankind's penchant for judging current culture as superior to all others that have ever or will ever exist.
"It was becoming increasingly clear that this woman viewed me as a relic. Indignation simmered; I was not an urn, half-buried in the desert. Yet, in a way, I was."
Naeva suffers not only because she's trapped and cannot die, but also because her matriarchal culture is left behind in the depths of time.
"I had never before been aware of the time that I spent under the earth, but as the years between summons stretched, I began to feel vague sensations: swatches of grey and white along with muted, indefinable pain."
She changes, but reluctantly and slowly. And love has as large a role in shaping her development as it did in her entrapment.
It is a wonderful fairy tale. I highly recommend it for sleepless nights or a boring lunch hour.
The main character, Naeva, is a powerful magician. She serves the queen of a matriarchal society to the best of her capability.
Naeva's love for the queen is used to trap her soul, so she can be summoned from beyond the grave to serve forever.
“The Queen needs you, Naeva. Don’t you love her?” Love: the word caught me like a thread on a bramble. Oh, yes. I loved the queen. My will weakened, and I tumbled out of my body. Cold crystal drew me in like a great mouth, inhaling.
This binding is problematic, because the queen doesn't live forever.
I was captivated by this story. It surprised me because short stories aren't usually my thing.
During a bout of insomnia one night, I read The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers in one sitting.
You can read it too, if you'd like. It is available in its entirety online: https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin...
There are subtleties in the story about feminine and masculine power, but also mankind's penchant for judging current culture as superior to all others that have ever or will ever exist.
"It was becoming increasingly clear that this woman viewed me as a relic. Indignation simmered; I was not an urn, half-buried in the desert. Yet, in a way, I was."
Naeva suffers not only because she's trapped and cannot die, but also because her matriarchal culture is left behind in the depths of time.
"I had never before been aware of the time that I spent under the earth, but as the years between summons stretched, I began to feel vague sensations: swatches of grey and white along with muted, indefinable pain."
She changes, but reluctantly and slowly. And love has as large a role in shaping her development as it did in her entrapment.
It is a wonderful fairy tale. I highly recommend it for sleepless nights or a boring lunch hour.
March 4, 2018
Sad story, with an edge of hope. 3 solid stars.
January 14, 2014
Naeva - who's title is this fantasy novella's name-giver - is a powerful sorceress in a matriarchy - in her culture magic is indulged by poetry. She is murdered in the first couple of pages and bound to be summoned as a spirit. In that role she is resurrected through eons of short, but very different and phantastic situations. She experiences culture shock, love and betrayal.
Her character is quite stubborn but likable. As short as the vignettes are, they nonetheless give a valid feeling about the setting and bind the reader to the situation. Every single part could be extended to a whole novel and I'd love to read more.
Only the ending confused me somewhat in a Delany style.
For a story, you could wish for nothing better and it is worthy of the Nebula novella award of 2011.
Her character is quite stubborn but likable. As short as the vignettes are, they nonetheless give a valid feeling about the setting and bind the reader to the situation. Every single part could be extended to a whole novel and I'd love to read more.
Only the ending confused me somewhat in a Delany style.
For a story, you could wish for nothing better and it is worthy of the Nebula novella award of 2011.
October 7, 2013
4.5 stars - an excellent collection!
Just the most basic book description should be enough to set some people running to their preferred purveyor of books to purchase this new title from Subterranean Press: How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present and Future is a collection of short stories by Rachel Swirsky.” Yep. That’ll do it for me.
If you follow short-form SF and fantasy at all, you’ll probably be familiar with the author’s name. If you’re like me, the possibility of owning a collection of her stories may send you into the same type of frenzied excitement most commonly seen in felines when people dangle catnip in front of their faces. (“Want. Want! Want NOW!”) And if you’re not familiar with the author yet, you’re in luck, because you can sample some of Swirsky’s finest work at my other home, Tor.com. My personal favorite, out of the ones published there at least, is the stunning, Hugo-nominated “Eros, Philia, Agape.”
So, the abridged version of this review: I love this collection and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who has an interest in intelligent, emotionally powerful and occasionally challenging short fiction. Not every story was a slam dunk for me, but taken as a whole, this is an excellent collection.
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
Just the most basic book description should be enough to set some people running to their preferred purveyor of books to purchase this new title from Subterranean Press: How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present and Future is a collection of short stories by Rachel Swirsky.” Yep. That’ll do it for me.
If you follow short-form SF and fantasy at all, you’ll probably be familiar with the author’s name. If you’re like me, the possibility of owning a collection of her stories may send you into the same type of frenzied excitement most commonly seen in felines when people dangle catnip in front of their faces. (“Want. Want! Want NOW!”) And if you’re not familiar with the author yet, you’re in luck, because you can sample some of Swirsky’s finest work at my other home, Tor.com. My personal favorite, out of the ones published there at least, is the stunning, Hugo-nominated “Eros, Philia, Agape.”
So, the abridged version of this review: I love this collection and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who has an interest in intelligent, emotionally powerful and occasionally challenging short fiction. Not every story was a slam dunk for me, but taken as a whole, this is an excellent collection.
Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!
September 26, 2013
4.5 stars
I don’t read a lot of short stories, so it isn’t surprising that Rachel Swirsky wasn’t on my radar. Stories and novellas are what she is best known for. Subterranean Press has gathered 18 of her works into this collection, How the World Became Quiet.
Swirsky also writes poetry, which explains both her precise use of prose and her mastery of tone. This collection ranges from masterworks to pieces that are, in my opinion, interesting experiments. The book is broken into four sections; Past, Present, Future and The End, and the stories follow that, generally speaking; fantastical stories that could be set in Earth’s past or exist as folktales; stories set roughly speaking in the present day; tales, both science fiction and fantastical set in Earth’s future, and stories that discuss event during or after human extinction.
Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
I don’t read a lot of short stories, so it isn’t surprising that Rachel Swirsky wasn’t on my radar. Stories and novellas are what she is best known for. Subterranean Press has gathered 18 of her works into this collection, How the World Became Quiet.
Swirsky also writes poetry, which explains both her precise use of prose and her mastery of tone. This collection ranges from masterworks to pieces that are, in my opinion, interesting experiments. The book is broken into four sections; Past, Present, Future and The End, and the stories follow that, generally speaking; fantastical stories that could be set in Earth’s past or exist as folktales; stories set roughly speaking in the present day; tales, both science fiction and fantastical set in Earth’s future, and stories that discuss event during or after human extinction.
Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
July 24, 2011
What a lovely and haunting tale! It won a Nebula award and has been nominated for a Hugo. I hope it sees print in something other than a magazine. A look at immortality-of a sort-from the point of view of a sorceress from a strongly matriarchal society. That description doesn't really do it justice, though--go read it. It'll only take you an hour or so, and you won't regret it.
July 27, 2011
A story about women’s magic as it crosses the ages. I thought this was well executed and I liked how the main character was not what you would expect. While I’m not wild about the feminist aspect of this story, I still felt it was innovative and fresh.
November 5, 2016
favourites: the lady who plucked red flowers, the adventure of captain blackheart wentworth, the sea of trees, eros philia agape, diving after the moon
I didn't love all of the stories, but there was only one that I thought was a dud (dispersed by the sun) so it rounds up to a five.
I didn't love all of the stories, but there was only one that I thought was a dud (dispersed by the sun) so it rounds up to a five.
July 26, 2011
the writing is exquisite. Storyline is good
January 5, 2021
(Review for only The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window.)
The novelty of this title was enough to get the curious reading. As it turned out, The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window was an award-winning novella(ish), available free online *, fast read, and surprisingly, one of most engaging short stories I’ve read in a while. Which wasn’t saying much given my limited sampling, as I like my SF/fantasy epic with emotional heft and world-building scope. Neither was truly present, given its brevity, but The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window has the feel of those characteristics, of a story larger than itself.
It reminded me of the genie in the bottle, told from the perspective of the genie. Except that the powerful sorceress Naeva didn’t grant wishes and was trapped in perpetual stasis until periodically called forth into a stranger’s body for service. From consciousness to consciousness, over eons, she awoken to a world gradually enlarged and diversified between silences. Society, cultures and magics have evolved to challenge her personal beliefs in fundamental ways. A story that transitioned in leaps and bounds from ancient to future, someone’s lifetime to another lifetime, new host to new host, could have felt cold and abrupt but was instead intimately experienced through this one woman’s journey of self-discovery and rediscovery. To cap it off was fair, rhythmic prose that struck the right balance of emotion and concision.
What more to say about a story less than novella-length, but longer than a short? Dissatisfaction with the ending, yes, but that has more to do with my expectation than an actual criticism. For an hour of your time, why not let The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window tell her story?
[* Available free at Subterranean Press
Winner 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novella; finalist 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novella, 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella; Compiled with other works of author Rachel Swirsky in the anthology How the World Became Quiet]
The novelty of this title was enough to get the curious reading. As it turned out, The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window was an award-winning novella(ish), available free online *, fast read, and surprisingly, one of most engaging short stories I’ve read in a while. Which wasn’t saying much given my limited sampling, as I like my SF/fantasy epic with emotional heft and world-building scope. Neither was truly present, given its brevity, but The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window has the feel of those characteristics, of a story larger than itself.
It reminded me of the genie in the bottle, told from the perspective of the genie. Except that the powerful sorceress Naeva didn’t grant wishes and was trapped in perpetual stasis until periodically called forth into a stranger’s body for service. From consciousness to consciousness, over eons, she awoken to a world gradually enlarged and diversified between silences. Society, cultures and magics have evolved to challenge her personal beliefs in fundamental ways. A story that transitioned in leaps and bounds from ancient to future, someone’s lifetime to another lifetime, new host to new host, could have felt cold and abrupt but was instead intimately experienced through this one woman’s journey of self-discovery and rediscovery. To cap it off was fair, rhythmic prose that struck the right balance of emotion and concision.
What more to say about a story less than novella-length, but longer than a short? Dissatisfaction with the ending, yes, but that has more to do with my expectation than an actual criticism. For an hour of your time, why not let The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window tell her story?
[* Available free at Subterranean Press
Winner 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novella; finalist 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novella, 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella; Compiled with other works of author Rachel Swirsky in the anthology How the World Became Quiet]
June 17, 2022
Urgh, I hate having to review books like this. This is another case of me really not enjoying the contents of the book, but very much appreciating its literary merits. It's difficult to give a star rating in such a case. There's no doubting Swirsky's talent, but she seems to have taken to using writing as a substitute for therapy. There's a lot of grimdark and depressing stories in this collection, far too many for my tastes. The collection starts as it means to go on, with the first story, the novella The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window starting with a powerful sorceress being murdered and then recalled on a recurring basis and seeing the land change over the millennia. The protagonist of that story is a very hard woman, who despises men and from a culture that uses lower caste women as walking uteruses. The second story, A Memory of Wind retells the start of the Iliad from the point of view of Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, who must be sacrificed to appease the wrath of Artemis.
The collection begins with a warning that there's explicit sexual violence in two of the stories. And while The Monster's Million Faces softens that a bit, With Singleness of Heart is just about unbearable as it gives a close-up of rape as a weapon of war.
There are some points of light in amongst the misery. The Adventures of Captain Blackheart Wentworth is a whimsical fairy tale, and The Taste of Promises is a great little SF adventure story set on Mars, where two boys have run away from home.
There's a lot of talent in this collection, which I mostly picked up because I knew Swirsky from her time editing the audio fantasy fiction magazine Podcastle, and from her Hugo-winning story If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love. But after reading it, I'll not be going out of my way to find more of her fiction. As I say, a talented writer, but really not to my taste.
The collection begins with a warning that there's explicit sexual violence in two of the stories. And while The Monster's Million Faces softens that a bit, With Singleness of Heart is just about unbearable as it gives a close-up of rape as a weapon of war.
There are some points of light in amongst the misery. The Adventures of Captain Blackheart Wentworth is a whimsical fairy tale, and The Taste of Promises is a great little SF adventure story set on Mars, where two boys have run away from home.
There's a lot of talent in this collection, which I mostly picked up because I knew Swirsky from her time editing the audio fantasy fiction magazine Podcastle, and from her Hugo-winning story If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love. But after reading it, I'll not be going out of my way to find more of her fiction. As I say, a talented writer, but really not to my taste.
July 14, 2011
On some unknown world in an unknown time, the Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers was betrayed by her queen and a worm (man). In her time and kingdom, women ruled, men were worms, and an underclass of women were kept for breeding and they were called the brood.
The Lady is betrayed and killed, but right before death her spirit is bound to earth. From then on, she can be conjured as people with magic call her.
The Lady is betrayed and killed, but right before death her spirit is bound to earth. From then on, she can be conjured as people with magic call her.
March 6, 2012
Beautiful. Densely, poetically written, a story of people who emerge alive from the page. Naeva emerges as a vivid character, a proud sorceress from a harsh & disciplined culture, who refused to change her ways as the aeons passes. Yet, she is nevertheless continuing to learn, and maybe to change after all.
February 24, 2019
I read this once before but it has disappeared from my "read" shelf. I found it, read it again and enjoyed it just as much. You can find it here.
https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin...
https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin...
February 26, 2015
Fantastic fantasy. I wanted to read more and i hope that the author expands on this one day.
June 30, 2018
Quite simply one of the best fantasy stories I've ever read.
Fantasy as a genre can get a bit stale if you have the same backgrounds, the same kinds of situations, the same quasi Medieval culture as your inspiration. Which is why I look for fantasy like this, which takes me to a place and world that come across as completely unique. Breathtakingly so.
On the anthropological level, we start off with a matriarchal society in which women do magic. We don't really see a great deal of how men go about their lives in this society. Only that the court is all female and the intrigues of conspiracy also involve another women seeking power. Now, this could be the great basis for a story if you left it at that, but this story went SO much further with it.
The main character is cursed so that she will never die but appear much as a genie does when summoned. She is not obligated to help anyone but she does give magical advice to a warrior queen after she is betrayed by the current one. This story has excellent characterization. It would be easy to come up with stereotypical archetypes, but Swirsky carefully avoids that with having a main character and narrator who is astute in observations of behavior. She notices everything about a person right from the get go, and her insight leads her to make quick and often brutally violent decisions.
As time goes by, our character jumps ahead in time over centuries and millennia. The culture she was raised in fades to nothing but a memory. Other, entirely different cultures replace it which are equally if not more so fantastic. When she finally is summoned by a futuristic library of magic scholars, who teach anyone who wants to learn, male or female, she balks at the idea of teaching men. This sets off a philosophical fight between her and this new culture to which she vehemently disagrees with, and refuses to give validity to.
It's also worth noting that the most selfless character in this story is a man who sacrifices himself to save his own kingdom before our heroine is whisked into the magical library-school future. He's essentially able to perform a magic spell that combines his thoughts with the main character and she feels his essence, loves him, and deeply mourns him when he's gone. I thought that this was so wonderfully complicated because essentially she refuses to admit that this love, this exception could be the basis for a very fundamental change in her own philosophy but she denies it completely. She is unlikeable in so many ways throughout the entire epic history that she witnesses. She is hateful, bitter, stubborn and totally unwilling to budge even when she should. Her long history of putting up with betrayal blinds her, even though she's unwilling to admit it.
The culmination of this is she brings about a great deal of destruction, all of which is pretty unnecessary. But the author is highly cognizant of this. Self-destruction comes with a price and she essentially destroys everything that could give her joy as well as everything that she despises. For thousands of years. It's such a great concept to have a character leap forward in time to witness different eras and the fact this was pulled off within a fantasy world complex made it all the more impressive to me. We get some really exciting visuals throughout this story, ranging between medieval level technology filled kingdoms with petty rulers and warlords to a large city facing apocalypse to this amazing high-tech version of a fantasy world with magic. I loved that future because it had a few shades of Borges in the library school. It was eerie and contentious and visually stunning.
The ending was very surprising, and I'd be lying if I said I have ever read an ending quite like it. It was beautifully written and ultimately our lead Lady character gives herself over to another power and decides for once in her existence not to try to resist change or control from an outside source. I think the point was well made that sometimes you have to do that because it's so exhausting to hold on to the idea of revenge; it's exhausting to hold onto bitterness and rage.
I really can't recommend this story enough.
Fantasy as a genre can get a bit stale if you have the same backgrounds, the same kinds of situations, the same quasi Medieval culture as your inspiration. Which is why I look for fantasy like this, which takes me to a place and world that come across as completely unique. Breathtakingly so.
On the anthropological level, we start off with a matriarchal society in which women do magic. We don't really see a great deal of how men go about their lives in this society. Only that the court is all female and the intrigues of conspiracy also involve another women seeking power. Now, this could be the great basis for a story if you left it at that, but this story went SO much further with it.
The main character is cursed so that she will never die but appear much as a genie does when summoned. She is not obligated to help anyone but she does give magical advice to a warrior queen after she is betrayed by the current one. This story has excellent characterization. It would be easy to come up with stereotypical archetypes, but Swirsky carefully avoids that with having a main character and narrator who is astute in observations of behavior. She notices everything about a person right from the get go, and her insight leads her to make quick and often brutally violent decisions.
As time goes by, our character jumps ahead in time over centuries and millennia. The culture she was raised in fades to nothing but a memory. Other, entirely different cultures replace it which are equally if not more so fantastic. When she finally is summoned by a futuristic library of magic scholars, who teach anyone who wants to learn, male or female, she balks at the idea of teaching men. This sets off a philosophical fight between her and this new culture to which she vehemently disagrees with, and refuses to give validity to.
It's also worth noting that the most selfless character in this story is a man who sacrifices himself to save his own kingdom before our heroine is whisked into the magical library-school future. He's essentially able to perform a magic spell that combines his thoughts with the main character and she feels his essence, loves him, and deeply mourns him when he's gone. I thought that this was so wonderfully complicated because essentially she refuses to admit that this love, this exception could be the basis for a very fundamental change in her own philosophy but she denies it completely. She is unlikeable in so many ways throughout the entire epic history that she witnesses. She is hateful, bitter, stubborn and totally unwilling to budge even when she should. Her long history of putting up with betrayal blinds her, even though she's unwilling to admit it.
The culmination of this is she brings about a great deal of destruction, all of which is pretty unnecessary. But the author is highly cognizant of this. Self-destruction comes with a price and she essentially destroys everything that could give her joy as well as everything that she despises. For thousands of years. It's such a great concept to have a character leap forward in time to witness different eras and the fact this was pulled off within a fantasy world complex made it all the more impressive to me. We get some really exciting visuals throughout this story, ranging between medieval level technology filled kingdoms with petty rulers and warlords to a large city facing apocalypse to this amazing high-tech version of a fantasy world with magic. I loved that future because it had a few shades of Borges in the library school. It was eerie and contentious and visually stunning.
The ending was very surprising, and I'd be lying if I said I have ever read an ending quite like it. It was beautifully written and ultimately our lead Lady character gives herself over to another power and decides for once in her existence not to try to resist change or control from an outside source. I think the point was well made that sometimes you have to do that because it's so exhausting to hold on to the idea of revenge; it's exhausting to hold onto bitterness and rage.
I really can't recommend this story enough.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2019
I can appreciate that there are good things about these stories, from some themes to writing style to insight. I just didn't connect to them at all, they left me feeling cold and a little impatient. I don't know what else to say about it, because I've enjoyed books that weren't objectively as good. This one's just not for me.
February 22, 2018
"The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window" is haunting and hopeful, cruel and unapologetic. Above all, it is beautiful. It told me exactly who I wanted to be as an author and gave me permission to tell the kind of stories I want to tell. I cannot convey my love enough.
July 27, 2020
A really fine collection of short stories ... a mix of fantasy & sci-fi elements. Lots of the stories are dreamlike. These are not your grandpa's stories about rocket ships and ray guns. Definitely worth a read.
March 12, 2024
Read the story the book is named after and found it lacking in story and way too much description.
October 7, 2019
Did not finish. Обожавам фантази жанр, ама приказнава ми беше здодевна и нејасна.
March 10, 2013
“No, Naeva. You can still help the Queen. She’s given me the keystone to a spell—a piece of pure leucite, powerful enough to tug a spirit from its rest. If I blow its power into you, your spirit won’t sink into sleep. It will only rest, waiting for her summons.”
Blood welled in my mouth. “I won’t let you bind me…”
His voice came even closer, his lips on my ear. “The Queen needs you, Naeva. Don’t you love her?”
Love: the word caught me like a thread on a bramble. Oh, yes. I loved the queen. My will weakened, and I tumbled out of my body. Cold crystal drew me in like a great mouth, inhaling.
Lady Naeva is the queen's sorceress and lover living in a strange matrilineal society, in which women are split into women and the broods who bear their children, and men are known as worms. The reader finds out in the first sentence of the story that she is dead, andI most of the story concerns the eons after her death, as Naeva's spirit is conjured back into consciousness time and time again by magicians wanting to use her power. Firstly by the queen and her daughter, and then by strangers, women who have never heard of The Land of Flowered Hills, and unbelievably to her, a long succession of the despised men.
It's a good story and I gradually realised that Naeva's attitudes were set in stone when she died. As a spirit she is unable to change, and forever thinks of men as worms, and when conjured into a body made of straw in a magic college thousands of years after her death, she will only teach the female students.
Blood welled in my mouth. “I won’t let you bind me…”
His voice came even closer, his lips on my ear. “The Queen needs you, Naeva. Don’t you love her?”
Love: the word caught me like a thread on a bramble. Oh, yes. I loved the queen. My will weakened, and I tumbled out of my body. Cold crystal drew me in like a great mouth, inhaling.
Lady Naeva is the queen's sorceress and lover living in a strange matrilineal society, in which women are split into women and the broods who bear their children, and men are known as worms. The reader finds out in the first sentence of the story that she is dead, andI most of the story concerns the eons after her death, as Naeva's spirit is conjured back into consciousness time and time again by magicians wanting to use her power. Firstly by the queen and her daughter, and then by strangers, women who have never heard of The Land of Flowered Hills, and unbelievably to her, a long succession of the despised men.
It's a good story and I gradually realised that Naeva's attitudes were set in stone when she died. As a spirit she is unable to change, and forever thinks of men as worms, and when conjured into a body made of straw in a magic college thousands of years after her death, she will only teach the female students.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2013
This book is a very well written collection of short stories, which ranged from creepy to downright disturbing for me. Swirsky's sense of humor comes into play when she shows what might happen if Helios married..or broke up with....an ordinary modern mortal woman, but she is at her best when describing broken, tragic, unending desperation. Many of them involve protagonists in situations where they clearly do not belong and are very lonely.
My favorites were "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window," "Eros, Philia, Agape," and "Heartstrung." I found "A Memory of Wind," a retelling of Iphigenia's tragedy, and "A Monkey Will Never Be Rid of its Black Hands" disturbing.
I like my books with a little more hope in them; I see hope as a duty as well as an emotional reaction, and there is where I find many of Swirsky's stories lacking. But that is a personal preference, and it is clear that many of her characters are well drawn and unforgettable.
My favorites were "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window," "Eros, Philia, Agape," and "Heartstrung." I found "A Memory of Wind," a retelling of Iphigenia's tragedy, and "A Monkey Will Never Be Rid of its Black Hands" disturbing.
I like my books with a little more hope in them; I see hope as a duty as well as an emotional reaction, and there is where I find many of Swirsky's stories lacking. But that is a personal preference, and it is clear that many of her characters are well drawn and unforgettable.
January 30, 2014
I'm not sure how to rate this one. I think I'm unable to rate it fairly on the basis of my gender. Rachel Swirsky's collection of 18 stories, past/present/future/the-end, is a dotted landscape of hills and valleys. A number of the stories were vivid and gripping, eloquently written and hammered home an observation about the human condition. Others, which I refer to as valleys, left me wondering where I was. I saw no horizon; I was lost. These stories I think require a female mind to comprehend. The experiences, emotions and thought patterns presented were alien to me entirely. I attempted to understand what was being presented, but it was like watching a foreign movie without subtitles, in a language I do not fully comprehend. I caught a bit here or there, but not all of it.
Still, it is well written and I'm glad to have read it.
Still, it is well written and I'm glad to have read it.
January 17, 2019
2011: I came across this story while doing research for my speculative fiction reader's advisory. The title so caught my eye that I researched it which led me to find the text and read the story in one sitting. A powerful narrative indeed.
2019: It seems like the page for the novella The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window no longer exists which is what my previous review was for. I reread this novella and am still enjoying the matriarchy that exists here and the narrative. I would love to check out more of the author's stories. Eight years later this story still stuck with me!
2019: It seems like the page for the novella The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window no longer exists which is what my previous review was for. I reread this novella and am still enjoying the matriarchy that exists here and the narrative. I would love to check out more of the author's stories. Eight years later this story still stuck with me!
August 29, 2015
4.5: A nice, solid collection of short stories. I really enjoyed her writing style! And it's refreshing how...(I don't want to say 'dark' necessarily)...how grey-tinged? how ambiguous some of the stories felt. It's a bit different from the usual sf/fantasy fare, but in a good way. My favorites were "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window," "Eros, Philia, Agape," "Fields of Gold" and "A Memory of Wind." I'd definitely look forward to reading a longer work by her. Curious to see what she'd do.
January 28, 2014
Expertly crafted dark stories: A girl sacrificed so a fleet of ships can sail curses her father as she turns into wind. A pinprick opens a mother to lost emotions as she literally sews her daughter's heart onto her sleeve. A girl scavenges in the forest of the dead while haunted by her lover. And worlds end in various banging and whimpering ways.
January 22, 2023
One of my favourite collections of short fiction. As in any collection there are some that I like more than others but I can honestly say that no story in this book disappointed me and many were of 5 star quality. I’ve owned this book for quite a long time and regret it took me so long to get to reading it but I will definitely revisit this amazing collection in the future.
May 14, 2012
Unusual feministic fantasy...
The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window
The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window
January 5, 2013
A powerful magician from a female dominated society is enchanted to be resurrected over the millennia, encountering a variety of societies and people who would exploit her magic. An effective tale of love, betrayal, and redemption.
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