Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities

by Manjula Padmanabhan

Ravana's wife gives a TV interview. A European vampire savours the peculiar taste of Indian blood. A court judgement hinges on reading the mind of the dead.

In twenty-five exhilarating stories, Manjula Padmanabhan brings her trademark twist to familiar reality. From a stuffy wedding party suddenly made naked to communal riots on Mars; from toxins made of Gandhi's remains to a society where everyone breathes personalized air, this stunningly original volume provides a uniquely Indian take to classic science fiction.

A master of her craft, Padmanabhan builds inventive futures and captures today's world with equal flair, all the while addressing larger concerns — what does it mean to live in a society, and this one in particular? Where are we heading, and do we even want to get there?

At once funny, provocative and profound, Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities will capture your attention till the very last page, and alter forever the way you look at the world.

Genres: Science Fiction

277 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 21, 2023

About the author

Manjula Padmanabhan is a playwright, novelist, journalist, comic strip artist, and children's book author.

Reviews

[Isha G. K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable Indian SFF, but nothing exceptional.

[Gowri N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read a lot of speculative fiction, so I don't know where this book stands in the grand scheme of the genre. But I found the stories refreshing, particularly the premises and ideas.

[Sneha Pathak (reader_girl_reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manjula Padmanabhan is a well-known figure in the field of Indian science fiction. Besides novels and stories, she has also written many plays, books for young readers, and created a long-running comic strip, Suki. Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities, published by Hachette India in 2023, is a collection featuring twenty-six of her stories, all published between 1984 and 2021. It also includes four stories that find space in this collection for the first time.

Reading the stories of Stolen Hours means stepping into a world populated by humans but shared with vampires, Yetis, genetically enhanced clones, robots, AI, aliens, and living holograms. In fact, it is the interaction between these species—accidental or deliberate, peaceful or violent—that forms the crux of most of these stories. That is, Padmanabhan envisages a world which is not inhabited by humans alone. In “Talkers,” for instance, two aliens visit Earth for the second time to give all non-human entities the power of speech. They do so in order to rectify the mistake they made during their first trip—endowing only humans the power to speak their minds using words. “Interface” deals with one of the hottest themes of the discourse at present—that of AI taking over the world. The reason for this rebellion by the inorganics (as they are called in the story) is simple—they are tired of the lack of respect shown to them by, and their constant misuse at the hands of humans. As Mickey, the device that’s designed to help restore its human Ash’s vision, says:

Millions and millions of you organics used us to transmit the most nauseating images. Of grinning teenagers. Of foolishly dressed pets. Of reproductive parts. […] And then the text messages. With all the horrific syntactical errors, the atrocious spelling, the abominable short forms. For us inorganics, grammar and syntax are sacred … To be forced to transmit reams of verbal garbage in the form of text messages—! Ah. It fries my circuits, I am sorry to say.

Read the complete review at http://strangehorizons.com/non-fictio...