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Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora
A desperate trek through the icy canyons of Mars, a doll-sized family with giant-sized opinions, a defiant princess whose fate must remain a secret… Welcome to the wild, colorful, and ever-blossoming landscapes of the Ukrainian imagination. Embroidered Worlds presents a bold glimpse into fantastic storytelling throughout Ukrainian culture, from science fiction, fantasy, and horror to slipstream, fairy tales, and more.
This collection gathers 30 short stories from writers living in wartime Ukraine, their work translated into English for the very first time, as well as from international authors of Ukrainian heritage. Come, now, and experience the magic, the terror, and the wonder-filled surprises of the worlds they’ve brought to life.
This collection gathers 30 short stories from writers living in wartime Ukraine, their work translated into English for the very first time, as well as from international authors of Ukrainian heritage. Come, now, and experience the magic, the terror, and the wonder-filled surprises of the worlds they’ve brought to life.
460 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 19, 2023
17 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Valya Dudycz Lupescu
19 books151 followersValya Dudycz Lupescu has been making magic with food and words for more than 20 years, incorporating folklore from her Ukrainian heritage with practices that honor the Earth. Valya is the author of The Silence of Trees (Wolfsword Press) and founding editor of Conclave: A Journal of Character. Along with Stephen Segal, she is the co-author of Forking Good (Quirk Books) and Geek Parenting (Quirk Books) , and co-founder of the Wyrd Words storytelling laboratory. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her publications include, The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Kenyon Review, Culture, and Strange Horizons.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 9, 2024
In a Nutshell: A sci-fi anthology by Ukrainian writers, both citizens and diasporic. Varied in genres and innovative in presentation, but somehow, the content and the approach didn’t click with me. I think this is more of a ME problem, so take this review with a pinch of salt.
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This anthology contains thirty stories penned by Ukrainian writers living within the country (with their works being translated to English for the first time) and those living in other nations. The stories come from a variety of SFF genres such as science fiction, space opera, horror, fantasy, dystopian, and even slipstream.
I always lament when anthologies don't come with introductory notes about the theme. This one spoilt me for choice. It had not one but two brilliant introductory notes written by the three editors. These offer a touching tribute to stories and the Ukraine context, and also explain why escapist fiction such as mysteries and fantasies are so common in that country. I love how heartfelt the tone was, especially in the first note. This line will especially stay with me: "Stories reveal something about the people telling them."
The editors describe these tales as “stories of transformation, by luck or achievement, through wit or sacrifice, with the characters experiencing moments of rebirth, reconsideration, renewal.” Most of the tales were thus quite poignant or dramatic, though a couple had a touch of wry humour.
So far, so good. The intent proved itself. But the content… that was a different experience altogether.
I had grabbed this anthology mainly for the ethnicity of the writers. One of my favourite indie sci-fi writers is Anton Eine, who is also Ukrainian. (I was a bit disappointed to see nothing by him in this collection.) I was hoping to experience a somewhat similar high on reading this book, but that wasn’t to happen.
Did I get a sense of Ukrainian culture from these tales? Not really. But SFF writing is not about cultural representation, so I wouldn’t dock off points for this.
While I followed my usual pattern of reading 1-2 stories a day, it took me more than an hour to complete each session. This is partly because of the length. 460 pages is much too long for an anthology. The page count itself will dissuade many readers. Also, 30 stories is way too many for a single collection, and when the stories are not distributed appropriately across the volume, they start generating a feel of déjà vu.
No matter how much I tried, my mind kept drifting away from the tales. I am not sure if it is the writing approach (either too conversational, or hopping across various characters within the same tale, or with multiple scene changes that felt jumpy), the repetitiveness at the start (with all the initial stories being space adventures), the sluggish pace (most tales were too meandering and/or too verbose) or the translation (a tad too literary; unless someone reads the original tales and compares the tones, it's tough to say if the literary feel is the author's intent or the translator's prerogative or simply an awkward turn of phrase from a non-native speaker.) The innovativeness of the tales was clearly visible, but the style of presentation didn’t suit my reading tastes.
As always, I read the stories individually, but most of them fell between the 2 to 3.5 star mark for me, with very few exceptions. There were no standout stories that I would count as memorable.
Maybe this book might work better for those readers who are more attuned to this meandering kind of writing style. It could also be a good fit to more avid SFF fans; I am just a dabbler in this genre. If nothing else, it serves as a great way of showing your support to indie Ukrainian writers, even though there is not much about Ukraine in the stories.
Hitting the midway mark in solidarity with the writers, in the hope that this book might find the right reader. My average rating for all the stories also rounds up to 3 stars, so it is fairly accurate of my feelings about the content as well.
My thanks to Atthis Arts and NetGalley for the DRC of “Embroidered Worlds”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || X/Twitter || Facebook ||
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This anthology contains thirty stories penned by Ukrainian writers living within the country (with their works being translated to English for the first time) and those living in other nations. The stories come from a variety of SFF genres such as science fiction, space opera, horror, fantasy, dystopian, and even slipstream.
I always lament when anthologies don't come with introductory notes about the theme. This one spoilt me for choice. It had not one but two brilliant introductory notes written by the three editors. These offer a touching tribute to stories and the Ukraine context, and also explain why escapist fiction such as mysteries and fantasies are so common in that country. I love how heartfelt the tone was, especially in the first note. This line will especially stay with me: "Stories reveal something about the people telling them."
The editors describe these tales as “stories of transformation, by luck or achievement, through wit or sacrifice, with the characters experiencing moments of rebirth, reconsideration, renewal.” Most of the tales were thus quite poignant or dramatic, though a couple had a touch of wry humour.
So far, so good. The intent proved itself. But the content… that was a different experience altogether.
I had grabbed this anthology mainly for the ethnicity of the writers. One of my favourite indie sci-fi writers is Anton Eine, who is also Ukrainian. (I was a bit disappointed to see nothing by him in this collection.) I was hoping to experience a somewhat similar high on reading this book, but that wasn’t to happen.
Did I get a sense of Ukrainian culture from these tales? Not really. But SFF writing is not about cultural representation, so I wouldn’t dock off points for this.
While I followed my usual pattern of reading 1-2 stories a day, it took me more than an hour to complete each session. This is partly because of the length. 460 pages is much too long for an anthology. The page count itself will dissuade many readers. Also, 30 stories is way too many for a single collection, and when the stories are not distributed appropriately across the volume, they start generating a feel of déjà vu.
No matter how much I tried, my mind kept drifting away from the tales. I am not sure if it is the writing approach (either too conversational, or hopping across various characters within the same tale, or with multiple scene changes that felt jumpy), the repetitiveness at the start (with all the initial stories being space adventures), the sluggish pace (most tales were too meandering and/or too verbose) or the translation (a tad too literary; unless someone reads the original tales and compares the tones, it's tough to say if the literary feel is the author's intent or the translator's prerogative or simply an awkward turn of phrase from a non-native speaker.) The innovativeness of the tales was clearly visible, but the style of presentation didn’t suit my reading tastes.
As always, I read the stories individually, but most of them fell between the 2 to 3.5 star mark for me, with very few exceptions. There were no standout stories that I would count as memorable.
Maybe this book might work better for those readers who are more attuned to this meandering kind of writing style. It could also be a good fit to more avid SFF fans; I am just a dabbler in this genre. If nothing else, it serves as a great way of showing your support to indie Ukrainian writers, even though there is not much about Ukraine in the stories.
Hitting the midway mark in solidarity with the writers, in the hope that this book might find the right reader. My average rating for all the stories also rounds up to 3 stars, so it is fairly accurate of my feelings about the content as well.
My thanks to Atthis Arts and NetGalley for the DRC of “Embroidered Worlds”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || X/Twitter || Facebook ||
Read
May 29, 2024My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and Attis Arts for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.
I'm so happy that this short story collection exists & so grateful to everyone involved in putting it together. I sometimes fear that, with Ukrainians only showing up in the western media when we are dying gruesome deaths, everybody will eventually assume that dying is all that we are good for, hence there's no point in worrying about it too much. So I appreciate every bit of representation of Ukrainians as storytellers, inventors, well, pretty much in any role that showcases our agency.
Importantly, this collection also offers a realistically broad and diverse understanding of who Ukrainians are, including stories from the diaspora (or from more recent immigrants), as well as authors from different cultures that weave into the Ukrainian cultural landscape (for example, R. Lemberg's short story set during the Holocaust about the last dance of the cities that are losing one of the cultures animating them was stunning and brilliant and heartbreaking). I also loved that, among all the different traditions included, there are stories that emphasize the legacy of Classical Antiquity that we inherited with the Black Sea coast and its difficult history of intercultural encounters, productive and otherwise (from Svitlana Taratorina's horror-tinged piece to Mykhailo Nazarenko's wonderful story about old religions dying a painful and lingering death to clear the path for the new--his "Big Nose and the Faun" is one of my personal favorites in this collection).
As is always the case with short story collections,the works run the whole gamut from "this will forever live in my head rent-free" to "what in the name of borsht did I just read", but the brilliant far outnumber the bewildering, and with the scope of thematic ground covered, there's guaranteed to be something for anybody. You want a magical take on the current war? Welcome to crying your eyes out over Volodymyr Arenev's story about the defence of Azovstal plant in Mariupol (I've first read this story some time ago, but I still cannot reread it without tearing up; it's another one of my favorites). In the mood for hard sci-fi? There's Max Kidruk's story that transposes the grit and desperation of Polar exploration, familiar from our Earth-based 19th-century history, onto Mars. You want a more ethnographic display from Ukrainian history? Here's Iryna Pasko's folk horror (where the main horror comes from the existence of indentured servitude that corrupts both ways, but there's a magical embodiment to it). Are you into a more mainstream literary magical realism? There's Askold Melnyczuk's short story about being an observer from a privileged position in horrible historic times (and being *just* an observer is as likely as not to make you complicit). And so on, and so forth. It is a lovely and well-balanced collection with some truly stunning stories that will stay with me for long.
I'm so happy that this short story collection exists & so grateful to everyone involved in putting it together. I sometimes fear that, with Ukrainians only showing up in the western media when we are dying gruesome deaths, everybody will eventually assume that dying is all that we are good for, hence there's no point in worrying about it too much. So I appreciate every bit of representation of Ukrainians as storytellers, inventors, well, pretty much in any role that showcases our agency.
Importantly, this collection also offers a realistically broad and diverse understanding of who Ukrainians are, including stories from the diaspora (or from more recent immigrants), as well as authors from different cultures that weave into the Ukrainian cultural landscape (for example, R. Lemberg's short story set during the Holocaust about the last dance of the cities that are losing one of the cultures animating them was stunning and brilliant and heartbreaking). I also loved that, among all the different traditions included, there are stories that emphasize the legacy of Classical Antiquity that we inherited with the Black Sea coast and its difficult history of intercultural encounters, productive and otherwise (from Svitlana Taratorina's horror-tinged piece to Mykhailo Nazarenko's wonderful story about old religions dying a painful and lingering death to clear the path for the new--his "Big Nose and the Faun" is one of my personal favorites in this collection).
As is always the case with short story collections,the works run the whole gamut from "this will forever live in my head rent-free" to "what in the name of borsht did I just read", but the brilliant far outnumber the bewildering, and with the scope of thematic ground covered, there's guaranteed to be something for anybody. You want a magical take on the current war? Welcome to crying your eyes out over Volodymyr Arenev's story about the defence of Azovstal plant in Mariupol (I've first read this story some time ago, but I still cannot reread it without tearing up; it's another one of my favorites). In the mood for hard sci-fi? There's Max Kidruk's story that transposes the grit and desperation of Polar exploration, familiar from our Earth-based 19th-century history, onto Mars. You want a more ethnographic display from Ukrainian history? Here's Iryna Pasko's folk horror (where the main horror comes from the existence of indentured servitude that corrupts both ways, but there's a magical embodiment to it). Are you into a more mainstream literary magical realism? There's Askold Melnyczuk's short story about being an observer from a privileged position in horrible historic times (and being *just* an observer is as likely as not to make you complicit). And so on, and so forth. It is a lovely and well-balanced collection with some truly stunning stories that will stay with me for long.
June 16, 2024
I backed Embroidered Worlds on Kickstarter; when I saw the campaign promised "a living snapshot of imaginative fiction in Ukrainian culture today, including stories that span and cross the speculative genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, magic realism, and alternate history," I knew it would be a book I would want to read. I love collections like this as an opportunity to discover authors I wouldn't have come across otherwise. Inevitably with an anthology, particularly one as wide ranging as this one in terms of genre and tone, I enjoyed some stories more than others; overall, though, this collection is excellent, and there are some really stand out stories here.
Content warnings: the anthology includes a 'Content Notes' section with a list of content warnings for each story. The editors also note that "stories in this collection deal heavily with war, violence, and grief. Discussions of war generally deal with and mention fascism and real-life historical events and atrocities. Discussions and mentions of violence or death often deal with a close family member, including children and animals." Quite a few of these stories are hard to read - I would recommend checking the 'Content Notes' before proceeding if you have concerns.
Content warnings: the anthology includes a 'Content Notes' section with a list of content warnings for each story. The editors also note that "stories in this collection deal heavily with war, violence, and grief. Discussions of war generally deal with and mention fascism and real-life historical events and atrocities. Discussions and mentions of violence or death often deal with a close family member, including children and animals." Quite a few of these stories are hard to read - I would recommend checking the 'Content Notes' before proceeding if you have concerns.
February 4, 2024
A wonderful collection of short fantasy and sci-fi stories written by Ukrainian authors. As we approach two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, this collection feels timely and important.
There's a wide variety in the story styles, so there's something for everyone here.
Some favorites of mine are: Closest to the Pole, Three Love Stories, The Last of the Beads, and Honey.
Highly recommend!
There's a wide variety in the story styles, so there's something for everyone here.
Some favorites of mine are: Closest to the Pole, Three Love Stories, The Last of the Beads, and Honey.
Highly recommend!
May 8, 2024
Read courtesy of NetGalley.
"Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora": what a brilliant anthology.
The only theme uniting this anthology is that the authors are from Ukraine, or part of its diaspora. That means that there's a huge range of types of stories: those that are clearly rooted in folklore (even if I wasn't familiar with the original); those that are 'classically' science fiction; some that are slipstream, some that slide into horror, and a few where the fantastical aspect was very subtle. Some of the stories are very much ABOUT Ukraine, as it is now and as it has been and how it might be; other stories, as you would expect, are not.
One of my favourite stories is "Big Nose and the Faun," by Mykhailo Nazarenko, because I'm a total sucker for retellings of Roman history (Big Nose is the poet Ovid; it starts from the moment (based on the story in Plutarch, I think) of the death of Pan and just... well. The story does wonderful things with poetry and "civilisation" and nature, and I loved it.
I loved a lot of other stories here, too. There was only one story that I ended up skipping - which is pretty good for me, with such a long anthology - and that was because it was written in a style that I basically never enjoy (kind of Waiting for Godot, ish). RM Lemberg's "Geddarien" was magic and intense and heartbreaking - set during the Holocaust, cities will sometimes dance, and for that they need musicians. Olha Brylova's "Iron Goddess of Compassion" is set a few years in the future, and the gradual revelation of who the characters are and why they're doing what they're doing is some brilliant storytelling. "The Last of the Beads" by Halyna Lipatova is a story of revenge and desperation, with moments of heartbreak and others that I can only describe as "grim fascination".
I'm enormously impressed by Attis Arts for the effort that's gone into this - many of the stories are translated, which brings with it its own considerations and difficulties. This book is absolutely worth picking up. If you're interested in fantasy and science fiction anthologies, this is one that you really need to read.
"Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora": what a brilliant anthology.
The only theme uniting this anthology is that the authors are from Ukraine, or part of its diaspora. That means that there's a huge range of types of stories: those that are clearly rooted in folklore (even if I wasn't familiar with the original); those that are 'classically' science fiction; some that are slipstream, some that slide into horror, and a few where the fantastical aspect was very subtle. Some of the stories are very much ABOUT Ukraine, as it is now and as it has been and how it might be; other stories, as you would expect, are not.
One of my favourite stories is "Big Nose and the Faun," by Mykhailo Nazarenko, because I'm a total sucker for retellings of Roman history (Big Nose is the poet Ovid; it starts from the moment (based on the story in Plutarch, I think) of the death of Pan and just... well. The story does wonderful things with poetry and "civilisation" and nature, and I loved it.
I loved a lot of other stories here, too. There was only one story that I ended up skipping - which is pretty good for me, with such a long anthology - and that was because it was written in a style that I basically never enjoy (kind of Waiting for Godot, ish). RM Lemberg's "Geddarien" was magic and intense and heartbreaking - set during the Holocaust, cities will sometimes dance, and for that they need musicians. Olha Brylova's "Iron Goddess of Compassion" is set a few years in the future, and the gradual revelation of who the characters are and why they're doing what they're doing is some brilliant storytelling. "The Last of the Beads" by Halyna Lipatova is a story of revenge and desperation, with moments of heartbreak and others that I can only describe as "grim fascination".
I'm enormously impressed by Attis Arts for the effort that's gone into this - many of the stories are translated, which brings with it its own considerations and difficulties. This book is absolutely worth picking up. If you're interested in fantasy and science fiction anthologies, this is one that you really need to read.
January 12, 2025
8,5 This is a pretty large volume for an anthology, with thirty short stories by Ukrainian authors or authors from Ukrainian descent (there's a story by Elizabeth Bear in here). I don't mind large anthologies, as I love the short story format and a large anthology like this helps me to delve deep into the theme and/or the culture of the authors. I like seeing the different approaches, and wouldn't have minded even more (but I seem to be in the minority on this point). I have read some Russian classics (Dostoyevski, Tolstoi) in translation, and I know that Russian and Ukrainian are two seperate languages, but it prepared me for the style of the stories, the elipses, the meandering nature of some sentences and the flow of the prose in general. If you haven't read any works from this part of the world in translation, it will probably take some getting used to, I guess. Thematically this deals heavily with the mentality of hard work and surviving hardship of people in this region, the war with Russia (some stories were written during the beginning of the current war, many were written before), the history of serfdom (where Ukrainians were treated as little more than slaves) and the folk tales of the region. Of course radiation and chernobyl are present as well. That's some heavy subject matter, but these authors manage to shine a light on the human spirit and the way people manage to survive and care for each other. For me the main joy in reading these anthologies with genre stories from other cultures is to see how ultimately we all long and strive for the same things: to live in community, to add meaning to the world, to love.
Of course there were some stories in here that didn't work for me at all - which is the case for all anthologies. One cannot keep everybody happy. I find that I am just not a fan of 'magical realism' or 'slipstream stories' - stories often in a literary style, describing slice of life situations, where an (often unexplained) 'impossible' event disturbs the situation. 'The Dreamers of Ungvár' to me made little sense and was disappointing, the central image of 'The Long Black Veil' was meant to be symbolic but I could not understand it. And 'Scream', with its 'digital space ships' (?) didn't work for me either. Also there were a few stories that to me were too whimsical (not many here, as you can imagine, since this anthology is filled with stories of war and subjugation) or that clung to close to genre conventions without really surprising me. This was the case for 'The Bike Shadow', about cat like spirits appearing in a city (I just found it a bit too twee for my taste), and 'To See Jupiter' which had a decent idea but I thought the presentation made it feel a bit trite (and 'Revenge in Pursuit' read too much like a story from the 1950's).
Of course it's better to focus on the stories that I appreciated and enjoyed the most and that will stay with me long after reading this anthology. Many of these stories are about regular people having to deal with sometimes extraordinary circumstances, with emotional reality, written in a clear voice that has attention to details of the environment, with a bit of tension and action thrown in. There were quite a few of those, luckily enough! I liked the story 'Svitla' by A.D. Sui about a mother being forced to deal with a change in her daughter and trying to accept her even if she cannot understand her. 'Geddarien' by R.B. Lemberg made me well up. A beautiful story, one of the highlights of this collection, about Jewish musicians during the time of the German occupation. Heartbreaking really ... 'Neptune's Day' by Ostap Ukrainets was a wry satire of a russion conscript caught in a time loop ... 'Closest to the Pole' by Max Kidruk was exceptional hard SF, about an expedition to the Martian north pole. Of course something goes wrong ... One of the best stories in here! 'A Bitter Thing' by N.R.M. Roshak was a SF-story about the way humans and aliens don't understand each other. An interesting idea, and a solid, if not exceptional, story. 'Iron Goddess of Compassion' by Olha Brylova was a raw, realistic description of life in the near future and even if the situation is better than it is now, it doesn't mean that cultural differences are a thing of the past. A tense story, well written. 'The Rainbow Bridge' by Iryna Pasko was a horror story set in the time of serfdom, and is about the sacrifices that system asked from all. 'Family v1.1' was a great modern SF-story in the style of Hanny Rajaniemi with a world almost unrecognizably transformed by technology, but the emotions of peopel are still the same ... 'The Last of the Beads' by Halyna Lipatova read a bit like a fantasy story and is a tale of revenge against foreign invaders, and the toll it takes on the one taking revenge. 'Honey' by Calya Dudycz Lupescu centers around a conversation between an old woman and an artist, both dealing with the past in their own ways. A great horror story. 'Battle of the Gods' by Svitlana Taratorina is another highlight of the anthology. I was pulled in this story that re-imagines history and mythology. It leaves the reader unsettled. 'To the Garden' by Volodomyr Arenev turns out to be another story than the reader first expects. A christmas story about soldiers during a war with orcs, but is that really what's going on?
Enough great stories to recommend this collection, especially if you have an interest in anthologies of genre fiction from other cultures. A way to broaden your horizon as a reader, especially a reader of speculative fiction as that genre is dominated by American and English stories.
Of course there were some stories in here that didn't work for me at all - which is the case for all anthologies. One cannot keep everybody happy. I find that I am just not a fan of 'magical realism' or 'slipstream stories' - stories often in a literary style, describing slice of life situations, where an (often unexplained) 'impossible' event disturbs the situation. 'The Dreamers of Ungvár' to me made little sense and was disappointing, the central image of 'The Long Black Veil' was meant to be symbolic but I could not understand it. And 'Scream', with its 'digital space ships' (?) didn't work for me either. Also there were a few stories that to me were too whimsical (not many here, as you can imagine, since this anthology is filled with stories of war and subjugation) or that clung to close to genre conventions without really surprising me. This was the case for 'The Bike Shadow', about cat like spirits appearing in a city (I just found it a bit too twee for my taste), and 'To See Jupiter' which had a decent idea but I thought the presentation made it feel a bit trite (and 'Revenge in Pursuit' read too much like a story from the 1950's).
Of course it's better to focus on the stories that I appreciated and enjoyed the most and that will stay with me long after reading this anthology. Many of these stories are about regular people having to deal with sometimes extraordinary circumstances, with emotional reality, written in a clear voice that has attention to details of the environment, with a bit of tension and action thrown in. There were quite a few of those, luckily enough! I liked the story 'Svitla' by A.D. Sui about a mother being forced to deal with a change in her daughter and trying to accept her even if she cannot understand her. 'Geddarien' by R.B. Lemberg made me well up. A beautiful story, one of the highlights of this collection, about Jewish musicians during the time of the German occupation. Heartbreaking really ... 'Neptune's Day' by Ostap Ukrainets was a wry satire of a russion conscript caught in a time loop ... 'Closest to the Pole' by Max Kidruk was exceptional hard SF, about an expedition to the Martian north pole. Of course something goes wrong ... One of the best stories in here! 'A Bitter Thing' by N.R.M. Roshak was a SF-story about the way humans and aliens don't understand each other. An interesting idea, and a solid, if not exceptional, story. 'Iron Goddess of Compassion' by Olha Brylova was a raw, realistic description of life in the near future and even if the situation is better than it is now, it doesn't mean that cultural differences are a thing of the past. A tense story, well written. 'The Rainbow Bridge' by Iryna Pasko was a horror story set in the time of serfdom, and is about the sacrifices that system asked from all. 'Family v1.1' was a great modern SF-story in the style of Hanny Rajaniemi with a world almost unrecognizably transformed by technology, but the emotions of peopel are still the same ... 'The Last of the Beads' by Halyna Lipatova read a bit like a fantasy story and is a tale of revenge against foreign invaders, and the toll it takes on the one taking revenge. 'Honey' by Calya Dudycz Lupescu centers around a conversation between an old woman and an artist, both dealing with the past in their own ways. A great horror story. 'Battle of the Gods' by Svitlana Taratorina is another highlight of the anthology. I was pulled in this story that re-imagines history and mythology. It leaves the reader unsettled. 'To the Garden' by Volodomyr Arenev turns out to be another story than the reader first expects. A christmas story about soldiers during a war with orcs, but is that really what's going on?
Enough great stories to recommend this collection, especially if you have an interest in anthologies of genre fiction from other cultures. A way to broaden your horizon as a reader, especially a reader of speculative fiction as that genre is dominated by American and English stories.
April 14, 2024
There’s a little bit of everything in here, folklore, fantasy, science fiction and some humour. Stories of love, resilience and defiance. It’s a great collection showcasing a wide range of speculative fiction from Ukraine and the diaspora, and it’s accessible to readers from outside those communities too.
The standouts for me were ‘Svitla’ by A.D. Sui, ‘Geddarien’ by R.B. Lemberg, ‘Three Forest Tales’ by David Demchuk, ‘The Last of the Beads’ by Halyna Lipatova (translated by R.B. Lemberg), and ‘Honey’ by Valya Dudycz Lupescu.
The standouts for me were ‘Svitla’ by A.D. Sui, ‘Geddarien’ by R.B. Lemberg, ‘Three Forest Tales’ by David Demchuk, ‘The Last of the Beads’ by Halyna Lipatova (translated by R.B. Lemberg), and ‘Honey’ by Valya Dudycz Lupescu.
February 25, 2024
In general, the book is interesting, there are many short stories that are interesting to read. It is a fantastic fiction world: space, science, old gods, all is here. I think the idea for this book is amazing, having multiple authors represent Ukraine in a fantasy world. I mean, just look at this description: 'fantastic storytelling throughout Ukrainian culture, from science fiction, fantasy, and horror to slipstream, fairy tales, and more.'
However, I got so upset and disappointed by the beginning of this book. I was waiting for a book like this. I am Ukrainian, and some of my friends say I'm the 'most Ukrainian' they know. Maybe I put too much thought into it, or my expectations were too high, but to me, it is a message first of all. A message to the world about Ukraine and what we can create here. And how is this message delivered? Through transliterated words that have no meaning to foreigners and were not properly explained, without any additional notes or flavor explanation, without providing means to explain why translation was done this way. Readers are not all careful and mindful people who feel every word every time; they can gulp through content without even realizing that 'Babusia' is not a name if it is not properly explained.
A great example of a book that can help deliver a message that was explained in the foreword is 'Interpreter of Maladies.' Yes, it is a high standard and a different topic, but that is a perfect example of how you can help feel the culture through words. To add to that, the second story is about radiation. Yes, it is a very nice story, but don't we have enough associations in the world about Chornobyl?
Further novels are good, a few I'd say are on a very high lvl. But the beginning of the book was disappointing to me.. I was really looking for something I could show my friends abroad and say, 'Look at what we can do' or 'here is our fantastic world'.. And it looks like this is not the book :(
However, I got so upset and disappointed by the beginning of this book. I was waiting for a book like this. I am Ukrainian, and some of my friends say I'm the 'most Ukrainian' they know. Maybe I put too much thought into it, or my expectations were too high, but to me, it is a message first of all. A message to the world about Ukraine and what we can create here. And how is this message delivered? Through transliterated words that have no meaning to foreigners and were not properly explained, without any additional notes or flavor explanation, without providing means to explain why translation was done this way. Readers are not all careful and mindful people who feel every word every time; they can gulp through content without even realizing that 'Babusia' is not a name if it is not properly explained.
A great example of a book that can help deliver a message that was explained in the foreword is 'Interpreter of Maladies.' Yes, it is a high standard and a different topic, but that is a perfect example of how you can help feel the culture through words. To add to that, the second story is about radiation. Yes, it is a very nice story, but don't we have enough associations in the world about Chornobyl?
Further novels are good, a few I'd say are on a very high lvl. But the beginning of the book was disappointing to me.. I was really looking for something I could show my friends abroad and say, 'Look at what we can do' or 'here is our fantastic world'.. And it looks like this is not the book :(
March 29, 2024
The Embroidered Worlds anthology, edited by Valya Dudycz Lupescu, Olha Brylova, and Iryna Pasko, collects speculative fiction stories from Ukranian and diaspora authors. A number of the stories are translated from Ukranian and reprinted in English for the first time, allowing English-speaking readers to get a taste of speculative fiction from Ukraine they may never have encountered before.
My favorite stories in the anthology were all translations of Ukranian stories. Myroslava Hornostayeva’s “The Stray Streetcar (A ’90s Businessman’s Tale),” originally published in 2009 and is translated here by Konstantin Boulich, is an unusual tale of a streetcar that seems to appear when someone needs to get out of a pinch, but it always takes something from them in return. Eerie and haunting, I liked the echoing at the beginning and end of this story.
“The Rainbow Bridge” by Irina Pasko, originally published in 2020 and translated here by Hanna Leviv, had a setting that felt a bit more historical to me, as a servant of a woman and her daughters dealt with changes in the household and his feelings for one of the daughters. This is another story where the end of the story echoes the beginning, though in a nearly identical way that might catch some readers unaware.
Finally, Halyna Lipatova’s “The Last of the Beads,” originally published in 2017 and translated here by R.B. Lemberg, was a satisfying story of revenge by a young woman against the people who had destroyed the lives of her people. Though the main character’s fate is sealed from the first paragraph of the story, the ending still came as a surprise to me!
There are many other stories that I didn’t mention here that also caught my attention, and other readers may resonate better with other stories. I found some of the storytelling techniques very different than what English-speaking readers are accustomed to, and these trended through a good number of the translated stories, suggesting that these techniques may be more common for Ukranian authors. Nonetheless, all the authors, translators, and editors should be commended for taking on such a large and important project!
My favorite stories in the anthology were all translations of Ukranian stories. Myroslava Hornostayeva’s “The Stray Streetcar (A ’90s Businessman’s Tale),” originally published in 2009 and is translated here by Konstantin Boulich, is an unusual tale of a streetcar that seems to appear when someone needs to get out of a pinch, but it always takes something from them in return. Eerie and haunting, I liked the echoing at the beginning and end of this story.
“The Rainbow Bridge” by Irina Pasko, originally published in 2020 and translated here by Hanna Leviv, had a setting that felt a bit more historical to me, as a servant of a woman and her daughters dealt with changes in the household and his feelings for one of the daughters. This is another story where the end of the story echoes the beginning, though in a nearly identical way that might catch some readers unaware.
Finally, Halyna Lipatova’s “The Last of the Beads,” originally published in 2017 and translated here by R.B. Lemberg, was a satisfying story of revenge by a young woman against the people who had destroyed the lives of her people. Though the main character’s fate is sealed from the first paragraph of the story, the ending still came as a surprise to me!
There are many other stories that I didn’t mention here that also caught my attention, and other readers may resonate better with other stories. I found some of the storytelling techniques very different than what English-speaking readers are accustomed to, and these trended through a good number of the translated stories, suggesting that these techniques may be more common for Ukranian authors. Nonetheless, all the authors, translators, and editors should be commended for taking on such a large and important project!
June 4, 2024
Although I appreciate short stories, I’ve concluded I’m more of a fan of longer form writing. However, this compendium of short science fiction stories has something for everyone. I was impressed with the creativity and variety of the stories in this volume of Embroidered Worlds.
My absolute favourites from this volume were (in no particular order) ‘Family v1.1’ by Ihor Silivra, ‘Svitla’ by A.D.Sui, ‘Havrylovna’ by Oleksiy Zhupansky, ‘Neptune’s Day’ by Ostap Ukrainets, and ‘A Bitter Thing’ by N.R.M.Roshak. Many of the stories are rooted in folklore, which prompted me to dig a little deeper into Ukrainian mythology.
Of special note is ‘Closest to the Pole’ by Max Kidruk, my most favourite story in this collection. I found it a great combination of science, twists, and adventure. In between, I found all the stories entertaining. A lot of variety can be found here, and something for everyone. Because I prefer longer volumes, I’m personally giving Embroidered Worlds a four of five stars, but I think it’s a wonderful compendium.
My absolute favourites from this volume were (in no particular order) ‘Family v1.1’ by Ihor Silivra, ‘Svitla’ by A.D.Sui, ‘Havrylovna’ by Oleksiy Zhupansky, ‘Neptune’s Day’ by Ostap Ukrainets, and ‘A Bitter Thing’ by N.R.M.Roshak. Many of the stories are rooted in folklore, which prompted me to dig a little deeper into Ukrainian mythology.
Of special note is ‘Closest to the Pole’ by Max Kidruk, my most favourite story in this collection. I found it a great combination of science, twists, and adventure. In between, I found all the stories entertaining. A lot of variety can be found here, and something for everyone. Because I prefer longer volumes, I’m personally giving Embroidered Worlds a four of five stars, but I think it’s a wonderful compendium.
January 22, 2024
An anthology full of stories that are beautiful and harrowing, thought-provoking and mind-bending. Editor Valya Dudycz Lupescu writes in the introduction thatmany of these stories are about transformation, rebirth, reconsideration, and renewal, and that, for me, perfectly captures the underlying themes and currents of this book. EMBROIDERED WORLDS is essential reading for anyone who loves speculative fiction and is open to hearing new voices, and new kinds of stories, that weave and embroider new worlds into being.
September 24, 2024
An intriguing anthology of Ukranian writers, all fantastic fictions. Not all are at the same level but it was the discovery of a new to me lore, world.
Intriguing, entertaining, and informative
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Intriguing, entertaining, and informative
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
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