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Infinités
Née en Inde, à New Delhi, fille de deux professeurs de littérature anglaise, Vandana Singh a grandi à l’ombre de Shakespeare et Keats. Devenue professeur de physique aux États-Unis, elle s’est tournée vers l’écriture, notamment la science-fiction et la fantasy, à cause de la richesse de ces genres et des possibilités qu’offrent leurs thématiques propres. Depuis 2002, elle a publié deux romans pour la jeunesse, une vingtaine de nouvelles et un court roman de science-fiction, Distances.
Dans ce recueil de dix nouvelles et un essai se déploie la sensibilité à part d’une auteure de science-fiction spéculative qui n’a de cesse de remettre l’Homme au centre du récit. On y observe un professeur de mathématiques qui aimerait comprendre les tensions interreligieuses qui déchirent son pays, un étrange tétraèdre subitement apparu dans les rues de New Delhi, une femme convaincue d’être une planète.
Avec ces textes poétiques, humanistes et parfois mélancoliques, Vandana Singh s’impose comme la digne héritière de Ray Bradbury et Theodore Sturgeon.
Dans ce recueil de dix nouvelles et un essai se déploie la sensibilité à part d’une auteure de science-fiction spéculative qui n’a de cesse de remettre l’Homme au centre du récit. On y observe un professeur de mathématiques qui aimerait comprendre les tensions interreligieuses qui déchirent son pays, un étrange tétraèdre subitement apparu dans les rues de New Delhi, une femme convaincue d’être une planète.
Avec ces textes poétiques, humanistes et parfois mélancoliques, Vandana Singh s’impose comme la digne héritière de Ray Bradbury et Theodore Sturgeon.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
33 people are currently reading
2117 people want to read
About the author
Vandana Singh
191 books213 followersVandana Singh was born and raised in India and currently lives in the Boston area, where she is a professor of physics at Framingham State University, and a science fiction writer. Although her Ph.D. is in particle physics, in recent years she has been working on the transdisciplinary scholarship of climate change, focusing on innovative pedagogies. She has collaborated with the Center for Science and the Imagination three times, twice on climate change–related projects. Her first collaboration (a story for Project Hieroglyph) led to the start of her academic work in the area, resulting in a case study of Arctic climate change as part of a program award from the American Association of Colleges and Universities, for which she traveled to the Alaskan North Shore in 2014. She was also a participant in a re-enactment of “The Dare,” as part of the Year Without a Winter Project, and has contributed a story to the upcoming anthology (forthcoming from Columbia University Press in 2018). She has been an invited panelist for the National Academy of Sciences working group on interdisciplinarity in STEM, and has taught in and/or co-led summer workshops on climate change for middle and high school teachers.
Vandana’s short fiction has been widely published to critical acclaim, and many of her stories have been reprinted in Year’s Best collections. Her North American debut is a second short story collection, Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (Small Beer Press) that was No. 1 on Publisher’s Weekly’s Top Ten in Science Fiction when it came out in February 2018, and earned praise from Wired, the Washington Post, and the Seattle Times, among others. Locus Magazine’s Gary K. Wolfe refers to her as “one of the most compelling and original voices in recent SF.”
Vandana’s short fiction has been widely published to critical acclaim, and many of her stories have been reprinted in Year’s Best collections. Her North American debut is a second short story collection, Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (Small Beer Press) that was No. 1 on Publisher’s Weekly’s Top Ten in Science Fiction when it came out in February 2018, and earned praise from Wired, the Washington Post, and the Seattle Times, among others. Locus Magazine’s Gary K. Wolfe refers to her as “one of the most compelling and original voices in recent SF.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
February 22, 2016
Speculative fiction at its best, with a unique perspective.
Each story in this collection contains some fantastic, otherworldly element, or ingenious concept, wrapped in Indian history and culture, vivid descriptions, and beautiful settings and imagery. The characters are exceptionally well drawn given that these are short stories, and I was surprised how quickly each of them came alive to me.
"I was reminded of the story where Krishna's earthly mother Yashoda, happens to look into the child's mouth. There she sees the entire cosmos, and at that moment she knows who her son really is. That is how I felt, beholding the vistas that no other human being but my companion had ever seen."
All of the major characters in these stories face major life challenges: poverty, illness, social prejudice and turmoil. Modern Indian life is depicted in a harsh light. And yet, each of these characters dreams of something more - of other worlds and realities beyond their own difficult and mundane lives.
"... in that little stick of a number line - there is infinity. What a deep and beautiful concept, thinks Abdul Karim. Perhaps there are infinities in us too, universes of them."
I was amazed by how well the author shifts perspective, from female to male, young to old, poor to middle class. The author understands people really well, and each story envelopes you in the characters' world before transporting you to somewhere beyond.
Each story also explains just the right amount, while still leaving some things to the imagination, and plenty of mystery for re-reads. All in all a great read for sci-fi/fantasy fans or pretty much anyone. Delhi, Infinities, and The Tetrahedron were my favorites, but really all of these stories are fantastic.
Each story in this collection contains some fantastic, otherworldly element, or ingenious concept, wrapped in Indian history and culture, vivid descriptions, and beautiful settings and imagery. The characters are exceptionally well drawn given that these are short stories, and I was surprised how quickly each of them came alive to me.
"I was reminded of the story where Krishna's earthly mother Yashoda, happens to look into the child's mouth. There she sees the entire cosmos, and at that moment she knows who her son really is. That is how I felt, beholding the vistas that no other human being but my companion had ever seen."
All of the major characters in these stories face major life challenges: poverty, illness, social prejudice and turmoil. Modern Indian life is depicted in a harsh light. And yet, each of these characters dreams of something more - of other worlds and realities beyond their own difficult and mundane lives.
"... in that little stick of a number line - there is infinity. What a deep and beautiful concept, thinks Abdul Karim. Perhaps there are infinities in us too, universes of them."
I was amazed by how well the author shifts perspective, from female to male, young to old, poor to middle class. The author understands people really well, and each story envelopes you in the characters' world before transporting you to somewhere beyond.
Each story also explains just the right amount, while still leaving some things to the imagination, and plenty of mystery for re-reads. All in all a great read for sci-fi/fantasy fans or pretty much anyone. Delhi, Infinities, and The Tetrahedron were my favorites, but really all of these stories are fantastic.
July 30, 2018
This book contains some of the finest short-stories that has probably been ever published in the history of Speculative Fiction! Most of the stories are Science Fiction, while some are Fantasies. Four of the stories (from a total of 10 in the book) are at their SUPREME BEST; them being "Delhi", "Infinities", "Conservation Laws", and "The Tetrahedron". The others are truly spectacular too in their own ways and are very satisfactory enough.
The writer, Vandana Singh, has been terrific at writing these stories, and I could almost call it to be on the lines of Ursula K. LeGuin's works. The stories may be simple enough in their literal sense, but its subtleness could only be understood by the reader only when he starts asking himself the questions from a philosophical perspective. There is lots to ponder upon after reading through the lines, and much to absorb and even change the reader's life altogether. A knowledge of science is not truly required to understand the stories, but I will say having read, the reader if ignorant in science would certainly might want to search for some knowledge on the topics that are dealt within the scope of this book.
All the stories (or so it seems to me) are based in North India, mostly in Delhi, by which it provides and gives a fresh outlook (at least to me since most of my earlier science fiction readings have never been based in India, excepting when I had read Premendra Mitra's Mosquito and Other Stories Ghana-Da's Tall Tales a year ago) where Delhi's history and culture combines with science to form a situation so heightened in imagination, a feeling so intense and bewildering, that no other science fiction as yet been able to fulfil such cravings of my heartfelt combinatorial artistic requirements for the sake of providing pleasure to the neuronal network within the cranium of yours truly.
The book starts with a story that acts like an introduction to the world of science fiction, while it ends with "A Speculative Manifesto", an essay by the writer, which talks about what Speculative Fiction is and how it can be understood in a wider perspective.
A quick good review can also be read here before reading the book, and another that can be found at this blogsite, which I would recommend to be read after completely reading the book due to possibility of presence of spoilers. The reviews at the above two links have not been written by me, but certainly found them worth sharing.
Now GO READ THE BOOK ..., and Make the Best of It While Your Mind is still Human, and has the Ability To Reconstruct Thoughts in Ways That No Other Species Can! Get Astonished ..., and Transcend!! :)
The writer, Vandana Singh, has been terrific at writing these stories, and I could almost call it to be on the lines of Ursula K. LeGuin's works. The stories may be simple enough in their literal sense, but its subtleness could only be understood by the reader only when he starts asking himself the questions from a philosophical perspective. There is lots to ponder upon after reading through the lines, and much to absorb and even change the reader's life altogether. A knowledge of science is not truly required to understand the stories, but I will say having read, the reader if ignorant in science would certainly might want to search for some knowledge on the topics that are dealt within the scope of this book.
All the stories (or so it seems to me) are based in North India, mostly in Delhi, by which it provides and gives a fresh outlook (at least to me since most of my earlier science fiction readings have never been based in India, excepting when I had read Premendra Mitra's Mosquito and Other Stories Ghana-Da's Tall Tales a year ago) where Delhi's history and culture combines with science to form a situation so heightened in imagination, a feeling so intense and bewildering, that no other science fiction as yet been able to fulfil such cravings of my heartfelt combinatorial artistic requirements for the sake of providing pleasure to the neuronal network within the cranium of yours truly.
The book starts with a story that acts like an introduction to the world of science fiction, while it ends with "A Speculative Manifesto", an essay by the writer, which talks about what Speculative Fiction is and how it can be understood in a wider perspective.
A quick good review can also be read here before reading the book, and another that can be found at this blogsite, which I would recommend to be read after completely reading the book due to possibility of presence of spoilers. The reviews at the above two links have not been written by me, but certainly found them worth sharing.
Now GO READ THE BOOK ..., and Make the Best of It While Your Mind is still Human, and has the Ability To Reconstruct Thoughts in Ways That No Other Species Can! Get Astonished ..., and Transcend!! :)
Read
May 21, 2015A woman realizes she’s of the Naga people, serpent deities in Hindu mythology. An alien tetrahedron crashes into New Delhi, blocking traffic and inspiring some to explore its multiple dimensions. A future, starfaring people tell three mythologies sprung out of their history. A woman finds a universe (and its inhabitants) within her.
These short stories make up one of the loveliest speculative fiction collections I’ve read. Even though fantastical things are happening, the stories are rooted in the personal struggles of their characters. Some are looking for love or acceptance, others are looking for a way out of a loveless marriage or familial duties, and some are learning how to live during a new stage in their lives. Singh also has a PhD in theoretical particle physics, so I’m assuming that the math and science she’s drawing on to tell these stories is always spot-on (not that I would know). It’s definitely a must-read. — Nikki Steele
from The Best Books We Read in April: http://bookriot.com/2015/05/01/riot-r...
These short stories make up one of the loveliest speculative fiction collections I’ve read. Even though fantastical things are happening, the stories are rooted in the personal struggles of their characters. Some are looking for love or acceptance, others are looking for a way out of a loveless marriage or familial duties, and some are learning how to live during a new stage in their lives. Singh also has a PhD in theoretical particle physics, so I’m assuming that the math and science she’s drawing on to tell these stories is always spot-on (not that I would know). It’s definitely a must-read. — Nikki Steele
from The Best Books We Read in April: http://bookriot.com/2015/05/01/riot-r...
August 16, 2022
A gem of a book, with most of the stories being startlingly original, Delhi based and rooted in Indianness.
A refreshing change from SF's, as the author concludes, "white, male, techno-fantasies - Westerns and the White Man's Burden in Outer Space..."
Biharis are not very common on the moon…Sinha Auntie’s boardinghouse, one of the oldest structures in Luna City…Saturday afternoons Sinha Auntie does a huge old-fashioned Bihari-style tea, complete with suji halwa, litti, pakoras, matar-ki-gugni, crisp-fried chura with sev and roasted peanuts, and the best tamarind chutney on the moon.Memorable stories are Delhi, The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet, Thirst, Aesop fable-like Three Tales from the Sky River, The Tetrahedron. The tales are part feminine angst, part fantasy, occasionally hard-core SF and sometimes mythical.
A refreshing change from SF's, as the author concludes, "white, male, techno-fantasies - Westerns and the White Man's Burden in Outer Space..."
September 11, 2024
I'm not an expert (far from it), but it felt more like magic realism than sci-fi. But I like the label of speculative fiction best.
The grounding of the stories and characters in familiar Indian context and poetic, metaphorical language made it a delightful and engaging read for me
The grounding of the stories and characters in familiar Indian context and poetic, metaphorical language made it a delightful and engaging read for me
February 27, 2016
In her story, The Room on the Roof, Vandana Singh’s narrator observes: “She had recently come to the conclusion that the world she lived in was not a separate, self-contained thing, but actually an intersection of many worlds.” Singh seems to have experienced many worlds and in this collection of shorter pieces she describes a number of them.
Singh has been tagged as “the first Indian writer to make a serious mark in the SF world.” This book has been termed speculative fiction or fantasy. If you only read the first half of the book you will be perplexed at the observation. Those stories do not fall into any of these categories and, unfortunately, any effort to put her in these categories diminishes her work. She may write great SF and fantasy but here the thrust is broader. To compare her to Eudora Welty or Sholom Aleichem, great short-story writers who illuminate a certain time and place, would be more appropriate. The characters may be idiosyncratic, verging on strange, but the truth of their life experiences comes bursting through.
A wife who shocks her husband by taking off her clothes and declaring that she wants to live her remaining years as a planet. He is further shocked when he finds out what that might mean for him;
A woman who finds herself asked to change as her husband climbs his company’s organization ladder. She hosts a party where a neighborhood old man is found dead and they must bear the social consequences;
A man who lives in Delhi (and maybe many Delhis past and future), while looking for the one person who will change his life;
A woman who grew up in India reflects on her life in America and what seems near and dear to her;
A boy who is exceptionally gifted in mathematics and dreams of changing the world grows up to confront the world around him that is full of Hindu/Muslim strife.
These are some of the plots in this brilliant (but somewhat uneven) collection of short stories by Vandana Singh. She concludes one story by observing: “Slowly the understanding came to her that these stories were trying to tell her a great truth in a very convoluted way, that they were all in some kind of code, designed to deceive the literary snob and waylay the careless reader. And that this great truth, which she would spend her life unraveling was centered around the notion that you did not have to go to the stars to find aliens or to measure distances between people in light-years.”
There are samples of her SF oriented work in the latter half of this collection. To my mind, they are not quite as strong with, perhaps the exception of Tetrahedron. As in many of my favorite stories, it deals with time and place……..and food.
I would eagerly read another collection of her shorter works. . Singh is a great talent that I am delighted to have discovered….and I “did not have to go to the stars to find aliens or to measure distances between people in light-years.”
Singh has been tagged as “the first Indian writer to make a serious mark in the SF world.” This book has been termed speculative fiction or fantasy. If you only read the first half of the book you will be perplexed at the observation. Those stories do not fall into any of these categories and, unfortunately, any effort to put her in these categories diminishes her work. She may write great SF and fantasy but here the thrust is broader. To compare her to Eudora Welty or Sholom Aleichem, great short-story writers who illuminate a certain time and place, would be more appropriate. The characters may be idiosyncratic, verging on strange, but the truth of their life experiences comes bursting through.
A wife who shocks her husband by taking off her clothes and declaring that she wants to live her remaining years as a planet. He is further shocked when he finds out what that might mean for him;
A woman who finds herself asked to change as her husband climbs his company’s organization ladder. She hosts a party where a neighborhood old man is found dead and they must bear the social consequences;
A man who lives in Delhi (and maybe many Delhis past and future), while looking for the one person who will change his life;
A woman who grew up in India reflects on her life in America and what seems near and dear to her;
A boy who is exceptionally gifted in mathematics and dreams of changing the world grows up to confront the world around him that is full of Hindu/Muslim strife.
These are some of the plots in this brilliant (but somewhat uneven) collection of short stories by Vandana Singh. She concludes one story by observing: “Slowly the understanding came to her that these stories were trying to tell her a great truth in a very convoluted way, that they were all in some kind of code, designed to deceive the literary snob and waylay the careless reader. And that this great truth, which she would spend her life unraveling was centered around the notion that you did not have to go to the stars to find aliens or to measure distances between people in light-years.”
There are samples of her SF oriented work in the latter half of this collection. To my mind, they are not quite as strong with, perhaps the exception of Tetrahedron. As in many of my favorite stories, it deals with time and place……..and food.
I would eagerly read another collection of her shorter works. . Singh is a great talent that I am delighted to have discovered….and I “did not have to go to the stars to find aliens or to measure distances between people in light-years.”
March 17, 2016
This may be a 5 yet it is so out of my comfort zone that it is difficult for me to relegate my judgment to a simple number.I have not read much speculative fiction.Honestly, I did not know that it was its own sub-genre of literature. These are stories are quite myth-like in feel.Myths for the adult reader. As the author states" ...there is still a strong undercurrent of writing that questions and subverts dominant paradigms and persists in asking uncomfortable questions" thus the emergence of speculative fiction, a blending of fantasy and science fiction. Within these strange stories , we see the familiar topics of self, love, dreams,rage,struggle and family.Again in the authors words: "Reality is such a complex beast that in order to begin to comprehend it we need something larger than realist fiction.I would suggest that if you have never read speculative fiction, this would be a wonderful introduction to it. It is somehow strangely wonderful. I would like to thank a fellow reader for this recommendation for I might never have picked it up otherwise.
January 19, 2016
The first two stories are weak in the same way - they start strong, but the ending over-explains things that to me should have better been left suggested, strengthening the story and, even more importantly, not breaking the wonderful voice the stories are written in.
Then the stories pick up and are pretty much amazing. Also different. This is wonderful science fiction and at the same time a glimpse into India from the inside. This is a wonderful discussion of multidimensional space and projections and of the life as the fourth daughter, the youngest, in Delhi, one that does not villainize anybody, but we are all products of the society we grew up in. This is ... But I may accidentally end up giving too much away. Just read the stories, they are every much worth it.
Then the stories pick up and are pretty much amazing. Also different. This is wonderful science fiction and at the same time a glimpse into India from the inside. This is a wonderful discussion of multidimensional space and projections and of the life as the fourth daughter, the youngest, in Delhi, one that does not villainize anybody, but we are all products of the society we grew up in. This is ... But I may accidentally end up giving too much away. Just read the stories, they are every much worth it.
July 4, 2019
This is NOT an anthology of science fiction stories. It is a collection of strong short stories which use various tropes of science fiction as plot devices to further the stories of the protagonists. Several reviewers have held them as examples of speculative fiction. That's vague. Actually these stories are all about finding one's truer self, in my opinion.
Those stories are:
1. Hunger
2. Delhi
3. The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet (best story of the book)
4. Infinities
5. Thirst
6. Conservation Laws
7. Three Tales from Sky River
8. The Tetrahedron
9. The Wife
10. The Room on the Roof
There are distinct shades of magic realism here, duly accopanied by strong characterisation and very good literary techniques. Unfortunately, I found them a tad soporific. Nevertheless, Recommended.
Those stories are:
1. Hunger
2. Delhi
3. The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet (best story of the book)
4. Infinities
5. Thirst
6. Conservation Laws
7. Three Tales from Sky River
8. The Tetrahedron
9. The Wife
10. The Room on the Roof
There are distinct shades of magic realism here, duly accopanied by strong characterisation and very good literary techniques. Unfortunately, I found them a tad soporific. Nevertheless, Recommended.
April 2, 2019
Calm, uncomplicated, but immensely powerful stories about ordinary faced with extraordinary, from a side of the world and humanity we don't see enough of. Highly recommended.
Want to read
June 23, 2021June 2021
Sff short stories told by an actual scientist- yes please
Sff short stories told by an actual scientist- yes please
June 3, 2012
I was almost afraid to read this book because I didn't see how it anything could possibly live up to the ideas that "the woman who thought she was a planet" conjured up in my mind. But it did, oh it did!
The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet has ten stories and a short essay, "A Speculative Manifesto." Some read more like science fiction (space travel -- other dimensions) and others more like fantasy (a woman discovers she's a Naga) and some, like "Three Tales from Sky River: Myths for a Starfaring Age," overlap.
For years I have adored, in theory, the concept of speculative fiction that speculates about mathematics as well as science. This was attempted in the 1950s and 60s by editor Clifton Fadiman, whose collections Fantasia Mathematica and The Mathematical Magpie are unfortunately riddled with sexim and white supremacy. If I were an editor, I'd try to do a new version of those books with only a small minority of the authors being white men. I know now that Vandana Singh would be the first author I'd beg to allow one or more of her stories in that anthology. My first choice would be the emotionally fluent "Infinities," which intersperses quotations from Indian mathematicians and poets with the story of Abdul Karim, who wants to spend his life in understanding the ideas of Cantor and Godel, but who, like Archimedes, can't hold himself aloof of the sorrows of the world. "The Tetrahedron" is an absolutely classic story along the same lines as many in Fadiman's anthologies, asking the reader to think about Moebius strips and the fourth dimension in order to follow the plot, which in this case has to do with an object of bizarre properties that is blocking traffic in New Delhi.
To take the rest of the stories in order:
"Hunger" is the first; it's not (maybe) speculative itself, but its protagonist is a woman who'd far rather read scifi novels than be the perfect hostess for her husband's business colleagues. It, with "A Speculative Manifesto," bookends the collection and is about why we read (or write) speculative fiction. For Divya: "Slowly the understanding came to her that these stories were trying to tell her a great truth in a very convoluted way ... centered around the notion that you did not have to go to the stars to find aliens or to measure distances between people in light-years."
In "Delhi," a man who has visions of the past and future of that city ("The new city is less confusing, he thinks") is given a mission (or gives himself a mission?) by a strange man whose computer produces images that might be fortune-telling and might simply be a Rorschach test.
"The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet" is about that woman through the eyes of her husband, who's just retired from his job and, spending all of his time at home now, realizes he has never known and will never be able to control who his wife really is. I won't say any more, but this story is brilliant.
"Thirst" is the story of a woman who discovers, during a long-awaited rainstorm, what the curse of the women in her family really is.
"Conversation Laws" is the funny and beautiful and slightly psychedelic story told in the sitting room of Auntie Sinha's boarding house in Lunar City, told by the retired explorer Gyanendra Sahai to a group of fractious students, about Sahai-ji's encounter with an anomaly on Mars.
"Three Tales from Sky River" are three very short myths that will be told by people in the very far future who have inhabited their non-Earth planets for a very long time. One is a story about frustrating an angry god, one is frightening, and one is sad and beautiful.
"The Wife" has echoes of the story of Bluebeard's wife, but it's really the opposite -- it's about discovering the way out of a cage.
The last story, "The Room on the Roof," tells about the friendship of a thirteen-year-old girl and her little brother with a strange woman who sculpts amazing shapes and figures in clay.
This is the sort of story collection in which no matter what order you read them in, each story is even better than the one before. I can't recommend it enough.
The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet has ten stories and a short essay, "A Speculative Manifesto." Some read more like science fiction (space travel -- other dimensions) and others more like fantasy (a woman discovers she's a Naga) and some, like "Three Tales from Sky River: Myths for a Starfaring Age," overlap.
For years I have adored, in theory, the concept of speculative fiction that speculates about mathematics as well as science. This was attempted in the 1950s and 60s by editor Clifton Fadiman, whose collections Fantasia Mathematica and The Mathematical Magpie are unfortunately riddled with sexim and white supremacy. If I were an editor, I'd try to do a new version of those books with only a small minority of the authors being white men. I know now that Vandana Singh would be the first author I'd beg to allow one or more of her stories in that anthology. My first choice would be the emotionally fluent "Infinities," which intersperses quotations from Indian mathematicians and poets with the story of Abdul Karim, who wants to spend his life in understanding the ideas of Cantor and Godel, but who, like Archimedes, can't hold himself aloof of the sorrows of the world. "The Tetrahedron" is an absolutely classic story along the same lines as many in Fadiman's anthologies, asking the reader to think about Moebius strips and the fourth dimension in order to follow the plot, which in this case has to do with an object of bizarre properties that is blocking traffic in New Delhi.
To take the rest of the stories in order:
"Hunger" is the first; it's not (maybe) speculative itself, but its protagonist is a woman who'd far rather read scifi novels than be the perfect hostess for her husband's business colleagues. It, with "A Speculative Manifesto," bookends the collection and is about why we read (or write) speculative fiction. For Divya: "Slowly the understanding came to her that these stories were trying to tell her a great truth in a very convoluted way ... centered around the notion that you did not have to go to the stars to find aliens or to measure distances between people in light-years."
In "Delhi," a man who has visions of the past and future of that city ("The new city is less confusing, he thinks") is given a mission (or gives himself a mission?) by a strange man whose computer produces images that might be fortune-telling and might simply be a Rorschach test.
"The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet" is about that woman through the eyes of her husband, who's just retired from his job and, spending all of his time at home now, realizes he has never known and will never be able to control who his wife really is. I won't say any more, but this story is brilliant.
"Thirst" is the story of a woman who discovers, during a long-awaited rainstorm, what the curse of the women in her family really is.
"Conversation Laws" is the funny and beautiful and slightly psychedelic story told in the sitting room of Auntie Sinha's boarding house in Lunar City, told by the retired explorer Gyanendra Sahai to a group of fractious students, about Sahai-ji's encounter with an anomaly on Mars.
"Three Tales from Sky River" are three very short myths that will be told by people in the very far future who have inhabited their non-Earth planets for a very long time. One is a story about frustrating an angry god, one is frightening, and one is sad and beautiful.
"The Wife" has echoes of the story of Bluebeard's wife, but it's really the opposite -- it's about discovering the way out of a cage.
The last story, "The Room on the Roof," tells about the friendship of a thirteen-year-old girl and her little brother with a strange woman who sculpts amazing shapes and figures in clay.
This is the sort of story collection in which no matter what order you read them in, each story is even better than the one before. I can't recommend it enough.
November 14, 2017
This gorgeous collection of speculative short stories swept me away. Vandana Singh is a truly skilled writer.
This collection includes ten short stories and one brief essay, where Singh writes about the importance of speculative fiction (in this case she was preaching to the choir). The stories themselves are a mix of science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. Most of the stories are set in India, although one takes place on the Moon and one takes place in New England.
My favorite of the collection is probably the opening story, “Hunger.” An Indian house wife who loves science fiction novels and dreams of other worlds feels trapped within her own, occupied with planning her daughter’s birthday party. This party is more for her husband than her daughter, as it is a chance for him to impress the higher ups at his firm. Most of the story stays within the bounds of reality, only veering outside it within the last few pages.
Like with “Hunger,” the protagonists would often be people with a sense of hollowness in their lives, unfulfilled by the demands of respectable society. In “Tetrahedron,” the protagonist is a college aged women who’s engaged to man her family approves of, but she dreads a future with him. When a mysterious tetrahedron appears out of nowhere in her city, she becomes obsessed with understanding its mysteries.
These restless protagonists are often women, such as in “Thirst,” where a wife dreams of water and serpents. She begins to understand her own family’s legacy, and why the women of her maternal line have always been drawn to water.
In “Delhi,” the protagonist at drift is a man, who on the brink of suicide was pulled back from a bridge and given a card, which led him to the office of a fortune teller. He received a computer print out of a woman’s face and the advice that she was the reason he had to keep living. Who is this woman? The protagonist doesn’t live entirely in the present — he glimpses visions of the future and the past, so the mysterious woman could be from anywhere in history. I loved this story’s chilly hints about what the future holds.
Some of the stories contain traces of sly humor; this is most obvious in the titular “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet.” A respectable middle-class man retires and finds out that he doesn’t really know his wife. And then she starts saying that she’s a planet! What will the neighbors think?
“Three Tales from the Sky River” may be the only one of these stories that’s also available free online (check Strange Horizons). It’s possibly the shortest story in the collection, but it’s still incredibly lovely. “Three Tales from the Sky River” is three original fables from star-faring people. Even if you don’t have time to read this full collection, I would suggest at least giving this story a look.
In “The Room on the Roof,” a sculptress moves into the house of a thirteen year old girl. This story falls somewhere in the category of fantasy or magical realism, and there’s enough layers that I’m still sorting it out.
Some of the stories are more science geared than others. “The Tetrahedron” would be one of these, but “Conservation Laws” and “Infinities” are the two others. “Conservation Laws” takes place on the Moon, and through a story within a story structure heads to Mars as well for a strange, epic tale of aliens who preserve our reality. In “Infinities,” a mathematician becomes obsessed with the idea of infinity even as violence between Hindus and Muslims breaks out around him.
I enjoyed pretty much all of the stories. The only one that never really landed was “The Wife,” the one set in New England. On the whole, 9/10 is pretty good for a short fiction collection. I’m so glad I got the chance to read this book, and I look forward to exploring more of Singh’s work.
Review originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
This collection includes ten short stories and one brief essay, where Singh writes about the importance of speculative fiction (in this case she was preaching to the choir). The stories themselves are a mix of science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. Most of the stories are set in India, although one takes place on the Moon and one takes place in New England.
My favorite of the collection is probably the opening story, “Hunger.” An Indian house wife who loves science fiction novels and dreams of other worlds feels trapped within her own, occupied with planning her daughter’s birthday party. This party is more for her husband than her daughter, as it is a chance for him to impress the higher ups at his firm. Most of the story stays within the bounds of reality, only veering outside it within the last few pages.
Like with “Hunger,” the protagonists would often be people with a sense of hollowness in their lives, unfulfilled by the demands of respectable society. In “Tetrahedron,” the protagonist is a college aged women who’s engaged to man her family approves of, but she dreads a future with him. When a mysterious tetrahedron appears out of nowhere in her city, she becomes obsessed with understanding its mysteries.
These restless protagonists are often women, such as in “Thirst,” where a wife dreams of water and serpents. She begins to understand her own family’s legacy, and why the women of her maternal line have always been drawn to water.
In “Delhi,” the protagonist at drift is a man, who on the brink of suicide was pulled back from a bridge and given a card, which led him to the office of a fortune teller. He received a computer print out of a woman’s face and the advice that she was the reason he had to keep living. Who is this woman? The protagonist doesn’t live entirely in the present — he glimpses visions of the future and the past, so the mysterious woman could be from anywhere in history. I loved this story’s chilly hints about what the future holds.
Some of the stories contain traces of sly humor; this is most obvious in the titular “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet.” A respectable middle-class man retires and finds out that he doesn’t really know his wife. And then she starts saying that she’s a planet! What will the neighbors think?
“Three Tales from the Sky River” may be the only one of these stories that’s also available free online (check Strange Horizons). It’s possibly the shortest story in the collection, but it’s still incredibly lovely. “Three Tales from the Sky River” is three original fables from star-faring people. Even if you don’t have time to read this full collection, I would suggest at least giving this story a look.
In “The Room on the Roof,” a sculptress moves into the house of a thirteen year old girl. This story falls somewhere in the category of fantasy or magical realism, and there’s enough layers that I’m still sorting it out.
Some of the stories are more science geared than others. “The Tetrahedron” would be one of these, but “Conservation Laws” and “Infinities” are the two others. “Conservation Laws” takes place on the Moon, and through a story within a story structure heads to Mars as well for a strange, epic tale of aliens who preserve our reality. In “Infinities,” a mathematician becomes obsessed with the idea of infinity even as violence between Hindus and Muslims breaks out around him.
I enjoyed pretty much all of the stories. The only one that never really landed was “The Wife,” the one set in New England. On the whole, 9/10 is pretty good for a short fiction collection. I’m so glad I got the chance to read this book, and I look forward to exploring more of Singh’s work.
Review originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
October 28, 2015
The first Zubaan book I picked up, this collection of short stories is a brilliant addition to the Indian speculative fiction genre. The stories in this collection fall everywhere in the speculative fiction spectrum, including magical realism, hard science fiction, and anthropology-based science fiction, as well as a few that don't seem to have much to do with speculative fiction at all!
The Stories
"Hunger"
A housewife who would rather be reading science-fiction novels is stuck preparing for a fancy dinner party (ostensibly her daughter's birthday party but actually a networking event with the higher-ups in her husband's company). Meanwhile, she worries about the next-door neighbor's ill and neglected father-in-law.
"Delhi"
Aseem has the strange gift of being able to see through time: as he walks around Delhi, he catches glimpses of the people and buildings from the past and from the future. One day he is contacted by an organization purporting to tell him the meaning of his life, which apparently has something to do with a picture of an unknown girl.
"The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet"
Ramnath Mishra's retirement is rudely interrupted when his wife suddenly announces one morning, "I know at last what I am. I am a planet."
"Infinities" (available online from Clarkesworld)
An old math teacher, Abdul Karim, is obsessed with understanding the infinite, a dream encouraged by the angels that he sees out of the corner of his eyes.
"Thirst"
Susheela is a housewife with all the accompanying responsibilities and a small son. But there is a history of madness in her family - her mother and grandmother both disappeared, and now she herself is dreaming of snakes.
"Conservation Laws"
Gyanendra Sahai, a new addition to a run-down Lunar boarding house, announces his true identity as a member of an early Mars exploratory team.
"Three Tales from Sky River"
A collection of three legends from human civilizations spread throughout the galaxy, including one about the Medusa, a parasitic organism that looks like hair.
"The Tetrahedron"
A strange object appears in the middle of a busy road in Delhi. No one can explain what it is, and strange things keep happening around it.
"The Wife"
After 23 years of marriage, Padma's husband has left her alone in rural America. Her thoughts go back to an inexplicable childhood experience.
"The Room on the Roof"
When the room on the roof of the 13-year-old Urmila's house is rented by a sculptor, the girl expects her life to magically change.
Home and life in India
One theme that repeats in a majority of these stories is the idea of home: whether home is a place that exists, and whether you can ever really return to it. In "The Tetrahedron," for example, people enter the strange structure and are found months later, wandering in the desert with no memory of what happened. In "Infinities," the main character is at home, but because of communal violence home is no longer what it used to be. So is it still home if it has changed so much? What is home, really?
Read the rest of my review here: http://thegloballycurious.blogspot.in...
The Stories
"Hunger"
A housewife who would rather be reading science-fiction novels is stuck preparing for a fancy dinner party (ostensibly her daughter's birthday party but actually a networking event with the higher-ups in her husband's company). Meanwhile, she worries about the next-door neighbor's ill and neglected father-in-law.
"Delhi"
Aseem has the strange gift of being able to see through time: as he walks around Delhi, he catches glimpses of the people and buildings from the past and from the future. One day he is contacted by an organization purporting to tell him the meaning of his life, which apparently has something to do with a picture of an unknown girl.
"The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet"
Ramnath Mishra's retirement is rudely interrupted when his wife suddenly announces one morning, "I know at last what I am. I am a planet."
"Infinities" (available online from Clarkesworld)
An old math teacher, Abdul Karim, is obsessed with understanding the infinite, a dream encouraged by the angels that he sees out of the corner of his eyes.
"Thirst"
Susheela is a housewife with all the accompanying responsibilities and a small son. But there is a history of madness in her family - her mother and grandmother both disappeared, and now she herself is dreaming of snakes.
"Conservation Laws"
Gyanendra Sahai, a new addition to a run-down Lunar boarding house, announces his true identity as a member of an early Mars exploratory team.
"Three Tales from Sky River"
A collection of three legends from human civilizations spread throughout the galaxy, including one about the Medusa, a parasitic organism that looks like hair.
"The Tetrahedron"
A strange object appears in the middle of a busy road in Delhi. No one can explain what it is, and strange things keep happening around it.
"The Wife"
After 23 years of marriage, Padma's husband has left her alone in rural America. Her thoughts go back to an inexplicable childhood experience.
"The Room on the Roof"
When the room on the roof of the 13-year-old Urmila's house is rented by a sculptor, the girl expects her life to magically change.
Home and life in India
One theme that repeats in a majority of these stories is the idea of home: whether home is a place that exists, and whether you can ever really return to it. In "The Tetrahedron," for example, people enter the strange structure and are found months later, wandering in the desert with no memory of what happened. In "Infinities," the main character is at home, but because of communal violence home is no longer what it used to be. So is it still home if it has changed so much? What is home, really?
Read the rest of my review here: http://thegloballycurious.blogspot.in...
November 9, 2020
These stories are a special type of magic. Not a dull one in the collection.
November 18, 2015
One of the best SFF writers working today. I loved this collection of short stories, which included a few that aren't available elsewhere.
On a more personal note, these stories are important to me because when I first wanted to be a writer (before Twitter and social media) I wasn't able to find other Indian SF writers, and so I didn't really have a sense of other writers who might speak to the same concerns and types of stories I was hoping to tell. During that time I read "Delhi" by: Vandana Singh in a Years Best anthology. I was floored by how well she paired fantastical elements to the story of that great Indian city and characters who could have lived there.
Highly recommended!
On a more personal note, these stories are important to me because when I first wanted to be a writer (before Twitter and social media) I wasn't able to find other Indian SF writers, and so I didn't really have a sense of other writers who might speak to the same concerns and types of stories I was hoping to tell. During that time I read "Delhi" by: Vandana Singh in a Years Best anthology. I was floored by how well she paired fantastical elements to the story of that great Indian city and characters who could have lived there.
Highly recommended!
September 19, 2022
The author's debut collection pales in comparison to her latest work. The spec fic elements feel shoehorned.
October 18, 2023
Anthologies are either a hit or miss for me but this one was exceptional. I started it in January 2022 and finished it in October 2023, and even when I put the book aside, I was still thinking about some of the stories. I'll definitely read Sing's other works.
HUNGER
- no rating
DELHI
☆☆☆☆☆
This is one of the best short stories I have ever read. And now that I finished the anthology, I can say it was the best one. I wish it could have been a novel because the concept reminded me of Twelve Monkeys
Imagine living in a world and you can see the people from the past and the future walking next to you? Imagine if you could talk to a dead emperor? Or if you could see a terrifying future? And the only thing that can guide you is a piece of paper
THE WOMAN WHO THOUGHT SHE WAS A PLANET
no rating
I really wanted to like this short story because its title is the reason why I bought this anthology. I loved the precedent short story and hoped this one could be as good but I'm disappointed
INFINITES
Interesting story about the idea of infinity, mathematics and about religious conflicts in India
THIRST
☆☆☆☆
My second favorite from the anthology, it was so interesting and i couldn't see where it was going. I loved the "curse" and the choices Susheela had to face
CONSERVATION LAWS
☆☆☆☆☆
probably my second favorite after Delhi. On the moon, a group of people live together and gather once a week to talk. The newest member of their group tell them about his experience on Mars and the conversation laws.
I've never heard of the laws mentioned in this story but it wasn't hard to understand. I could see this story in love death and robot
TROIS CONTES DE LA RIVIÈRE ET DU CIEL mythes de l'ère des astronautes
☆☆☆
Disturbing short stories about humanity / humankind
THE TETRAHEDRON
☆☆☆☆
Another favorite. It was an intriguing story about a strange tetrahedron that appeared out of nowhere in Delhi. It reminded me of the apparition of the Utah monolith
THE WIFE
☆☆
the beginning was interesting: the story is about a woman reflecting on her life now that she isn't someone's wife anymore. her ex-husband was the worst, but i didn't get the ending and it felt disappointing.
THE ROOM ON THE ROOF
☆☆☆
Another interesting story about a young sculptress renting a room in a family's house, told through the eyes of a young girl. I loved the complicity between Urmila, her brother and the sculptress and how their summer became a magical one.
It also reminded me of Thirst, there were some similarities between these two stories and that's probably why I loved them both.
A SPECULATIVE MANIFESTO
I'll probably have to re-read it again, but it was interesting. Singh defended the importance of speculative fiction in school, and how both children and adults can benefit from these kinds of stories. She then cited some major works from this genre and why they were important.
HUNGER
- no rating
DELHI
☆☆☆☆☆
This is one of the best short stories I have ever read. And now that I finished the anthology, I can say it was the best one. I wish it could have been a novel because the concept reminded me of Twelve Monkeys
Imagine living in a world and you can see the people from the past and the future walking next to you? Imagine if you could talk to a dead emperor? Or if you could see a terrifying future? And the only thing that can guide you is a piece of paper
THE WOMAN WHO THOUGHT SHE WAS A PLANET
no rating
I really wanted to like this short story because its title is the reason why I bought this anthology. I loved the precedent short story and hoped this one could be as good but I'm disappointed
INFINITES
Interesting story about the idea of infinity, mathematics and about religious conflicts in India
THIRST
☆☆☆☆
My second favorite from the anthology, it was so interesting and i couldn't see where it was going. I loved the "curse" and the choices Susheela had to face
CONSERVATION LAWS
☆☆☆☆☆
probably my second favorite after Delhi. On the moon, a group of people live together and gather once a week to talk. The newest member of their group tell them about his experience on Mars and the conversation laws.
I've never heard of the laws mentioned in this story but it wasn't hard to understand. I could see this story in love death and robot
TROIS CONTES DE LA RIVIÈRE ET DU CIEL mythes de l'ère des astronautes
☆☆☆
Disturbing short stories about humanity / humankind
THE TETRAHEDRON
☆☆☆☆
Another favorite. It was an intriguing story about a strange tetrahedron that appeared out of nowhere in Delhi. It reminded me of the apparition of the Utah monolith
THE WIFE
☆☆
the beginning was interesting: the story is about a woman reflecting on her life now that she isn't someone's wife anymore. her ex-husband was the worst, but i didn't get the ending and it felt disappointing.
THE ROOM ON THE ROOF
☆☆☆
Another interesting story about a young sculptress renting a room in a family's house, told through the eyes of a young girl. I loved the complicity between Urmila, her brother and the sculptress and how their summer became a magical one.
It also reminded me of Thirst, there were some similarities between these two stories and that's probably why I loved them both.
A SPECULATIVE MANIFESTO
I'll probably have to re-read it again, but it was interesting. Singh defended the importance of speculative fiction in school, and how both children and adults can benefit from these kinds of stories. She then cited some major works from this genre and why they were important.
August 21, 2023
These stories are speculative fiction mostly in a magical realism way (even those with frank science fiction themes), which is a genre I don't care for. But Vandana Singh is such an excellent writer that I couldn't help but like them. They are literary and poetic (also things I tend to dislike), but I love the way she thinks and puts things together. Most stories are about someone, usually a woman, who is gradually disconnecting from the expectations put on them by their families and culture. The portrait of Indian culture, especially the rigid expectations for women, is not flattering, but I can't say that Western culture is better. It's not hard to empathize with the characters as they first get disillusioned, then disconnect, and then that magic (or science) thing happens and they kind of float away from it all.
February 2, 2025
This collection of short stories is a refreshing departure from the Western-dominated science fiction landscape. Space-focused stories particularly have been shaped by an American perspective, but Singh offers something different. Stories infused with uniquely Indian references, and a lyrical, almost philosophical depth. Her work expands the speculative fiction genre, and I´d love to read more speculative fiction that embraces a multitude of voices and cultures.
In the epilogue however, Singh makes a pointed critique of mainstream science fiction, dismissing 90% of it as trash and aligning herself with those inspired by the genre’s so-called "cream." While her commitment to high literary standards is commendable, there’s no need to diminish the broader field. After all, even pulp and mainstream sci-fi encourages people to pick up books, and even there brilliance can be found.
In the epilogue however, Singh makes a pointed critique of mainstream science fiction, dismissing 90% of it as trash and aligning herself with those inspired by the genre’s so-called "cream." While her commitment to high literary standards is commendable, there’s no need to diminish the broader field. After all, even pulp and mainstream sci-fi encourages people to pick up books, and even there brilliance can be found.
August 9, 2022
Rating: 4.25
Why was this on my shelf: I read another book by the author and really enjoyed it for its beautiful and meditative quality, so I wanted to explore more of her catalog.
Why did I pick it up now: I finally found this book used after searching for it a while and couldn't wait to read it.
Thoughts: To my recollection, different to the other book by the author I read - Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories. This one had longer stories which were more focused on the interpersonal relationships the characters had. I still really enjoyed this but it didn't sing to me in quite the same way the other book did.
Why was this on my shelf: I read another book by the author and really enjoyed it for its beautiful and meditative quality, so I wanted to explore more of her catalog.
Why did I pick it up now: I finally found this book used after searching for it a while and couldn't wait to read it.
Thoughts: To my recollection, different to the other book by the author I read - Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories. This one had longer stories which were more focused on the interpersonal relationships the characters had. I still really enjoyed this but it didn't sing to me in quite the same way the other book did.
August 23, 2017
Absolutely awesome. Stories were a great mixture of weird, insightful, and strange; all written with some just beautiful prose, which is quite rare in the scifi/fantasy genre. Additionally it was really interesting to read speculative fiction from a non-westerner (and female) perspective.
Can't really say more without spoiling the stories, so I'll leave it at this. Highly recommend.
Can't really say more without spoiling the stories, so I'll leave it at this. Highly recommend.
June 23, 2025
Quelque part entre le fantastique et la sf selon les nouvelles. Une fenêtre très intéressante sur les complexités de la culture indienne, sur ce qui se passe en littérature hors du prisme europeano centré.
Les nouvelles ne m’ont pas toutes captivée mais j’en ai aimé beaucoup, notamment le tetrahedre, soif, infinités et les contes.
Une bonne surprise !
Les nouvelles ne m’ont pas toutes captivée mais j’en ai aimé beaucoup, notamment le tetrahedre, soif, infinités et les contes.
Une bonne surprise !
March 28, 2023
3.5
"Faim" ★★★
"Delhi" ★★★★
"La femme qui se croyait planète" ★★★½
"Infinités" ★★★½
"Soif" ★★★
"Les lois de la conservation" ★★★
"Trois contes de la rivière du ciel" ★★★
"Le tétraèdre" ★★★½
"L'épouse" ★★★
"La chambre sur le toit" ★★★½
"Un manifeste spéculatif" ★★★½
"Faim" ★★★
"Delhi" ★★★★
"La femme qui se croyait planète" ★★★½
"Infinités" ★★★½
"Soif" ★★★
"Les lois de la conservation" ★★★
"Trois contes de la rivière du ciel" ★★★
"Le tétraèdre" ★★★½
"L'épouse" ★★★
"La chambre sur le toit" ★★★½
"Un manifeste spéculatif" ★★★½
March 25, 2018
Des nouvelles aux qualités inégales mais une lecture agréable néanmoins.
Want to read
November 13, 2019Note to self:
Became interested (obsessed) to hunt this down from this video @ 3:11
https://youtu.be/gAoTzGGGCLs
Became interested (obsessed) to hunt this down from this video @ 3:11
https://youtu.be/gAoTzGGGCLs
January 1, 2023
It was fun being in the sci-fi mindset in the Indian culture.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews