Starlings

by Jo Walton

An ancient coin cyber-spies on lovers and thieves. The magic mirror sees all but can do nothing. A cloned savior solves a fanatically-inspired murder. Three Irish siblings thieve treasures with bad poetry and the aid of the Queen of Cats.

With these captivating initial glimpses into her storytelling psyche, Jo Walton shines through subtle myths and reinvented realities. Through eclectic stories, subtle vignettes, inspired poetry, and more, Walton soars with humans, machines, and magic—rising from the every day into the universe itself.

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Poetry, Fiction, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 23, 2018

About the author

Jo Walton writes science fiction and fantasy novels and reads a lot and eats great food. It worries her slightly that this is so exactly what she always wanted to do when she grew up. She comes from Wales, but lives in Montreal.

Reviews

[Jo Walton]

It's a mix really. I've never found short fiction easy, and I've only relatively recently figured out how to do it at all. I'm frankly amazed that over seventeen years I've amassed enough for a collection. So there's a range of quality in the stories here. There's also a play I like a lot, and some recent poems. I'm quite pleased with some of the stories, actually. And they gave me such a great cover, I love the cover.

Do you want to read this? It seems more likely than that I would, after all, you didn't write it in the first place.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was delighted to find out that I could read and enjoy Jo Walton's first short story (and poetry) collection on Netgalley and saving it just in time for xmas. I do that with authors I really enjoy. The fact is, Ms. Walton has taste. Granted, I've only read three of her books before now, with this one making number four, but trust has been earned.

What else should I expect from someone who reads copiously and discerns with great verve?

But then there comes the introduction. She admits to experimenting and learning the short-fic craft and some of these aren't precisely over-practiced. To that, I say, nevermind. :) I'll read and judge based on my gut reactions anyway, and while a good number of them aren't overly fantastic in my opinion, a few stand out well.

It's on these that I'm resting the weight of my enjoyment.

The Panda Coin - The moon, androids, humans, and AIs... a full slice of lives lasting only as long as the coin remains in their possession. It's a great SF twist and I had a great time piecing out the world and feeling the commentary.

Remember the Allosaur - It may be a joke piece like a number of her other smaller works, but this one works best for me. I keep thinking of my favorite Raptor memes. :)

Sleeper - A pretty awesome future dystopia from the focus of a biographer and an AI-simulation of a real person during the early-mid 20th-century heretics (of mild socialism). I think I may have had the best time with this one just because it's so seditious. If only all biographical works could be the spearhead of a revolution, right?

A Burden Shared - I think I prefer this one for its basic SF-concept over the execution, but even that did a great job. Pain-sharing seems to be just the start. I keep thinking about the possible economic slant to it. Walton's take is purely interpersonal, but a whole society that has this is bound to abuse it. Fascinating, either way. :)

Three Shouts on a Hill - This one is an all-out Irish legend turned into a wild mish-mash mythology adventure and placed firmly into a stage production. It's pretty awesome, ranging from Cromwell, the Thunderbird, the Aztecs, Golden apples and underwater dragons, and even King Arthur. It's about tricksters and overwhelming odds and payback. I'd love to see this put on! :)

The poetry in this collection is very decent, too, but beyond that, I'll not say too much. There is an ever-growing field of SF poetry, after all. It's worth browsing. :)

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. While not every short story is stellar, there were a few that I particularly liked, and a few that I wish Jo Walton would expand into longer stories. Stories That stuck with me were:
-Three Twilight Tales
-Jane Austen to Cassandra
-The Panda Coin
-At the Bottom of the Garden
-I can't remember the title, but the story is about people on a generation ship headed to a planet
-Three Shouts on a Hill (A Play)

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have wanted to read Jo Walton's novels for a while now and I can definitely say that after this collection of short stories that I am more excited than ever. As is sadly often the case with short story collections there were a few stories that did not work for me and a few poems that didn't either, however, the stories I liked, I adored.

Jo Walton has a way of choosing pitch perfect voices for her stories and they all sounded completely different depending on the genre she chose. She tells stories in a vast array of genres: re-tellings, science fiction, straight up fantasy. Some stories are more of a cheeky joke (she admits so freely) while others are highly political (I happen to like that in my genre fiction). I absolutely adored the fairy tale that starts this collection ("Three Twilight Tales"): it feels like a fairy tale while being completely original and I never saw the ending coming. I found "The Panda Coin" to be the strongest of the collection: here we follow one coin through different hands. Jo Walton manages to create a believable science fiction setting in just these glimpses. "Escape to Other Worlds With Science Fiction" would have been a brilliant start to a novel and I wanted more from this than I got.

The stories that seemed to be more for her own amusement were the ones that did not quite work for me: Especially "Remember the Allosaur" and "Joyful and Triumphant: St. Zenobius and the Aliens" just felt like extended inside jokes to me.

I am glad to have read this because I am now more eager than ever to get to Jo Walton's novels (where hopefully she won't need to tell me after each chapter how she thought it up).

I received an arc of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Tachyon Publications in exchange for an honest review.

[Sassy Sarah Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starlings by Jo Walton

3 stars

This is Jo Walton’s first short story collection and she prefaces this collection with acknowledging that she isn’t very good at right short stories. I think that it is important to keep that in mind when embarking into this collection. Not all of these stories are good, in fact an awful lot of them are… well, awful. It is a horrible collection and I have read for worse, but this isn’t a particularly strong collection. Starlings is comprised of short stories, a play, and handful of poems. Walton writes in an array of genres within the science fiction and fantasy realm. Her ideas are very unique and outside of the box. I really enjoyed that aspect of this collection because it made the stories diverse in content, but all along the same vein of storytelling. I do think it is important to let readers know that Walton is fantastic at incorporating religious or God-like concepts into her writing and if you hate religious allegories, then this collection is not for you. But I love God and I love being challenged to think about God and know God in different ways and perspectives and I felt that Walton was incredibly strong in this area of storytelling. I love Walton’s prose in her fantasy stories. For me that is when she is at her strongest and I do plan on picking up other work by her, particularly Tooth and Claw, which I’m excited about getting my hands on.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 3.5

Three Twilight Tales – 3 stars The writing for this fantasy is quite beautiful and I loved the ending, but the formatting did not fit and it wasn’t until the ending that I grew to care for this tale. My biggest problem was that this story had no real motivation until the very end.

Jane Austen to Cassandra – 2.25 stars The concept of Jane Austen writing a letter and it winding up in the hands of the wrong Cassandra who happens to be living during the Battle of Troy is cute. However, this has no real purpose as story and is too short to be substantial.

Undeniable Witness – 3.5 stars This is a nice story about an old woman who lives in a nursing home. She claims that she has been visited by aliens and is recording it in hopes of proving that she is not crazy.

On the Wall – 5 stars This story follows the creation of the Magic Mirror and it follows the conflict that the mirror feels as it begins to see how manipulative Bluebell is and the lengths she will go to ensure her own rise to power. This was unique and fantastic. It’s the type of story I gravitate towards, but I absolutely wasn’t expecting to love this one so much. If you only read one story in this collection, find a way to check this one out because it is AMAZING!

The Panda Coin – 1 star I didn’t like the concept of following a coin throughout a futuristic society. There wasn’t enough to time to build up this world extensively and it was too much. I really didn’t like this one.

Remember the Allo-Saur – 1 star Well, that was a waste of time. It’s letter to a famous dinosaur actor. Why?

Sleeper – 3.5 stars This feels very reminiscent of classic dystopians like 1984 and I think a lot of readers will really like this one, especially because the twist is rather impressive.

Relentlessly Mundane – 3.75 stars This follows three children who were once in a mythical world and are struggling as adults in this world. They know that they have to save the Earth, but they don’t know how. My biggest problem was that this story was too short and I wanted it to be a novella. I wanted to see how they were going to save the world and why it needed saving. I left the story with way too many questions and not enough answers.

Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction – 3.25 stars The concept of Nazi Germany become winners of the WWII has always been an interesting one to me and I really like Walton’s take on it, but I wish that it hadn’t been interrupted with newspaper articles. The idea of newspapers articles is cool, but they felt odd.

Joyful and Triumphant: St. Zenobius and the Aliens – 4 stars I loved how unique this take on God and aliens was and it made the story so entertaining.

Turnover – 3.5 stars I liked the world and the concept of people being born on a spaceship going to another planet. The debate that surrounds this novel is interesting, but it doesn’t hold up past that and it falls short.

At the Bottom of the Garden – 3 stars This was depressing, but I didn’t like the path it took and it was far too short.

Out of It – 4 stars This follows an angel trying to win the soul of a powerful man who has sold his soul and it is so good. A lot of these stories would be really interesting to debate and this is one that I would enjoy debating the content surrounding morality.

What a Piece of Work – 4.25 stars This follows a supercomputer who becomes aware that she is becoming the totalitarian computer that begins to censor humans, but the reason why it gains consciousness of this is so interesting. I would love to see this one as a full-length novel.

Parable Lost – 2 stars This story has no answers to give and it is frustrating.

What Would Sam Spade Do? – 3.75 stars There’s a talking do that is a cop! This also follows a futuristic world where cloning has been made possible and there are thousands of Jesi (the plural form of Jesus) walking around. It’s kind of amazing and the is also a mystery about why a Jesus would kill another Jesus.

Tradition – 2.5 stars The idea of following someone’s traditional background is sweet, but it wasn’t spectacular.

What Joseph Felt – 3.5 stars I wish this story had expanded more upon on Joseph’s thoughts on Jesus’s life and how he felt about his step-son being crucified.

The Need to Stay the Same – 2 stars A review of a novel is cool, but it’s a fictional novel and it’s being reviewed within a scifi universe so it is hard to follow.

A Burden Shared – 3.5 stars This follows a mother who takes the pain of her daughter through an app that shares pain and it tackles incredibly tough themes like motherhood, pain, and letting go.

Three Shouts on a Hill- 1.25 stars This play was a hot mess.

Poetry – 3 stars My favorite poem is “Hades and Persephone” because I’m basic and stick to my roots when it comes to my obsessions.

Overall, I think this collection has a lot of strengths, but it also has a ton of weaknesses. I’m interested in checking out Walton’s future short story collections to see her progress because this a comprehensive collection of all her short stories. Walton acknowledges that this collection has some bad stories in it which I think takes a lot of balls to admit and for that alone I see more as a portfolio than as a novel.

Cover Thoughts: I LOVE this cover so much. The illustrations are wonderful.

Thank you, Netgalley and Tachyon Publishers, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Sherwood Smith]

As a kid, I and my sibs had candy so seldom that I could make a pack of M&Ms last for weeks, allowing myself one a day. I’d nibble that single candy with my front teeth so that it took longer to enjoy, until it began to melt in my fingers.

I have the same approach to short pieces of fiction I know I’m going to enjoy, and so it was with Starlings, Jo Walton’s collection of short work.

I say ‘short work’ because it’s not merely short stories. In fact, Walton claims in the introduction that there’s only one true short story in the collection. The rest are attempts, first chapters, experiments, and then there is her wonderful poetry (including a biographical poem that alone is worth the price of admission) and a play that had me cracking up so much I startled the dog. (How I’d love to do that play in a readers’ theater reading!)

Anyway, I portioned these out over weeks, permitting myself to read only one at a time right before bed. (This was only a mistake once, when I encountered a piece so very dark in humor that it was basically extremely effective horror. To get the images out of my head I had to bring out the big guns: listening to Ralph Vaughn Willams’ In Windsor Forest and reread some P.G. Wodehouse before I dared sleep. At least it was a very short piece!)

At the end of each, Walton talks about the inspiration behind it, sometimes evaluating it, and giving the history of publication. These notes are especially interesting to fellow writers, as well as for those who enjoy looking behind the stage curtain.

What to say about the pieces themselves? It’s interesting that the ‘true’ short story that Walton picked came way after my own selection for which one it had to be. This raises the question of what exactly constitutes a short story. Each of these could spark debate on that question alone, before we get to the ideas. None of these pieces is predictable, pretty much every one of them could be called a chapter one to a wonderful novel, or else a fine example of flash fiction, or a fictional riff. Many of them could be broken up into poetry format as they are really prose poems.

One of my favorites was the short story “Turnaround,” which takes place in a restaurant over lunch on an enormous spaceship that is destined for a new planet. The sfnal elements are there, but so are the arts, as well as the impractical and sometimes delightfully absurd joys that make human life so great, such as musical fanfares announcing the newest dishes. One of the things I love about Walton’s work is the celebration of human possibility, choice, and a reveling in profligate beauty. This story evokes that, the best in the human spirit.

The voice, or tone, or mode of these pieces varies so widely. Walton is so flexible when it comes to narrative voice. The opening story, “Three Twilight Tales,” reads as if told by a storyteller over the firelight on a wintry night. The dream-world of fairy tales is evoked through prose that slips into poetry just often enough to be enchanting.

Very different is the tight, wry voice of the next piece, a very short one called “Jane Austen to Cassandra.” And different from both is the eerie tone of “On the Wall,” which is in essence a novel contained in a short piece, because once the reader figures out who this is, they know exactly where it’s going, and it stops at exactly the right moment for maximum effect.

They’re all like this, wildly different in tone and effect, and yet there are flashes of themes from her novels here and there, and glimpses of characters, for instance I thought I saw Krokus from the Thessaly novels in “What a Piece of Work.”

The collection finishes up with the play mentioned above, “Three Shouts on a Hill,” and more of her wonderful poetry.

I wish this were coming out before the end of the year, as I can think of three people I’d buy it for as a holiday gift, but OTOH there are always birthdays, ha ha!

Copy provided by NetGalley

[Claudia]

Jo Walton has one of the most beautiful writings I have ever came across (Robin Hobb is the only one who can surpass her, from my PoV). I loved My Real Children and I hoped to enjoy this one just as much. However, no matter how beautiful she writes, the stories are on the ‘too lyrical’ side for me.

Half of the book consists in poems (which I did not read) and the other half in short stories. I read five of them and stopped. I just could not get into them.

One story is a version of Snow White, told from the Pov of the mirror but the resemblance with the fairytale stops here. Another is a letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra (!) – yes, that mythical Cassandra… Another is about an 89 years old woman (suffering from dementia and not realizing it) and her encounter with an alien. I guess the others are more of less in the same note.

Unfortunately, there are just too many allegories for my taste. But if you love her style, you’ll love this collection too.
---
ARC received courtesy of NetGalley and Tachyon Publications

[Kitty G Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

* This was sent to me by the publisher for an honest review *

I was really quite excited to receive this book as I have read Jo Walton's work before and enjoyed some of it greatly. However, I also knew that some of her work wasn't really my cup of tea, and I wanted to try out her short fiction to see what worked for me and what didn't. This is a collection of 21 very short pieces, and also 15 poems at the end of the book too. It's quite a mixture of topics, with themes of supercomputers, ancient gods and mythology, and a whole lot of poetry as underlying themes.

On the whole, I found there were more stories in here and poems in here that I didn't 'get' or like than those I did. Most of the stories either felt too short, too experimental or just left me cold, and I definitely feel like poetry isn't my forte so I only found one poem I liked (a retelling of Goldilocks).

Despite the many stories I wasn't a fan of, I found it interesting to take a look at just what a short fiction piece could be. Many of these are unconventional, and so they are interesting. I may not have come away from this with any new favourites (although I enjoyed Three Shouts on a Hill (a play), On the Wall, Three Twilight Tales, The Panda Coin and At The Bottom of the Garden) but I did come away from this pondering short fiction more. I don't think I would read more fo Walton's short fiction (though I intend to try more of her novels) but it was good to try this out and confirm that. 2*s from me overall.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jo Walton's first collection. She says up front that she's not much of a short-story writer, and indeed most of the stories are vignettes, often humorous. They’re all worth reading. And there are two major stories here:

“Sleeper” (2014), Good, solid sfnal extrapolation. How biographers might work, a little further up the line, if the tech gets better and society gets grimmer. Amazing character-creation in a short story. Wonderful twist-ending. Pretty near perfect. Go read it! https://www.tor.com/2014/08/12/sleepe... 5 stars, my favorite here.

“Turnover” (2013). A new take on a classic SF trope: the generation ship. Walton economically sketches characters and background in her flying metropolis headed for the New World, with new artforms and good food too. She wisely doesn’t address how (or when) such a titanic ship could be built. 4.5 stars http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic... Well, maybe this is my favorite…..

Also noteworthy, and online:
“The Panda Coin” (2011) A series of vignettes, following a gold coin as it is spent over and over in an unpleasant space habitat. 3.5 stars
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...

“At the Bottom of the Garden” (1998). The author says: “I wrote this on a Sunday evening after reading one too many twee bed-time stories…” Ick.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories...

“What Would Sam Spade Do?” (2006). Clones of Jesus! A bunch of them. One was murdered. Silly and fun, http://hell.pl/szymon/Baen/The%20best... 3.5 stars

“Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction” (2009). A grim post-WW2 future. Part of her "Small Change" alternate history. 3.5 stars https://www.tor.com/2009/02/06/escape...

“On the Wall” (2001), the Magic Mirror retold. http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/on...

“Parable Lost” (2009). The story starts with a man throwing jellyfish into the sea. http://literary.erictmarin.com/lost.htm

“Relentlessly Mundane” (2000). Jane and Tharsis try to get back to Porphylia. There’s a unicorn too, and a forgettable guy. 3 stars, http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/re...

“Tradition” (2007). Walter was born out of a tank. On Pyrite, everyone was, at first. http://literary.erictmarin.com/archiv...

“A Burden Shared” (2017), What if you could take on a loved one’s pain?
https://www.tor.com/2017/04/19/a-burd...

Her short autobiography in blank verse, which ends the book, is remarkable. 5 stars!

And many more! Highly recommended, especially for Walton fans.

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starlings was my first real dive into Walton's short stories and poetry. Ultimately it felt like a mishmash of stories I liked and pieces that didn't really feel like short stories. With Walton's own commentary about learning to write short stories, this collection naturally drew my attention to that question: "What IS a short story?"

A few of the stories really worked for me, but some others just didn't gel, or felt a little stale. For example, do we really need a sci fi lite version of the "why do you cut the end off the ham" joke? That one felt like filler, especially to someone like me who's come across this particular joke a lot in recent days.

"Sleeper" was a reread - I read it first when it was published on Tor.com, and it's one of my favorites. Also, it seems, it's one of her more recently written stories, and not necessarily a spin on a joke or a practice at writing from a specific viewpoint (which are two things that come up a lot when Walton talks about inspirations for stories in this collection).

Other stories I particularly liked were "On the Wall" (written from the viewpoint of the magic mirror from Snow White), "The Panda Coin" (where the POV changes to follow a coin as it goes through the hands of people living on a space station), and "Turnover".

"Turnover" was the particular story that tickled my fancy the most in this collection. The story is about a generation ship on its way to a planet - and a younger generation wants to preserve their way of life even when they arrive. Yes, there will be a lot of scientists and engineers in space colonies, but the arts and ballet (or low-gravity ballet) are just as important to society and civilization and people's souls. And there's something very uplifting in a story about creating more options for the future, rather than narrowing it down. Let's give our children wiggle room for their lives. We'll all be happier for it.

I feel that Walton really lives in her poetry in this collection. She seems to have a confidence in it that she doesn't have in her short stories (going by her own remarks). Sadly, I am not a fan of much poetry so far, so it was lost on me. A matter of my taste rather than her quality, for sure.

Overall, this was a pleasant collection with a couple of standout stories that I would especially recommend to Walton's fans from her novels.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC)

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received to review via Tachyon; publication date 30th January 2018

It’s no secret that I love Jo Walton’s work, and I’d better add here that I’ve spent time with her as well — I’d call her a friend. Still, I knew her work first, and this is a fun collection. Jo may say she doesn’t know how to write short stories, but all the same everything here works pretty well. I only knew ‘Relentlessly Mundane’ and some of the poetry before, I think. It was nice to re-encounter the poetry here and spend some time with it — reading it online wasn’t the same at all. I hadn’t read the play, either, ‘Three Shouts on a Hill’; entertaining stuff.

My favourite of the short stories… hmm, possibly ‘Sleeper’, and I liked ‘What Joseph Felt’ a lot too.

Really, I never know quite how to review short story collections: suffice it to say that I enjoyed it, and I think it’s worth it, especially if you’re already a fan of Walton’s work. I’m glad I got to read it ahead of time.

Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jo Walton is a delightful human being and a gifted author, but she's known almost entirely for her novels. The only non-novel works that I have read of hers was her collection of essays ABOUT novels. When this collection was announced, I was like, WHAAAAT? She does short stories too?

But it turns out that she doesn't. Or, not usually, anyway!

She explains in the introduction that she has tried many times, but all her short stories turn into novels or just don't really work. So it's over many years that she has been able to amass enough stories for this slim volume, which is further padded (I don't mean that in a bad way) by the poems at the end. And the interesting thing is that . . . well, she's right. Many of these stories read like an outline, or a first chapter of a novel. One is totally the epilogue of a fantasy trilogy. Totally. I loved it, though, and I knew exactly what the rest of the trilogy would have been about and there is no need for her to write that trilogy.

There were, of course, several that were complete and whole and only needed that many pages. My favorite, The Burden Shared, was one of them. But I also really liked the snippets. It was fun, as a writer, to see those little glimpses and know that I'm not the only one who just really wanted to write one chapter of a book sometimes, and not the whole thing! Even her poems seemed like something that would be the heading of a novel, or a bard's song during a banquet chapter.

It was all just very Jo Walton.

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Note: I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and Tachyon in exchange for an honest review.

The only thing that unites this collection is the author: the short stories are diverse, ranging from fairytale-like to SF, but all were entrancing and written with a lyrical voice that I liked quite a lot.
I must confess I was afraid of the poetry part, but the poems read more like ballads, and I was glad to find them enjoying.

I also liked the personal touch – after each work, she says a few words about it, what determined her to write it, for what publication or occasion.

As a final thought, some of the ideas are incredibly good, I would have loved to see them extended / detailed into novels.

[h o l l i s · Rating 1 out of 5]

Part of me wishes I had never requested this anthology of short stories, jokes, poetry, etc. I've long meant to read one of Walton's books (I have AMONG OTHERS on my shelf at the mo) and thought this would give me a glimpse into her writing or tease me to want to read other things she's written. Instead I was so bored I dropped my kindle on my face multiple times, skimmed, skipped, and put it down to do any possible other activity but read. Sadly the good intentions I had when starting STARLINGS never panned out.

I wouldn't not recommend this because I can see it possibly working for others but sadly this wasn't for me. I think I might have liked one of the opening stories but honestly it's buried so far underneath all the rest that I couldn't even tell you what it was about or what I liked. I do still intend to give this author's full-length work a try so if nothing else this hasn't scared me away; despite that rather telling rating. I just really did not enjoy this experience overall.


** I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **

[✨faith✨trust✨pixiedust✨ Dead Account; Not Coming Back]

I received this eARC from Tachyon Publications on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.

DNF'd at 17%

Honestly, it really just isn't my thing. I usually like short stories but these just don't feel genuine.

[Raquel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ★★

«They chose to have a universe with stories, and there are no stories in utopia.»

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

{English}
Starlings by Jo Walton is a collection of 21 fiction short stories and 15 poems in which we can appreciate not only the wonderful writing style of the author but also her magnificent ability to build many and different genres such as epic fantasy, sci-fi and general fiction. Even though this was my first time reading something by the award-winning novelist Jo Walton (shame on me), she has one of the most beautiful writings I’ve ever came across and I’ve enjoyed quite a lot this book. To such an extent that thanks to this collection now I need and I’d love to read her novels.

Although in the Introduction Walton claims that she doesn’t think herself as a short fiction writer and that this book contains exercises, extended jokes, first chapters of books she finally never wrote, a play and some poems, I sincerely believe she’s wonderfully succeeded in writing these short stories.

As in other 'short work' collections, I’ve found many themes that I'm not really into and I didn’t enjoy that much (i. e. On the Wall, a retelling of Snow White from the POV of the mirror), but I also found quite interesting other themes, allegories and metaphors (such as Greek, Irish and Nordic myths or epic fantasy) that have a great influence in Walton’s writing. Among my favourites are The Panda Coin —a sci-fi story which has a really interesting world-building—, Hades and Pershepone —a poem inspired by the Greek myth— and Ten years ahead: Oracle Poem.

To sum up, this is a really entertaining collection of short works that I’d recommend not only to the readers who are familiarised with her novels but also to others who still don’t know who Jo Walton is because they’re truly going to love her writing style.

P. S. I'm not English, so if you see any mistakes let me know so I can correct them, please.

{Español}
Starlings de Jo Walton es una colección de 21 historias cortas y 15 poemas en donde podremos ver no solamente la maravillosa pluma de la autora sino también su magnífica habilidad de construir muchos y variados géneros como fantasía épica, ciencia ficción o ficción literaria. Aunque ha sido mi primera vez leyendo algo de esta autora (galardonada varias veces y ganadora del Hugo y el Nebula por su obra Among Others), tiene la más maravillosa forma de escribir con la que me he cruzado desde hace mucho tiempo y he disfrutado bastante este libro. Hasta tal punto que gracias a esta colección ahora me encantaría leer sus novelas.

Aunque en la introducción Walton nos dice que nunca se ha sentido como una escritora de relatos cortos y que su libro contiene ejercicios, bromas extendidas, primeros capítulos de libros que nunca llegó a escribir, una obra de teatro y algunos poemas, creo sinceramente que ha tenido éxito escribiendo estos relatos cortos.

Como en otras colecciones de este tipo, me he encontrado con bastantes temáticas que no me han dado más (por ejemplo, On the Wall, un retelling de Blancanieves desde el punto de vista del espejo), pero también he encontrado bastante interesantes otros temas, alegorías y metáforas (como los mitos griegos, irlandeses y nórdicos o la fantasía más épica) que tienen una gran influencia en sus relatos. Entre mis partes favoritas están The Panda Coin —una historia de ciencia ficción que tiene un interesantísimo mundo—, o los poemas Hades and Pershepone y Ten years ahead: Oracle Poem.

En resumidas cuentas, esta es una colección de relatos muy entretenida que recomendaría no solamente a los lectores que ya están familiarizados con sus novelas, sino también a otros (como yo) que todavía no conocen su prosa ni quién es Jo Walton porque creo que van a disfrutar verdaderamente de su forma de narrar.

[Teleseparatist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished a book! Which is great, because I'm behind on my goals for collections of short fiction (of which I'm supposed to read five this year, and I'm at, um, three I think), on my goals for this month (meh), on reading stuff for NetGalley and on everything else.

I was able to read this collection courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley; my opinion is mine.

Starlings is Jo Walton's first collection of short prose fiction. I have by now read quite a few of her novels and some nonfiction, enjoying some more than others, and so I was very curious to see how the collection compares to her fiction, and how it stands on its own as a short fiction collection. And frankly, the short stories: they are not really great, or at least not all of them. Sure, there is A Burden Shared, which I've read already and which contains a lot of real emotion and a powerful idea; there's terrifying and powerful "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction"; there's delightful "Jane Austen to Cassandra" and some adorable Christmas-themed pieces (there's a surprising lot of Christian/Christmas elements here, though I found them mostly enjoyable). But you can tell that's not where Walton's heart lies, or at least not quite: some of the pieces are semi-forgettable, enjoyable at the moment but not much more than an extended anecdote or joke. The big draw is the personal anecdotes coming at the end of each story, providing context, sometimes publication history, sometimes personal insight. It certainly makes the collection feel personal and imbued with warmth.

However, while the short fiction making up the bulk of this collection didn't impress me too much, the latter two parts did. I loved Walton's play: it was delightfully funny, played with time and form. I think the metafictionality / breaking the fourth wall about breaking the fourth wall at the end becomes a little too gleeful, but overall: a very strong effort, and I'm tempted to agree with Walton's self-assessment: it was the best thing in the collection.

And then there was the poetry. I am not terribly into speculative fiction poetry (I guess I've imprinted on poetry being something you write about the death of loved ones, the second world war or the emotional devastation of love, or all three at the same time, and anything that doesn't tick those doesn't hit that nail in my head on the head, so to speak) but I usually quite enjoy Walton's, whether she's writing about world peace, making predictions about the future or pitting Godzilla against Shakespeare('s multiverse).

I don't think it's a must-read as a collection of short fiction, but there are gems in it for any reader of Walton's.

(This review is also going to be cross-posted to my book blog.)

(Three stars for the collection, extra half star for the play and the last extra half star for the delightful, amazing, funny biographical poem.)

[Melanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly not my thing at all. I can’t say I fully got the point of these stories.

[Ria Bridges · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s no secret at this point that I’m a huge fan of Jo Walton’s work, and I pretty much devour any of her writing that I can get my hands on. Starlings is her first collection of short fiction (and a few poems), and while she says she’s no good at that form of story-telling, I’d have to disagree. I wouldn’t say that the stories in Starlings is as good as some of her longer works, mind you, but that’s a far cry from not being good at all.

Like with any collection of short fiction, be it from multiple authors or just one, some pieces I like more than others. That’s to be expected, any as I say in just about any review of anthologies or collections, a lot of it comes down to personal taste rather than an indication of quality. I think the best example of this for me was the story, The Panda Coin, which is largely a collection of snippets from a multitude of different perspectives, detailing the happenings of people who have a particular coin in their possession at the time. Though not a hugely original idea, it was still well-written and interesting to see the diverse cast of characters that the coin passes to and from over time, but in the end it really didn’t stick with me as being one of the more memorable pieces. Just wasn’t to my taste, I suppose.

Others, though, absolutely were to my taste, and three in particular really made a lasting impression on me. A Burden Shared, for instance, features a mother who uses technology to take her daughter’s pain so that her daughter can better navigate through life without being beaten down by disability. It’s an exploration of the lengths that a parent will go to, and that they feel they ought to go to, in order to give their child the best chance at a successful life. But in doing so, the mother overlooks pain of her own that signals deadly illness in her own body, thinking it to be a sign of something wrong with her daughter rather than her own body’s way of communicating that there’s a problem. To me, it was a story not just of parental sacrifice, but a subtle warning about giving too much of ourselves and overlooking our own issues in the process of trying to make things better for someone else.

Turnover was the story of a generation ship, filled with people on their way to another planet. Being a generation ship, though, some people there had never experienced life outside the ship, and as such, a culture had developed that was rather specific to ship life, with art and expression and lifestyles that simply wouldn’t be possible once the ship arrived at their destination. It was a piece that really got me thinking about culture and intent, and how what we seek now isn’t necessarily going to be what the next generation seeks, even if our intent is to give them what we think they will want. Cultures and subcultures spring up around us all the time, with goals that are just as valid and worthwhile as the goals of the people who came before. Turnover questions the value of multi-generational intent and asks us whether it’s better to let some people go their own way even if that goes against the original plan, if those people don’t want to be part of a plan they had no say in.

But I think my favourite story in the whole collection was Relentlessly Mundane, which is about three people who once went to another world and saved it from certain doom. With their task complete, they returned to this world, and now have to live the rest of their lives as mundanely as the rest of us. Only it’s harder for them, because they know they were saviours in another world, special and lauded and with abilities that just don’t exist here, and so there’s a sense of trying and failing to recapture one’s glory days, making pale reflections of something to remind you that you were once great, once a hero, and now you’re just another face in the crowd. The story ends with them possibly being given the chance to become somebody here, too, or to help other people become somebodies elsewhere, which is an uplifting note to be sure, but what stuck with me the most was the sense of faded potential. Most of the time people express that at the end of life, but the characters in Relentlessly Mundane were adults in their prime, and already feeling like the best parts of their lives were over because they had a taste of glory and now that taste is just a memory. It really resonated with me, as did the pervasive feeling that where the characters are isn’t where they want to be, where they feel they should be.

Walton certainly does have skill at evoking and capturing emotions that I don’t always quite realize are within me until I see them laid bare on paper. I’ve only encountered a few authors who have done that, and she is most definitely one of them.

While there were some phenomenal stories within this collection, it’s not one that I feel I can really recommend to general SFF fans. This one’s more for people who are already fans of Walton’s work and want to see more of what she can do with a different medium. If you do like her writing, then absolutely pick up a copy of Starlings and dive into her collection of thought experiments with glee, the way I did. If you haven’t encountered her work before, though, this isn’t the best way to do it, and I’d recommend passing on it until you know if you like what she does, first.

[Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley. The opinions are entirely my own.

This is unmistakeably a Walton collection. Even if it didn't have Walton's name on the cover, I would be able to tell it is her by the style, the voice, the sensibility. In the introduction, Walton claims not to be able to write short stories, but there are some really successful ones here. I particularly enjoyed the brief retelling of Snow White ("On the Wall") and "Three Twilight Tales", a riff on fairytale-like storytelling. "Jane Austen to Cassandra" is worth mentioning for the humour. But I think that my favourite is "Sleeper", which marries an interesting sf concept (an artificial intelligence construct becoming part of the experience of reading a biography) with the issue of the impossibility of a thorough biography. There are also a few stories which constitute more of an experiment or a joke, but they were fascinating to read nonetheless. (The Doctor Faustus one, to name but one...)

I have to admit I enjoyed the short stories more than the play or the poems (with the possible exception of the eponymous "Starlings"). The play's beginning was promising, but then it went on and on intermineably.

Overall though, I would say that this is a collection worth reading, especially, but not only if you are a Jo Walton fan. Her voice shines through all the texts in this volume, and after reading most of her novels, it was lovely to be able to read more of her output - and with the author's own commentary, too!

[Debbie Notkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jo Walton's introduction makes it clear that she has struggled with short stories long after she mastered the art of the novel. In fact, she describes this collection as "two short stories that I wrote after I knew what I was doing, two I wrote before I knew what I was doing, some exercises, some extended jokes, some first chapters of books I didn't write, some poems with the line breaks taken out, a play, and some poems with the line breaks left in." You have to love her straightforwardness.

I enjoyed noticeably more of the offerings than the "two where she knew what she was doing" and I would be hard put to identify just those two. And of course one always enjoys Walton's poems, including the one that clarifies that the "starlings" of the title are not birds, but baby stars. Check them out; a quick read with lots of laughs, many a-ha moments, and a few special bits.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starlings is an eclectic mix of sci-fi/fantasy short stories, poems, and what feel like short notes or thoughts from the author. Walton starts the collection off in her introduction by saying that the weight of a short story’s ending should correlate to its length, and this is very much demonstrated in her works here. In some cases I think this works well, producing an interesting sci-fi slice-of-life type of narrative, but in others it just leads to the story feeling forgettable and inconsequential. Even writing this review now I am having trouble remembering the subject of a lot of the stories within this book. Walton is obvious a talented writer with a gift for imagining alternate, science fiction-esque settings which were enjoyable to read, but I can’t say that I found most of them very impactful.

[Tanu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starting to think I should just avoid anthologies altogether, since I didn’t find much to enjoy here, unfortunately, and skipped half the stories as they weren’t holding my interest. The Twilight stories were wonderfully whimsical and evocative somehow of Arthurian England, the space story put an inventive spin on living on another planet, and the story about Google was done well. A couple of the Godzilla poems were worth a read, but were nothing spectacular. The poem at the beginning and the ‘poem in translation’ were the best, and apart from that there seemed to be a lot of forced rhyme and description.

[Pallavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

***3.0***
This was the first time I got to read a short story collection on Magical realism, Aliens and anthology (!?). I liked the stories but not all. Some were too complex or too simple for me to understand, that is I am used to very straight forward stories. I am a dumb person in that matter. Plus the author was new to me and I was getting used to the style.

The Stories I liked:

1.Three Twilight Tales
2.Jane Austen to Cassandra- This was Funny!!
3.Unreliable Witness
4.The Panda Coin
5.Joyful and Triumphant: St. Zenobius and the Aliens
6.What a Piece of Work- After reading this, I like to go to page 99 in google search, Just in case
7.What Would Sam Spade Do?
8.Tradition
9.What Joseph Felt
10.A Burden Shared
11.Three Shouts on a Hill (A Play)
12.Poetry -UMMM I am not sure, I felt that part a bit fleeting.
It was a good and a bit off my normal kind of read. But I am glad that I read it. It gave me a different perspective on reading and more open to a different style which was unknown to me.

If you have read Jo Walton before, I think you will like it much more than me. I surely look forward in reading more Jo Walton in future.

Happy Reading!!!

ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

[Kayla Silverss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got sent this book in exchange for a honest review, all my opinions are my own and thank you so much to the publishers for sending me this book!

I really enjoyed myself with these short stories, the collection was well written and well crafted.

[wishforagiraffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starlings was overall an enjoyable read. Most of the stories are fairly short, almost all of them have really thoughtful prose, and many ruminate on humanity and identity. Not all of them worked for me, but the ones I enjoyed I expect will stay with me for a long time.

Contents:

Fiction:
Three Twilight Tales - super sweet fairy tale-ish story. If you enjoy the tales within the text of The Name of the Wind, this is a great story for you.
Jane Austen to Cassandra - mixed up correspondence between Jane and the seer Cassandra. Induced a wry smile.
Unreliable Witness - poignant story about dementia, or aliens.
On the Wall - a rather bleak retelling of Snow White, from the mirror's POV (I'd be into more stories from the perspective of inanimate objects, because this was compelling)
The Panda Coin - the path of a single piece of currency, how it impacts the lives of the people (all working poor on a space station), and what it knows.
Remember the Allosaur
Sleeper - a rather creepy tale that's a mix of time travel weirdness and the worst of social media
Relentlessly Mundane - when portal world travellers return to our world, and have to try to live on Earth again. People's reactions vary, as one might expect.
Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction - alt history told through newspaper and periodical headlines. I don't like this timeline.
Joyful and Triumphant: St. Zenobius and the Aliens
Turnover - a generation ship means change, but what if some folks prefer the ship to the end goal? The consensus-building in this was really a treat.
At the Bottom of the Garden - children who pull wings from fairies are awful. The moral may be that children are awful?
Out of It - when you make a deal with the devil, do you keep the deal even if you're offered an out?
What a Piece of Work - AI has a crisis of identity. I don't like this possibility either.
Parable Lost
What Would Sam Spade Do? - twist on gumshoe tropes, with a cloning lens.
Tradition
What Joseph Felt - biblical tale from Joseph's (rather modern) point of view
The Need to Stay the Same - a book review written by an alien about a human book. A bit odd.
A Burden Shared - I really hope the future of medicine is not the opportunity to share pain among loved ones, rather than better healing.

Script
Three Shouts on a Hill (A Play) - bizarre little piece that had rude characters, a very tongue in cheek referencial feeling, all leading up to ridiculous wordplay.

Poetry
Dragon’s Song
Not in this Town
Hades and Persephone - I find I like retellings of this story where there's shared love and respect between the two gods.
The Death of Petrach
Advice to Loki - kinda clever advice for the trickster god, about revenge.
Ask to Embla
Three Bears Norse - verse retelling of Goldilocks with an abrupt ending
Machiavelli and Prospero
Cardenio
Ten Years Ahead: Oracle Poem
Pax in Forma Columba
Translated from the Original
Sleepless in New Orleans
The Godzilla Sonnets - silly mashup
Not a Bio for Wiscon: Jo Walton - I like this format for speaker/presenter bios, would request similar if/when I run a con

Review copy received (ages ago, eeeeep) from Net Galley.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starlings is a collection of short stories, some hardly more than extended jokes, all with a sci-fi/fantasy bent. Some were entertaining, others confused me.

Most of the shorter works had an ironic twist a la Twilight Zone. Including a letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra, waylaid and delivered to the Greek myth Cassandra, who writes back to Jane.

I did not feel propelled to read these selections. I don't think they are 'my thing.'

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review

Jo Walton says in the introduction to this book that short stories are not her cup of tea. She explains that it is difficult for her to write a story from beginning to end in three pages or less. The short story books are not my thing honestly. I have a hard time going from one story to another every three pages. It is very uncomfortable for me and I don’t seem to advance much when reading. That’s what happened to me with this book. I don’t mean to say that I do not like short stories; that’s not the problem. The problem is when there are many stories one book. Even more when there is no connection between them. I got carried away by the name of the author. I’m hopeless.

Having said that I do not know how to qualify this book: have I enjoyed it? Well I would say not really. It’s good? Yes, definitely. But before I got to the middle of the book I was not only exhausted but I had lost interest. This may be your book, but not mine.

The confusion that I get from one story to the next prevents me from enjoying it as I should. But I have also found good things. It is a compendium of stories of fantasy and science fiction that Jo Walton wrote at different times of his career as a writer. At the end of each story there is a afterword in which Walton explains where the inspiration came from, where she was at that moment, when she wrote it or the mood she was in.

My favourite story is one in which Jane Austen writes a letter to her sister Cassandra but the letter is lost through time and space and the person who receives that letter is Cassandra the fortune teller from Troy to whom Apollo gave the gift of divination on the condition that she slept with him. Then she refused and as punishment the god promised her that no one would ever believe her word.

Apart from this story about Jane Austen in the book you can find stories of cloned dinosaurs, artificial intelligences that need to be updated, kings who fall in love with farmers, coins that travel from hand to hand…

Perhaps if I had read one story every few days I would have enjoyed it more. Who knows. Yet I need to remark the fact that the problem was in me, not in the book.

[Hélène Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd only read two of Jo Walton's books so far, but absolutely loved them and kept recommending them around me: "Among others" and "Tooth and claw" (the best Jane Austen's fan-fiction ever written!). I actually don't know why I waited so long to read another of her books, probably because some of the themes broached in them aren't some I like to read about... a shame and a wrong decision, probably. I will make an effort soon.

Well. When I discovered this collection from Jo Walton, and had the opportunity to read it offered by Netgalley, I was enthusiast and happy to read it. I was also a little wary, as I'm not known to appreciate easily short stories: it's often difficult for me to immerse myself in a story, and if the effort isn't worth doing, if the story is just meh in the end, I'm rather frustrated. And conversly, if the story is fascinating, I'm also frustrated, because it's to short!

A reader's life can be difficult, sometimes...

Before beginning reading these short stories and poetry, I read the introduction by the author, and found it quite fascinating. Among things, she explains her relation with short stories, how she used to consider them much more difficult to write than novels, and also how she had incidentally discovered that some ideas were good basis for short stories, but not for novels. "Starlings" perfectly illustrates how the author manages to use this revelation.

I really loved this book, which I found astonishingly easy and entertaining to read. (I didn't read all the poetry however: English isn't my first langage and I still haven't learned to appreciated poetry in this langage). Of course I preferred some stories, but all were good, or very good. And the very good ones were absolutely fantastic! I loved how the characters were immediately likeable and perfectly characterised. As a lot of the ideas were astonishing and frequently funny (even irreverently so!), I was deliciously entertained while reading them from their very beginning and spend some times after their end thinking about them - which is a sure sign of quality stories!

I thank again Netgalley for giving me this opportunity to read a book that I probably won't have chose spontaneously, even knowing how the author had previously delighted me, because of my mistrust of collection of short stories. I very probably will buy the paper book at the first opportunity to re read it. I warmly recommend it to all passionate readers of science-fi and fantasy.

(A review copy (e-galley) of this book was provided by the publisher through netgalley)

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the author's own admission, several of the "short stories" in this book are not actually stories. They're exercises in mode, or jokes, or the attempts of someone who knows how novels work but not how short stories work to write a short story.

This doesn't sound promising, but Jo Walton is such a good writer that she mostly gets away with it in any case. In fact, some of the stories have been published in prestigious publications like Strange Horizons and Subterranean. Unfairly, I occasionally thought, "I wish I had the kind of standing in the SFF community that meant I could get published in those publications by writing a story that isn't a story," but that's not the only thing that's going on. Walton is a deep thinker, a close observer, and a master of language, and all these things shine through, even when her "story" is only an exploration of a clever idea with no real beginning, middle, or (especially) end.

"Three Twilight Tales," for example, the first piece, explores a small town that has remarkable magic, but the magic is a means to look at the people and their relationships. "Jane Austen to Cassandra" takes the idea that Jane Austen's letters to her friend and correspondent Cassandra go astray and reach Cassandra's original namesake, the prophetess who nobody believed. And are answered. "Unreliable Witness" is from the POV of an elderly woman with dementia who may or may not have encountered aliens. "On the Wall" is, as the author says, the beginning of a novel, a very different version of Snow White, from the perspective of the mirror, but because we know the original story we don't need the rest. This kind of implied narrative is something I'm interested in, taking advantage of the familiar tales to create resonance and tell a minimal story where the reader fills in what's missing.

"The Panda Coin" is SF, following a coin through a number of hands in a somewhat dystopic space station. "Remember the Allosaur" is a joke, but a beautifully written one. "Sleeper" I think I've read before somewhere (probably Tor.com, since it was published there, or in one of their collections); it's about a Russian sleeper agent in late-20th-century Britain whose consciousness is simulated by a researcher in a dystopian future. Like most of the others, it doesn't have an ending so much as imply a continuation.

"Relentlessly Mundane" is a consideration of the question "what do the kids do after they come back from the portal fantasy world and grow up?" It's an idea that's been tackled at greater length since by Seanan McGuire, but this is a good treatment.

"Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction" is a series of vignettes and pseudo-documents that build up a picture of an American dystopia (there's a bit of a theme going with the SF in this volume), in the old alternate-history-where-the-Nazis-won-WWII genre. Not as original an idea as some of the others, but well done.

"Joyful and Triumphant" is a meditation on the idea that each planet gets an Incarnation, in the "character explains as if to n00bs" mode. It's not a mode I think much of, and this is, for me, one of the weaker stories, though it's an interesting idea. Later in the volume, "What Would Sam Spade Do?" posits a world with multiple clones of Jesus, who have become a kind of ethnicity, and "What Joseph Felt" explores St Joseph's feelings around the Incarnation. "Out of It" is based on the Faust legend, so Christian mythology (if I can use the term) gets thoroughly inspected.

"Turnover" is a what-if-the-later-generations-in-the-generation-ship-don't-want-to-go-to-the-new-planet story. As it happens, I read a very similar story by Ursula Le Guin almost immediately afterwards ("Paradises Lost"), and comparing anyone else's story to a Le Guin is usually unfair to the other writer, but this one stands up reasonably well. The sense of place is well handled, in particular, and though it's another story with an "ending" that's more of an implication of future events to come, so is Le Guin's.

I won't mention all of the stories, just a couple more. "A Burden Shared" is set in a world where people can (through handwaved technology) shoulder one another's pain, featuring the mother of a woman with a chronic illness as the main character. As someone who lives with a person with a chronic illness, it rang true to me, and the theme of how caregivers (especially mothers) can neglect their own needs is an important one.

The other story, which is actually a play, is "Three Shouts on a Hill," an odd mishmash of Irish legend with bits and pieces from other times and places that's as much a meta-meditation on story as it is anything else.

Overall, then, this collection is proof that, if you're a good enough writer, you can write a successful piece of short fiction in a lot of different ways. Not all of the pieces are excellent or weighty, or even original, but those that are lift the average considerably.