Super Flat Times

by Matthew Derby

With a heightened sense of the boundless possibility and lurking doom that Orwell and Huxley once envisioned, Matthew Derby's stories provide a glimpse into an intricately imagined world: a world in which clouds are treated with behavioral serum, children are handicapped by their ability to float, and all food (including Popsicles) is made of meat.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Literature

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

Matthew Derby is an American author.

Reviews

[Joshua Nomen-Mutatio · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, often bordering on five-solid-stars, collection of stories that are unified by a singular dystopian world. This is a world in which all that can go spectacularly wrong in a society has. We peer at it through the oft-demented and bleak perspectives of characters who struggle with situations both specific to this uniquely imagined version of the world and those which rumble with something of the universal: love, loss, family, meaning, and so on.

I rather quickly got a Ben Marcus vibe from the prose and discovered in the final pages that the author studied under him. Some of the style (which I've come to shorthand with the term "physicalist") is extremely reminiscent of the 2002 book (Derby's collection was published in 2003) by Marcus called Notable American Women . Thoughts and feelings and abstractions are rendered visceral, palpable. Objects are conjured with names like 'static bucket,' 'head vest,' 'speech bead,' 'data cauldron,' etc. Commonsense physical logic is often rewired, evoking pleasantly skewed sensations where air is churned, texts are massaged, one is taught how to eat with one's whole body, household objects store audio recordings of the past, clouds are unnaturally dense, memories are found in pockets of air inside concrete, erratic and irrational versions of physical causality are believed in and attempted to be brought to fruition.

Differentiating himself from early Marcus, the author grounds a lot of the disorienting and surrealistic intensity with a baseline of a more recognizable world, whereas sometimes Marcus leaves one adrift for longer stretches.

Matthew Derby has a wild and unhinged imagination intertwined with an incisive and biting style of socio-cultural criticism. I really look forward to seeing more work from him beyond this fine and truly harrowing debut.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because it was recommended to me based on my reading of George Saunders. Maybe I came in to reading it expecting too much from it because of that. The whole premise of the collection sounded really good, and I love short story collections that are linked to provide a larger overall story. However I found myself rather disappointed. The first stories are enjoyable, and the stories pick up well again at the end, but the whole middle I found rather dull, pointless, and forced. I really hate not giving real positive reviews, but the truth is these short stories just couldn't provide enough for me. Even after finishing the book just two days ago, I've found most of the stories forgettable. I will probably end up reading this again at some point to see if I can pick something more out of it, but it will probably be a while before I can convince myself to do so.

[Julia Eskew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in this book was imaginative and unique. I had a hard time finishing the book - but only because it was a dystopian account and dystopia seems all too possible these days.

[Eric T. Voigt · Rating 5 out of 5]

All about the pathos. Got stronger in the last part of the middle years and the entirety of the latest years represented of the Super Flat Times. The kind of science fiction I crave, where the future described is full of incidental advancements, the advancements in technology taken as old hat, just how life has to be lived. Sympathized like crazy with these people. The characters. I was remarking on how it felt Saunders-y earlier, and their styles are quite different, don't get me wrong, and I mean it as a high compliment because Saunders is in my faves roster for lyfe, but the darker depths of the human soul are reached completely here, and fear and desire, desperation and confusion, are described in such engrossing moments and phrases, that it is a very important and original sort of book. And where the fuck is more? One collection of stories? You're, like, kidding?

[Will Kaufman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of literary science-fiction short stories that can be enjoyed by fans of either genre. I really think Derby has done something amazing with both. A warning: this book can get a little bleak, but it's never unbelievable or pretentious in its hopelessness (I'd just like to warn people who are looking for an upbeat fantasy, this ain't it).
If you're at all dubious, I highly recommend the story "Crutches Used as Weapon."

[Ben Brackett · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it had some wonderful passages, there were just as many that fell flat. Supposedly the stories were interconnected but other than the odd, easy to throw in element here or there they felt like they pretty much had no relation- things never come together in a way to make up for the pain of reading it, and without being able to be shown as part of a larger context the stories weren't that strong.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent collection of some likely possible but surreal future societies and situations. Really satiric and hilarious. One image that has stuck in my mind after all the years ago when I read this collection was the idea of a ‘meat tree.’ You’ll have to read Super Flat Times to find out just what this is and WHY. :)

Highly recommended reading. I read this way back when it was published in ‘03, and I still recall it fondly - though not most of the particulars, or this would be a more thorough review.

[Isaac L · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few of these stories (such as The Sound Gun) are fantastic, giving you everything you could want in vibrant, skilful and, frankly, hilarious prose. Unfortunately most are not like this, either failing to properly get started, dwindling before they're over or never rising above a more pedestrian prose than one would expect from the evidence of the book's best (ref., again, Sound Gun). The frame narrative also does nothing for it, and the work as a whole would have been stronger without it.

A genuinely disappointing 3.2/5.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd been looking forward to reading this for ages, so was a bit disappointed by how patchy it was. Some of the stories (particularly towards the beginning and end) were good, but the middle section was pretty flat. The volume is also awash with many excellent ideas, but which weren't fully explored or followed up on, and so didn't bear fruit. Frustrating.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was all right: perhaps not the best choice for a lockdown read.

It's sort of George Saunders-esque, but I think not quite as good. It seems a little more interested in the crazy features of its created world and less in the human impact of those features, though some of the middle pieces, which could stand alone, do start to get at that.

[Cory Quammen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baffling, but somewhat interesting. I'm not sure exactly what I read, but some elements were interesting. I found the individual short stories creative, but unsatisfying, which perhaps was the intent.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a VERY strange book. Through a collection of short stories - well, vignettes is perhaps a better term - the book recounts a fictional future. And while it is a fast, engaging read, very reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, it frankly makes little sense. The writing is strong... but there isn't really enough of it there to redeem the book. Maybe this would be better for a book club so that there could be a discussion about it... because, I must admit, some meaning was definitely lost on me. It is interesting, though I would have preferred this idea to be presented in the more traditional novel form... I never have been a big fan of short stories, after all, and these feel especially brief even for the sub-genre.

[Benjamin Champagne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derby is another slipstreamer, fabulist, whatever. But he is ivy league educated and so maybe his stuff is a bit above me. The good thing is that the stories function as one whole story. This is a motif I really enjoy in short story collections. But the use of other themes are a bit bizarre and off-putting. That said, the book still gets a four from me on the merit of creativity and freshness. I've never read anything like it.

[Brent Legault · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book. This thunderous. This book. This. It has given me heart worms. It has maken me. This book. I have learnt nothing from it. Nothing from it. Why has he did this to me? Matt Derby. With his word weapons. With his weeping wonder. This book has. I am. He will, Matt Derby, one day, write a novel that will undo us all. I hope.

[Egil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahh some good dystopia always makes me feel lonely and appreciative for how the world really is compared to the mess it could become..

I read so much sci fi I need stuff to break up my reading routine and Super Flat Times hit the spot.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful language and style, but the ideas felt unfinished, like the author couldn't clearly get his points across. Great potential that left me a little disappointed.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

good, but a little hard to follow sometimes. pretty dark stuff, post apocalyptic

[Wylie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book of short stories sort of pretending to be a novel. A few of the stories I really admired and enjoyed, but for the most part I found myself a little bit annoyed.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspect that this guy really hates himself, which was a turn off in the stories.

[Peter Darbyshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Saunders meets xkcd.com.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting information-age, revolutionary fiction providing link between science fiction and literature... get on the wavelength of this book, please!!!

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My most favorite book ever, several bracing doses of pathos in surreal circumstances.

[Vicki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love dystopian fiction, and I hate not finishing a book, but I could not finish this book. It was like a very bad and much more disjointed version of White Noise.

[David Musgraves · Rating 2 out of 5]

So clearly a compilation of MFA short stories, rather than a coherent work, that I could hardly focus on the rest

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the stories that I really like in this collection. They are a whole new world to me. They might be for you, too, so check it out!

[Kel Lind · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short works, and ideas, within a cohesive future universe. It definitely carries vibes of Philip K. Dick, in very positive ways.

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raymond Carver crossed with PK Dick.

[Jl · Rating 5 out of 5]

another book weather worn and always by the bedside. dystopian and apocalyptic.
xoxo.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious.