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...and Other Disasters

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Fiction. Poetry. ...AND OTHER DISASTERS, the smart and moving collection of short fiction and poetry from acclaimed author Malka Older, examines otherness, identity and compassion across a spectrum of possible existence. In stories about an AI built for empathy, a corps of fighting midwives traveling to a new planet, and a young anthropologist who returns to study the cultures of a dying Earth, Older's characters grapple with what it means to belong and be othered, to cling to the past and face the future, all while navigating a precarious world, riddled with natural and man-made disasters.

201 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2019

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Malka Ann Older

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
Profile Image for Kaa.
614 reviews66 followers
March 30, 2020
I wish this book were longer! Malka Older has a talent for envisioning broad sociopolitical and cultural systems without losing focus on how these systems impact individuals. I am in awe of the vision and compassion demonstrated in thses stories. I've been reading bits of this on and off over the course of the last couple weeks, but I feel fortunate that I still had a sizable chunk of it to devour this afternoon. There is something in her combination of expertise and realism-meets-optimism that I found very grounding in this particular moment in history.
Profile Image for Bogi Takács.
Author 62 books650 followers
Read
August 18, 2019
Review coming in a bit (IY"H)

The short version: I liked it!! It is very short and I wanted it to be longer, though :)
______
Source of the book: Print ARC from publisher
Profile Image for Tammy.
1,056 reviews173 followers
December 2, 2019
I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The nitty-gritty: Malka Oldler's insights into the human condition give these quirky stories heft and emotion, and I thought about them long after I had finished reading.

I really enjoyed Malka Older’s serialized science fiction story, Ninth Step Station, so when I was asked if I’d like to read her latest short story collection, I immediately said yes. And I’m so glad I did! These odd and thoughtful stories have some commonalities but they are also very different from each other. One running theme seems to be about our sense of place: how we fit in with the rest of the world; what happens when borders erupt and divide us? How do we adjust our worldview when faced with other worldviews that could be just as valid? What does it feel like to go home after living in another place for so long, and which place is actually “home”? Older explores these ideas and more with carefully constructed tales that offer up plenty of food for thought. The “disasters” of the title are also present in these stories, but even those manage to feel hopeful.

The collection consists of eight short stories and a handful of poems (I don’t normally read poems so I’m not going to go into depth about them here. Just know that they are beautifully written!). Older has also written a story called The End of the Incarnation , which appears in snippets between the rest of the stories, making it a rather fragmented but ultimately powerful tale about a future United States that fragments after states begin to secede one by one. Older explores the social, political, emotional and economic ramifications when a country is no longer united, and it eerily mirrors what’s going on in the U.S. right now.

Here are my favorite stories:

The Divided . This was my favorite story of the bunch! In this story, walls suddenly erupt out of the ground, dividing family and friends from each other. In one such family, a girl’s abuela is walking home from the market when a wall appears in front of her. She doesn’t have time to get out of the way, and so she literally becomes part of the wall, stuck up high with only a foot dangling within reach of her family. In this story, the walls act as an allegory for division and isolation. It was a sad look at how people cope with a changing world and an eerie look at the horrors of losing control over your environment.

The Black Box . A child named Sumi is given a device called a Lifebrarian, a small chip implanted in her brain that will record every moment of her life. When she is an adult, she hears about an upgrade called the Black Box, which will make the chip nearly indestructible, in the event that she has a violent death. This would allow her loved ones to see how she died, much like the black box in an airplane allows investigators to figure out how a plane crash came about. It’s a gruesome idea but also fascinating!

The Rupture . A girl named Exelle, considered an “extraterrestrial” on Earth, moved to another planet long ago. But now she has the opportunity to go back as an anthropologist, to study the dying planet and delve into the minds of those who still remain. The problem with Exelle returning to Earth is that it’s become a very dangerous place, and her mother doesn’t want her to go. Violent disturbances called “ruptures” pop up unexpectedly and have become a gathering place for young people, strangely enough. I loved this story that explored the idea of home, immigration and acceptance. 

Perpetuation of the Species . A woman named Cena wants to join an order called sajfam, where recruits must train for battle but also are required to be impregnated and give birth to a child before they are accepted. This was an odd story of one woman’s journey to become someone different and gain acceptance.

Tear Tracks . A first contact story about a woman who is part of a team trying to sign a treaty with an alien species on another planet. After meeting the Cyclopes for the first time (so named because they only have one eye), our main character Flur is surprised by how alien they are after all, despite having a vaguely humanoid shape. Nothing is really resolved at the end, although Flur does have an epiphany of sorts about the nature of grief.

Saint Path . The story is told from the point of view of an AI named Path, who has been programmed to learn emotions. After the death of Path’s “mother,” an inquest is held to decide whether or not Path’s ability to show emotions makes it real. I really liked this story and found it on the bittersweet side, as Path seemed to be trying to figure out its self worth.

The other two stories in the collection were just OK for me. The E-Mail Heiress was a story about the legalities of giving away someone’s email password after they die. And Candidate Y was a very short story about a political candidate who goes undercover to get insight into what people think of her. It was sort of funny, but too short to have a lot of impact.

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection! I love how original and fresh Malka Older’s ideas seem, and her no-nonsense, non-flowery prose style works perfectly with her quirky ideas and characters. Readers who love open ended stories that make you think will love this collection as well.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy
Profile Image for Jordi Balcells.
Author 18 books114 followers
July 9, 2024
La verdad, me ha satisfecho mucho más que la trilogía de Infomocracy, que me pareció MUY hinchada. Le sientan bien las distancias cortas a Older.
Variadito: empieza con un relato tipo Black Mirror con un implante de almacenamiento y recuperación de recuerdos, nostalgia desde una Tierra que se cae a cachos y la humanidad repartida por ahí, realismo mágico latino sobre un Muro tecnomágico que más bien encierra a EE. UU., un primer contacto alien con tragedias y empatía, tecnología avanzada para escoger candidates de cara a unas elecciones (con un girito a lo Black Mirror/La dimensión desconocida), maternidad/sacrificio/sororidad en una nave de colonización, herencia digital con clausura emocional y una entidad que es una Inteligencia, perdón, una Emoción Artificial (este me ha recordado a La mutación sentimental y a 36) que debe demostrar su valía. Relatos entre buenos y excelentes.
Todo esto intercalado con varios poemas y un relato partido y a vista de pájaro sobre la desintegración de los EE. UU. en la que se tienden alianzas puntuales con otros territorios.
Profile Image for Kim Lockhart.
1,229 reviews194 followers
January 27, 2022
Part of my 2022 reading goals are to read purchased volumes, not just library books. And how wonderful to come across this gem.

These speculative fiction short stories and bits of poetry feature themes of identity and the processes and perspectives of "othering " from either side of lines of demarcation. The common mood is one of agitated audacity, not borne of hope or quiet realization, but caused by fear, especially in the face of the willfully obtuse.

The poetry, in particular, laments the consequences of those who see without seeing, who prioritize without anticipating, and who act without humility.
Profile Image for Prin.
215 reviews50 followers
March 24, 2020
This was gifted to me by a friend and I finished it in one sitting because it’s just sooo good. SciFi/speculative fiction has always given us a wider perspective on humanity, technology and history, and this collection is one of the best I’ve ever read. It has been described as a diary from the future—and though it’s not always a world I would have wished for, as long as humanity finds a way to thrive, it gives me hope. ⁣
Profile Image for Matthew Lloyd.
734 reviews22 followers
April 2, 2021
Malka Older has many great science fictional ideas, and an even greater sense of the potential social and political impact of those ideas. In this collections, we find internal recorders of our every move, the humans who will not leave Earth even as gravitational forces pull it apart, a machine built with artificial emotions over artificial intelligence, and more. Perhaps my favourite story is "Perpetuation of the Species", in which our protagonist, Cena, wishes to join the ranks of the military/midwifery unit on the colonization ship she calls home. Older combines several ideas about perpetuating the species through space colonization, pregnancy and birth, and violence, which questions the ways in which we value those things. Similarly, "Tear Tracks" questions how different societies might value different experiences and expressions of emotion, and what we lose in not doing so ourselves.

Throughout the collection are a number of short pieces called "The End of the Incarnation", which detail the fragmentation of the United States into many separate countries. Older's trilogy of novels, The Centenal Cycle, also questioned our current structures of countries and borders, and how differently the planet might be organized; but "The End of the Incarnation" actually details that separation, and it is fascinating and insightful. While I was reading this collection, Greece celebrated its 200th anniversary; the US nears its 250th. Meanwhile Germany, in its current incarnation, is younger than I am. Our borders are not immutable, timeless things; they are contingent, contextual. Change is difficult, and may well be harmful, but we should not assume it will never happen. (On borders, too, there is "The Divided", a horror story with some truly devastating imagery.)

Older's stories, as ever, are insightful and intelligent, rewarding contemplation on the part of the author. It's science fiction that's good to think with, which is my favourite kind.
Profile Image for Sarah Cavar.
Author 19 books351 followers
May 17, 2022
I echo other reviewers in saying that my only criticism is that this collection is too short! Otherwise, it’s a charming, heartfelt, and complexly conceived portrait of a new world-in-becoming, via a selection of beautifully curated stories, vignettes, and poems. I loved the ways that these pieces explored compassion and collective preservation without falling into cliches about “what it means to be human.” Indeed, Older suggests that the human — at least, in its reified, nationalized, scienticized form — represents the limits of collective care. The more-than-human, whether alien or AI, is what may take us Beyond.
Profile Image for margaret.
19 reviews
June 3, 2022
This collection is truly a work of art. SO GOOD. HONESTLY.




(shoutout to the Georgetown Neighborhood Library)
Profile Image for Kaye.
97 reviews
July 28, 2024
I found these short stories and poems to be delightful and thought provoking.
Profile Image for Jennie.
143 reviews
December 11, 2023
“do you mind not being real?”
“no, i’m not programmed for existential dread”

A quick but fun read!! Particularly loved the short story about the walls - easy to apply it directly to current times in which we see gov spending to construct walls and militarize our borders. And the closing story with Path, a robot of sorts designed not to be AI in the way we think, but to interpret emotions for the purpose of helping humans. It was quiet funny to read about a robot being questioned in front of a panel of what was the equivalent of congress members, driving home the performativity of governance - the games we play, the lies we tell ourselves so we may believe we are the “good” ones, how it’s really all bullshit. Had a good time reading!
Profile Image for Patti.
178 reviews1 follower
February 24, 2020
This began as a stunning exploration of today's USA. Inventive. A combination of sci-fi and magical realism. A spur to thinking more profoundly about the issues and their outcomes. The collapse of the Union of states, ideas about how humans and AI interact and accommodate to one another, the real meaning of leadership. It began to fall toward the end, devolving into more expected tropes, but for the most part, this was a marvelous, profound experience.
Profile Image for Ed.
464 reviews16 followers
February 12, 2022
A thoughtful collection of tales, with everything from space marine battle mums to the anthropological study of the cultures of dying Earth, to the death of America.

Older is a captivating writer, and this definitely makes me want to read some more of their long-form fiction. In this collection they showcase the knack for not just having cool and interesting sci-fi ideas, but for really fleshing these ideas out and examing how they will affect the cultures they exist within, and how those cultures shape the ideas in response. With clear and genuine political insights, Older creates frustratingly plausible near-futures and deeply believable new worlds to explore. It's grand sci-fi that always maintains a strong human element; written with empathy and insight. The characters that we do encounter are often well-rounded, and always products of their environment. There are several interesting stories where stepping outside of these new environments causes the conflict for these characters, and these culture clashes are enlightening.

For me, nothing truly mind-blowing or stunning (hence the lack of that elusive fifth star), but definitely really solid quality speculative fiction short stories
Profile Image for LK.
9 reviews
March 1, 2022
The interweaving of stories and poetry in this anthology masterfully reflects themes of life and death as not opposed, or chronological, but interlocking. Its jump between fantastical futures and the possibilities of the present opens the door for reflection as to what is truly valuable. I have not read much SF in recent years, it simply no longer interested me, but I am currently enrolled in a course that is exploring women, as authors and characters, in the speculative genres, and from my studies, I feel as though I am able to connect more closely with these stories than cold and distant tales of men and their toys. I look forward to expanding my knowledge of women's science fiction and opening my mind to the genre as a whole.
1,623 reviews57 followers
September 13, 2023
I thought this was OK... a collection of SF stories with a range of focuses, from life on other planets to somewhat more mundane stuff. I don't remember much, except for the last story, Saint Path, where someone (the Senate?) questions an AI to understand its intentions, of course from the POV of the AI. It was really fun and challenging and interesting in a way that the other stories kind of felt like dress-up; I connected with the themes and questions of "Saint Path" and the way that Older thought through those questions a lot more powerfully than I did the other stories.
Profile Image for Samuel Moss.
Author 7 books67 followers
December 6, 2022
Really cool ideas-driven, oftentimes feminist, literary sci-fi. Reminiscent a bit (to me, who doesn't read much sci-fi) of Ted Chiang in that there is usually a central conceit and then the characters have to deal with it.

One story is a fascinating look at the awkward thrill of first-contact, another the frustration of being an AI and having to deal with people. Interspersed with a meditation on what it would look like for the US states to fracture.
Profile Image for Jim Ivy.
Author 1 book4 followers
June 8, 2025
These stories are so well crafted, built to illicit maximum response and connection, yet most end inconclusively, leaving the reader to wander the possibilities of the end results. This is not new for short stories, but Older has constructed the narrative in such a unique way, that the unresolved is welcome and the imagination is willing to take that next step without it feeling like a tactical tool or feeling cheated of conclusion.
421 reviews
anthologies
January 9, 2022
The Black Box - another take on what is a pretty common sci-fi concept: the ability to record and replay memory. Most of the effort wasn't put into the idea here, but the characters in it. I guess it's also a bit about generational and societal acceptance of technology. That ending was just... sad.
Profile Image for Desiree.
295 reviews5 followers
November 9, 2021
Apparently the only books that I actually finish & enjoy in 2021 are speculative short story collections & novellas from diverse authorship, and honestly I am ok with that.
1,779 reviews5 followers
June 9, 2023
Readable and fast but not especially interesting stories - the highlight is a reflection on border walls from the shadow of one that sprung up supernaturally.
Profile Image for Kristen.
332 reviews13 followers
February 17, 2025
Wow! Very short sci fi stories, but wonderful, amazing, insightful and human sci fi stories. Makes you think.
Profile Image for Fabri.
81 reviews5 followers
September 23, 2025
8 historias cortas atravesadas por el capitalismo, las fronteras y la ciencia. Como black mirror sin ser deprimente
Profile Image for Adri Joy.
137 reviews13 followers
January 2, 2020
Malka Older's first short fiction collection is a chapbook-length affair from Mason Jar Press, bringing together both fiction and poetry into one beautifully curated package. Older's work particularly appeals to me because we're in not-dissimilar careers, so she brings a lot of experience to her fiction that I recognising and find illuminating. This came through strongest for me in stories which lay bare the expectations and power dynamics which travellers to other cultures bring with them - "The Rupture", about a young woman coming to study on a dying earth despite the protestations of her family about how dangerous it is, and "Tear Tracks", about the first diplomatic visit to an alien culture and one traveller's attempt to match up her communication, her perceived role and the very different situation in which she finds herself. Both are stories which, despite living in the perspective of their transient visitor protagonists (and maintaining sympathy for them), avoid othering the cultures being visited, and the result is something beautiful. There are a couple of more on-the-nose political explorations here too, including "The Divided," a story in which the USA literally becomes surrounded by an impenetrable barrier and the impact it has on those left outside, and "The End of the Incarnation", a piece whose parts are scattered through the rest of the collection and chronicle the break-up of the United States and speculate on what might come next.

What I found challenging about the stories in this collection are the lack of recognisable endings to most stories; most of the time, the focus on putting forward an experience for a set of protagonists rather than delivering a neatly-wrapped storytelling experience. On a craft level its an understandable choice for the kinds of narratives these are, and I appreciate the resistance to easy story beats and the nuance this adds to the scenarios in many of the stories. Unfortunately, when put together in a collection where this keeps happening, the frustration does linger from piece to piece, and I suspect I'd have had a better time if I'd broken up my reading of individual stories with other writing styles. Regardless, ...and other disasters is a great achievement, and well worth picking up for anyone interested in Older's writing.

(Review Link: http://www.nerds-feather.com/2019/10/...)
Profile Image for Sarita.
82 reviews
November 6, 2019
Loved this book and will run to anything Malka writes. She truly is a gift.
482 reviews15 followers
October 8, 2020
This is a science fiction collection of short stories and poems that touches on many topics: humanity & identity, expansion onto other worlds, the value placed on emotions, trauma, ethics and complications in tech futures. Ultimately, its about society and how individuals fit in into society.

Overall, I really enjoyed this short collection. Some stories really stayed with me, such as 'Tear Tracks,' about societies with different value systems interacting (also 👽), and 'The Rupture,' touching on the nostalgia of a connection to "home". There is also an ongoing narrative called 'The End' about the collapse and restructuring of the United States that is interspersed between the short stories/poems, which is fascinating. Recommend to scifi lovers!
Profile Image for Hilary.
15 reviews1 follower
January 26, 2021
I wish this book were longer! A quick science fiction read that really packs a punch. Black Mirror-esque, this book opens your mind to what could happen as society continues to advance. Older's essays touch on technology, environment, immigration, politics, and similarly important topics. While her stories are short and digestible, they have left me thinking. The future is unknown.
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