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The Water Museum
The owner of an unusual private museum picks up a hitchhiker sent to assassinate her. This story appears in Nisi Shawl's collection FILTER HOUSE. Content advisory: kidnapping and abduction
1 pages, Audiobook
First published October 8, 2019
24 people want to read
About the author
Nisi Shawl
134 books585 followersNisi Shawl is a founder of the diversity-in-speculative-fiction nonprofit the Carl Brandon Society and serves on the Board of Directors of the Clarion West Writers’ Workshop. Their story collection Filter House was a winner of the 2009 Tiptree/Otherwise Award, and their debut novel, Everfair, was a 2016 Nebula finalist. Shawl edited Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars (2013). They coedited Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler (2013).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 10, 2020
Another well told SciFi story from LeVar Burton reads. I will definitely check out more by Nisi Shawl.
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stit...
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stit...
August 13, 2020
Listened to as part of the LeVar Burton Reads podcast series.
I think the worldbuilding packed into this was a little too ambitious, especially since we only got a bunch of hints and throwaway lines which we then have to puzzle together to form the whole picture. It could have been nice with a straight-up infodump at some point.
But the reason to read this is not so much the setting, but rather the main character. She starts out as a super badass lady and you never doubt that she could chew Jasper up and spit him out. But as the story progresses, she becomes larger than life. At the end, she seems like a force of nature, or maybe Mother Nature herself. Not cruel, just mercyless and damned sure in her knowledge that the water is more important than human desires.
A story that made me pause and think about the current climate crisis and which sacrifices it will require to mitigate it. It's certainly naive to think we can just continue with business as usual.
I think the worldbuilding packed into this was a little too ambitious, especially since we only got a bunch of hints and throwaway lines which we then have to puzzle together to form the whole picture. It could have been nice with a straight-up infodump at some point.
But the reason to read this is not so much the setting, but rather the main character. She starts out as a super badass lady and you never doubt that she could chew Jasper up and spit him out. But as the story progresses, she becomes larger than life. At the end, she seems like a force of nature, or maybe Mother Nature herself. Not cruel, just mercyless and damned sure in her knowledge that the water is more important than human desires.
A story that made me pause and think about the current climate crisis and which sacrifices it will require to mitigate it. It's certainly naive to think we can just continue with business as usual.
November 13, 2022
The humour just didn't strike a note with me.
January 29, 2023
Part of a short story reading challenge
April 8, 2023
Water rights
September 9, 2023
A very fun story and Levars reading of it elevates it to an 11.
September 17, 2022
LOVE the twisted ending
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2020
This was excellent!
I loved this story.
I loved this story.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews