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Not For Use In Navigation: Thirteen Stories
The bell, the lantern, the witching hour…
A refugee arrives from elsewhere in time; a generation ship makes landfall; a vast galactic empire settles to the business of government. Tarot readers find hope in the cards; witches live through the aftermath of war; and Indian mothers think it’s high time you were married. Here are thirteen stories of love and queerness, hope and decolonisation, and the inevitability of change.
Includes a new introduction by the author and four previously unpublished folktales.
“[Iona Datt Sharma] is adept at creating entire worlds in a compact, delicately finished package, blending pure sensibility with the best bits of the magical realist movement.”
- Jeannelle M. Ferreira, author of The Covert Captain
A refugee arrives from elsewhere in time; a generation ship makes landfall; a vast galactic empire settles to the business of government. Tarot readers find hope in the cards; witches live through the aftermath of war; and Indian mothers think it’s high time you were married. Here are thirteen stories of love and queerness, hope and decolonisation, and the inevitability of change.
Includes a new introduction by the author and four previously unpublished folktales.
“[Iona Datt Sharma] is adept at creating entire worlds in a compact, delicately finished package, blending pure sensibility with the best bits of the magical realist movement.”
- Jeannelle M. Ferreira, author of The Covert Captain
ebook
First published March 24, 2019
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554 people want to read
About the author
Iona Datt Sharma
12 books172 followersI'm Iona, I write science fiction and fantasy and contemporary romance. My last romance, Blood Sweat Glitter, came out on 1 December 2024 and a new collection of SFF short stories, You Are Here, comes out on 1 January 2025.
My surname is "Datt Sharma", two words, but books listed on Goodreads under "Iona Sharma" are also me.
My surname is "Datt Sharma", two words, but books listed on Goodreads under "Iona Sharma" are also me.
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March 23, 2019Tremendous. A haunting and beautifully written collection of shorts. There's a lot of variety here (several stories set in a bleak, magical post-WW1 England that I'd love to read more about, several based on fables of Akbar if Akbar was a star-wars-fighting woman general, a woman getting married helped out by her sister the spaceship AI, and an awful lot more).
A few observations rather than going through each story: There's so much glorious humanity. In the sense of diversity--there's all sorts of queer relationships and identities, including a genderfluid character, and a strong Indian presence--and in the sense of deep heart and caring, awareness of fears and weaknesses and hurts and love. It's one of those books that makes you want to cry and you're not quite sure why. The sense of melancholy, of hope keeping you going against the grinding odds, of beauty and happiness picked out where we can. And it's wonderfully written, lyrical without overwriting, vivid, evocative.
I think what strikes me most is the sense with each story that it lives in an entire imaginative world. If you picked out any of them and told me it came from a complete collection set in that world, or that there was a novel, or a series of novels, I'd believe you. That means a lot isn't explained, as if we already know the background, and the assurance of the writing means we believe we do.
A really excellent collection. I loved it and I cannot wait for the author's forthcoming novel. This is exactly the sort of SFF I could read forever.
ARC received from the author
A few observations rather than going through each story: There's so much glorious humanity. In the sense of diversity--there's all sorts of queer relationships and identities, including a genderfluid character, and a strong Indian presence--and in the sense of deep heart and caring, awareness of fears and weaknesses and hurts and love. It's one of those books that makes you want to cry and you're not quite sure why. The sense of melancholy, of hope keeping you going against the grinding odds, of beauty and happiness picked out where we can. And it's wonderfully written, lyrical without overwriting, vivid, evocative.
I think what strikes me most is the sense with each story that it lives in an entire imaginative world. If you picked out any of them and told me it came from a complete collection set in that world, or that there was a novel, or a series of novels, I'd believe you. That means a lot isn't explained, as if we already know the background, and the assurance of the writing means we believe we do.
A really excellent collection. I loved it and I cannot wait for the author's forthcoming novel. This is exactly the sort of SFF I could read forever.
ARC received from the author
August 21, 2019
AMAZING collection of scifi and fantasy short stories, and I'm not even a person who's drawn to short stories. I don't know how one person invents this many distinct worlds and characters in their head. I'm in awe. So queer and so rooted in POC experience, too, a real treasure. Iona Datt Sharma has become an auto-buy author for me, and if you haven't read any of their work before, this might be a great place to start.
March 22, 2019
Iona Datt Sharma is one of my very favorite short story authors in the world, and this is her first collection of short f/sf stories for adults. I was lucky enough to get an ARC, but when Iona first sent it to me, I wondered if I should skip ahead to any stories I hadn’t already read (since I’ve devoured most of her work online). Instead, I decided to read it straight through from the beginning – and at the end of the first story (which I’d read before and loved!) I was blown away all over again. I made that “Ohhhh!” sound out loud that comes out, unstoppably, when you’ve just finished something that’s so good it hurts – but in such a satisfying way!
This is a beautiful collection, full of heartbreak and humor and shining, hard-earned hope. I absolutely love it.
This is a beautiful collection, full of heartbreak and humor and shining, hard-earned hope. I absolutely love it.
June 17, 2019
Bittersweet, funny, devastating, thoughtful and beautiful. Iona's a friend and I will never stop yelling about their talent. This collection of stories is a perfect introduction to their knack for innocently serving you a quiet tale about people building community in the wake of loss, and then turning around and tugging your guts out with a silver hook of truth and language.
September 2, 2025
absolutely brilliant collection of short stories. almost every single one hits (and i think they are all good, but some are just like WOW!!!) and the writing is spectacular. datt sharma… the way you use words… let me crawl into your brain please!!!! i especially love the queerness and indianess and hopefulness that are displayed in these stories. (esp the indianess tbh! reading indian sci fi… world changing. it’s so cool and sexy and so full, goddamn!) beautiful worldbuilding, even in stories that are five pages long, but the 100 page story is probably my favorite of them all. def will be getting bookclub to read a few of these!!! and i am def a datt sharma fan for life
April 15, 2019
I loved these stories. I love how quickly and gently Iona Datt Sharma pulls me into a world - and how familiar these worlds are. Each is one step away from here, in a different direction: into space; into a world where writing has more tangible magic, or another where technology is as bound up with magic as it is with electricity. All worlds where queerness is unremarkable.
I especially love the Akbar and Birbal stories, that tread well-known and beloved paths through familiar but completely alien settings.
A delightful collection.
(The author gave me a copy to review.)
I especially love the Akbar and Birbal stories, that tread well-known and beloved paths through familiar but completely alien settings.
A delightful collection.
(The author gave me a copy to review.)
April 28, 2020
Rep: wlw mcs, mlm mcs, jewish mc, nonbinary character, genderfluid character, character with anxiety/depression(?), wheelchair-using character, non-white characters (Vietnamese, Indian, Black, Latina)
April 16, 2019
Lovely stories!
I love this collection! Data Sharma is a phenomenal writer, and I particularly like how hopeful and compassionate these stories are!
I love this collection! Data Sharma is a phenomenal writer, and I particularly like how hopeful and compassionate these stories are!
March 30, 2019
I received an e-ARC of this collection of short stories from the author, in exchange for an honest review.
Before reading this collection, my familiarity with Datt Sharma's fiction was based on having read their excellent contribution to The Underwater Ballroom Society and a story or two read online (most recently: "Refugee...", also contained in this collection). These stories made me profoundly curious and gave me exceedingly high expectations; based on "Not for Use in Navigation", I intend to keep a close eye on all of Datt Sharma's future projects.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories contained here. I didn't find them uniformly excellent: some of them felt more polished than others. In many of their stories, Datt Sharma leaves a lot to the imagination, allowing the world and its rules to be implied rather than explicitly on the page. That is a tricky thing to pull off, and to me, some of these stories were more successful at it than others. "Refugee" is an example of a story that invites the reader to imagine an entire world, barely suggested on the page, and that succeeds tremendously; in contrast, "Flightcraft" didn't speak to me in the same way; I didn't connect with the characters or find the worldbuilding convincing, even though I seemed to know more about them; both the world and the characters felt more unfinished to me, or not fully realised.
Among my favourites: I enjoyed "Alnwick," with its excellent first lines, and really loved the mood, setting and world of "Quarter Days." I wish it had been longer (and it's already a novella, I think? Or close to one), or accompanied by a third, fourth, fifth story set in the same world . There was something about its melody and atmosphere that spoke to me, that reminded me pleasantly of my days reading much more British lit.
However, what truly deserves noting is how coherent and cohesive this feels as a collection. It showcases Datt Sharma's voice, lyrical and hopeful, nostalgic and original. It feels queer and relevant, fresh and imaginative. Datt Sharma draws upon Indian, Irish and English influences (and these are only the most obvious ones) and does so with style and enviable confidence. Their characters often feel alive, present on the page, complex and real, even when they only appear in a very short story and have little space to allow themselves to be known. And even more interestingly, the worlds Datt Sharma describes always seem complex, real and possessed of history and future.
I think a lot of my friends might enjoy this collection and I hope to read more of Datt Sharma's writing soon.
Before reading this collection, my familiarity with Datt Sharma's fiction was based on having read their excellent contribution to The Underwater Ballroom Society and a story or two read online (most recently: "Refugee...", also contained in this collection). These stories made me profoundly curious and gave me exceedingly high expectations; based on "Not for Use in Navigation", I intend to keep a close eye on all of Datt Sharma's future projects.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories contained here. I didn't find them uniformly excellent: some of them felt more polished than others. In many of their stories, Datt Sharma leaves a lot to the imagination, allowing the world and its rules to be implied rather than explicitly on the page. That is a tricky thing to pull off, and to me, some of these stories were more successful at it than others. "Refugee" is an example of a story that invites the reader to imagine an entire world, barely suggested on the page, and that succeeds tremendously; in contrast, "Flightcraft" didn't speak to me in the same way; I didn't connect with the characters or find the worldbuilding convincing, even though I seemed to know more about them; both the world and the characters felt more unfinished to me, or not fully realised.
Among my favourites: I enjoyed "Alnwick," with its excellent first lines, and really loved the mood, setting and world of "Quarter Days." I wish it had been longer (and it's already a novella, I think? Or close to one), or accompanied by a third, fourth, fifth story set in the same world . There was something about its melody and atmosphere that spoke to me, that reminded me pleasantly of my days reading much more British lit.
However, what truly deserves noting is how coherent and cohesive this feels as a collection. It showcases Datt Sharma's voice, lyrical and hopeful, nostalgic and original. It feels queer and relevant, fresh and imaginative. Datt Sharma draws upon Indian, Irish and English influences (and these are only the most obvious ones) and does so with style and enviable confidence. Their characters often feel alive, present on the page, complex and real, even when they only appear in a very short story and have little space to allow themselves to be known. And even more interestingly, the worlds Datt Sharma describes always seem complex, real and possessed of history and future.
I think a lot of my friends might enjoy this collection and I hope to read more of Datt Sharma's writing soon.
August 21, 2019
I knew going into this collection that I would love it - I’d read most of the stories before - but considering them all together like this really sheds new light on them and illuminates the things they all share.
These stories are kind - which is not to say that they’re twee, or easy. They’re hopeful, bittersweet, queer. They’re about people and places and the ways they’re interconnected, and they're full of characters whose concerns and perspectives feel intimately real. They’re about doing what you can from where you are. They’re about what happens after you make mistakes and the world still keeps on turning.
Although the stories are connected by these common threads, each one stands on its own. Datt Sharma’s worldbuilding is so vivid and immersive that it’s easy to imagine that each story is just a tiny glimpse into a complete world, and they’re full of clever, thoughtful sf&f concepts. I would love to read whole novels in any of these settings.
I adored the new Akbar and Birbal stories written for this collection, especially Birbal and the sadhu and Akbar learns to read and write, but I also loved revisiting old favourites like Nine Thousand Hours, Eight Cities and Quarter Days. For anyone already familiar with the author’s work, this is a great opportunity to revisit it, and for anyone who isn’t, this is the perfect introduction.
These stories are kind - which is not to say that they’re twee, or easy. They’re hopeful, bittersweet, queer. They’re about people and places and the ways they’re interconnected, and they're full of characters whose concerns and perspectives feel intimately real. They’re about doing what you can from where you are. They’re about what happens after you make mistakes and the world still keeps on turning.
Although the stories are connected by these common threads, each one stands on its own. Datt Sharma’s worldbuilding is so vivid and immersive that it’s easy to imagine that each story is just a tiny glimpse into a complete world, and they’re full of clever, thoughtful sf&f concepts. I would love to read whole novels in any of these settings.
I adored the new Akbar and Birbal stories written for this collection, especially Birbal and the sadhu and Akbar learns to read and write, but I also loved revisiting old favourites like Nine Thousand Hours, Eight Cities and Quarter Days. For anyone already familiar with the author’s work, this is a great opportunity to revisit it, and for anyone who isn’t, this is the perfect introduction.
May 7, 2019
This is a remarkable collection of sff short stories. Some I had read before elsewhere, some were new to me. The ones that were rereads resonated with even more depth when revisited, the ones I read for the first time I look forward to revisiting in future. There is an intermingling of melancholy and hope in all of Iona Datt Sharma’s writing that touches my heartstrings with a note that keeps resonating long after I’ve but their stories down, a sharp-eyed clarity about the terribleness of the world cut with an immense, fundamental kindness. They make me cry, these stories, because they are beautiful, and because in their beauty they reveal a faith in the human ability to build a world worth living in, despite everything that corrodes. And because the people doing the building are queers.
I have long had a special place on my heart for the longest story in this collection, Quarter Days, and I can’t wait for the publication of the novel the author has written in the same universe. I have no doubt it will be extraordinary.
I have long had a special place on my heart for the longest story in this collection, Quarter Days, and I can’t wait for the publication of the novel the author has written in the same universe. I have no doubt it will be extraordinary.
July 15, 2025
iona datt sharma really scratches such an itch...... (and this collection reinforces that their writing works better for me in smaller weirder doses, although I hold out hope for future novels)
the title is explained by the introduction:
the akbar stories are wonderful—
—as are the stories of the salt (honestly, it would be great to get an entire story collection or full-length novel from either of these):
I mean, just, across the board, great worldbuilding, great language, great relationships, great history, great acid empathy, resonance, religion. and if you're sick of "dulce et decorum est" being the only wilfred owen poem to merit allusions (I get it, it's great, I teach it, too, but lol @ this review being the one I'm writing right after the one for some desperate glory), datt sharma has you covered there too!
by loose relation, here's an interesting article on the conundrum of how best to translate "forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit."
may datt sharma keep writing forever and ever, amen.
the title is explained by the introduction:
ursula le guin put it best: writers of science fiction and fantasy have the unique responsibility to be "realists of a larger reality"—to light the way to a world yet to come. [...] I hope these stories are in le guin's spirit: they are about possibility, not constraint. not for use in navigation, because the world yet to come will be better than anything I could possibly imagine.
the akbar stories are wonderful—
akbar said, "adhyapika-sahiba, we learn at any age."
—as are the stories of the salt (honestly, it would be great to get an entire story collection or full-length novel from either of these):
grace gave him the look she reserved for idiots and the classically educated.
I mean, just, across the board, great worldbuilding, great language, great relationships, great history, great acid empathy, resonance, religion. and if you're sick of "dulce et decorum est" being the only wilfred owen poem to merit allusions (I get it, it's great, I teach it, too, but lol @ this review being the one I'm writing right after the one for some desperate glory), datt sharma has you covered there too!
by loose relation, here's an interesting article on the conundrum of how best to translate "forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit."
may datt sharma keep writing forever and ever, amen.
once upon a time, they say in these parts. (not everywhere, I guess. where kiran came from, they don't say anything special at the start of the story, but they always finish with, and I saw the handsome prince the other day in the market, but he wouldn't talk to me.)
April 14, 2020
I probably should have taken Not for Use in Navigation at face value and just, you know, not use it. But then again there weren’t that many recent science fiction digital books available at the libraries and this one did seem interesting. Ok, to be fair, it was interesting in its own way, it just didn’t really interest this reader. It checks all the boxes modern fiction strives for, it’s at least as woke as its author (they pronoun) and going by name of Indian origins, in that the characters in the book are often gender flexible and often Indian(and often lesbian for that matter), write what you know all the way, but also different cultural perspectives, which are always good. But outside of that, the actual plots of the stories, I didn’t find compelling at all. There were recurring themes, melancholy dystopias, though not quite, glimpses of future, colonization of distant planets and various concomitant situations that arise from such, sometimes as menial as waste disposal, sometimes grander. There’s also a series of stories set in the same universe and those had more of a fantasy flavor to them than sci fi, inexplicably they weren’t together, but all over the book and those were probably my least favorite, fantasy is really not a genre for me. But at any rate, no matter what the specific subject or what distant stars the stories reached, they just never sparkled for me. And to be fair, I do differentiate between books that don’t work and books that don’t work for me and this was definitely the latter. Because objectively you can’t fault the writing or the imagination. It’s just something about the execution that didn’t quite sing for a specific reader mindset. Not sure how it worked for others, I didn’t check the reviews prior to reading it, not that it’s such a reliable indicator of quality anyway. So yeah, not a winner, but such a quick read, 275 pages (so says Kindle, not GR’s listing for some reason) in 200 minutes or so. Navigate at your own discretion.
April 5, 2019
(I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review)
It’s honestly a gift to be able to write short stories that still have such a depth and richness behind them. Each piece is carefully and precisely crafted, but with a wisdom and colour that’s really moving. Often these stories (or parables, or word paintings) have a sense of something lost. It’s a wry and sometimes dark grin at the human condition, and yet it’s often oddly satisfying.
Iona has teased out the subtleties of life, with its complexities and disappointments, but also its moments of happiness and quiet contentment. It’s a collection about the unpredictability of life, about accepting the fact that everything has two sides. It’s a collection about how, in the chaos of existence, gestures can still be shared and have meaning. The sharing of tea, the painting of mehndi, someone making their partner a lunchbox for work just the way they like it. The insistence on the rituals of life doesn’t seem pompous, but right. The little cares that we owe each other.
My favourite story in this collection is the one that Iona had published first. “One Day Listing” is essentially a sweet story about lawyers in space, but by gods, it leaves me wanting more, and encapsulates what this collection is about. Perhaps ‘write what you know’ is the reason that they write about legal practice so well, but it’s only one gem in a brilliant set of stories. Remember those collections you might have read as a very small child? The ones you went back to again and again, that had their own space on the shelf? “A Treasury of Children’s Literature” or some such. With “Not For Use In Navigation”, Iona has come up with a true treasury for these confusing times. Something that takes you by the hand and says “yes, this is how it is, little one. That’s OK.”
It’s honestly a gift to be able to write short stories that still have such a depth and richness behind them. Each piece is carefully and precisely crafted, but with a wisdom and colour that’s really moving. Often these stories (or parables, or word paintings) have a sense of something lost. It’s a wry and sometimes dark grin at the human condition, and yet it’s often oddly satisfying.
Iona has teased out the subtleties of life, with its complexities and disappointments, but also its moments of happiness and quiet contentment. It’s a collection about the unpredictability of life, about accepting the fact that everything has two sides. It’s a collection about how, in the chaos of existence, gestures can still be shared and have meaning. The sharing of tea, the painting of mehndi, someone making their partner a lunchbox for work just the way they like it. The insistence on the rituals of life doesn’t seem pompous, but right. The little cares that we owe each other.
My favourite story in this collection is the one that Iona had published first. “One Day Listing” is essentially a sweet story about lawyers in space, but by gods, it leaves me wanting more, and encapsulates what this collection is about. Perhaps ‘write what you know’ is the reason that they write about legal practice so well, but it’s only one gem in a brilliant set of stories. Remember those collections you might have read as a very small child? The ones you went back to again and again, that had their own space on the shelf? “A Treasury of Children’s Literature” or some such. With “Not For Use In Navigation”, Iona has come up with a true treasury for these confusing times. Something that takes you by the hand and says “yes, this is how it is, little one. That’s OK.”
June 4, 2020
I really want Iona Datt Sharma to write a full length novel! Each one of these stories feels like a few chapters from the middle of something magical. The characters are vibrant and the worlds are complex. The stories are melancholy at times, but without being depressing. They leave the reader with lots of questions to think about.
You should also all go read the novella Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night, which Datt Sharma co-wrote and which is one of the best things I’ve read in quite a while.
You should also all go read the novella Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night, which Datt Sharma co-wrote and which is one of the best things I’ve read in quite a while.
September 10, 2019
Vivid, lyrical and a little heart-wrenching in ways. The second-to-last story in here is a particular standout, although I also loved the one about the alien city being jointly populated by humanity and others and living together. (Also, as expected, all of this is beautifully and so satisfyingly queer, ahhhh.)
August 15, 2019
A wonderful short story collection. Highly recommended to anyone who wants diverse, imaginative sf. I particularly love “Quarter Days” and the other stories set in that universe. I look forward to more!
August 31, 2023
This is a remarkable collection of stories, full of compassion, humanity and diversity. The worlds imagined always feel much larger than is depicted and there is a palpable sense of reality to them. I really enjoyed reading this collection and it has left me wanting more.
December 5, 2019
Beautiful collection of short stories. Refreshing perspective, inventive magic (I love the longer Salt story at the end). Several stories have roots in Indian and South Asian stories. I'd happily rec this to anyone looking for SF/F reads.
May 5, 2019
The collection overall is lovely; it’s a woven mix of thoughtful, sweet and amusing stories that all vary wildly, but all have a thread of wonderful characters and detail-orientated worldbuilding running through them.
Light, Like A Candle Flame; actually, this story was my least favourite! It’s a sweet story about a council member trying to make changes aboard a ship, but it felt a bit too abstract for me to get into. However, the second story, Death Comes To Elisha, tugged me back into the collection – a bit of a different take on Death visiting after being drawn in a Tarot deck!
Akbar And The Crows is the first of a collection of sweet and thoughtful stories about an emperor and their woes – more akin to moral tales than stories, and very much in the vein of A Thousand And One Nights etc. Birbal And The Sadhu is the second story, and this one is clever; I love the sci-fi twist on an old tale, and the idea that there are some things you never forget! (Not saying more because spoilers, but it’s worth a read.) The third is Akbar’s Holiday, which is a lovely take on the wronged spouse taking their favourite thing with them; Akbar Learns To Read And Write is a nice version of “what goes around, comes around” in the doing of favours and the idea that maybe everyone should be doing the things they long to do, even if they’re not necessarily very good at them; and enjoyment means more to life than ticks in boxes.
One-Day Listing is a bit weird, honestly; I love that the story doesn’t tell you much about the world and lets you figure it out for yourself, but I could have done with a bit more detail! It’s a story about mental health and coping strategies and alien worlds and justice and adapting, and it’s got a lot of nice detail woven through. I also wasn’t entirely sure about Landfall (your shadow at evening, rising to meet you); this made me think of the Lady Astronaut Books, with The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky and definitely The Lady Astronaut of Mars. It’s a short story about the people living on Mars, and their quest for more people – but also the grumpy first pioneer, looking back at Earth, grouching through their days and thoroughly enjoying it – for all that the story is more of a vignette, the characters are wonderful! Alnwick was another odd one; it’s almost half a story. It starts with a pod of supplies that’s crashed on launch, and following the investigator; again, another character study and almost half a story, which definitely works – but I’d like to see more of it.
Flightcraft – I loved this! It’s a story about a new arrival meeting a local engineer of a new type of plane, and helping her work; but when an accident happens, more is revealed than either of them want to be… I want to see more in this world; I want another story about what happened next, or something else in the same vein. I love the fact that the engineering doesn’t really get explained, but they know what’s going on; I love the relationships between the characters and the unspoken history, both of the people and of the country/world. It’s a lovely story. I also adored Archana and Chandni – it’s an Indian wedding with The Aunts and all the usual wedding stress plus one of the siblings is an AI; I ended up quoting bits of this one and giggling, and I adore the idea of “so when are you getting married and having children, na?” that involves a spaceship. “What, you think I’ll meet a planteoid with prospects?”
Nine Thousand Hours – I thought I’d read this one before, and it’s come back to me where I did; Strange Horizons! It’s a story in the Salt universe, with magic powers in something resembling our world. Nine Thousand Hours is the story of someone who has managed to remove all writing, and broken the world with it – and how they strive to get it back. The second Salt story is Quarter Days, which I think is actually closer to a novelette or novella; it made me think of Emma Newman’s Split Worlds series, and I really like that we get to see more of the Salt magic! The three central characters are summoned to investigate an accident with a train, where the magic signal system has apparently gone wrong – but there are racial and magic tensions in the city, a new apprentice to worry about, and Ned lost his magic during the War; I love the little nods to outside events and tensions, the mix of daily life and magic and wider politics. It’s a wonderful world and system, and the story is both sweet and tense.
Eight Cities is again, almost a character study; two old friends, one of whom now teaches, the other who has come to visit – and their current lives, their world’s distrust of science, and the gentle pace of their lives as they try to build understanding. Ur is similar, but it’s a story of cultures – of an alien and a human culture, living together, and the steps they take to understand each other. I liked the small details in this, and it’s definitely worth a read; I found bits of it stayed with me after I’d finished. And the final story is Refugee, or, a nine-item representative inventory of a better world; this one makes you focus on the story to understand it, and leaves more questions than it answers – but it’s an interesting story of a refugee fleeing from their world, and then returning.
Out of all the stories, I adore the Salt world – I don’t know if there are more stories, but I’m definitely going to look into it! Flightcraft is also a world I’d love to see expanded, and Archana and Chandni was my favourite in terms of one-offs; but the whole collection is thoughtful and sweet, filled with characters that spark and worlds that shine, and definitely worth picking up for those odd five minutes of reading time.
Light, Like A Candle Flame; actually, this story was my least favourite! It’s a sweet story about a council member trying to make changes aboard a ship, but it felt a bit too abstract for me to get into. However, the second story, Death Comes To Elisha, tugged me back into the collection – a bit of a different take on Death visiting after being drawn in a Tarot deck!
Akbar And The Crows is the first of a collection of sweet and thoughtful stories about an emperor and their woes – more akin to moral tales than stories, and very much in the vein of A Thousand And One Nights etc. Birbal And The Sadhu is the second story, and this one is clever; I love the sci-fi twist on an old tale, and the idea that there are some things you never forget! (Not saying more because spoilers, but it’s worth a read.) The third is Akbar’s Holiday, which is a lovely take on the wronged spouse taking their favourite thing with them; Akbar Learns To Read And Write is a nice version of “what goes around, comes around” in the doing of favours and the idea that maybe everyone should be doing the things they long to do, even if they’re not necessarily very good at them; and enjoyment means more to life than ticks in boxes.
One-Day Listing is a bit weird, honestly; I love that the story doesn’t tell you much about the world and lets you figure it out for yourself, but I could have done with a bit more detail! It’s a story about mental health and coping strategies and alien worlds and justice and adapting, and it’s got a lot of nice detail woven through. I also wasn’t entirely sure about Landfall (your shadow at evening, rising to meet you); this made me think of the Lady Astronaut Books, with The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky and definitely The Lady Astronaut of Mars. It’s a short story about the people living on Mars, and their quest for more people – but also the grumpy first pioneer, looking back at Earth, grouching through their days and thoroughly enjoying it – for all that the story is more of a vignette, the characters are wonderful! Alnwick was another odd one; it’s almost half a story. It starts with a pod of supplies that’s crashed on launch, and following the investigator; again, another character study and almost half a story, which definitely works – but I’d like to see more of it.
Flightcraft – I loved this! It’s a story about a new arrival meeting a local engineer of a new type of plane, and helping her work; but when an accident happens, more is revealed than either of them want to be… I want to see more in this world; I want another story about what happened next, or something else in the same vein. I love the fact that the engineering doesn’t really get explained, but they know what’s going on; I love the relationships between the characters and the unspoken history, both of the people and of the country/world. It’s a lovely story. I also adored Archana and Chandni – it’s an Indian wedding with The Aunts and all the usual wedding stress plus one of the siblings is an AI; I ended up quoting bits of this one and giggling, and I adore the idea of “so when are you getting married and having children, na?” that involves a spaceship. “What, you think I’ll meet a planteoid with prospects?”
Nine Thousand Hours – I thought I’d read this one before, and it’s come back to me where I did; Strange Horizons! It’s a story in the Salt universe, with magic powers in something resembling our world. Nine Thousand Hours is the story of someone who has managed to remove all writing, and broken the world with it – and how they strive to get it back. The second Salt story is Quarter Days, which I think is actually closer to a novelette or novella; it made me think of Emma Newman’s Split Worlds series, and I really like that we get to see more of the Salt magic! The three central characters are summoned to investigate an accident with a train, where the magic signal system has apparently gone wrong – but there are racial and magic tensions in the city, a new apprentice to worry about, and Ned lost his magic during the War; I love the little nods to outside events and tensions, the mix of daily life and magic and wider politics. It’s a wonderful world and system, and the story is both sweet and tense.
Eight Cities is again, almost a character study; two old friends, one of whom now teaches, the other who has come to visit – and their current lives, their world’s distrust of science, and the gentle pace of their lives as they try to build understanding. Ur is similar, but it’s a story of cultures – of an alien and a human culture, living together, and the steps they take to understand each other. I liked the small details in this, and it’s definitely worth a read; I found bits of it stayed with me after I’d finished. And the final story is Refugee, or, a nine-item representative inventory of a better world; this one makes you focus on the story to understand it, and leaves more questions than it answers – but it’s an interesting story of a refugee fleeing from their world, and then returning.
Out of all the stories, I adore the Salt world – I don’t know if there are more stories, but I’m definitely going to look into it! Flightcraft is also a world I’d love to see expanded, and Archana and Chandni was my favourite in terms of one-offs; but the whole collection is thoughtful and sweet, filled with characters that spark and worlds that shine, and definitely worth picking up for those odd five minutes of reading time.
June 23, 2019
One of the joys of reviewing books is coming across exciting, new writing. Iona Datt Sharma was kind enough to send me a review copy of their short story collection Not For Use in Navigation. It is full of wit, staggeringly subtle insight and exquisite prose. These are stories that foreground queer and genderfluid people, and focus on liminal spaces.
At EasterCon I was on a panel with Charlie Stross. We were talking about how rarely stories deal with those behind the scenes people who in real life make change happen. Charlie's point was that in a Joseph Campbell-based tradition of story-telling, we want to read about heroes. That mode of story-telling doesn't lend itself well to ensemble casts or the acknowledgement of the necessity of collaborative effort. But Datt Sharma puts that to the lie. Every person is the hero of their own story, and Datt Sharma tells stories that elevate the mundane and use it to illustrate the profound.
The collection opens with Light, Like A Candle Flame. This is the story of a woman whose job it is to persuade colonists on a new world that they all need to agree to build a sewage treatment plant, because their current arrangements will not support the growing colony. Not the most exciting of topics, but in Datt Sharma's hands this becomes a meditation on leaving home, the tension between past and future and how human beings living in communities work out how they live together.
The bathos is most present in Alnwick, the story of a civil servant working on the UK's space programme. Disturbed from a party by an accident that has left many people badly injured, Meg has to deal with the immediate aftermath and ensure the planned space launch will go ahead as intended. I felt deeply seen by this novel. Meg does radical work at the cutting edges of technological development, but is seen by her girlfriend Deepika's activist friends as boring and conventional. Meg's story is the heroism of hard work and complex problem solving, and a competent woman doing her job well. The image of her briefing her Minister in a party dress and snow boots sums this up for me: glamour mixed with practicality. Meg is the ultimate public servant, quietly doing radical world-changing work that those around her underestimate.
These themes continue in Flightcraft. Talitha Cawthorne is a flight engineer scarred by the experience of war. Trying to find a path for her future, Talitha finds herself drawn to a nearby airbase, and the friendship of a civilian flight engineer called Cat. Talitha was someone forced to do things that others might find unethical during the war, but in the name of saving others. These are hard and difficult choices that are not ones that most people have the ability to make. Flightcraft asks who are we to judge from a position of partial knowledge when we are the unwitting beneficiaries.
The collection also includes a novella called Quarter Days. It follows two magical practitioners, and their new apprentice, who are caught up in the reaction to a railway disaster. One of them, Ned, is held responsible for the accident because he was one of those that worked on the railway signalling equipment. But the investigation into the incident begins to show their may be another cause. This is a story about the impact of migration on a city. Datt Sharma doesn't shy away from the bigotry and Othering of those migrant communities, but this is a story about how those people can enrich a place in unforeseen ways by what they bring with them from their homelands.
Interspersed throughout the collection are stories of Akbar and Birbal. These are reimagined versions of popular folk stories about Akbar the Great, the third Mughal Emperor of India and his friend and principal adviser Raja Birbal. Akbar struggles to be a good ruler, and it is often Birbal's cleverness that helps him solve problems, grow and learn. Datt Sharma's genderflipped Akbar and Birbal are transported to a space-faring empire. But the core heart of the stories remains - a strong friendship between two individuals who are not afraid to speak truth to one another.
This is a brilliant collection of fiction that deserves a wide audience. Datt Sharma is a writer to watch.
At EasterCon I was on a panel with Charlie Stross. We were talking about how rarely stories deal with those behind the scenes people who in real life make change happen. Charlie's point was that in a Joseph Campbell-based tradition of story-telling, we want to read about heroes. That mode of story-telling doesn't lend itself well to ensemble casts or the acknowledgement of the necessity of collaborative effort. But Datt Sharma puts that to the lie. Every person is the hero of their own story, and Datt Sharma tells stories that elevate the mundane and use it to illustrate the profound.
The collection opens with Light, Like A Candle Flame. This is the story of a woman whose job it is to persuade colonists on a new world that they all need to agree to build a sewage treatment plant, because their current arrangements will not support the growing colony. Not the most exciting of topics, but in Datt Sharma's hands this becomes a meditation on leaving home, the tension between past and future and how human beings living in communities work out how they live together.
The bathos is most present in Alnwick, the story of a civil servant working on the UK's space programme. Disturbed from a party by an accident that has left many people badly injured, Meg has to deal with the immediate aftermath and ensure the planned space launch will go ahead as intended. I felt deeply seen by this novel. Meg does radical work at the cutting edges of technological development, but is seen by her girlfriend Deepika's activist friends as boring and conventional. Meg's story is the heroism of hard work and complex problem solving, and a competent woman doing her job well. The image of her briefing her Minister in a party dress and snow boots sums this up for me: glamour mixed with practicality. Meg is the ultimate public servant, quietly doing radical world-changing work that those around her underestimate.
These themes continue in Flightcraft. Talitha Cawthorne is a flight engineer scarred by the experience of war. Trying to find a path for her future, Talitha finds herself drawn to a nearby airbase, and the friendship of a civilian flight engineer called Cat. Talitha was someone forced to do things that others might find unethical during the war, but in the name of saving others. These are hard and difficult choices that are not ones that most people have the ability to make. Flightcraft asks who are we to judge from a position of partial knowledge when we are the unwitting beneficiaries.
The collection also includes a novella called Quarter Days. It follows two magical practitioners, and their new apprentice, who are caught up in the reaction to a railway disaster. One of them, Ned, is held responsible for the accident because he was one of those that worked on the railway signalling equipment. But the investigation into the incident begins to show their may be another cause. This is a story about the impact of migration on a city. Datt Sharma doesn't shy away from the bigotry and Othering of those migrant communities, but this is a story about how those people can enrich a place in unforeseen ways by what they bring with them from their homelands.
Interspersed throughout the collection are stories of Akbar and Birbal. These are reimagined versions of popular folk stories about Akbar the Great, the third Mughal Emperor of India and his friend and principal adviser Raja Birbal. Akbar struggles to be a good ruler, and it is often Birbal's cleverness that helps him solve problems, grow and learn. Datt Sharma's genderflipped Akbar and Birbal are transported to a space-faring empire. But the core heart of the stories remains - a strong friendship between two individuals who are not afraid to speak truth to one another.
This is a brilliant collection of fiction that deserves a wide audience. Datt Sharma is a writer to watch.
September 16, 2020
I first learned of this book from Liz Bourke's Sleeps with Monsters column at Tor.com, and I just loved the cover.
It's always disconcerting when I decide to read a collection by an author I've never read before as I simply have no idea what to expect from their writing.
Despite the subtitle of "Thirteen Stories," the book actually has 16 stories (I'm assuming the author considers the four Akbar and Birbal stories to be one story, which would make the math add up), and a full third of the book is devoted to the novella "Quarter Days," a really interesting, really good story following several magic practitioners over the course of 1919 in London. The Akbar and Birbal stories are just parables about Akbar, but in the galactic future and as a woman. "Flightcraft" is another good story, though an issue with this and many of the others is a sense of incompleteness where I felt there was more for the author to say or develop (they obviously did not agree).
Characters are definitely a strength in these stories., though the humor in "Archana and Chandni" was fantastic (Indian wedding in space!), and I loved the unglamorous work the others stories center (getting a sewage plant in "Light, Like a Candle Flame" or the government bureaucrat in "Alnwick").
Give this collection a try if you want something new! I know I'll definitely be on the lookout, especially for any more Salt stories.
It's always disconcerting when I decide to read a collection by an author I've never read before as I simply have no idea what to expect from their writing.
Despite the subtitle of "Thirteen Stories," the book actually has 16 stories (I'm assuming the author considers the four Akbar and Birbal stories to be one story, which would make the math add up), and a full third of the book is devoted to the novella "Quarter Days," a really interesting, really good story following several magic practitioners over the course of 1919 in London. The Akbar and Birbal stories are just parables about Akbar, but in the galactic future and as a woman. "Flightcraft" is another good story, though an issue with this and many of the others is a sense of incompleteness where I felt there was more for the author to say or develop (they obviously did not agree).
Characters are definitely a strength in these stories., though the humor in "Archana and Chandni" was fantastic (Indian wedding in space!), and I loved the unglamorous work the others stories center (getting a sewage plant in "Light, Like a Candle Flame" or the government bureaucrat in "Alnwick").
Give this collection a try if you want something new! I know I'll definitely be on the lookout, especially for any more Salt stories.
February 13, 2021
Absolutely splendid. I loved so many of the characters. Although each story is different, most take place in one of three or four different universes. So, it’s more comfortable to read than a collection of stories where each begins world building anew. In this case, at the start, you figure out which of the worlds you are in and then settle in with a smile to further your acquaintance with it.
Most of the main characters are British Indian, sometimes Hindu. Many are lesbians, some are gender fluid. One is a conqueror of an empire in the stars. Many are magicians, with real magic at their fingertips. They’re all interesting and often kind people, although life is not always easy for them, they find a way forward.
I stayed up well past midnight for two nights to read this. So, that tells you how heartening, beautifully written and engrossing it is.
Most of the main characters are British Indian, sometimes Hindu. Many are lesbians, some are gender fluid. One is a conqueror of an empire in the stars. Many are magicians, with real magic at their fingertips. They’re all interesting and often kind people, although life is not always easy for them, they find a way forward.
I stayed up well past midnight for two nights to read this. So, that tells you how heartening, beautifully written and engrossing it is.
September 11, 2019
Some of the stories are excellent, almost sublime in their perfect grasp of atmosphere and melancholy and a certain kind of sadness. But I have to say that although I read this slowly over about four weeks, a lot of the stories feel really similar in terms of theme and tone, even characters. Sometimes short story collection are extremely varied: this felt more like the author was writing the same story over and over until one time they will achieve the perfect variation of it. At this point it just makes me wish they would publish a whole novel with one coherent theme and set of characters, because I will definitely read that on the strength of writing alone.
July 22, 2020
This is possibly my favourite short story collection to date. Each story feels so grounded in real parameters, slices of a larger whole. I particularly enjoyed the take on Akbar and Birbal and "Eight Cities", because I love folklore and solarpunk, and I absolutely love the way queerness and culture are wound into each story. The final two stories jarred me a little, as their formats stand out from the others; "Quarter Days" is much longer and "Refugee, or, a nine-item representative inventory of a better world" so short, that they felt almost like they belonged in a different collection. As a whole, this is a stunning anthology of SFF and I am deeply glad to have read it.
October 21, 2019
Utterly, utterly beautiful stories. Each was wonderfully crafted and I loved the way the author returned to some characters multiple times.
My absolute favourites were Flightcraft for the imagination it showed and for the feelings it inspired and especially Quarter Days. The story of Grace, Ned and Thanet was so moving, in such a short space of time I felt so engaged in their relationship and cared so much for their fates.
Wonderful, wonderful storytelling.
My absolute favourites were Flightcraft for the imagination it showed and for the feelings it inspired and especially Quarter Days. The story of Grace, Ned and Thanet was so moving, in such a short space of time I felt so engaged in their relationship and cared so much for their fates.
Wonderful, wonderful storytelling.
July 17, 2019
I enjoyed these stories so much! Some more than others, I want to know everything about the world of Salt and it's magic system. So much positive queerness and every time I dipped back into the book I came away feeling positive. Would recommend
November 28, 2020
The only reason I didn't give this five stars is because I really wanted more background (and continuation) of some of the stories. Beautifully written!
August 1, 2021
So, so good. Tender and imaginative and very special.
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