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Yokohama Station SF Novel #2
Yokohama Station SF National
TALES FROM INSIDE
Welcome to Yokohama Station, a sprawling structure that has consumed most of Japan. This collection of short stories dives into more about the station and the people that live within and around it. An android’s chance encounter with a man on an island reveals the origin of the rebellious Dodger Alliance. Meanwhile, two other androids go missing, and a third is dispatched to locate them, but do they want to be found? In Kumamoto, a mysterious death grips JR operatives who work to keep Yokohama Station from spreading. Lastly, a volcano threatens to erupt in Gunma, displacing hundreds of Insiders. How will the station react to this unprecedented danger?
Welcome to Yokohama Station, a sprawling structure that has consumed most of Japan. This collection of short stories dives into more about the station and the people that live within and around it. An android’s chance encounter with a man on an island reveals the origin of the rebellious Dodger Alliance. Meanwhile, two other androids go missing, and a third is dispatched to locate them, but do they want to be found? In Kumamoto, a mysterious death grips JR operatives who work to keep Yokohama Station from spreading. Lastly, a volcano threatens to erupt in Gunma, displacing hundreds of Insiders. How will the station react to this unprecedented danger?
196 pages, Hardcover
First published August 10, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 9, 2025
like 3.5. it's super fun but not much beyond fun
October 14, 2022
Most of this volume involves people from outside of the station who are trying to infiltrate it for information and sabotage. These are residents on Hokkaido, protected by seawater and distance. But they'd like to push back on the station's neverending attempt at expansion.
My favorite story, though, is told from within the station. It involves a man with Caucasian ancestry who can read and speak English along with Japanese. He has in his office an English dictionary. To avoid spoilers, I will say that his office is destroyed — though how is a big part of the story.
http://pussreboots.com/blog/2022/comm...
Marginalized Wild lands Interstate 669900
My favorite story, though, is told from within the station. It involves a man with Caucasian ancestry who can read and speak English along with Japanese. He has in his office an English dictionary. To avoid spoilers, I will say that his office is destroyed — though how is a big part of the story.
http://pussreboots.com/blog/2022/comm...
Marginalized Wild lands Interstate 669900
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2023
A wonderful addition to YS/collection of YS short stories, as well as a delightful Afterword.
February 1, 2024
I remember rather liking the first Yokohama Station SF book, and being excited at the prospect of there being a sequel, because the story left a lot of things hanging. And, well, the second book set in this world disappointed me on a variety of levels.
First, it isn't a sequel. It's a collection of short stories, many of which don't seem to have any real relevance to anything, and only a few that directly connect to each other. So what we get are snippets of the lives of people we barely know, and aren't given much reason to care about. There are some recurring characters in the androids, but they don't really tie up the loose ends from the first book, so I really have to wonder why this collection exists.
Especially because everyone in this book just sounds and feels so utterly lifeless. The voices tend to sound the same from one character to the next, and even the ones that do sound a little different read like something a chatbot might spit out if you told it to construct a "normal human conversation."
This whole thing was just a slog to get through. A military recruiter gets murdered. A pair of scientists tries to predict when a volcano is going to erupt. One of the androids meets a hermit on a little island. And there's no real reason to care about any of it. Their stories usually don't have much of an impact on the world (not even the volcano), and they don't work as character studies, because everyone involved feels like a mannequin. This is a major letdown as a follow-up to the first book, because at least that one told a cohesive, if incomplete story. But this book? It's just idle musings that do nothing to expand on the first book in any meaningful way. It's navel-gazing rendered even worse by the fact that there's no next book (as of this review). And we're left with an interesting world with no resolution to its conflicts, or anything approaching a satisfying payoff.
First, it isn't a sequel. It's a collection of short stories, many of which don't seem to have any real relevance to anything, and only a few that directly connect to each other. So what we get are snippets of the lives of people we barely know, and aren't given much reason to care about. There are some recurring characters in the androids, but they don't really tie up the loose ends from the first book, so I really have to wonder why this collection exists.
Especially because everyone in this book just sounds and feels so utterly lifeless. The voices tend to sound the same from one character to the next, and even the ones that do sound a little different read like something a chatbot might spit out if you told it to construct a "normal human conversation."
This whole thing was just a slog to get through. A military recruiter gets murdered. A pair of scientists tries to predict when a volcano is going to erupt. One of the androids meets a hermit on a little island. And there's no real reason to care about any of it. Their stories usually don't have much of an impact on the world (not even the volcano), and they don't work as character studies, because everyone involved feels like a mannequin. This is a major letdown as a follow-up to the first book, because at least that one told a cohesive, if incomplete story. But this book? It's just idle musings that do nothing to expand on the first book in any meaningful way. It's navel-gazing rendered even worse by the fact that there's no next book (as of this review). And we're left with an interesting world with no resolution to its conflicts, or anything approaching a satisfying payoff.
May 9, 2023
言葉遊びが面白いし、今の日本の事を知ってるとクスッと笑えるネタも多々ある：
・白黒の地が混ざってる駅構造が「パンダグラフ」
・「入力層から発見された当時の画像をみると、鉄道駅や空港、その他全ての公共施設にその黒い熊のイコンが出てるわけですよ。この熊が地域で神として信仰されていたって事がわかります」
「アニミズムってやつだな」
「だけどさあ、熊ってこんな瞳孔が小さいのか？ネコみたいだが」
「他の動物のモチーフが混ざってるんでしょうね、神話ではよくある事です。で、おれの予想では、熊本って地名はおそらくこと神に由来すると」
って会話が繰り広げられてたり（これは明らかにくまモンの事）
けれど、ハッキリ言及はされていない事が多いので、智識と想像力を総動員する必要のあるSFだなと思う。
コンセプトは面白いけれど、結局は一つ一つの物語の軸がはっきりしない感じがして、ちょっと飽きてしまうかも。（ただ、前巻の「横浜駅SF Yokohama Eki SF 」よりは物語的にまとまりを感じる。）
それぞれの話は、ミステリだったり社内政治だったりは興味深いのだけど、あともう一歩でストーリーとしてのまとまりがない気がする。
また、この人のあとがきは「重力アルケミック」の時のように、物語世界で著者が描いているという設定のあとがきなので、それだけでもう一つの物語を読んでるみたいで楽しい。
・白黒の地が混ざってる駅構造が「パンダグラフ」
・「入力層から発見された当時の画像をみると、鉄道駅や空港、その他全ての公共施設にその黒い熊のイコンが出てるわけですよ。この熊が地域で神として信仰されていたって事がわかります」
「アニミズムってやつだな」
「だけどさあ、熊ってこんな瞳孔が小さいのか？ネコみたいだが」
「他の動物のモチーフが混ざってるんでしょうね、神話ではよくある事です。で、おれの予想では、熊本って地名はおそらくこと神に由来すると」
って会話が繰り広げられてたり（これは明らかにくまモンの事）
けれど、ハッキリ言及はされていない事が多いので、智識と想像力を総動員する必要のあるSFだなと思う。
コンセプトは面白いけれど、結局は一つ一つの物語の軸がはっきりしない感じがして、ちょっと飽きてしまうかも。（ただ、前巻の「横浜駅SF Yokohama Eki SF 」よりは物語的にまとまりを感じる。）
それぞれの話は、ミステリだったり社内政治だったりは興味深いのだけど、あともう一歩でストーリーとしてのまとまりがない気がする。
また、この人のあとがきは「重力アルケミック」の時のように、物語世界で著者が描いているという設定のあとがきなので、それだけでもう一つの物語を読んでるみたいで楽しい。
October 10, 2024
I don't hate it, but I don't like it. It wasn't egregiously bad enough for me to drop midway, but nothing drew me in at all.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews