Paradise Tales: and Other Stories

by Geoff Ryman

Geoff Ryman writes about the other and leaves us dissected in the process. His stories are set in recognizable places—London, Cambodia, tomorrow—and feature men and women caught in recognizable situations (or technologies) and not sure which way to turn. They, we, should obviously choose what's right. But what if that's difficult? What will we do? What we should, or . . . ?

Paradise Tales builds on the success of his most recent novel, The King's Last Song, and on the three Cambodian stories included here, "The Last Ten Years of the Hero Kai," "Blocked," and the exceedingly-popular "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter." Paradise Tales includes stories selected from the many periods of Ryman’s career including “Birth Days,” “Omnisexual,” “The Film-makers of Mars,” and a new story, “K is for Kosovo (or, Massimo’s Career).”

To complement this first full-length short story collection, Small Beer Press is reprinting Ryman's backlist: Was, The Child Garden, and a book of four novellas, The Unconquered Countries, with new introductions to continue to build the readership of one of the most fascinating writers exploring the edges of being, gender, science, and fiction.

Geoff Ryman is the author of the novels The King's Last Song, The Child Garden, Air (a Clarke and Tiptree Award winner), and The Unconquered Country (a World Fantasy Award winner). Canadian by birth, he has lived in Cambodia and Brazil and now teaches creative writing at the University of Manchester in England.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Collections, Ebooks

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

Geoffrey Charles Ryman (born 1951) is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and slipstream fiction. He was born in Canada, and has lived most of his life in England.

His science fiction and fantasy works include The Warrior Who Carried Life (1985), the novella The Unconquered Country (1986) (winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the World Fantasy Award), and The Child Garden (1989) (winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Campbell Award). Subsequent fiction works include Was (1992), Lust (2001), and Air (2005) (winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and on the short list for the Nebula Award).

Reviews

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection showcases Ryman's immense talent at short stories. Some of them are connected through his work in fiction about Cambodia and the former Khmer empire. I see very few fiction authors engaging in stories about that place and it's a welcome change.

Most of the stories are about other topics, however. From the lighthearted 'The Film-Makes of Mars' to the devastating testimonial 'K is for Kosovo', Ryman never fails to engage us thoroughly in his world.

While I am tagging this book as 'Fantasy', a number of the stories aren't really, such as the Kosovo story. Ryman goes where he wants to go regardless of the tools of genre.

I could recommend a number of his novels, starting with 'Air' or '...Was', but a short story collection like this is a good way to get a feel for his interests and talents.

[Sarah Rigg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, Geoff Ryman doesn't disappoint. One of his stories that is only so-so is better than a lot of writer's best efforts. He frequently has some genderweird or queer characters, pregnant men appear more often than expected, and there's often some odd biotech. Many times anthologies have weaker and stronger pieces, and that's certainly the case here, but most of the stories were very strong.

The first one, "The Film-makers of Mars," lets you know Ryman is familiar with the pulps and golden age sci-fi, but these stories range all over the place. My favorites were "VAO," the novella "Days of Wonder," and "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter." Highly recommended.

[ambyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I've concluded I like Ryman best a novel-length level. I know (from Air: Or, Have Not Have) that he can do both complex characterization and Deep Weirdness, but most of his short stories only have space for the latter--and I like weirdness, but by itself it's not enough to sustain my interest.

[martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Ryman book I read was his novel The Child Garden, which was quite a mashup of fascinating ideas and bits that were quite difficult to follow. This book is similar, though the two are generally segregated into different stories. It did well at making me Feel Feelings and Think Thoughts about the worldbuilding, which is my favorite kind of scifi.

The things I loved the most in this collection: the exploration of age and aging in the future; the intersection of aging with technology; interesting extrapolations of both technological and social trends.

Example, from a narrator in a retirement home in the future: "My eyeglasses are running through all the photographs of staff, and finally I see him. I click a bit of my brain, like I’m going to ask him his name. The glasses tell me."

My favorite stories were that one, VAO, about today's young people in old age (replete with geriatric criminal gang); You, about a future where people can co-live other people's lives through recorded realtime experiences called lifeblogs; and Blocked, a great amalgamation of SE Asian culture and apocalyptic planning and gender exploration. Really disliked a couple of the others, but it still comes out ahead. Hooray Geoff Ryman.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mixed collection of primarily science fiction, fantasy,ghost stories with one exception, "K is for Kosovo." I found the Cambodia stories to be the best of the bunch, especially Pol Pot's Beautiful daughter. The writing style is engaging but some of the stories, Omnisexual for example, were weak and seemed contrived; however, the strong stories compensate enough to make this book worth reading.

[Corinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any book of short stories, this book has its highs and lows. Among the highs is the beautifully evocative ghost story "Pol Pot's Daughter". I only found one of the stories unreadable - "Days of Wonder" which I think had more to do with my aversion to tales narrated by animals - or in this case animal/human hybrids. Overall not one of my favorites, but "Pol Pot's Daughter" is definitely worth a look.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent compilation of Ryman's short-form writing. He's primarily a fantasy and science-fiction writer who writes in a wide variety of styles - you wouldn't necessarily guess that the same author wrote any of these. I happened to like every story in this book, personally, but with the variety that's included, even if one story doesn't work for a particular reader, there are others that will.

[Tyrannosaurus regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I fought long and hard with myself about what to rate this one, because the ones I loved I really loved (like "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter", which I'd read before), but the ones that didn't work as well for me I tended to forget almost immediately. So really, I settled in the middle. (Though if there was ever a time for a rating between three and four, this is it.)

[Shandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a few of these stories get bogged down in the details of their worlds, I enjoyed the collection as a whole. Ryman's stories are imaginative, creepy, and often bittersweet. The ghost story "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter" is worth the price of admission on its own.

[Michael O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing style was fine. The diversity of the stories kept me going. Birthdays and Omnisexual were pretty week. Pol Pots Beautiful Daughter was the standout. K is for Kosovo I did not like. I could not see the sense in its creation. Too many weak stories for me to rate it any higher.

[Kayla Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't care for most of the stories in "Paradise Tales." There were a couple that were quite nice ("Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter" and "Days of Wonder", to name a few), but unfortunately the mediocre outweighs the good in this collection.

[Bob McConnaughey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very mixed collection. Giving 4 stars on the basis of the last two "Cambodia" tales which were terrific, esp. Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter.

[derek allard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just not my cup o'tea. Writing is very flat and none of the stories grabbed me.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read a handful of stories in this book. Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter is great, but nothing else was good enough for me to want to keep reading.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry, but I can't finish this one. It is just too weird, strange and generally not fun to read.

[donna m towse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love his novels but this just didn't grip me.