Beautifully Written Fantasy & Science Fiction discussion

I'm about halfway through. My exposure to Valente until now has been strictly on the Fantasy side of the "new weird" subgenre. This is the first Science Fiction of hers that I've read. I'm not even certain she's written more SF than this one. I don't think she has.

But she should! I don't know if it's because she's describing a mutable dreamspace or because she's playing around with how a machine intelligence might try to process thoughts, but her style works very well for this story.

I was supposed to be saving this until I'd finished 2001, but that one is slow going and I got excited, so I just read the first 13%. Loving it so far, the writing is definitely exceptional.

"My hearth is broken." Brilliant.

Rich wrote: "I was supposed to be saving this until I'd finished 2001, but that one is slow going and I got excited, so I just read the first 13%. Loving it so far, the writing is definitely exceptional.

"My h..."

Yes. That line delighted me as well.

Still working my way through - although it's a short book it feel very densely packed and I feel like I have to really take my time over it. I'm sure I'll finish it and feel like I need to go back over it.

Rich wrote: "Still working my way through - although it's a short book it feel very densely packed and I feel like I have to really take my time over it. I'm sure I'll finish it and feel like I need to go back ..."

I'm definitely going to reread this one a few times, I think. It's inspired me to start a new writing project.

Ok, I just finished this. It will take a while to digest but it certainly fits the title of the group! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone even slightly interested. You spend a lot of it in the dark, since it is all from the AI's point of view, and you have to stick with it while it pans out into something greater - though it doesn't make itself entirely transparent even by the final words. It isn't a long book though of course, and the journey itself is enjoyable, emotional, and thought provoking.

If I had the time, I'd love to sit and go through this slowly with a group, analysing the symbolism and discussing the finer details. It's not often you find a book worthy of that level of attention.

Just finished it and I want to say thank you, Beautifully Written Fantasy & Science Fiction-group! "Silently and Very Fast" was my introduction to Valente's work and I'm in awe.

The novella impressed me on an intellectual and stylistic level, but I also found it to be very moving - a combination you don't find often enough.

Robobobo wrote: "Just finished it and I want to say thank you, Beautifully Written Fantasy & Science Fiction-group! "Silently and Very Fast" was my introduction to Valente's work and I'm in awe.

The novella impr..."

This right here is why this group exists! Hooray!

I seem to be in the terrible habit of reading these books in the very last days before the deadline. I shall try to do better in the future.

For the most part, dense and intellectually rigorous sci-fi isn't really my cup of tea, so I'm not sure I would have felt compelled to seek out more of Valente's work if this had been the first thing of hers I'd read. I'm a much bigger fan of lyrical fantasy, so I liked the Orphan's Tales books better (I've read both now).

I wasn't familiar with the Mesopotamian myth that she starts out with here, so I was perplexed by that until I started recognizing the other stories. I think that Valente's use of these narratives is quite clever. I agree that it would take another read-through to piece together the different concepts she's juggling... but I have to return it to the library.

My library only had this novella in the anthology The Melancholy of Mechagirl, which is a collection of Valente's stories and poems with a Japanese influence. I haven't read all of them yet, but so far I'm finding the short stories to be a little strange and/or disturbing for my personal tastes, while on the other hand I'm really loving the poems.

Strange and disturbing is right up my alley. That's one of the reasons I like her work so much.