Alternate Realities: A Scifi Book Club discussion

did anyone have a favorite story?

I liked so many of them! In particular: The yellow card man about the Chinese man in Bangkok was good and left me thinking a lot about asylum seekers and whether it's better to keep them locked up or let them just fend for themselves, and about capitalism in general. Pump six about the New Yorker working at the sewage treatment center was another gem, that made me think of the movie idiocracy (anyone know which came first?) and was the closest to satire of all he stories. This was my first introduction to this author, and I really, really liked his work.

I hate to emphasize the negative, but because I liked most of the stories in the book a lot, I thought I'd note a couple that didn't grab me as much. I thought "Softer" was a real departure for Bacigalupi. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not, but it was very different.

"The Fluted Girl" was OK. Although there were aspects of it, including the ending, that I really liked, the story didn't grab me. And "Pasho" similarly had parts that I found interesting, but otherwise moved too slowly for me.

The stories set in the same world as The Wind-up Girl were very good - "Yellow Card Man" and "The Calorie Man", as was "The Tamarisk Hunter". And I really liked "Pump Six" and "The People of Sand and Slag" as well. And I enjoyed the world he created in "Pocketful of Dharma". I liked "Pop Squad", but found it meandered a bit.

I actually really enjoyed softer--partly because it's the least depressing (in a global sense, at least--the world isn't about to end and aside from the protagonist himself, people aren't being horrible to each other), but also because it didn't fit in the collection at all. It left me wondering if it took place in the future. Surely domestic violence will continue, but there was no reason to think it was set in the future. Also, i wonder if all the stories take place in the same universe. There's no reason to think they don't, or at least there is no specifically contradictory dates/locations/etc.

Brett wrote: "I actually really enjoyed softer--partly because it's the least depressing (in a global sense, at least--the world isn't about to end and aside from the protagonist himself, people aren't being hor..."

There is at least one contradiction - "The Tamarisk Hunter" takes place in a US where all the water is being siphoned off to California, whereas "The Calorie Man" takes place on a boat on a big river. Also, the characters in "The People of Sand and Slag" live in a world where the people are like gods, whereas the other characters aren't that different from contemporary humans.

I didn't dislike "Softer", it's just so different from his other stuff in theme, style and setting. It felt like they took a story from another writer and popped it into this one. It would be like reading Alice Munroe and all of a sudden reading a scifi story. You would be a little perplexed.

I couldn't help but wonder how his wife felt when she read it - "Uh, great story, honey. What do you think about separate bedrooms?"

The overall impression is very good, and I'd rather mention my least favourite stories.

'Pop Squad' – the weakest of all the book. The premise is super silly , and the reason there is no answer to 'why do you do this?' in it, is because the author is nowhere near knowing it himself. Reality doesn't work like this. Plus, the story tries hard to be all hard-boiled and gritty, but actually comes off as naive, comic-bookish (in a bad way) and adolescent.

The other stories in the book that concern transhumanism are fare more mature and creative.

'Pump Six' – one word: 'Idiocracy', and just as over-the-top and over-simplified. Compulsive bonking is particularly idiotic: humans aren't bonobos.

'Softer' – not bad on its own, but out of place in this book.