SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Thoughts? I didn't realize that this was based (very loosely) on a real incident until after I'd finished.

I had thought this would be too depressing but instead it moved me deeply but also got me kinda fired up??

For whatever reason this one left me cold.

Is there a link to read this free online?

I'd love it if someone could tell me what happens in this book. I've read other stuff by this author that I've enjoyed. But the reviews said this one was gut punch, so...

Cheryl wrote: "Is there a link to read this free online?"

Maybe on Tor (the publisher). I got it free from them a while back

I actually found by library had it

Ok, my son's library has it, so hopefully I'll be able to read it next week when I visit them, if they fill the request promptly. Seems odd to have such a short SF in a paper book, I expected maybe an e-book. Thanks Rachel!

MrsJoseph wrote: "I'd love it if someone could tell me what happens in this book. I've read other stuff by this author that I've enjoyed. But the reviews said this one was gut punch, so..."

Well, it was inspired, at least in part, by this: https://www.wired.com/2008/01/dayinte...
and https://allthatsinteresting.com/radiu....

Bolander reminds us to learn from history. Also she makes her elephants even wiser than they really are, giving them a resonant pourquoi story and some representation as sentient beings.

I'd say it's more poignant than wrenching. There's just enough remove to make it powerful, but not too hard for those of us who are more sensitive to read.

I'm late to this as always these past few months, but I just wanted to say that I did enjoy this novella.
I'd read of the Radium Girls before and I liked the way this story took up that history and, by making us look at it from different alternate historical perspectives as well as the perspective of the elephants, really drove home the injustice of it. And humans' unwillingness to learn from their past (and especially from past wrongs they committed.)
And I also liked how unflinchingly it portrayed anger at such injustices and the way in which people in more powerful positions (or removed in time) will find ways to dismiss this anger, make it seem "inexplicable", or just write it out of stories told about such incidents (I'm thinking especially about the Disney version of Topsy's story mentioned in the novella).

I'm currently considering reading Kate Moore's The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women to learn more than the few facts about these women that I remember.