We See a Different Frontier: A Postcolonial Speculative Fiction Anthology by Fábio Fernandes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Short Stories
This book is a collection of stories about colonialism and cultural imperialism from the point of view of the people being taken over. If history is written by the winners, this is the other side of the story.
I’m not a huge fan of short stories. I don’t seem to understand most of them. I always feel like I’m missing something. One of the stories in here that I was enjoying suddenly discusses that the one character’s name is a pun and that’s the huge AHA moment in the story. I don’t get it. It’s been days now and I have no idea what it is supposed to mean. That sort of takes away from the reading experience. They should have a footnote that says, “If you are a bit slow, here’s what we mean by this..”
My favorite stories in the book were:
Them Ships by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – This is a story about a person who is not at all upset that they’ve been taken over by aliens because it was better than how they lived previously.
Lotus by Joyce Chng – Global flooding has produced a world of boaters who live through bartering. But what happens when some boaters come across an unexpectedly rich source of food and water? Will it start conflict all over again?
Fleet by Sandra McDonald – Guam was been cut off for years when two Russian sailors are found.
Forest of the Night by Gabriel Murray – A tale of a tiger in rural England
I know what you mean – generally, I just let all the symbolism go completely over my head and hope that I’ll catch on some other time 😉
I’m sad you didn’t like this one more – the whole idea of post-colonial sci fi sounds amazing to me!
Short stories can be tough. I think you sort of have to train yourself to read differently. Because the story is so short, EVERYTHING means something!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one.