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    Starlings
    Starlings
    Starlings
    Audiobook7 hours

    Starlings

    Written by Jo Walton

    Narrated by Rudy Sanda and C. S. E. Cooney

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    An ancient coin cyber-spies on lovers and thieves. The magic mirror sees all but can do nothing. A cloned savior solves a fanatically-inspired murder. Three Irish siblings thieve treasures with bad poetry and the aid of the Queen of Cats.

    With these captivating initial glimpses into her storytelling psyche, Jo Walton shines through subtle myths and reinvented realities. Through eclectic stories, subtle vignettes, inspired poetry, and more, Walton soars with humans, machines, and magic-rising from the every day into the universe itself.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 26, 2019
    ISBN9781977336965
    Author

    Jo Walton

    JO WALTON won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her novel Among Others and the Tiptree Award for her novel My Real Children. Before that, she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her novel Tooth and Claw won the World Fantasy Award. The novels of her Small Change sequence—Farthing, Ha'penny, and Half a Crown—have won acclaim ranging from national newspapers to the Romantic Times Critics' Choice Award. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.

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    Reviews for Starlings

    4/5

    47 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a collection of short pieces from Walton, but not, by her own admission, a short story collection. "For the longest time I didn't know how to write short stories... So here in one place for your reading convenience are two short stories I wrote after I knew what I was doing, two I wrote before I knew what I was doing, some exercises, some extended jokes, some first chapters of books I didn't write, some poems with the line breaks taken out, a play, and some poems with the line breaks left in." THIS IS AN ACCURATE DESCRIPTION. I kind of wish she had marked which was which though. Far too often, I was just getting into a story when it turned out it was just an exercise or just a first chapter. There's a lot of really nice writing here, both fantasy and science fiction. But assume that everything you start to read is a sketch for something, not the finished product. Recommended for fans of Walton with the above operating manual.
    • 5/5
      This is a collection of fantasy, science fiction, and poetry. There's a play. It's Jo Walton's first short fiction collection, and it's a delight.There's a generation starship story, with a generation in the middle of the voyage forming new ideas about what the plan should be when their descendants reach their destination. Will they really all want to be farmers and builders and the scientists needed for colonization on the world? What about the unique arts that have developed in space? Can they avoid forcing their own decisions on those descendants?An angel welcomes newcomers to Heaven, and explains why the angels meeting the newcomers are all of alien species--and the complexities of being an angel assigned to oversee an area on a planet that wasn't originally, your own.There's a dark, alternate history story, in an America where FDR was defeated for reelection by Lindbergh, an America that went to war against Britain, not Germany, an America where soup lines don't necessarily lead to soup.The play concerns a conflict among heroes out of Irish mythology, and an effort to resolve it by collecting treasures out of other mythologies, all over the world. It's a much lighter, happier, more positive story.These and other stories and poetry make for an excellent listening experience, and is excellently read by the two narrators.Recommended.I bought this audiobook.
    • 4/5
      So, not everything in this is a gem, but the pieces that are, are really outstanding. Walton knows how to build an interesting world, tell a compelling story, conceive and deliver a high concept. I continue to want to read everything she's written.
    • 4/5
      A collection of short stories and poems. In her introduction Walton notes that she took ages to work out how to write short stories, and so some of the short stories are actually “extended jokes, poems with the line breaks taken out, experiments with form or the first chapters of novels”. Maybe they are not all very good examples of short stories but I enjoyed reading them. They’re thought-provoking, inventive, sometimes strange and sometimes poignant.With novels I usually know something about the story before I started reading -- on the odd occasion when I pick up a book without reading a plot summary or review, I still have some idea about the genre and the characters from the cover. But knowing the sorts of things Walton writes about -- the gods, the Renaissance, Florence, space travel, memory, science-fiction what if...?s, dark alternate history, saving the world -- still leaves room for a lot of variety. I really enjoyed discovering what sort of story each one was.The first short story is “Three Twilight Tales”, which seemed appropriate as it was my introduction to Walton. It’s still my favourite. I was delighted by “Jane Austen to Cassandra”, “Relentlessly Mundane” and “What Joseph Felt”. And, although I’m not sure I liked them, per se, “Sleeper”, “Parable Lost”, “A Burden Shared” and “Three Shouts on a Hill (A Play)” were fascinating in their individual ways.My favourite of the poems were “Starlings”, “Dragon’s Song” and “The Godzilla Sonnets”. And the line about The net will bring us friendship, hope, and rage in “Ten Years Ahead: Oral Poem” -- such a perfect summary of the internet.A wilderness of wings, bright glints of fire,Dry wood burns fast, and long desire-- “Dragon’s Song”
    • 2/5
      Story, story fragment and poetry collection. I think Walton is correct that most of these aren’t really stories; they have elements of the fantastic but nothing really stood out for me. If you’re a Walton completist or you like sff poetry, then this might be for you.
    • 4/5
      [I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.]This is the first I’ve read by Jo Walton, although I had the pleasure to see her speak on a Tor panel at the ALA conference some time ago. She was entertaining and insightful, something I see reflected in this collection. It’s been a pleasure to finally get the chance to delve into one of her works. And what a work to begin with! It’s not in any fashion your typical collection of an author’s short stories, but it’s important to note that Walton is direct and upfront with the reader that that’s not what this is. What it is, is refreshingly honest and charmingly varied. There’s a little something here for everyone, which of course means there are also some pieces in the collection that will feel like more of a miss than a hit for some. This is ok. We’ve come to expect a certain pattern, polish and perfection from our reading materials, often without giving much thought to the growth and struggle that comes along with the process of producing those consummate works of wonder. Here we do not find a set of short stories neatly tied together by a particular rhyme or reason. Instead we’re greeted by a delectable, motley assortment of short fiction forms and themes. The true upshot to this chaos is that it’s never boring, it keeps you on your toes, keeps you wondering from one piece to the next what could possibly be coming next? Every story may not be your new favorite, but there are several new favorites I’ve found nestled not so neatly within this collection. There are enchanting tales of moonlight men and gray women who are more than they seem, a sentient search engine’s struggle with ethics, an unexpected correspondence between Jane Austen and the wrong Cassandra, a frank and meandering parable, a noir detective tale with a decidedly unique twist, a magnificent play (which was probably my favorite part of the whole book and something I would LOVE to see performed, it was hilarious) and even a bit poetry. There’s a great deal besides all of that. In a manner of speaking the contents of the collection perfectly mirror the titular birds; a bit funny looking with their short tail feathers, and intriguingly and unexpectedly colorful and vibrant. Also prone to flying off when startled. It’s great. If you’re willing to embrace some flighty tales and speculative poetry, it’s a fun read well worth your time.