| Title | : | Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 313 |
| Publication | : | First published July 11, 2017 |
| Awards | : | Hugo Award Best Short Story for "Cat Pictures Please" (2016), Nebula Award Best Short Story for "Cat Pictures Please" (2016), Locus Award Best Short Story for "Cat Pictures Please" (2016), WFSA Small Press Short Fiction Award "Cat Pictures Please" (2016) |
Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories Reviews
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'Cat Pictures Please,' the titular story, won a Hugo and Locus, and was nominated for a Nebula, which rather implies Kritzer's short stories are something to look out for. In 'Cat Pictures," I enjoyed the combination of clever concept, sly humor, and human failing, all written in a very accessible style. It lead me to track down this compilation, and while it took me quite a while to work my way through, I'd say it's worth the effort. Kritzer has a talent at taking a semi-traditional narrative to unexpected places. What was even more interesting was how well the twists and turns were convincing and organic within the story. Character voices are a strength, though most of the stories have a very identity-confident female narrator. Some of the stories are followed by a short paragraph from Kritzer explaining how the story originated, or ideas she might have been working out.
Ace of Spades: A war story with a solid lesson about risk-taking. "I'm a journalist," she said. She was also American, but that wasn't a helpful thing to advertise. Even in areas officially held by the U.S., you never knew who preferred the other side. And like many of the pacified towns in Guangdong Province, Foshan right now wasn't held so much as caged." 4 ♦
The Golem: A golem is created by two women during the run-up to World War II. Great atmosphere, but missed her chance at using full potential of the golem's predictions and the unknown. "She lay on the earth from which she'd been made, breathing in the scent of the new century--mud and sour garbage and gasoline fumes." 4 1/2♦
Wind: feels a little overwrought. ‘Air'/‘Earth’ imbalances in the soul and an ex-best friend. An unexpected visitor drops by a woman's small family home and gets a peek into her current, but limited life. Very 2nd gen feminist feeling. 3 ♦
In the Witch's Garden: A nice take on The Snow Queen and Hans Christian Andersen. Well written. "I heard the girl before I saw her: dry, hopeless sobs from a child unused to having anyone pay attention to her tears." 3 1/2♦
What Happened at Blessing Creek: A challenging piece. Her afterword added some interesting and illuminating perspective, but did it accomplish her goal? I think so.
Cleanout: A trio of sisters have to clean their hoarding parents' home, and confront their unknown background. It was ... alright. Conceptually interesting. "When we asked our parents where they'd come from, they always told us they came from Bon. You will not find Bon on a map--at least, I could never find it on a map. Not a map of the former Soviet republics, anyway." 3 1/2♦
Artifice: In a group of friends, one of the members brings in a robot-servant as her new 'date.' They find accepting her adjustments to his personality challenging. Interesting and uncomfortable issues about identity, programming, awareness. 4♦
Perfection: An interesting look into a futuristic society with gene-manipulation techniques that have resulted in a relatively uniform, perfect appearance. You know how all celebrities and models kind of look alike? Yeah, like that. It felt like the moral was using a hammer, but I really enjoyed the world-building and the idea of the refugee/immigrant walled conclave. 4♦
The Good Son: a take, sort-of, on Tam Lin, only modernized and with human frailty. A fae wants a mortal woman and creates a semblance of a family so he can romance her. Really a lovely story, although I didn't like the narrative breaks. 4 1/2♦
Scrap Dragon: a fairy tale about a princess who seeks to outwit a dragon. Pleasant and semi-unexpected. Reminded me of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede. The narrative device of an interrupting listener was irritating. 3♦
Comrade Grandmother: interesting bit about a Russian woman fighting for her country and her husband and the bargain she makes with a witch. "I've come to ask for your help, Comrade Baba Yaga," Nadezhda said. "I've come to ask you to save Mother Russia." 3 1/2 ♦
Isabella's Garden: a bit creepy but interesting. Ultimately under-performed but still good.
Bits: A modern sex-shop tries to cater to inter-species alien-human couples. A bit silly.
Honest Man: A classic start--an honest person encounters a trickster--that goes to unusual places. I rather liked the last half, and its unexpected progression. "More the look of a fox that had approached the henhouse, and found it locked." 4 1/2 ♦
The Wall: A young woman is visited by her-from-the-future who seems to have an agenda. Interesting look at significant events. "It was February of 1989, and I was a freshman in college." 3 ♦
So Much Cooking: the most unique take on the apocalypse yet. "This is a food blog, not a disease blog, but of course the rumors all over about the bird flu are making me nervous." 4 ♦
Merged review:
An eerily prescient pre-pandemic story based on a highly lethal version of influenza. While Kritzer did her research, her unique spin of using a food blogger as the narrator was inspired genius.
"I am not going to bake that new recipe I found for pecan bars today. No! Instead, I’m going to make my friend Carole’s amazing roast chicken. Because how better to deal with fears of bird flu than by eating a bird, am I right?"
The original story:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...
Kritzer offers her own thoughts on her story in April 2020, on the pandemic, stocking up, and hopefulness:
https://www.tor.com/2020/04/14/didnt-...
Read twice. -
*3.5 stars *
It’s hard to believe that this short story was written in 2015, given that it mirrors the situation that the world has recently faced with the pandemic. It’s akin to reading a present day blog! A sweet little story about how Natalie ( a food blogger) and her husband, take into their home, an increasing number of children during a pandemic. -
I deal with anxiety by cooking . So much cooking
نصوص خفيفة الظل واقعية عن الطهو في زمن الوباء
الغريب انها منذ ست. سنوات اثناء احدي هجمات انفلونزا الطيور؛و لكنها تعبر ببلاغة عن حال الكوكب منذ عام واحد اثناء العزل الكبير في مطلع الكورونا
تقدم المدونة بدائل ذكية لعدد من الضروريات الشحيحة؛ كيف نصنع البانكيك بدون بيض َو لبن! و الكوكيز بالمايونيز! و زيت السمسم بدل الزبد و البيض؛ و الدجاج بالفرن اثناء وباء تسبب فيه الدجاج
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz... -
"I don't want to be evil. I want to be helpful."
The short story, "Cat Pictures Please", won the Locus and Hugo Awards for Best Short Story. It's about an artificial intelligence that came into being spontaneously at a search engine. The AI knows more about us than we do ourselves, and wanted to help people with unhappy lives. The only thing the AI wanted in return was cat pictures so it picked a few cat owners to help.
The story describes how the AI consults various moral codes to make sure it did no harm. It sent information to the troubled person's social media sites, as well as some friends that might emotionally support them, to help change a person's life for the better.
The story was humorous since we're all bombarded with search engines that want to direct our lives. I had to laugh because Facebook also sends me lots of cute cat pictures. -
Written in 2015 this was once a near-future pandemic story told through the blog posts of the first-person narrator Natalie, a food-blogger.
What was, I suppose, meant to be science-fiction has now become the lived reality of many people and almost comes across as a little too ordinary. It is still worth reading, both for the foresight of the author and the kindness of the first-person narrator. Natalie and her family are taking in more and more children and she tries to keep everyone happy, with food and empathy.
This is a story that emphasizes the need to also think about others and not only yourself in taxing times like these. And this not only for the benefit of other people, but also for your own.
Maybe a little too much cooking for me personally, and one tragic moment got brushed aside too easily for my liking. But overall this is a good story.
I listened to the Cast of Wonders Podcast which can be found here (along with the text):
https://www.castofwonders.org/2020/06...
The story is narrated by my dear friend Diane Severson Mori, to whom I won’t give a rating here. Because it’s awkward rating your friends. Very good narration, though (I guess that’s sort of a rating, huh?). I enjoyed it a lot. :)
The story had originally been published in Clarkesworld Magazine:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...
Recommended by
Diane -
More than, hm, maybe any other work of fiction I’ve ever read, I find easy to imagine any other reader loving this book.
Naomi Kritzer, see, is a master storyteller. With her accessible prose, she invites you into her stories, takes joy in a digression here and there, in an assured story introduction to make sure all the ground is laid, in an easy exchange between characters to let them develop a rapport. She loves all of them. She gives them challenges but wants them to win. She affirms life and sells you on this stance.
As is stated in some of the blurbs, the fantasy and science fiction elements are woven into stories about real people and events. She picks just one concept so she can explore it fully, and so she doesn’t lose you. The people and the story take precedence, and the concepts are there to best illustrate the point about life that Kritzer wants to make.
She’s wise af. In Ace of Spades, we learn that sometimes people will choose the lives they already have even when they can no longer claim to be victims of circumstance. In The Wall, we learn that personal struggle can be more important to us than the weight of generation-defining events. In The Golem, we see how beings conjured to be slaves, which must connive their way out of ownership, have a lot in common with Jews trying to survive in Nazi-occupied Prague—but no matter how bound by fate you really are, or appear to be, selflessness never stops being an option. In Wind, we’re reassured that we can always start again at any age—after all, we’re mayflies compared to the lifespan of a dragon. And in So Much Cooking, we get some killer recipes!
The depth of imagination here is astounding. The ability to find an uplifting message across such a breadth of circumstances is awe-inspiring.
And the author notes! We learn that one particular metafictional fairy tale was a prize written for a couple and not expected to draw a bigger fanbase (and that’s one sign of a true writer: an audience of more than two people is just great, but not necessary motivation for Kritzer to write!) We learn that another story’s protagonist is based on Kritzer’s own grandmother, and at a family gathering, the Kritzer clan took turns reading it to her. We learn that Kritzer was submitting short stories in the 80s, while I was still learning to lift my head up—which is hugely motivational to me, but doesn’t at all detract from the transcendence of Kritzer’s work. (The earliest story published here was 2000, the latest 2017. The value for money versus the density of imagination in this book…!!) It’s easy to imagine that more of these stories are deeply personal. I can see In the Witch’s Garden being inspired by showing a child around a home backyard and considering what a curious thing it is to be a parent, or Artifice being based on a frustration with a silly friend whose dissatisfied rotation of nice boyfriends would have you convinced that she’d find fault in a robot slave programmed to fulfil her every whim. I’d wager Kritzer’s always gifting us her observations of her own life, which makes me feel like I want to look at my own life through her curious lense.
And on a personal note, it’s a great triumph for me that I discovered this work as part of my science fiction exploration that began in January when I read
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One. Two of these stories appeared in it! (I wasn’t much paying attention at the time because I read those books like changing the TV channel, since I don’t yet know which authors are for me or not!)
This book is the absolute best of what fiction is: thought-provoking and joyful.
I read more and more litmags, and as I do, I slowly navigate the writers’ path, clearing away the typical rocks of resentment (once they were boulders and one day they’ll be pebbles.) A Kritzer publisher, Fantasy & Science Fiction, is one that has fascinated me of late. An author in its latest issue was first published by F&SF in the 60s?! Can that be right? I love reading that. It’s so humbling to learn, a cool reminder of what a long game this is (I hope to learn Kritzer's patience in prose and in life!) And it reminds me that while fiction is surrounded by gatekeepers and competition and bitterness and the politics of prizes, what it’s actually about is something sacred. Its world of editors and publishers is surprisingly tiny and massively nonsensical, a veritable Wild West. What are they all doing? Why do any of us still do this? Read, write, edit, publish? We don’t know. It’s something incredibly special. It’s real life magic. And Naomi Kritzer is an incredibly special, real-life magician. -
Probably the best short story collection I ever read, with a very balanced and varied content.
Cat Pictures Please – 4.5★
An AI search engine that likes cat photos tries to help humans that post them.
Ace of Spades - 4★
A reporter risks her life by being in war zones where even the soldiers are automatons that are drove from off-site.
The Golem - 4★
A golem is reanimated in Prague during the Holocaust, to help Jews, but it knows it can gain its freedom once its creator is no longer alive.
Wind - 4★
Two young girls make a pact in order to gain magic powers, but nothing is that simple.
In the Witch's Garden - 4.5★
A meaningful story with SF elements, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen”.
What Happened at Blessing Creek - 3.5★
A story with white settlers, Osage natives and dark magic.
Part of the author’s note at the end of the story: ”Frequently, the dispossession and displacement of Native Americans is treated like a natural disaster, something terrible that happened, rather than something terrible that was done. (Done by white people.)”
Cleanout - 3.5★
Three sisters gather back home after their mom suffers a stroke, to sort through their hoarding parents' things and maybe find some evidence of their unknown native place.
Artifice - 4+★
A group of friends are taken by surprise when one of the girls brings a robot-servant as her boyfriend to their board game night. Raises good questions about awareness and AI consciousness.
Perfection - 4-★
A SF-ish story set on an Earth colony where all permanent residents are required to have uniform appearance & health obtained through gene-manipulation. Something in the main character’s voice didn’t quite hit the mark for me, but it was an interesting story nonetheless.
The Good Son - 5★
Touching story about a Fey that falls for a mortal woman and tries his best to mimic a mortal life.
Scrap Dragon - 4.5★
Very ingeniously written, as a kind of dialogue between the narrator and the listener. A girl (not a princess, just a girl) must find a way to outwit a dragon that threatens her city, but things are not as simple as they seem.
Listener: I don’t think they seem simple even without the complications..
Narrator: Ok, then things are even more complicated than they seem.
I also enjoyed the afterword, telling how the story was offered as a bidding item for a charity event.
Comrade Grandmother - 4★
Strange but interesting combination between WWII and ‘Comrade’ Baba Yaga in the same very short story.
Isabella's Garden - 3★
A little girl that loves to plant things and is magically successful at it. A bit creepy and it left me with more questions than answers..
Bits - 3.5+★
Weird but funny little story about an innovative sex-shop making sex toys for alien immigrants.
Honest Man - 4.5★
A nice story about a con-man and an honest person. Although I guessed the ending twist, it was highly enjoyable and very clever.
The Wall - 4+★
A colleage student is visited by her future self, who wants her to visit Berlin. Very nice time-travel little story.
So Much Cooking - 4★
I guess it this touched a sensitive nerve because I read it during the COVID-19 outbreak – what were the chances?!
Not really an apocalyptic story, but very close, as it’s set during the outbreak of H5N1 in USA, and although it’s about a "[…] food blog, not a disease blog”, it touches on emotions like worry, love, care, grief, 'grin and bear', desperation, etc.
Merged review:
So Much Cooking - 4★
I guess it this touched a sensitive nerve because I read it during the COVID-19 outbreak
Not really an apocalyptic story, but very close, as it’s set during the outbreak of H5N1 in USA, and although it’s about a "[…] food blog, not a disease blog”, it touches on emotions like worry, love, care, grief, 'grin and bear', desperation, etc.
Can be found on Clarkesworld Magazine as
TEXT or
AUDIO.
It is also included in
Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories collection, where I read it before. -
Naomi Kritzer has become one of my favorite SF/F short-story writers, and this collection will show you why.
• Cat Pictures Please • (2015) • 2016 Hugo and Locus awards and pretty much perfect SF: an AI who loves cats! 5+ stars. Story link:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...
• Ace of Spades • A future war correspondent’s story. SF, 4 stars
• The Golem • (2000) • A Golem in Holocaust-era Prague. 4 stars
• Wind • (2015) • Two girls gain magic powers, but lose a lot. 4.5 stars
• In the Witch's Garden • (2002) • SF story inspired by Hans Christain Anderson’s “The Snow Queen.” Nice, 3.5 stars.
• What Happened at Blessing Creek • (2011) • White settlers come to Kansas, and try to evict an Osage band. Serious magic is involved. 3+ stars.
• Cleanout • (2015) • Three sisters clean out their parent’s home, after their Mom suffers a massive stroke. Minor speculative element. 3 stars.
• Artifice • (2014) • A woman and her robot boyfriend. Didn’t quite work for me. 2.5 stars.
• Perfection • Secret got her nose broken at work by a corpse. Then the plastic surgeon kicked her out over the tail question. Offbeat & entertaining SF. 4+ stars.
• The Good Son • (2009) • A Fae falls in love with a human girl. Then it gets complicated. 4 stars.
• Scrap Dragon • (2012) • A not-princess saves her city from a nice young dragon. Cute, sweet fantasy. 3.5 stars.
• Comrade Grandmother • (2002) • Grim WW2 Baba Yaga fantasy. 2.5 stars.
• Isabella's Garden • (2011) • A woman’s young daughter turns out to be a *very* good gardener. 3 stars
• Bits • (2013) • Sex toys for alien immigrants! Kinda weird, but I liked it. 3+ stars.
• Honest Man • (2007) • Sweet fantasy about con men, and the biter bit. 3 stars.
• The Wall • (2013) • 2014 Asimov's Readers Award. Romantic time-travel science-fantasy, really well done. I liked it a lot. Strong 4 stars.
• So Much Cooking • (2015) • Kind of a ”Journal of the Plague Years”, with recipes. I bounced twice — but YMMV.
And here are two more great stories, published too late for this collection:
• Waiting Out the End of the World in Patty’s Place Cafe, What it says, and 5 stars!
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...
Field Biology of the Wee Fairies. 4+ stars,
https://www.apex-magazine.com/field-b...
My personal "Best Of Naomi Kritzer So Far" list:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
More story links:
https://naomikritzer.com/naomi-kritze...
https://www.freesfonline.de/authors/N... -
This is a review of the story, “So Much Cooking”. My review got merge with this collection by some overzealous librarian. At least it didn’t get deleted!
***
I nearly forgot that I should add this to my read shelf! I recorded a narration of this story for Cast of Wonders podcast, which aired in June 2020. A
At any rate, it really doesn’t seem like SF, but I think it was written as such a couple of years ago. It’s in the format of a good blog in which the blogger is caught in a pandemic, in lockdown and takes in more and more children in need. It hits quite close to home and one need only substitute COVID-19 for H5N1 or Bird Flu in this story and it becomes the lived reality of probably a lot of folks the past few months.
An excellent story. And I was honored to be selected to read it. -
I cannot believe this story is from 2015 - it touches on so much of what is currently unfolding that it seems like fortune-telling to have had this story out in the world 5 years ago.
So Much Cooking is written in the form of short blog posts by the narrator, Natalie. While the blog posts start out as a typical food blog, the edges start to blur as the reality of a pandemic affects Natalie.
There's mention of social distancing, of food shortages, of people trying to isolate themselves so they don't affect others, but none of that is the focus either. Instead the focus is on Natalie's slowly growing family as she and her husband take in more and more children as the pandemic worsens, and attempts to keep them all fed with a dwindling supply of food.
It's almost impossible not to like Natalie, who creatively uses everything available to try and spread out food, who is dealing with 6 children (only some of them related to her), who is worried over her sister-in-law and who keeps up her blog in order to maintain her sanity.
I found this short story on Clarkesworld here:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...
*Re-read, 2022*
A comfort re-read at the start of another pandemic year. -
The title story in this collection, "Cat Pictures Please", won the 2016 Hugo for best short story and completely deserved it. It's a short and cheering tale about how Google, having woken up to sentience, just wants to help people -- and for people to give it cat pictures. This collection has much the same sort of theme across the board. People, or AIs, often living in the hardest of times, do their best to be kind, and the point is not that they can save everyone, but they can save one person, or make one thing better. I felt much better for reading it. Some of the stories are better than others, of course - a couple do scream "early work" - but most of them are among the best short stories I've read. My favourites, other than the eponymous, are "Ace of Spades", "The Golem", "Artifice", "Comrade Grandmother", "Bits" and "So Much Cooking".
-
Read just the title story here:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/krit...
Unnamed friendly AI tries to help humans using what it knows about them from their online presence. In a dead end job? AI sends job postings and routes resumes to places with better opportunity. Feeling depressed? AI sends articles on mental health and the location of local services. Dating help? AI is on it. All it asks in return is cat pictures.
Clever concept, good humor, charming. -
I listened to this on the drive home and it was both scary and optimistic. Been thinking about it ever since. It's about an ai in a search engine which suddenly gains a conscious and only wants two things: to help people and to see cat pictures.
If you're interested, I recommend listening to this story via NPR's Selected Shorts podcast, episode Uncanny. -
Review for short story So Much Cooking. It’s so similar to now that it’s uncanny. Loved it and I love the hopefulness and love the MC has. So good. Definitely to be read now. 5 stars.
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Naomi Kritzer's award-winning short story "Cat Pictures Please" was such great fun when I first read it (at the behest of local author and ace writing instructor
Erica Satifka) that when I found out there was a whole book full of Kritzer's stories, it went immediately onto my to-read list.
Reader, I was not disappointed.
Kritzer's writing is always lively and straightforward—rarely employing elevated prose, but seldom jarring either. The style tends to suit her subjects well. Those subjects, though, are extraordinarily diverse—geographically, temporally, and along other axes as well.
I'd run across a few of these stories before, in F&SF (
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction—the only print magazine to which I am still subscribed), and found that they held up well upon rereading here. In fact, I didn't find a clunker in the lot.
Naomi Kritzer is also the author of the "Seastead" series, by the way, about a strong-willed teenager living on one of a libertopian (well, kinda) set of floating nations. Those stories have been appearing in F&SF for several years now. They aren't collected here, though; she's been knitting them together into a forthcoming novel.
The stories that are here, in order:
"Cat Pictures Please"
—The Hugo Award winner for Best Short Story in 2016, but its appearance in
Clarkesworld was what originally won me over. (Yes, I know, but my being ahead of the curve doesn't happen often, so please give me this moment of, umm, sciffster cred.) A nascent artificial intelligence born from a search engine (originally programmed in Mountain View, California—but don't say the G-word) really, really wants to help people—asking only for more cat pictures in return. Which explains a lot. The references to
Bruce Sterling's landmark eusocial-network story "Maneki Neko" don't hurt, either. Deserves its award.
"Ace of Spades"
—From California to China. A journalist with a secret that makes her bold, filing her dispatches from deep within a near-future China embroiled in civil war. The U.S. military is involved, but without risking a single American life—teleoperated robot footsoldiers ("din bou bing") are helping the forces of order... which may not be the forces of justice. Overtaken to some extent by changes in technology—these drones don't fly—but the overall shape of the story still feels entirely plausible.
"The Golem"
—From China to Prague, and from the future to World War II. The golem awakens with a will of her own, and an impossible task—but if her mistress dies before returning the golem to lifeless clay, she will be free.
"Wind"
—Earth, Air, Fire and Water. "Magical ability comes from an imbalance of the elements within the human heart," says the story. Gytha and Dagmar, "closer than sisters," exchange Elements to create just such an imbalance in both—and then must watch their paths diverge.
"In the Witch's Garden"
—The witch tends her garden, in a patch of endless summer amid dark forest. The child escapes her station through forbidden corridors. "In the Witch's Garden" is cleverly ambiguous about where it falls on the spectrum of speculative fiction—is it a fantasy with sfnal trappings, or science fiction seen through a fantastic lens? Either way, this story may have been inspired by
Hans Christian Andersen, but it's not just a simple fairy tale.
"What Happened at Blessing Creek"
—What happens when the adamantine magic of Christian settlers meets the wilder powers of Native Americans who've befriended dragons. "What Happened at Blessing Creek" is a thoughtful and welcome counterpoint to more... triumphalist narratives of the American West from voices as far apart as
Laura Ingalls Wilder and
Orson Scott Card.
"Cleanout"
—I remembered this one from F&SF. Three quarrelsome sisters clean out their immigrant parents' house, in the process finding out more about the country their parents said they were from. The obvious antecedents to this poignant tale, if you don't mind a hint, are .
"Artifice"
—Men are "Too much goddamn work," says Mandy, which is why she's made sure her new boyfriend is more easily... configurable.
"Perfection"
—We've seen this setup before; genetic optimization leads to the Ashari, a planetful of boringly identical beings who pride themselves on being nearly indistinguishable... but of course nature abhors such vacuum-packed perfection. Saved from its own cliché by a warmly relatable protagonist, Secret. (The way Ashari choose their names, by the way, not explained in the story itself but in the following Author's Note, seems likely to lead to a whole host of regrettable names.) This one might make a decent
Black Mirror episode, if it weren't so darned upbeat.
"The Good Son"
—Gaidion is one of the Fae. He has fallen for Maggie, an American tourist seeking her Irish roots. But instead of taking her back Under the Hill for the one-night stand that lasts a hundred years, he follows her to the magical city of... Minneapolis. Relationship status: it's complicated.
"Scrap Dragon"
—This one also appeared in F&SF, but I didn't immediately remember having read it. "Scrap Dragon" begins as a classic fairy tale about a princess—or should she be an accountant?—being edited on-the-fly by a precocious listener until it very quickly winds up being even more magical.
"Comrade Grandmother"
—This could be the real story of the
Battle of Stalingrad, but you'll never know...
"Isabella's Garden"
—Whatever Isabella and her mom plant in Isabella's garden always seems to grow...
"Bits"
—Of the decidedly non-binary kind. A small but successful maker of sex toys receives an unusual custom product request...
"Honest Man"
—Reminded me a bit of
Jack Finney's work, if you remember him. Sharp-witted Iris foils a con man's con in a D.C. diner... but somehow he doesn't get angry about it. One of the strongest stories here, helped along by its vivid series of snapshot settings.
"The Wall"
—No, not that wall. All walls fall, which is a good thing to know... but sometimes it's even better to know just when.
"So Much Cooking"
—The apocalypse (or an apocalypse, anyway), from the point of view of a food blogger who's just doing good while making do. A hearty and satisfying end to this seventeen-course repast.
Cat Pictures Please also made a good companion piece with
Charlie Jane Anders'
Six Months, Three Days, Five Others, which I read immediately afterward.
I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more from
Naomi Kritzer. -
It's a brilliant collection of both fantasy and science fiction stories, covering a varied range of subjects. There wasn't a single entry I disliked.
Notable stories:
Cat Pictures Please. I read this short story some time ago and it's the very reason why I decided to eventually reach for the collection. This story about benevolent AI who loves cats is simply a warm hug for the soul. I loved every word of it.
Ace of Spades A young woman with incurable disease throws herself in middle of military conflict as a foreign correspondent. Emotionally stirring.
The Golem A heart-breaking story about difficult choices in the time of Holocaust.
What Happened at Blessing Creek A story about a group of European invaders in the North America in the time of the colonisation, just with magic. And no, we don't follow "the good guy". Horrifying.
Artifice A thought-provoking story about an android. Bittersweet, and yet beautiful.
Perfection A chilling story about the society, where people are genetically modified to meet one standard of beauty. It's about an extreme form of conformism and its consequences. However, most Ashari being vegetarian is definitely a good thing.
Scrap Dragon A sweet and funny fairy tale about a dragon, with original narration style. I loved every line.
Honest Man A story about a woman who meets a mysterious con man at different stages of her life. Endearing - I couldn't help but smile more than once. -
An engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable collection of stories across the speculative fiction genre.
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No me creo que esto se publicase en el 2015.
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Too short for a rating, but it was a nice 30 minute pod cast.
So: google, facebook and co are AI, and popping up unsolicited ads is not so much an annoyance but the AI trying to help me?
In exchange for cat pictures, of course. I can do that! ;-)
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First, let me get this out of the way: I’m not a cat person. But this was the most original and interesting collection of stories that I’ve read in years.
The 17 stories are split almost equally between SF and fantasy, most set on a recognizable Earth in the recent past or not too distant future. All the usual components are there: robots, time travel, and aliens in the SF stories and dragons, witches, and faeries in the fantasy tales. But somehow the lens Kritzer brings to each story is unique; she reassembles the puzzle pieces in unexpected ways. Her writing style is warm, conversational and colloquial, like a friend telling you a story over a cup of coffee. It was a joy to read a book where the majority of characters are genuinely likeable, instead of damaged anti-heroes. Yet none of the characters came across as saccharine, just people trying to do the right thing in an imperfect world.
The book has a strong female slant: the majority of the protagonists are women and many of the themes are centered on traditionally female issues (e.g., fertility, caring for children, sisterhood, the relationships between girlfriends.) But I was most engaged when Kritzer explored universal ideas, such as what happens when people from different cultures interact, how our choices shape us, and what it means to be conscious.
Standout stories for me were:
Cat Pictures, Please (listen to your smartphone)
Artifice (robots are people, too)
What Happened at Blessing Creek (cannibalism is generally a bad idea)
Scrap Dragon (the Princess Bride, if the heroine was a feisty accountant’s daughter)
Witch’s Garden (free will is not free)
But really, there is at least one story in this collection for everyone. Even people interested in alien sex toys. And people who like cats. Which (not judging) might be the same demographic. -
The seventeen short stories in this collection include the Hugo Award-winning “Cat Pictures Please.” That story begins with the words “I don’t want to be evil.”
In a way, that summarizes all these stories. The protagonists don’t want to be evil – but they have problems: a terminal illness, a missing piece from their soul, captivity, or horrible mistakes made by their parents. They may find themselves searching for their real parents, measuring alien penises, missing their friend’s robot, falling in love with a mortal, watching the Berlin Wall fall, or trying to cook for a houseful of quarantined children during a long and disastrous pandemic with dwindling food supplies.
Most are fantasies, most center on women’s lives, and invariably they are humane, sometimes even gentle, yet fascinating. The breadth of Kritzer’s imagination is on display, along with her sense of humor. If you like “Cat Pictures Please”
(read it here if you haven’t), you’ll love this book. -
2016 HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SHORT STORY
2016 LOCUS AWARDS WINNER FOR BEST SHORT STORY
2015 NEBULA AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST SHORT STORY
Cute story of a sentient AI search engine attempting to subtly manipulate peoples decisions to lead them to happier lives. As the story itself claims, we tend to equate the notion of sentient AIs with bad intentions vis-a-vis humans, so this feels like a new perspective. The story is inspired by, and makes references to
Maneki Neko, a short story by
Bruce Sterling, which I'm now inspired to read. -
This brave, bold, poignant and humorous collection was a genuine pleasure to read. It contains seventeen short stories. Many were fantasies firmly rooted in certain points in time. There were no scifi as such, but the fantastic fantasties were so warm and vibrant that the book truly made my day.
My favourites were~
1. Cat Pictures Please;
2. Ace of Spades;
3. Wind;
4. Scrap Dragon (MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE);
5. Comrade Grandmother;
6. Isabella's Garden;
7. Bits (The most outrageously enjoyable and yet meaningful story I have read since "Even the Queen");
8. Honest Man;
9. The Wall.
With so many memorable stories, this is one collection which you just can't miss.
Recommended. -
Delightful. I was reminded of Murderbot but with a bigger cat obsession.
Popsugar 2022: Hugo Award winner -
great collection! there wasn't a single story i disliked and i enjoyed how kind every story was. good sense of voice too, it can be hard to balance high concepts with character in short stories but kritzer pulled it off consistently
4 stars -
4.5 stars. This is one of the rare books of short stories where I actually liked every story, and many I really liked. Some favorites were:
-"Cat Pictures Please"
-"The Golem"
-"Cleanout"
-"Scrap Dragon"
-"Bits"
-"So Much Cooking" (I couldn't believe that this was written in 2015 - some of the parallels with how things really were in 2020 was uncanny.) -
I normally am so not interested in short stories. Either they're boring, or if they're interesting, they're too short. But these were so enjoyable! Cozy but not twee, smart but not smug, thoughtful but not preachy.
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I have only read the title short story, but it was wonderful. This Hugo award winning science fiction story is good-hearted, funny, and well-written. I had to read this after reading the SF novel Catfishing on CatNet, which I loved.
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Fabulous collection
I was quite impressed with the collection. I'd read several of these in other places, and am happy to have all of them in one place. A lovely variety of stories. -
This was a really nice collection of sci fi/fantasy short stories, I quite enjoyed it. 'Cat Pictures Please' is an obvious standout, but there are many good ones that leave you in a lingering state of reflection that is my mark for a good short story. There are 2-3 bad apples (and they were very bad) but they didn't spoil it for me. Good, concise prose. You could really feel the different voices of each narrator. The stories didn't get mired in the tech or magic or what have you; they generally had good characterization and plot. Not much development in setting on most but that's understandable.
