Welcome to Litsy!

I listened to these three short stories on Audible last week. (Each about an hour long, all free with Prime)

They are from two different Audible collections- the top one from the Vegas/ Gambling series and the bottom two from the Black Stars sci-fi series. I enjoyed all of them, but the Jemisin was my favorite.

If you‘re looking for little palette cleanser stories between big books, these are great. Dark but I love that.

Weird little short story about a space traveler returning to a destroyed earth to collect HeLa cells for the new colony, but what he finds on earth is unexpected.

Told from the point of view of the AI instructing him, I found this kinda hard to get into and the racism, sexism and ageism hard to read. I know it‘s supposed to be hard but it just felt so blatant.

Normally I love stuff like this and I love NK Jemisin so not sure why the disconnect

Fast read with great narration ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Blake Crouch put "Forward" together and asked Amor Towles & N. K. Jemisin to write two of the stories?!? What a lineup. I really enjoyed this one.

Catching up on 2023 reviews!

Strangely fascinating. What sci-fi should be. This story of an “evolved” being returning to a planet that still wears human skin after being told it was a wrecked zone is so intriguing. It‘s a novella and I would love to learn more!

My first 5⭐️ of 2022! I thought this novella was absurd, smart, and hilarious. Reminiscent of Percival Everett. Of course a work like this circa 2019 would make a bunch of GR people mad, given the state of American divisiveness and politics. But at its core this work was allegory fueled by hyperbole and I thought it was brilliant. The #audio is hysterical. “To save the world, people had to think differently.”

I am an N.K. Jemisin fan so I was already planning to read this speculative sci-fi novella when I found out there was an audio book read by Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy 😋). What a great choice for the narrator. Think I will check out more of the Forward collection 😊 🌟🌟🌟🌟

The tagged book (novelette?) is excellent. All her books are.

Final numbers for #20in4 #readathon! Pretty close.

Just found out I am not working this coming weekend 😩. I may hold my own readathon.

This was an awesome Audiobook Novella! #atoz #AtoZ2021 #E

I've never hugely been a big fan of short stories& so I wasn't overly impressed with this. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable read

What would the earth look like many years after humans have ruined the earth. I think this is supposed to be thought provoking & encourage reader to self reflect on how we're living today & the implications of lifestyle & in the name of progress, beauty & convenience

This was also an #authoramonth book @soubhiville

I don‘t want to give too much away about this thought-provoking sci-fi short story about race, eugenics, climate change, and greed. It just unfolded beautifully. I can see why Jemisin is so popular!

Free with Amazon prime, and the #audiobook is amazing! I‘ve really enjoyed these anthologies Amazon has been publishing.

#authoramonth #scifibyawoman #booked2021

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet‘s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. “Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.” But what the explorer finds is the last thing he/she expected...Amusing and wry
#authoramonth2021 @Soubhiville

Thanks for putting this #FreeNovella on my radar @Andrew65 Since I bailed on my first NKJ for #AuthorAMonth I wanted to try another. This one was better, but it just didn‘t leave a real impression on me. I thought the message was a little oversimplified but the concept was cool. An AI visits earth expecting to find it destroyed from climate change & greed and instead the AI finds a still thriving planet. A quick read with a moral message.

Read this short for January's #authoramonth by N.K. Jemisin, A new author to me and she blew me away in just a few short pages! Definitely planning on starting another one by her soon as well as continuing Amazon's Forward series, which are on kindle unlimited.
@soubhiville

My first book by N K Jemisin, the #AuthoraMonth for January. A short story (science fiction) but when don‘t usually enjoy short stories I did love this one, which was very cleverly written. One of a series of six including books by Andy Weir and Amor Towles. These are free as both e-books and audiobooks if you are a member of Kindle Unlimited.

I am so glad that I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks last year as so much would have gone over my head without that knowledge. If you don't know anything about Henrietta Lacks its worth researching before reading this as the HeLa cells and their controversy are the baseline throughout.

Jemisin is known for deep underlying themes and even in these 33 pages there's so many layers to this.

A solid read.

I‘m a huge Jemisin fan, but I thought this was just okay. It was a little to short for her to really show off, but it was creative and enjoyable.

I might get a couple more books in, but I just couldn‘t wait to post the #Goodreads EOY wrap up!

https://amzn.to/2HaSZMD
#CommissionsEarned
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

2020 Audie Award Winner for Best Science Fiction

Audible narration by Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery)

#audible #audiblebooks #books
#usa #anthologies #bookbuyers

Awesome short story from N.K. Jemisin. And timely for the state of our current world.

#sciencefiction #scifi

By far the best of this collection. Looking forward to reading her books now.

🤩🤩🤩🤩

6 books total this week
4 audiobooks
3 #MtTBR books
#bookreport #weeklysummary

N. K. Jemisin never disappoints! A fascinating social justice/sci-fi short story.

clever. some parts had me grinning and chuckling. others made me “shake my head“. overall, a good sample of what makes n.k. jemisin so popular.

completed this book with kindle immersion reading and thoroughly enjoyed the narrator. he was a good fit.

4 🌟 for the story, 5 🌟 for narration!

The Forward Collection

-Ark 1⭐️
-Summer Frost 4⭐️
-Emergency Skin 4.5⭐️
-You Have Arrived at Your Destination 4⭐️
-The Last Conversation 2.5⭐️
-Randomize 2⭐️

I loved the politics of this one. My biggest issue is with form/style. While I appreciated Jemisin's experiment with structure & narrative voice, it didn't quite come together for me. It was unstructured & messy. Also, it's true that it came off didactic & cliched, probably because the ideas Jemisin is working with are hard to convey effectively in a short form. An interesting attempt & concept, but reads like a rushed draft of a manifesto.

This was one of my other favorites from the set. So glad someone posted about them on here!!!

A little too didactic for my taste. I agree with everything Jemisin is saying with this story, but I prefer her subtler modes. Still, it's well done for a story with a clear moral.

I love Jemisin's writing and when found this short story in the Forward series free with Prime Reading I couldn't resist. Awesome as all she writes!

A short story by Jemisin as part of Amazon‘s new collection, which I could read for free with Amazon Prime! Sign me up! I love Jemisin‘s work and this story did not disappoint. In a future where some with means have fled Earth before its ecological downfall, one group sends an emissary back to collect some cells it desperately needs, only to find an earth shockingly changed and not in the way they expected.

Part of Amazon's Forward collection, an assortment of popular writers focusing on the possibilities of the future. In this story, an explorer has a mission to obtain materials from a climate-ravaged Earth only to discover Earth is not the place he imagined. Full of ideas about the culture we live in and critical examination of what we value, this novella is highly recommended.

5th FORWARD novella read. So-so for me and probably my least favorite. But overall, the series is good.

3.5 STARS | GRADE B-
A thought-provoking short story about the what if's...the possibilities and whats going to happen if the world keeps thinking and doing what they are...I wanted more, though because overall, with how short it is, it only confused me.

Most scifi set in the future has a distinctively dystopian view.

This novella/short story is refreshingly optimistic with humor and a little commentary on our present day. It reminded me of a classic Ray Bradbury story or Twilight Zone episode. Loved it!

I was really impressed by this short story. Will be looking for more by this author.

What would happen if the 1% flew off into space to form their own racist, homophobic, misogynistic, ayn randian utopia? What would happen to the rest of us, without them? 😁

I loved the message (and the narrator chosen for pov) but it was so unsubtle I grew annoyed. Perhaps the author was going for obvious so her points weren't missed but it took away from the story for this reader.

So one day Blake Crouch was pondering the impact certain technologies can have on our future, for better or for worse, and decided to write a short story on it. And then get 5 authors he greatly admires to do the same. Here are 4 of them. I‘ve listened to 3 and am in the process of listening to Tremblay‘s. Jemisin is an easy 5⭐️, Weir gets 4⭐️, and Towles got 3.5⭐️ from me. But I *highly* recommend the series. 1-2 hrs on audio each. Do it.

"What if people decided to just care about each other?"
No lines of economic, racial, sexual difference. We would all be equal. How would it effect the wealthy? They cant cope and have left earth, which motivates the rest of the world to build a more reasonable and equal life for everyone. But does it really matter?? Its all about the skin your in. And if you can trade skins......you could hide anything.
#teamslaughter #scarathon @Clwojick

Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin & it was outstanding! I absolutely loved the super unique point of view this story was told in! I‘ve never read anything quite like it! The story is communicated through an artificial intelligence chip INSIDE the protagonist‘s own head. It‘s a very odd, witty, & ironic story and it will now be one of my most often recommended reads forsure PleaseReadThis! It won‘t take you more than an hour or two so what‘s to lose?

🎧 book 3 of 6 ... this one‘s a little tougher. I was a bit distracted as it started but who doesn‘t love Jason Isaacs of Harry Potter & Star Trek Discovery fame?!! Halfway through (it‘s another short story) I was hooked! It‘s a little preachy at times but what a great ending! Two thumbs up! Good narration too! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️
Not that many people have even read this yet, but I already feel like this is going to be an #unpopularopinion. 😅🙃
The idea was interesting, but the story felt way too heavy-handed/preachy for me. I didn‘t care for the way the 2nd person pov was done either.

#catsoflitsy #Phoenix

Today‘s #naptimeread was a WINNER. One of six novellas in this Blake Crouch curated collection, I had no choice but to read Nora‘s first & she did not disappoint.

In an effort to avoid spoilers, I will only mention that some might find the work a bit too on the nose/heavy handed. I am not one of those people.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#speculativefiction #shortfiction