Strange Horizons reviews "Wives"
Niall Harrison over at Strange Horizons reviews Some 2009 Short Fiction including "Wives".
"As perhaps is obvious, "Wives" is a very different kind of story to the others I’ve been discussing: a fantasy of irrationality, if you like, a tale of a world whose society sustains and perpetuates itself not in spite of its apparent illogic, but because of it. But it circles some of the same basic tensions: the line between human and inhuman, the competing gravities of emotion and reason... Like so much of the best SF...what "Wives" says is: pay attention to the world."
There's a couple of spoilers in the full review, so be warned for those who haven't yet had the pleasure...
"As perhaps is obvious, "Wives" is a very different kind of story to the others I’ve been discussing: a fantasy of irrationality, if you like, a tale of a world whose society sustains and perpetuates itself not in spite of its apparent illogic, but because of it. But it circles some of the same basic tensions: the line between human and inhuman, the competing gravities of emotion and reason... Like so much of the best SF...what "Wives" says is: pay attention to the world."
There's a couple of spoilers in the full review, so be warned for those who haven't yet had the pleasure...