Strange Horizons reviews "Wives"

[paulhaines]

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

Comments

[anonymous]

Another good one, quite intelligent - I was interested in the one by Rich Horton that's linked to it too - I totally disagree with him that it's unconvincing - I enjoy all your writing, but it's the only story of yours that's really scared me: everyone goes on about the gore and brutality in your stories, but I've felt that's just the writer having a bit of fun, maybe a bit self-indulgent sometimes, and for that reason it's never really touched me. What got to me about this one is the realisation that with your unflinching eye, you've described exactly what I think society would become without the tempering effect of women. Maybe there are some guys in your imagined Shep who are sensitive, but what chance do they have of expressing that? Reminds me of Martin Amis writing about a Taliban controlled town in Afghanistan - he called it a place 'without a woman's touch' - made me shiver - bleak, violent, brutal.

[anonymous]

That was me, Adam B.