Reseña: El festín de Babette

El festín de Babette 

by 

Isak Dinesen

79 pages

(first published 1958)

Original Title: Babettes gæstebud

ISBN: 8493557897 (ISBN13: 9788493557898)

Edition LanguageSpanish

setting: Berlevåg (Norway)

My rating: 3.5 stars

Relato corto situado en el norte de Noruega. Una comunidad luterana y dos hermanas solteronas en un mundo sencillo , preocupadas de continuar el legado de su padre, el pastor, sin dejar entrever si a veces recuerdan algo más de lo que pudo ser en su juventud. Ironia suave para dejar entrever una cultura distinta. Decisiones al final que se viven sin pensar demasiado, con fantasmas que apenas rozan la periferia. 

Ellas, por pedido de un viejo conocido, reciben a una mujer francesa que viene escapando de Francia allá por el 1870s por razones politicas.

*{imagen de la famosa pelicula del mismo nombre

Reseña: Bloodchild

Bloodchild 

by  

Octavia E. Butler

31 pages

Published March 2014 by Headline

ISBN: 1472218744 (ISBN13: 9781472218742)

Edition Language: English

Literary Awards:

Hugo Award for Best Novelette (1985), 

Nebula Award for Best Novelette (1984), 

Locus Award for Best Novelette (1985), 

Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award for Best Novelette (1985)

 BLURB: Years ago a group known as the Terrans left Earth in search of a life free of persecution. Now they live alongside the Tlic, an alien race who face extinction; their only chance of survival is to plant their larvae inside the bodies of the humans.
When Gan, a young, boy, is chosen as a carrier of Tlic eggs, he faces an impossible dilemma: can he really help the species he has grown up with, even if it means sacrificing his own life?

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Esta es una novellete altamente perturbadora.

Humanos huyendo de su planeta llegan a uno con una civilización de centipedos gigantes de 3 metros y bueno ... imaginen alien renegociado y con mpreg con niños.




Power imbalance is nasty.



View all my reviews

Reseña: Minotaur in Stone

Minotaur in Stone 

by 

Marjorie M. Liu

 55 pages

Published February 11th 2015 by Marjorie M. Liu

ASIN:B00TJ1KSYE

Edition Language:English

BLURB: A labyrinth of a library. Watchful eyes in the dark. And a woman with nowhere – and nobody – to call home. In MINOTAUR IN STONE, Marjorie M. Liu transports her heroine into the arms of the tragically cursed Minotaur. After millennia of being trapped by an ancient king, the Minotaur has given up hope of escaping the dark labyrinth that imprisons him. When he feels a connection with the woman he watches every night, however, and she returns his feelings after being summoned to his home, he realizes that she may be the champion he needs, and she realizes that she may be falling in love with the man beneath the monster.

My rating: 3,3 stars

My bookshelves: novelette-short, adult-mature, fantasy-paranormal, myth-and-legends

Adult fantasy. A modern take in the Minotaur myth. A young woman living in the fringe , secluded in a library, is conduced in dreams into a dark labyrinth with a not possible man. Both are lost in dark, lonely and with nothing to lose.

[...] to live as an uninvited guest, quiet as a book—and as a book, a dull creature on the surface, but full of the raging wild dark inside the words of my heart.

The start is better than the ending, as far as the way in which the author interweaves the words.

Creo que buena parte de esta idea del laberinto se ve después en su serie Hunter Kiss - The Iron Hunt, que por cierto la recomiendo.

Reseña: Water Witch

Water Witch 

by  

Faith Hunter

 48 pages

Published June 7th 2015 by Bella Rosa Books

ASIN:B00Z815OP2

Edition Language: English

 WATER WITCH - A short story from Faith Hunter and D.B. Jackson

Hannah Everhart is a witch. She's also a thief, having stolen a priceless gem that she needs for a magical working.
Ethan Kaille is a conjurer and a thieftaker. He has been hired to recover the pilfered jewel.
But what begins as a pursuit through the streets of Colonial Boston, soon becomes an unlikely alliance, as Hannah and Ethan track down an otherworldly sea captain who has come to the city for dark purpose. Now these two must combine forces to fight a creature unlike any either of them has encountered before. And at stake is the life of Boston's foremost revolutionary.

WATER WITCH is the first collaboration between Faith Hunter, New York Times bestselling author of the Jane Yellowrock novels, and D.B. Jackson, author of the critically acclaimed Thieftaker Chronicles.

My rating: 3.5 STARS

Boston 1770. Two characters from two authors meet a couple of months after a notorious pre-revolutionary incident.

A young Everhart witch (a well known name in the Yellowrock's 'verse) is confronted with a man hired to recover a stolen brooch , the man is Ethan Kaille, a conjurer and thieftaker. 

This is the beginning of what appears to be a conspiracy, family secrets and a world unknown in other aspects for the protagonists.

This story seems to be much longer for how short it is.

I didn't know anything about DB Jackson before this but I'm a Faith Hunter fan, but it is a nice introduction.

Reseña: The Witch of Duva (Grisha 0.5)

 Relato corto
Free: En Tor
http://www.tor.com/2012/06/06/the-witch-of-duva-a-ravkan-folk-tale/
 

The Witch of Duva (The Grisha #0.5)

by  

Leigh Bardugo

43 pages

Published June 5th 2012 by Tor

Original Title:The Witch of Duva: A Ravkan Folk Tale

ISBN:1466820756 (ISBN13: 9781466820753)

Edition Language:English

 

 

My rating:3,5 starving stars

Winter... Famine.

Intriguing , with elements of traditional fairy tale, the old woman in the woods, the girl, the sweets, the aisolation. The family.... And the tweaks that made a good story.

Bardugo should writte the Grisha book itself like this; instead, I never could pass the first pages.

Puedo imaginar perfectamente como el estar aislados en medio de la nieve y el hielo, aislados y sin nada que comer puede hacer , pero sólo eso. Imaginarlo. Pero parece que todos los cuentos invernales entrañan esa sensación de que muchas cosas pueden suceder en ese miedo, animales, y horrores inarralables. 

Lo peor es saber que eso sucede/sucedió/sucederá cuando no se tiene nada más que perder.

Tan innegable como que la nieve seguirá cayendo cada vez más y más en los años subsiguientes.

Reseña: Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage

Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage 

by  

Alix E. Harrow

32 pages

Published December 14th 2016 by Tor Books

ISBN0765392313 (ISBN13: 9780765392312)

Edition LanguageEnglish

bookshelves:  novelette-short, short-story, alternate-reality, fantasy

3.5 living land stars.

Oona es una mestiza marcada desde su nacimiento a ser un 'mapmaker' que en su idioma es igual a 'traidora'. La Cia necesita mapas para 'afianzar' la tierra, someterla y edificar sobre ella su propia civilizacion. El concepto no es realmente nuevo, recuerdo claramente la historia de las tierras vivas en una antologia que lei hace un montón de años atrás. La forma en que describe el conflicto sí lo es. Es un autor interesante a seguir que saldrá más tarde.

I was the expedition’s mapmaker, the men’s safety and sanity, but none of them could bring themselves to trust a half-savage. Except Clayton. Although perhaps trust is the wrong word—when a person ties a noose around your heart and holds the end of the rope in their palm, do they really need to trust you?

El viejo conflicto entre la gente del este y la forma en que se apodera y trastorna la forma de vida de los 'salvajes' tampoco es muy nuevo. Pero como digo, hay algo fuerte en como se expresa.

Free to read in Tor:
http://www.tor.com/2016/12/14/the-aut...