Weekend Shorts (Hugo/Nebula Edition) - 'Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island'

Name - Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island
Written by - Nibedita Sen
Published by - Nightmare Magazine

Colonialism is a tragic part of history for a large portion of the populace of the world (me being a part of this being a Bengali). And for a long time fiction has aimed at attempting to describe some of the emotional impact of this invasion of culture and individuality. This curiously designed short, is yet another such attempt. But, what makes this one unique is the approach and the authors skillful attempt at making the readers guess what might be the truth of the whole affair.

'Nibedita Sen' uses a series of ten bibliographic entries of a sociology paper, to try to tell a story of a fictional group of indigenous people living in a secluded fictional island and their descendants. The approach is quite unique and the different perspective of the entries from people having varied opinion creates a sense of mystery regarding the actual facts which I am quite sure the author was aiming for.

And the overall experience comes to a satisfying end, while the author aiming another jab at the invaders of the island with a message that, no matter the amount of violation and invasion a culture can never be completely destroyed.

Despite being in a unique and unorthodox package, this one is short yet enjoyable and emotionally charged story.

My rating -  4.5 out of 5.

Link to the story -  http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/ten-excerpts-from-an-annotated-bibliography-on-the-cannibal-women-of-ratnabar-island/ 

Weekend Shorts (Hugo/Nebula Edition) - 'And Now His Lordship Is Laughing'

Name - And Now His Lordship Is Laughing
Written by - Shiv Ramdas
Published by - Strange Horizons

[ It's been more than 2 months, but I am back. As the nominations for both Hugo and Nebula is already out and there is not much time before the reveal of the winners, I will try to review some of the short stories and stuff from these nominations. ]

To be honest, being a Bengali myself ( I am from Bangladesh), I may not be the right person to review this one impartially, especially since the '43 Bengal Famine' is a very difficult part of history for us. But I will try to handle this from a casual reader's point of view nonetheless.

This short is a straightforward revenge story on the first glance, depicting the story of a native woman, who after losing her family tries to take to punish the ones she deems to be responsible. But the main aspect, is that the atrocities committed on this story are based on truth.

Almost 3 million people died due to the 'Bengal Famine of '43', and it is one of the most cruel man-made famine in the history of colonialism. The author did paint a vivid picture of the circumstances while adding a hint of magical realism in the context of doll making, but the main beauty lies in the emotional depiction of the main character 'Apa'. Any reader with a heart is bound to feel for her plight and would hope for some form of redemption.

The language used also deserves some praise in my opinion, as the Bengali terms used were used with such care as easily understandable by anyone. 

Despite being a formulaic tale, this one left a lingering sense of sadness which will linger in a reader's mind for a long time.

I rate this 4 out of 5.

Link to the story - http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/and-now-his-lordship-is-laughing/

Weekend Shorts - 'His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light' by Mimi Mondal

Name - His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light
Written by - Mimi Mondal
Ilustrated by - Kashmira Sarode
Edited by - Marco Palmieri
Published by - Tor.com

This one could have been so much more, it had an interesting mixture of Jinni from the lamp with the Indian mythology of 'devadashi'. It had interesting characters in an interesting setting going against social norms and injustice. But somehow the scope and the way the plot was handled didn't seem to evoke the amount of that could have been possible it seems.

The story centers around Binu, a trapeze master whose one simple act of compassion puts him and his circus mates on a collision course with a terrifying supernatural power.

Coming from an Indian background, Mimi did strongly depict the caste and social stigma system of ancient India and tried to implement fantasy elements into her setting. The world building was very promising, but it may be that the scope was too small but in the end the story left a lot to be desired.

I would have liked further glimpses into the mysterious Jinni and the violent god as well. It all left a rather sour taste in my mind, for want of more plot or at least some adequate closure.

This gets 2.5 out of 5 from me.

Weekend Shorts - 'Blue Morphos in the Garden' by Lis Mitchell

Name - Blue Morphos in the Garden
Written by - Lis Mitchell
Ilustrated by - Mary Haasdyk
Edited by - Cory Skerry
Published by - Tor.com 

This short story had a rather promising beginning, but eventually the story did turn out a bit underwhelming. The concept was interesting, giving the normal experience of facing death a fantasy twist. The author also tried to blend in the woman's perspective of the turmoil of joining a new family into her version of altered reality.

'Blue Morphos in the Garden' tells the story of Viv, whose partner's family has a mysterious way of death surrounding them. With the protagonist we get to experience one such death and get to understand why our main character refuses to accept such a fate.

Viv was a strong and well visualized character and her views regarding everything is quite easily understandable. Lily was enjoyable like a breath of fresh air. Janet had that air of sophisticated antagonist going for her. But I rather found the character of Dash to be bland, uninspired and one dimensional. It is really quite hard to see why Viv fell in love with him in the first place.

I really need to mention the drawing by Mary Haasdyk which gives the story a strong bit of flavor.

All in all an enjoyable yet underwhelming read and an unsatisfying finish.

3 out of 5 stars.  

[ A new project, this 'Weekend Shorts'. In which, I will try to review at least one short story over each weekend. The story may be old or new, both award winning stuff or something that fancies me to try it out. ]