Synopses & Reviews
Gathering together the most outstanding short stories of Susan Palwicks twenty-year literary career,
The Fate of Mice is a powerful collection from an extraordinary fantasist. These unflinching tales, including three original pieces, consider a woman born with her heart exposed and the heartless killer who protects her, a wolf who is willingly ensnared by a devious academic, a businessman resurrected to play at politics, and an ingenious mouse dreaming beyond the laboratory.
With the perceptiveness of Joyce Carol Oates, the inventiveness of Ray Bradbury, and the emotional resonance of Alice Sebold, The Fate of Mice is a meditation on the very art of storytelling: mythic, beautiful, and often brutal, filled with authentic compassion.
Review
A potent brew of mystery and heartache...gracefully knotted, densely lyrical.”
Sci Fi Weekly/SciFi.com
Spanning the past 20 years of Palwicks career, the eight previously published and three new stories in this outstanding collection (after her 2005 novel The Necessary Beggar) display the authors versatility. The fine title story about an IQ-enhanced mouse named Rodney recalls Flowers for Algernon. Gestella centers on a woman werewolf whose accelerated aging complicates her doomed marriage to a self-obsessed professor. In Jos Hair Palwick imagines remarkable alternate fates for Louisa May Alcotts little woman, Jo March, and her chopped and sold chestnut braid. The quintessential fairy tale Stormdusk depicts a child worried about her mother, a trapped snow maiden; the wise, whimsical concluding gem, GI Jesus, addresses friendship and sacred smalltown miracles.” Palwicks genre-bending short fiction defies categorization and blends humor with pathos.”
Publishers Weekly, starred review
Palwicks literary output until now has been limited to two critically acclaimed novels, the most recent of them the complex and moving ghost story The Necessary Beggar (2005). Thus her first story collection is a welcome addition to her oeuvre and a fitting introduction to her wide-ranging talent and vision. In the title story, a touching homage to Daniel Keyes classic Flowers for Algernon, an IQ-enhanced lab mouse awakens to the knowledge of his own impending demise. Gestella recounts the unsettling fate of a female werewolf who ages more rapidly than her increasingly less interested human lover. In one of the volumes standouts, GI Jesus, a small-town woman finds hope in the face of Jesus imprinted on an X-ray of her abdomen. All 11 pieces explore the most challenging conundrums of human existence, from the perennial pursuit of utopia to the many faces of mortality. Embracing elements of both horror and speculative fiction, Palwicks unique and commanding fiction never fails to trigger an emotional response as it captures the imagination.”
Booklist
Palwick combines sharp political commentary with pleasing flights of fancy with deep psychological insightand all in prose clear as water. Delicately balanced between hope and heartbreak, these are stories youll remember.”
Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club and After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall
Palwick uses both fantasy and science in her fictions, flinching from neither the rational nor the ineffable in her quest to write stories exploring the fate of all living things.”
Seattle Times
Elegantly crafted short fiction.”
Locus
Palwick offers the kind of variety that we find in our best, our most powerful, and versatile authors.”
The Agony Column
This is a collection of magnificent, heart-breaking stories. Susan Palwick sees the world with a fearless clarity and tells a truth so sharp it makes you weep. Be warned: Long after you close the book, these stories will haunt you. Theyll stay with you, changing who you are and how you see the world around you.”
Pat Murphy, author of The City, Not Long After
The Fate of Mice shines light on our dark secrets with compassion, wit, and very fine writing.”
Sheila Williams, editor of Asimovs
Palwick provides dramatic commentary with innovative structure.... Masterful writing, magical realism, slipstream, and literary fiction are all descriptors that come to mind.”
Tangent
These stories are brilliant and thought-provoking as well as packing an unexpectedly intense emotional punch.”
Jo Walton, author of Tooth and Claw and Farthing
These are strong stories full of dry humor and a powerful sense of what it means to collide with the hard, sharp edges of unforgiving reality and immutable truths. Palwicks style is spare, direct, and a pleasure to read.”
Suzy McKee Charnas, author of Stagestruck Vampires
...a powerful and complex utopian streak...displays a keen intelligence and a fierce imagination.”
Montreal Gazette
The effect of the stories will linger long after the last page is turned.”
The Spectrum Circus
Synopsis
The fantastic and magical realities humans create and their often terrifying consequences are examined in this unflinching collection of work from a noted science fiction writer. A determined mother attempts to break the fairy tale spell that confines her daughters, a female wolf learns that loving a man can be quite dangerous, and a manipulative politician harvests zombies in these stories that are beautiful and brutal, but maintain a modicum of hope for the future.
About the Author
"The fine title story about an IQ-enhanced mouse named Rodney recalls Flowers for Algernon." Publishers Weekly"An impressive and important debut." San Francisco Examiner on Flying in Place"Susan Palwick...is, with Flying in Place, a novelist of moment." Newsday"This slim collection has an overwhelming effect on the reader." The Agony Column"Masterful writing, magical realism, slipstream, and literary fiction are all descriptors that come to mind." Tangent"Palwick uses both fantasy and science in her fictions, flinching from neither the rational nor the ineffable." The Seattle Times"Elegantly crafted short fiction." Locus"A potent brew of mystery and heartache . . . gracefully knotted, densely lyrical." SciFi.com/Sci Fi Weekly