Congratulate me, step right up, shake my hand

This is the fourth and final part of my book club notes on A Thousand Beginnings and Endings. [Part one, part two, [part three.]

I missed this meeting because I was totally exhausted and doubted my ability to form words. I did read the stories, though!


"Daughter of the Sun" by Shevta Thakrar

( This love story had a lot going on and I didn't understand it well enough to summarize it. )


"The Crimson Cloak" by Cindy Pon

( A dawn goddess falls in love with a human. )


"Eyes Like Candlelight" by Julie Kagawa

( A kitsune falls in love with a human. )


"Carp, Calculus, and the Leap of Faith" by Ellen Oh

[Note: This story is included only in the paperback edition, not the hardcover or the ebook.]

( A girl whose mom is pressuring her to become a doctor gets support from her dad. )


the end

There were some really cool stories in here and I'm glad we read them. Not everything was to my taste, but the quality of writing was high. It was great to explore folklore outside of Western traditions and see the connections and contrasts.

The group will continue with As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories, which is a title that might be relevant to the interests of a few of you here! It's a brand new collection that just came out this year and I'm really looking forward to it.

In my ongoing journey to play games from as many countries as possible, I ran across this early example of a game from Hungary. It was developed by Pál Balog with music by Zoltán Mericske, and was brought to English-speaking audiences by the British company Andromeda Software, who specialized in producing English localizations of games made in the Eastern Bloc. (They were the ones who introduced Tetris to the West.)



Bird Mother (or Madár mama in Hungarian) is, as you might guess, a game where you play as a mother bird who must build a nest, feed her babies, and protect the young while they fledge. (It's also an early example of a game with a female protagonist!) You might also guess from the release date and the English subtitle "Life's a Struggle" that the game is hard, and you'd be correct in that as well. I was actually impressed by how uncomfortably infuriating the game is to play.

( more about the game and a little info on personal computers in Communist Europe )

You can play Bird Mother in your browser if you wish to be reminded that whether you build your nest in the First World or the Second, life truly is a struggle.