This collection of short stories, poetry and a play took me by surprise. Each piece of writing is different from the last. The genres blend together from fantasy, to historical fiction to science fiction. The preferred genre here seems to be science fiction. Some of the short stories had me confused as if I was only tugging at fragments of a storyline that could've been more developed. Others had me craving more, hoping for a full-length novel (or at least novella).
There is something magical about a collection of stories even if they do not follow a particular theme. It is a different feeling from a novel, because with a novel, if you forget a few details or chapters here and there, as long as you got the overall sense of the piece, then you can say that you've read it in its entirety. It is not so with collections such as these. There are some pieces that I will want to return to, such as the mixed up letters from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra.
It did take me a while to finish this collection, but I am glad that I gave it a try. It makes me want to read more from this author.

This was a treat. I'm not one for anthologies (or reading blurbs, obviously) but the pieces in this collection are beautifully written and, without exception, thought-provoking. After this taster, I fully intend to read more work by this author.

This was my first experience with Jo Walton and definitely won't be my last. I didn't originally know this was a short story collection (or... sort of), but I think it was a good way to first experience her writing. I was expecting more traditional fiction, but there are some author musings, some poetry and even a play in the mix. That wasn't quite what I expected and generally is not my favorite thing, which is why I think I didn't enjoy this more. However, I really liked whatever snippets I got of her writing, and want to continue exploring her next releases (and her backlist titles as well).

A collection of short stories and poems and covering a wide array of genres and topics. Not particularly memorable; I liked the narratives better than the poetry.

Desde que hace unos años leí Entre extraños, de Jo Walton, he intentado recuperar la sensación de fascinación que me produjo ese libro en otros libros de Jo Walton. Por desgracia no ha sido el caso, y aunque tiene libros super interesantes, siempre me dejan una sensación fría. Aunque Jo Walton tiene una capacidad tremenda para generar escenarios y para imaginar distintas historias en todo tipo de géneros, eso sin duda. Starlings es una colección de relatos de lo más variada y quizá eso me ha ayudado a reconectar con la capacidad imaginativa de la autora. Pasamos de ciencia ficción política a cuentos de hadas. E incluso historias de fantasía con un fuerte componente moral y de fábula sobre el dinero y el intercambio.

I was excited to pick this book up because I've heard a lot of good things about Jo Walton's books. Unfortunately, I really didn't enjoy this book. While I did enjoy one or two stories in this collection, overall, I found the stories to be way too vague in terms of plot and themes and I really couldn't connect with them. I also found the stories to be very slow to go through, despite the fact that they are short stories. Overall, this collection just wasn't for me. I would still be interested to try Jo Walton's full length novels though.

Although I am new to the writing of Jo Walton, I enjoyed Starlings quite a bit. I went into the collection thinking it might be a good place to start - after all, it's many stories all in one place by one author, so I'd be able to get an idea of if I'd like to read more or not. I have my answer to that question, and it's a yes!

Not all of the stories were stand-outs for me, but many were. This collection is perhaps the most aptly described as a collection of ideas: and some of them are really fantastic. My favourites (and the ones I would recommend to others) are:
Sleeper
Turnover
The Panda Coin
On the Wall
Relentlessly Mundane
A Burden Shared

Now, all of these stories can be found online in publications like Tor.com, Lightspeed Magazine, and Strange Horizons, but those editions do not include the author's notes that Starlings does.

Overall, I liked this collection, and it has sparked an interest for me in other work by Walton.

'Starlings' by Jo Walton is a collection of short stories, poems, and a play.

The collection starts with the poem that the book is named for, followed by a somewhat self-effacing and endearingly personal introduction by the author. What follows is a collection of short fiction based on fairy tales, short anecdotes about starfish, fictional letters, and original ideas. The play, for some reason, played in my mind as a puppet play (perhaps because it seemed so outlandishly funny), but I by no means mean that as a slant against it.

Collections like this offer hidden gems along with sometimes less "gem-full" entries. The hidden gems are worth seeking out. I enjoyed the collection overall.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Tachyon Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Absolutely wonderful. It isn't a completely traditional collection of short stories, which she freely admits in the introduction. It's more satisfying than just a sampling of experimental fragments, though. I always love Walton's voice, and the way she argues so passionately for creativity and expression and compassion through her writing - that's how I feel it, anyway. I received an ecopy of this through NetGalley.

Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/239099525

Amazon review submitted

Starlings was overall an enjoyable read. Most of the stories are fairly short, almost all of them have really thoughtful prose, and many ruminate on humanity and identity. Not all of them worked for me, but the ones I enjoyed I expect will stay with me for a long time.

Contents:

Fiction:
Three Twilight Tales - super sweet fairy tale-ish story. If you enjoy the tales within the text of The Name of the Wind, this is a great story for you.
Jane Austen to Cassandra - mixed up correspondence between Jane and the seer Cassandra. Induced a wry smile.
Unreliable Witness - poignant story about dementia, or aliens.
On the Wall - a rather bleak retelling of Snow White, from the mirror's POV (I'd be into more stories from the perspective of inanimate objects, because this was compelling)
The Panda Coin - the path of a single piece of currency, how it impacts the lives of the people (all working poor on a space station), and what it knows.
Remember the Allosaur
Sleeper - a rather creepy tale that's a mix of time travel weirdness and the worst of social media
Relentlessly Mundane - when portal world travellers return to our world, and have to try to live on Earth again. People's reactions vary, as one might expect.
Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction - alt history told through newspaper and periodical headlines. I don't like this timeline.
Joyful and Triumphant: St. Zenobius and the Aliens
Turnover - a generation ship means change, but what if some folks prefer the ship to the end goal? The consensus-building in this was really a treat.
At the Bottom of the Garden - children who pull wings from fairies are awful. The moral may be that children are awful?
Out of It - when you make a deal with the devil, do you keep the deal even if you're offered an out?
What a Piece of Work - AI has a crisis of identity. I don't like this possibility either.
Parable Lost
What Would Sam Spade Do? - twist on gumshoe tropes, with a cloning lens.
Tradition
What Joseph Felt - biblical tale from Joseph's (rather modern) point of view
The Need to Stay the Same - a book review written by an alien about a human book. A bit odd.
A Burden Shared - I really hope the future of medicine is not the opportunity to share pain among loved ones, rather than better healing.

Script
Three Shouts on a Hill (A Play) - bizarre little piece that had rude characters, a very tongue in cheek referencial feeling, all leading up to ridiculous wordplay.

Poetry
Dragon’s Song
Not in this Town
Hades and Persephone - I find I like retellings of this story where there's shared love and respect between the two gods.
The Death of Petrach
Advice to Loki - kinda clever advice for the trickster god, about revenge.
Ask to Embla
Three Bears Norse - verse retelling of Goldilocks with an abrupt ending
Machiavelli and Prospero
Cardenio
Ten Years Ahead: Oracle Poem
Pax in Forma Columba
Translated from the Original
Sleepless in New Orleans
The Godzilla Sonnets - silly mashup
Not a Bio for Wiscon: Jo Walton - I like this format for speaker/presenter bios, would request similar if/when I run a con

Short pieces of writing that draw from both mythology and an imagined future - this collection gives insight to the writing process of Walton and her Thessaly series.

Jo Walton never ceases to amaze me with her gentle and comforting writing. I've read her back list and was so looking forward to a collection of short stories. I was in now way disappointed. My favorite underrated (woefully so) author does it again with this poignant collection of stories from who I consider to be one of the greatest story tellers of our time. 5/5

DNF'd at 17%

Honestly, it really just isn't my thing. I usually like short stories but these just don't feel genuine.

Really wonderful. Each story has a whole mini world created, and the characters are fantastic. I loved so many of the stories in this collection, and the poetry too. Walton’s humour had me smiling quite a bit whilst reading. I think this collection has cemented her as one of my favourite authors.

These stories prove what a versatile and original writer Jo Walton is. I could easily see myself using some of these stories in a creative writing class to demonstrate narrative voice, or perhaps using one as part of my introduction to literature class.

At times I struggle with short story collections, as usual, there are some I loved, and some I skipped through. Overall I enjoyed this collection

This collection was hit or miss for me. I really enjoyed the longer stories, but the shorter ones didn't quite work for me. My favorites were probably Three Twilight Tales, Escape to other worlds with science fiction, and Turnover. I also really liked the play and would love to see it performed, I feel like it would work so well on stage. The poetry wasn't really for me, as I like more modern free-form poetry, rather than rhyming poetry. But I definitely want to check out Jo Walton's other works, this being the first book of hers I've read.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I first came across Jo Walton when her book Among Others came out, and I absolutely adored it. Like that novel, this collection reads like an homage to SFF. I loved that she admitted from the very start that most of the selections in this collection were "failed" starts at longer works. With a lot of the stories that was made extra apparent by their abrupt and inconclusive endings. I thought I'd be annoyed by this; that it would feel like I was reading an authors private notes. But really, I never lost the sense of needing to know what happens next! As for the two stories that were fully fledged and finished "stories," I loved them. She seems to think that she has no skill for short fiction, but I disagree.

As with all short story collections, most of the stories were a perfect 5 stars to me, there were several 4s, and a few that just didn't quite hit the mark.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/409141-kamilla">View all my reviews</a>

Jo Walton, Starlings (2017)

What if one of Jane Austen’s letter wasn’t sent to her sister Cassandra but Troy war’s Cassandra?

What if the old woman didn’t really suffer from dementia but was actually visited by aliens?

What if Joseph told his own version of the Annunciation?

What if Google’s search engine wanted to act morally by orienting some of its answers to our questions?

What if people sent a spaceship to colonize another planet in a few generations, but that their descendants no longer wanted to go there?

What if kids who had saved the world with magical powers during their childhood (Narnia style) grew up to become accountant, art historian and fake fortune tellers?

What if a fairy was discovered in the garden by an unimpressed 5-year-old?

What if the magic mirror from Snow White’s evil queen could speak for itself?

What if aliens did write SF books about a weird world full of creatures called “humans”?

What if clone technology had permitted anyone to give birth to a baby Jesus (and what would they grow up to become)?

These are a few of the numerous questions that Jo Walton set about to answer. The book is a mixed bag of short stories (some flash fiction), poetry, even a play and a writer’s bio in verse (that one is a keeper). A lot are funny, a few are set in dystopian worlds, a few are rather dark but not many. I chose this book on Netgalley a bit randomly, because the name rang a bell and I wanted to read some short story in genres that I don’t usually read. I’m glad I took this chance, because it was worth it, and the stories never took themselves too seriously (something I often fear when it comes to SF). Between the time I started and finished the collection, I read another Jo Walton, Farthing (which I reviewed first) so I’m now convinced that this prolific writer can indeed write great stories in a wide range of topics and tones.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.

As with any story collection, there's generally stories you love and stories you aren't quite so in love with. There's an added dimension here though, with some stories I can easily comprehend, and some that I'm not exactly sure what I just read. I love the melding of myth and fantasy in the stories, and much of the writing is very beautiful. However, it's sometimes hard to parse what exactly Jo Walton is going for in these tales.