There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

If you’re a fan of science fiction and magical realism, I’ve likely already recommended Lauren Beukes’ novels to you. They’re twisty, imaginative, horrifying, and unputdownable. Her latest release (on shelves November 29) is a collection of short stories and essays. I’m only a few stories in, but already hanging on Beukes’ every word. The early stories blend science fiction and reality in clever and creative ways. They’re grim, wry, and have left me wanting more. Beukes is an author who is doing great things, and only getting better. If you aren’t already reading her, you should be.

Interesting read. Most short story collections are very mixed in that the highs are high and the lows are low, but what was most interesting was the visual growth of Beukes being documented in her own collection. Probably would not buy a physical copy but would be interested in her other works.

As is often the case in short story collections, this book had high highs and low lows. There were a couple of entries that I found totally uninteresting, but even more that I found incredibly good. I tended to enjoy the more sci-fi leaning entries than those grounded in base reality. I did not care for the non-fiction bit at the end, in which the author came off more entitled and less insightful. In my eyes this actually detracted from the fiction. But based on my favorite stories in this bunch, I would definitely read more of Beukes’ genre work.

This had its high's and it's low's, but was all-in-all a very informative and well-written collection!

I really enjoyed this collection. I’m a huge fan of Beukes so I was looking forward to reading something else by her. Like all collections, Slipping was a bit of a mixed bag, some pieces were excellent, some were good, some were great and others were okay. The pieces spanned ten years so these differences are to be expected. I enjoyed the fiction the most especially Smileys, Pop Tarts, Litmash, Algebra and Ghost Girl. I was also pleasantly surprised by the non-fiction pieces especially On Beauty: A Letter to My Five-Year-Old Daughter which packed a punch. I loved the different themes and styles of the pieces. I had a great time with Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing and would recommend it.

I much prefer Beukes novels. This was my least favorite of what I've read from her, and I had to slog through it. It was mildly interested, but not one I'd recommend to first time readers of her work.

Beukes particular blend of cyberpunk and style as she imagines our corporatized future is on full display here.

This was hit after hit of what I like best about her writing: sly, sharp digs at who we are, who we want to be, and the tricks we fall for, all with a gritty, near-future cyberpunk backdrop.

If you already like her writing, you'll like this - if you haven't read her yet, start here or see my review of Zoo City. I've seen this collection hailed as satire but it read more like fortune-telling to me - the future is written, and Instagram is going to kill us all.

This was a curious mixture - which I for the most part loved. Containing some of the best Science Fiction short stories I've read, and some incisive non-fiction, it nevertheless also had a few pieces that felt like filler.
Still, for the most part, this is excellent and worth reading.

This book is a compilation of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction writings. I breezed through certain pieces and struggled to finish others. The good pieces outweighed the snippets I didn't enjoy as much.

The section that was my favorite was the Non-fiction writing, and the piece she wrote about her novel The Shining Girls stayed with me the most. I read this book because I so enjoyed that one. Understanding her connection to the work makes me appreciate it even more. It's an important reminder to me of the ways that reality can inspire art.


It also got me thinking about perspective, and not for the first time I'm left wondering how many of the places I've been able to visit in my mind through books are completely skewed by the author's view? The traits that are captured in several books-are they just the same series of ideas passed by one writer to the next?

This all has very little to do with Slipping, for which I apologize. This collection was overall very interesting and really inspired a lot of thought on my end. While I didn't devour it in one sitting, I enjoyed parts of it very much and other parts lesser so, but I wouldn't take back the experience of reading it.

Lauren Beukes knocked my socks off with her first book, and I love short stories, so I went in to this one with really, really high hopes. And while I don't think it quite met the bar the first one set, this collection was also incredibly dark, terrifying, and involves great questions about gender, love, and darkness.

Fiction

Muse - Brief, poetic and appropriate as an introduction. A dash of the fantastic, a bit of horror - and a comment on the creative process.

Slipping - A re-read (and worth the second look.) "Last year, Beukes' 'Broken Monsters' impressed me... and this story continues to impress. The technology here is beyond today's capabilities - but the behavior of the humans here is all too believable; the situation not just credible but likely.
With most countries banning 'enhanced' sports, the +Games has found a home in Pakistan, where bionic athletes compete not solely for an audience, but for corporate and military observers. The hope? For the surgeon to showcase their wares, resulting in a payoff.
Why would anyone opt for these extreme and experimental surgical procedures? And what is the human cost? Beukes answers these questions with this horrific and emotionally wracking portrait of one young South African competitor."

Confirm / Ignore - Brief, but timely and insightful look into the mentality involved in creating fake social media profiles.

Branded - You can read the story on i09: http://io9.gizmodo.com/5943053/a-brand-new-cyberpunk-story-by-lauren-beukes. This is a precursor to 'Moxyland,' and shares some of the same themes, especially the idea of paid sponsors wearing commercial logo 'tattoos' and receiving nanotech enhancements that allow them to get 'high' off seemingly innocuous products.
If you haven't read this - or Moxyland - yet, I recommend doing so. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1647517507)

Smileys - An older woman, heading to market, is approached by a young man who can't have anything good in mind. The outcome is surprising, and kick-ass. Loved it!

Princess - A weird fairytale/allegory about sexual awakening, and the romance between a popstar celebrity and her Ecuadorean maid, complete with happy-ish ending. Bizarre.

My Insect Skin - Powerful and disturbing. This is a short vignette, but packs an emotional punch in with more layers of complexity than the reader initially expects. Impressively excellent writing.

Parking - Remember The Beatles' "Lovely Rita"? Well, this is a reversal of that scenario. A traffic warden develops a crush on a woman who regularly parks on his beat. Things don't work out so well. Exploring both issues of class and human nature, Beukes eloquently allows for understanding, without demanding or excusing.

Pop Tarts - With just one step into the future, Beukes shows us the possible next gen of reality TV. What happens when your best friend is the next big star, her - and your - every move followed by the cameras? A blackly humorous look at where the trends are leading.

The Green - WOW. Dystopian military sci-fi/horror. This story is so excellent. Our protagonist has been recruited from the slums to a military-style research corporation specializing in R&D. They use people like her for highly dangerous harvesting operations on alien planets. On-the-job injury or death isn't uncommon. But a new project is particularly demoralizing: they're experimenting with corpses; using some kind of alien 'mold' to reanimate them, zombie style. Seeing your former lover in this state is pretty rough, understandably. But is it the worst thing you can imagine? Beukes is up for the challenge of taking the horror one step further.

Litmash - Bits from a Twitter 'story' challenge. Some of them are amusing, but this isn't really my kind of thing.

Easy Touch - At this point in time, it's a familiar story: a woman with a dying child has been sucked into a 419 scam, lured across international borders and convinced to sink her assets into the hopes of a big payout. But Beukes does something a bit unexpected with the tale.

Algebra - It's just the story of a relationship. Not usually my sort of thing. Nothing really that unusual or remarkable happens. You might think, at first, the little A-Z sections are a bit gimmicky. But the end result is just wonderfully done.

Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs - Again, at first, I didn't think this was going to be my kind of story. Wild and weird, cartoony Japanime action... But then, I said, "Waiiittt... this is sounding an awful lot like the Takashi Murakami exhibit we had at the Brooklyn Museum." And then, Haruki Murakami (the writer) shows up as a character. Next thing you know, Takashi is there too. And I was laughing out loud on the subway... It's awesome.

Dear Mariana - This one is more in line, mood-wise, with 'Broken Monsters' (and maybe 'Shining Girls; which I haven't read yet.) A poorly-typed letter to an absent ex-girlfriend begins innocuously enough. But as the narrative continues, an ominous tension crawls to the forefront.

Riding with the Dream Patrol - Drawing from Beukes' experience as a journalist; this one almost feels like non-fiction. The concerns about issues of privacy, 'classified' data and technology are all-too-current.
"The problem is that you can justify almost anything as national security, and the guy who gets to decide what should be declassified is the same person who decided it was classified in the first place. ... And all this is being sold to us as for our own good."

Unaccounted - Things have gone sour between humanity and the aliens. We're in a state of war. Alien 'diplomats' are now held prisoner at a military facility. And, in a situation disturbingly reminiscent of Guantanamo (or any other military prison/base), the lines between correct operating procedure, the rules of bureaucracy, ethical actions, and the violation of all of those, becomes increasingly blurred. Powerful piece.

Tankwa-Karoo - Attendees at a rave festival slip more quickly than they could have imagined into Mad-Max-style bloody power struggles, when they hear that outside civilisation has collapsed. Bitterly hilarious.

Exhibitionist - This is an excerpt from 'Moxyland.'

Dial Tone - Similar in theme to "Confirm / Ignore," but instead of social media, the narrator here makes 'prank' phone calls.

Ghost Girl - A college student studying architecture and struggling through a passionate but unstable romantic relationship finds his perspective challenged when the ghost of a teenage goth girl starts following him around and bugging him.

Nonfiction

Adventures in Journalism - An essay on Beukes' work as a journalist and how those experiences and techniques have informed an enabled her fiction.

All the Pretty Corpses - An introduction, or notes on 'The Shining Girls,' with a story about the truly horrific murder of a woman Beukes knew, and tried - and failed - to gain justice for. Not easy reading.

Judging Unity - An introduction, based on an interview, to the writer, lawyer and human rights activist Unity Dow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_Dow Succeeding in interesting me in her writing!

Inner City - An introduction/notes on "Zoo City," again, giving insight into how real-life experiences informed the novel.

On Beauty: A Letter to My Five-Year-Old Daughter - A feminist essay.

Many thanks to Tachyon and NetGalley for the chance to read this collection from one of my favorite authors. As always, my opinions are unconnected to the source of the book.

Holy mother of weirdness. This was my first book by Lauren Beukes, and I really enjoyed it. How have I not read any of her stuff before this? This style of writing is totally right up my alley-dark and morbid at times, and just plain weird, with a twist of reality-illustrating an important aspect about how social media and tech has infiltrated every aspect of life.
The nonfiction part at the end was so completely different than the beginning it kind of threw me off a bit. My favorite part though was the letter to her five-year-old daughter at the very end-that was just so heart warming.
I will for sure be checking out more of her work.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest opinion. My thanks to Lauren Beukes
and Tachyon Publications for the opportunity.

Could zombies be a viable replacement for slave labour? Asking for a certain electronics company. And most clothing manufacturers.

Slipping is an interesting collection of writing from the brain of Lauren Beukes. From enhanced athletes to bored ghosts, these stories display Lauren's spec-fic interests. There are also a few essays at the end of the collection, one of which explains the personal inspiration behind The Shining Girls; an essay well worth reading.

I met Lauren at a writers' festival where she was running a workshop on, surprise surprise, writing. I really enjoyed reading the aforementioned The Shining Girls as it was a highly enjoyable mix of crime and spec-fic. So I was looking forward to reading this collection. As with any collection of previously published works, there are highs and lows. For me the highs outweighed the lows, with Slipping, The Green, and Ghost Girl being amongst my favourites. I think the strengths of this collection come from the South African cultural influence to Lauren's writing, which gives far more grittiness to the bleak sci-fi stories than you usually see.

If you're a spec-fic fan, or a fan of Lauren's writing - and how could you not be? - then you will find some compelling stories in this collection.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I was disappointed with this book, but I also wasn't thrilled. I actually really enjoy short essays and short stories, but there wasn't anything spectacular about this books, which was surprising to me because I am typically a fan of Beukes work.

I've seen a number of books by Lauren Beukes in the stores. I'm currently reading another one of her novels and I have one or two others in my ARC queue. I know that Ms. Beukes' books have gotten some favorable attention and now I'm discovering why that is it.

<em>Slipping</em> is a collection of short pieces - fiction, essays, letters and even tweets. It is a varied work of incredible imagination.

Early on, while reading the collection of short fiction, I was often mentally comparing these works to the early speculative fiction work of Harlan Ellison. It is unique - a style all its own - and it speaks to the reader in so many ways. It is the sort of work that I often find myself agreeing with, nodding my head 'yes' to even though it isn't asking a question, but because it is providing answers, or at least insight.

It's a little bit difficult to pick favorites out of this really remarkable assortment but I did make simple notes of "fun story" and "good" and wonderful piece" directly into my Kindle edition of the book.

The "fun story" was "Princess" which might best be described as an erotic fairy tale. It made me chuckle and the story-telling itself was so good.

The "wonderful piece" refers to Beukes' "On Beauty: A Letter to My Five-Year-Old Daughter." This is just breath-taking and every parent, especially a parent of a daughter will understand this. I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a common letter for parents to put away in a daughter's keepsake book.

The third noted piece was called "Litmash" which is a collection of tweets written by Beukes as part of the Twitter fiction festival (I didn't know there was such a thing). If there aren't already entire books of twitter fiction, I suspect there will be soon. But reading through Beukes' tweets shows us precisely why she's such a popular writer. She knows how to deliver a literary punch decisively and efficiently with just a few words.

Saying that I have a few favorites does not mean that I disliked the other pieces. In fact all the works here are strong and I could just as easily be listing "My Insect Skin" or "Smileys" or "Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs" or "Tanka-Karoo" or "Ghost Girl" as favorites. I just happened to notate the other three while reading the book.

Slipping is a nice sampler assortment and shows that Beukes can write non-fiction just as wonderfully as her fiction. I can't wait to dig into some of these novels sitting in my Kindle!

This collection includes the following works:

FICTION-
"Muse"
"Slipping"
"Confirm/Ignore"
"Branded"
"Smileys"
"Princess"
"My Insect Skin"
"Parking"
"Pop Tarts"
"The Green"
"Litmash"
"Easy Touch"
"Algebra"
"Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs"
"Dear Mariana"
"Riding with the Dream Patrol"
"Unaccounted"
"Tankwa-Karoo"
"Exhibitionist"
"Dial Tone"
"Ghost Girl"
NON-FICTION-
"Adventures in Journalism"
"All the Pretty Corpses"
"Judging Unity"
"Inner City"
"On Beauty: A Letter to My Five-Year-Old Daughter"
Glossary

Looking for a good book? Slipping is a collection of fiction, essays, and other writings by Lauren Beukes and is a powerful introduction to her writing abilities. Fans of speculative fiction won't want to miss this.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

One of the strongest story collections of this reader's 2016, owing especially to the science fiction stories "Slipping" and "The Green". Beukes is one of the most interesting voices around.

After reading this collection of short stories Lauren Beukes is now firmly on my favourite authors list. Clever and very relevant, the stories are a mix of sci-fi, weirdness, and commentary on modern life.

None of the stories here are very long so it’s easy to dip in and out of. Though saying that, normally I find myself having to stop between stories in short story collections but with this book I couldn’t do that, I had to start the next straight away. I think that was partly because they are short and I knew I wouldn’t have to stop reading half way through one (I hate having to do that), and partly because these stories are just that good I didn’t want to stop reading.

There weren’t any stories that I disliked, but my favourites were:

Slipping – about a contestant in a futuristic Paralympics event where the athletes can have exosuits, implants controlling their hormones, remote controlled bodies, or they can even remove their organs to make them run better.

Confirm/Ignore – a look into the mind of someone that creates fake online personas by copying other people’s photos and quotes.

The Green – pure sci/fi! Workers on a remote planet searching for plants or chemicals the company they work for can make money with.

Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs – a lolita punk pilots a Japanese fighter robot and battles monsters to save Tokyo.

Dial Tone – a story that’s about loneliness really.

Ghost Girl – a teenage girl haunting a university student.

Slipping: Stories, Essays & Other Writing collects just over a decade’s worth of short fiction by Lauren Beukes. The 21 short stories and 5 non-fiction essays collected here showcases both her growing talent as author and her keen ability to transform the mundane trappings of the everyday into something unsettling, extraordinary and thought-provoking. Her fiction manages to deal with real issues in unusual and disconcerting ways; Beukes is not afraid to shine a light into the darkness we wilfully try to ignore in order to expose the hard truths hidden in the nooks and crannies of our daily lives. The themes she tackles covers the gamut of modern life - exploitation, the effect of social media on our lives, identity, relationships, censorship and social injustice.

The first story in the collection, Muse, sets the tone of what is to come. In just 65 words Beukes manages to perfectly capture the essence of what it is like to be a writer (or any creative pursuit). Where everything you produce takes a bit of your lifeblood with it into the greater world.

The gloves arrived in the mail in a box lined with tissue paper.
There was no return address.
They were elbow-length. Lace-up. Finest suede.
Muse-skin, the attached note said.
These will get you unblocked, the note said.
It was only when she put them on and sat down to write
That she realized there were fishhooks in the fingertips
That drew blood with every keystroke.

My favourite story in the collection is undoubtedly the title story, Slipping. Competitive athletics is used as a test bed for experimental human augmentations. For the athletes recruited from underprivileged backgrounds it is a chance of a lifetime provided they are willing to push themselves to breaking point. The exploitation of the athletes hidden behind a facade of helpful promoters and concerned doctors is unnerving. Pearl doesn’t quite release that they don’t care as much for her as for the tech she embodies.

“Tomislav twists off the valves on either side, unplugs her stomach and eases it out of her. He sets it in a sterile biobox and connects it to a blood flow. By the time he turns back, she is already spooling up the accordion twist of artificial intestine, like a magician pulling ribbons from his palm. It smells of lab-mod bacteria, with the faintest whiff of feces.”

Other highlights included:
The Green: Unskilled workers are used as disposable labour to harvest an alien biome. A tautly written science fiction story filled with strange alien life. Dark and gritty with an ending to die for.
Smileys: A protection racket takes an unexpected turn. A beautifully nuanced description of life in post-apartheid South Africa with a keen eye for all the social issues at play.
My Insect Skin: A completely harrowing tale of loss. It will tear your heart to shreds.
Easy Touch: The tables are turned on a 419 scammer. Deservedly so.
Dear Mariana: An obsessed stalker leaves a farewell note to her ex. A simple premise executed expertly to send chills down your spine. Utterly disturbing in the best way possible.
Unaccounted: A chilling take on the treatment of prisoners of war. If the prisoner is an alien do they deserve human rights? Who is accountable for their treatment?
Dial Tone: A sad tale about the lonely desperation of someone trying so desperately to connect.
And lastly there is Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs: A completely bonkers otaku adventure that is an insane homage to anime and Japanese culture.

The inclusions of five non-fiction essays/articles were a rare treat. I’m far more familiar with Lauren Beukes’ fiction so it was interesting to see her more journalistic side. It’s clear that her time as journalist shaped her in many ways, providing her with both the keen observer’s eye and the story ideas that makes her such an accomplished fiction writer. There are two essays that stood out. All the Pretty Corpses deals with the murder of a family friend and the total failure of the justice system. This tragic incident is what sparked the idea for The Shining Girls – “At least in fiction, unlike real life, you can get justice.” On Beauty: A Letter to My Fiver-Year-Old Daughter ends the collection on a hopeful note with a lesson we should all live by: “Real beauty is engaging with the world. It’s the courage to face up to it, every day. It’s figuring out who you are and what you believe in and standing by that. It’s giving a damn.”

The Verdict:
Slipping is a stunning, diverse collection of genre-spanning short fiction by one of South Africa’s best speculative fiction authors. The stories are gritty, disconcerting and thought-provoking. These are stories with impact; stories that will make you think and alter your perspectives. If you are a fan of Lauren Beukes then this is an absolute must have!

The Rating: 7/10 (Very Good)