The Future Is Blue by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When you boil it right down, Valente is an extremely creative artisan of words. I've known this from the first book I read to the umpteenth. She is not only consistently gorgeous, but heartbreaking, clever, blisteringly droll, and shockingly original, but she also impregnates every tale with so much heart that it bleeds, cries, and even commits suicide.

Mind you, that's a GOOD thing in stories. All those old beginnings, middles, and ends in NORMAL stories are like little moths to the great searing flame that Valente sparks in her stories.

Do you think I'm going a bit overboard? Well, maybe. But no one can deny that that most of these stories push all the envelopes. They range from deep fantasy in quite unusual and wordplay-rich worlds to hard SF (these are often my absolute favorites) that intermix very rich mythology with bleeding-edge tech that makes me bleed forever.

Am I pleased? Thrilled by the poetical, lyrical treatment of my favorite genres? You better believe it.


This limited edition does carry a number of stories that have been printed in other editions, but let me be frank: each story is a joy to re-read.

My favorites?

Down and Out in R'lyeh
Snow Day
Planet Lion
The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild
and
The Beast Who Fought for Fairyland Until the Very End




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