Björn recenserade The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe av Kij Johnson
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3 stjärnor
3.5/5. The thing about playing in Lovecraft's sandbox - and what a gloriously mad sandbox it is - is that you can't, in good conscience, only take the fantastic worldbuilding and ignore all the blatant racism and gynophobia. That stuff isn't an embarrassing but insignificant detail of HPL's work, it's spun into every thread it's made from, it's part of what makes it tick. So Johnson does the right thing here, letting her middle-aged professor with a wild past do battle not just with zoogs, ghouls and gugs, but in a more low-key way, with the fact that she's living in a world entirely dreamed up by vain, insecure men.
Which is fine. Honestly, it wouldn't have hurt if she'd taken that angle further. There are stretches here that just feel like sub-par HPL (funny thing; Johnson is a far better writer than HPL, which probably hurts the story when …
3.5/5. The thing about playing in Lovecraft's sandbox - and what a gloriously mad sandbox it is - is that you can't, in good conscience, only take the fantastic worldbuilding and ignore all the blatant racism and gynophobia. That stuff isn't an embarrassing but insignificant detail of HPL's work, it's spun into every thread it's made from, it's part of what makes it tick. So Johnson does the right thing here, letting her middle-aged professor with a wild past do battle not just with zoogs, ghouls and gugs, but in a more low-key way, with the fact that she's living in a world entirely dreamed up by vain, insecure men.
Which is fine. Honestly, it wouldn't have hurt if she'd taken that angle further. There are stretches here that just feel like sub-par HPL (funny thing; Johnson is a far better writer than HPL, which probably hurts the story when she doesn't go as BIG as Lovecraft), but the ending is glorious.