While science fiction isn’t typically my genre of choice. It is not about the choice or interest. It is about the patience to grasp the full potention of the fiction and create a scene in mind. I may not have that expertise and patience.
I purchased this short story collection for Kannan. Upon reading it, I found that some of the stories were too complex for me to fully grasp, while others felt excessively localized. However, there were also several stories that I thoroughly enjoyed.
When authors are required to write stories that are bound to a specific location, they often use localized names for characters and venues. Unfortunately, such stories often fail to make a lasting impact and fade away over time. Some of the stories in this collection, Launch Pad, seemed to fall into this category.
I attended the book release function for this collection and was curious to read the science fiction stories. One of the challenges that science fiction writers face is that science has already advanced so much beyond the fictional boundaries within which they operate. This was something that struck me when I watched James Bond movies and was amazed by the futuristic technology. Though I recall getting excited about the sci-fi comics in Rani Comics during my childhood, we now live in a world where driverless trains and automatic buses are commonplace. (except in Chennai Metro where they still use outdated technology and take pride in it). I could realize that the author tried her best to surpass this difficulty.
There were several stories in this collection that captured my attention. ‘Tan Swee Nee, Barber’ was particularly frightening, while ‘Case Study: Training Programme’ surprised me with its use of Tamil words like ‘Thaai’ and ‘Thanthai’, which are typically replaced by ‘Amma’ and ‘Appa’. Tamil is a complex language with many idiosyncrasies that can be difficult for non-native speakers to navigate.
Launch Pad is a collection of 13 science fiction short stories set in Singapore, written by Shelly Bryant, a poet, writer, and translator. Her mastery of language is evident in all the stories, and this is her first fiction collection.
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This post is part of Blogchatter’s WRITE A PAGE A DAY 2023 campaign.
Kannan and I went to Singapore Writers Festival today at the Arts house, here in Singapore. In the previous year, I had attended this event in 2015, in which I had a chance to listen to a panel discussion that involves novelist Jeyamohan and lyricist Na Muthukumar. (It was first and last time meeting Na. Mu)
