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Book Review: Metaphorosis: Best of 2017, Edited by B. Morris Allen
Metaphorosis Publishing (Feb, 2018)
Metaphorosis is an online magazine of science fiction and fantasy, and supported through Patreon. The stories are available exclusively on the website for first six months. This book Metaphorosis: Best of 2017, I got the digital ARC from Netgalley. This is an excellent anthology of short stories. Metaphorosis Publishing had previously also come out with Best of 2016, was equally good.
The kind of imagination and writing beautiful. While all these stories in this anthology are a charm to read, one I found exceptional – both in terms of simplicity and imagination.
The story is “Making the List” by David Hammond. It is about a person finding himself that he is not Homo Sapien, but a Neanderthal.
Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind, mentions that there were “at least six different species of man”, and continues to write, “It’s our current exclusivity, not that multi-species past, that is peculiar – and perhaps incriminating.”
In this context, “Making the List” gives many thoughts, particularly when the human society itself is divided in so many ethnicities, religions, languages, colours, castes, nationalities and many more – what would happen if we find that there is another specie of sapiens that exist among us? The story written in simple and elegant language deals with the issue as to how the society would react. How will we react? How will they react?
The amazing thing about the SFF genre is that it never fails to amaze. Whether it be “The door dilated” (Heinlein) or “The king was pregnant” (Ursula LeGuin), everytime one comes across the SFF stories, including the stories in this anthology, the grey cells of mind multiply.
Overall, an excellent book to read and have.
Copyright © Anup Mukherjee
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