1 – THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS – 7.75

Fast paced, interesting characters, and no wasted breaths on this collection of three short stories about twin planets. Reminds me of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress /Heinlein in general insofar as the SF setting does not overpower the plot. Yeah, they're on a different planet than Earth, but that's not why we care about the story. Good foreshadowing/storytelling mechanisms throughout Part 1 and then we get launched into a (seemingly) completely different story just when Section I is getting good!

2 – ‘A STORY,’ BY JOHN V. MARSCH - 7.5

Crazy pivot to the Abo's of the sister planet. Reminds me of like Jack Kerouac. (personally) on interested because I know that it ties into the bigger story being told, but again it's a pretty damn good story for itself. Harder to follow because of the primitive/'indigenous' vernacular, but then we get tapped back into the main story and it's like aw fuck let's go number 5

3 – V.R.T - 9

By God if that didn't just instantly jump the next Gene Wolfe book I can get my hands up to the top of my backlog. This wraps of the three novellas indicating that it's an anthropological SF mystery. John Marsch becomes one of the most fascinating characters I've ever read, if not bolstered by his humorously autistic/crazed tangents about the phrenology of women.

This chapter reads like a Gulag Archipelago speedrun and the narrative perspective(s) are so fucking cool: we learn about the author of the previous novella as told/read by the interrogation tapes of an officer reading his journal. So many juicy layers of story telling.

ALL TOGETHER

whatever the average of my three ratings of the novellas is, I'm adding a flat +1 for world building and storytelling. Crazy utility value for a book this brief. Ms. Steg would/probably does love this book – it's like a highbrow dense "classic" while still being accessible. It was so dank that I read it in two sittings and as soon as I finish writing my own (this) unsoured review I'm going to hit up JSTOR for analysis.

Pretty sure the first novella is Hell – and I'm still musing over the implications of what that means for the second two. Definitely some colonial overtones, and also kafkaesque prison-play in the third.

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