It took me 620 days to read this collection cover-to-cover. Not because I didn't love it, but because it was hard to read, in the sort of way good beef jerky is hard to eat. To experience all the flavor, you have to rip a bit off and chew and chew and suck and suck and eventually, all the flavors come out and overwhelm your mouth and you'll love beef jerky your whole life but will never have two pieces that taste the same. This was that book. Lots of chewing. Lots of thinking. Lots of re-testing. Lots of head-scratching and Google search holes and late night conversations at the bar over cheap Screwdrivers.

In the end, I loved the flavor. Every bite was different and though I liked some more than others, the experience as a whole is one I'll never forget and will always treasure.

Read it. Definitely. But give yourself some time to appreciate the depth of flavor. ( )

Thank you to Catherynne M. Valente, Subterranean Press, and NetGalley for allowing me the extreme pleasure of access to an advanced reader copy of “The Future Is Blue” for an honest review.

Catherynne is one of my all time favorite authors, who I met as a teenager and can never leave, again, never could, would never want to. My heart and soul are entangled in between the words of her writings and the new lines, loves, worlds she spills out from her lips and fingertips every single time. This, again, was no surprise and no disappointment.

Everything was gorgeous and new in this collection. It was raw, rough, glorious, gorgeous in every direction as we spawned into futuristics worlds as of yet untouched and untapped. I loved see her turn her hand toward science-fiction, hard science, the blueing lines of emotions and connections between beings, again. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2018/11/review-of-future-is-blue-by-catherynne.... ( )

Catherynne Valente writes uphill stories so that you have to watch the text carefully for your next foothold or even handhold. And you don't always know where you've gotten but you're very aware of an interesting journey. Surreal and slyly humorous - my favorite moment was hexing 0110100011110 to get D1E, , stealing from all the best she's perfectly willing to paraphrase Tolkien or laugh at Lovecraft, but her stories are her own for sure. ( )

Valente is one of those authors who doesn’t tell you a story, she doesn’t even show you so much as she takes you on a journey. Chronology, perspective and language bend to her will, endowing her tales with a sense of playful wonder and knowing dread. The tones of the stories within differ widely, and genre is fluid both within and between tales, and something nearly laughed at in some cases. The underlying theme of the book (the future and our regard, or disregard for the consequences of our actions and their costs, or at least that’s what I saw) unifies the tales, without ever growing tired or overwrought. Not every tale in this collection worked for me, struck a note with me, but the ones that did hit me hard. No One Dies in Nowhere, The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek, and The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild each stopped me in my tracks, bade me put the book down for a big and just digest the glory of the story before moving on. I found myself going back and re-reading passages out loud to my cat, just to share with her some delightful turn of phrase, because that’s only polite to share good things with your cat. Also my roommate, whom I hoping will read this too so we can chat about it. There’s also a brilliant contrast between the tone of the first story, and the tone of the final story, which leaves the reader in a very different place indeed, than where we started. These stories were one hell of a journey.

Also, that cover art, shout out to the artist (Galen Dara), it's perfect! This is a book I want on my shelf from cover to final page. ( )