I read all of Mohamed's 2021 novellas and her first two novels in December-January, so clearly her voice works for me! "These Lifeless Things" was actually my favorite, although the general public seems to agree with you -- "The Annual Migration of Clouds" and "And What Can We Offer You Tonight?" both got more awards attention.
I don't know if I can explain why the future section worked for me, both because my memory is a bit blurry and because I just ... didn't question it? The future section's general avoidance of/distrust of the accounts of the past honestly seemed like a perfectly realistic trauma reaction to me, especially since it's clear most of the survivors never had any clear idea of what was attacking them and didn't get very clear accounts from the survivors who most closely escaped. It didn't seem to me that anyone disbelieved a catastrophe had happened, only that it was basically a magical Lovecraftian invasion, rather than say something caused by secret experiments or climate change. Climate change does seem pertinent to me, possibly because it looms so big in Mohamed's other work; deniers' refusal to acknowledge or understand a complicated reality, especially when it is outside their personal control, seems relevant even if there aren't massively powerful institutions deliberately spreading misinformation. The whole hard science vs. soft science split (and the bias against "soft" sciences) seemed very plausible, the remnants of intellectual hierarchies still affecting people long after the initial conditions producing the hierarchies are gone.
Anyway, Mohamed announced on Twitter that she sold two sequels to "The Annual Migration of Clouds", so you will get more of that world! I got the impression that one will focus on Henryk and one on Reid, but that may be wrong.
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Date: 2022-06-19 12:31 am (UTC)I read all of Mohamed's 2021 novellas and her first two novels in December-January, so clearly her voice works for me! "These Lifeless Things" was actually my favorite, although the general public seems to agree with you -- "The Annual Migration of Clouds" and "And What Can We Offer You Tonight?" both got more awards attention.
I don't know if I can explain why the future section worked for me, both because my memory is a bit blurry and because I just ... didn't question it? The future section's general avoidance of/distrust of the accounts of the past honestly seemed like a perfectly realistic trauma reaction to me, especially since it's clear most of the survivors never had any clear idea of what was attacking them and didn't get very clear accounts from the survivors who most closely escaped. It didn't seem to me that anyone disbelieved a catastrophe had happened, only that it was basically a magical Lovecraftian invasion, rather than say something caused by secret experiments or climate change. Climate change does seem pertinent to me, possibly because it looms so big in Mohamed's other work; deniers' refusal to acknowledge or understand a complicated reality, especially when it is outside their personal control, seems relevant even if there aren't massively powerful institutions deliberately spreading misinformation. The whole hard science vs. soft science split (and the bias against "soft" sciences) seemed very plausible, the remnants of intellectual hierarchies still affecting people long after the initial conditions producing the hierarchies are gone.
Anyway, Mohamed announced on Twitter that she sold two sequels to "The Annual Migration of Clouds", so you will get more of that world! I got the impression that one will focus on Henryk and one on Reid, but that may be wrong.