The Distance Of The Moon ★★★☆☆
Italo Calvino
Genre(s) | Short Stories, Fiction, Space
Goodreads Rating | 3.96
Humpo Show Rating | 3.00
Published: 2018
Publisher: Penguin Modern
‘Time is a catastrophe, perpetual and irreversible.’
Science and fiction interweave delightfully in these playful Cosmicomic short stories.
We are introduced to our palindromic narrator Qfwfq in the first short story, The Distance of the Moon, where the story is based on the fact that the Moon used to be a lot closer to the Earth. It is a story of a love triangle between people that jump between the Earth and the Moon. The characters lacked depth and the plot was wafer thin, which left me feeling nothing when the final outcome of the story came about.
Without Colours is a unique story but the characters once again are under developed and the whole plot seems designed just for the final paragraph. We are told that in the beginning there was an atmosphere but everything was the same shade of grey. Qfwfq is delighted when colours suddenly appear, but it gets a much different reaction from his love interest, Ayl.
As Long as the Sun Lasts quite honestly bored me. It came across as nothing more than a couple’s bickering. Not much of a plot, and the characters were uninteresting.
And the final short story in this Penguin Modern collection was Implosion. I was pleasantly surprised that this would be the story that I would enjoy the most. Although the story itself didn’t quite grip me, but the writing style was more philosophical and fantastically eloquent. It made subject matter more interesting and a worthwhile read.
The Humpo Show | Richard
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