I had never read anything by Hannu Rajaniemi before I read this collection and I was a bit doubtful in the beginning because the two first stories didn't really rock my boat. Actually, I found myself a bit confused. It felt a bit like I had missed something and I had a bit of trouble understand what was going on. But by the third story, it started to get better.I will not list all the stories in this collection instead I thought I would mention some of them that were really memorable.The Hauntin...

~4.5Hannu Rajaniemi must be one of the most creative and ambitious science fiction writers in our era, and his imagination is fully displayed in the whimsical, imaginative, and often downright peculiar stories of the collection. In fact, to echo that motif, I'll start with the last two sections, in which his experimental streak is most prominent. The first, "Snow White is Dead," is intended to be an interactive neurofiction experience: machine learning algorithms used feedback from an electroenc...

I have always loathed the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Bleak, unhappy, and cold, they depressed me as a child, and I’m not a depressive person. True, that is painting with a broad brush, but you read “The Little Match Girl” and tell me I’m wrong. Even Andersen’s stories that are not overtly melancholy are full of the chill of the North; there is no brightness there. Much the same spirit permeates these short stories by Hannu Rajaniemi, a Finnish science fiction author. As with Anderso...

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I knew nothing about Hannu Rajaniemi prior to reading this. It showed up in my recommendations and I was in the mood for short stories, so I snagged it on a whim.Now that I'm done with it... I probably won't look for more by this author. It's fine, but it never got better than that. There's a mish-mash of genres here, from quantum physics to Finnish mythology (often within the same story, which sounds interesting but isn't really). As a collection, it's inconsistent, and I had a lot of trouble c...

Copy on hand (ebook) -- forgot I had it!Review to read: https://reiszwolf.wordpress.com/2015/...And Manuel Antaos's: http://manuelaantao.blogspot.com/2015...REVIEW and reading IN PROGRESSTOC & Stories info:http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?5...Deus Ex Homine (2005), short story. Wow, 2005! Killer story on godlike AIs on the loose in Scotland! Plus a pretty good romance. The cover girl is a high-tech fighter pilot in the God Wars. Rajaniemi is pretty clearly emulating KenMac & Charlie Stross, e...

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Neurofiction: “Hannu Rajaniemi: Collected Fiction” by Hannu Rajaniemi Contents, and in some instances, with some appropriate quotes for each short-story: 1 - Deus Ex Homine2 - The Server and the Dragon: “These days, the nerd rapture is like the flu: you can catch it. The godplague is a volition-bonding, recursively self-improving and self-replicating program.” Narrative taking place in the span of millennia and feeling like a dream-que...

I am so thrilled to be finally reading this book that I have to put in a disclaimer that I'm a huge fan of Mr. Rajaniemi. My expectations are set very high, and as a result, I'm worried that the readings will fall far below it. We'll see. I'll review stories as they affect me, and skip the ones that don't.Deus ex HomineIt's just a freaking short story, and yet I got enough info running through my head to make one hell of a great novel, including a blow-you-out-of-the-water feel-good ending. If t...

I love my cat.However, after reading Hannu Rajamieni’s Collected Fiction my cat and I have scheduled a performance meeting to set some new feline goals. In Rajanieni’s frenetically inventive universes a good cat is one that dons weapons and launches a combined real-world and virtual guerrilla campaign in aid of its embattled owner. Sadly, my lazy tabby shows no interest in coding, co-ordinating air support or mastering small arms.Anyway, my perpetually slumbering feline aside, if you’ve read The...

This one actually verges on 4 stars, but since I gave as many to The Quantum Thief, one of my favorite SF books for the last 10 years or so, it feels right to make explicit the difference between the two.*It’s hard to even begin to express how much of a Hannu Rajaniemi fan I am. I have reviewed his books before (here and here in English, and here and here in Bulgarian), journeying through them has always been electrifying. His fiction is a vortex where the science and strangeness of the future m...

A nice collection which could be a good introduction to Rajaniemi's work. Mainly science fiction with a splash of Finnish folklore thrown in, the book showcases a greater breadth to the author's talents than I'd expected, having only read one of his novels previously.*** Deus Ex HomineThe world is recovering (?) from an AI plague... Computing viruses symbiotically meshed with human intelligence, creating 'gods.'Now, a 'nerd' who was once a god and now relies on another kind of artificial symbion...

Usually with short fiction collections it's hard to rate as there are ups and downs, but this is almost entirely brilliant highs, so I would say this is a 4.5 collection over all. If you like weird SF (I would put most of this in new weird) and genre blending, this is a must read. My absolute faves were His Masters Voice (everyone go read this now!), Elegy for a Young Elk, Paris in Love, and Fisher of Men. Across many of these, but particularly in Elegy for a Young Elk, The Server and the Dragon...

HR has a truly weird and rich imagination: stories with servers and dragons, cats and dogs, evil babies, elements from Greek mythology and ‘Alice in wonderland’ (maybe) and many more, all entangled with very hard sci-fi concepts from quantum physics.After the first story, I found myself staring at the kindle with mouth open. After the second, I tried to calm my neurons which were screaming in distress. Tried two more after that and marked it as read. It’s like watching a very erudite and sophist...

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]A few months ago, I read Hannu Rajaniemi's first two installments of "The Quantum Thief": not so easy to follow novels, but unique in their own right, because of their fascinating blend of science and, dare I say, poetry.These short stories are a little easier to follow, while retaining this quality, as well as first sentences that almost always manage to pique my interest, combining as they do totally different elements. Ty...

Reading Hannu Rajaniemi inevitably makes me wish I was smarter. The science and physics in his novels usually have me pulling up Wikipedia for a crash course in string theory, quantum physics, entanglement, or something else my brain was previously unaware than I needed to know. Any other time, this kind of intense reading would put me off of an author, but Rajaniemi catapulted to near the top of my favorites with the release of his first novel, “The Quantum Thief.” It was a hard read, and a lot...

For my full review with detailed, longer reviews of each story in this anthology, go to my blogThis is Rajaniemi's second anthology after Words of Birth and Death's three stories. It collects his best-of stories, re-publishes stories that are not accessible anymore and brings three previously unpublished stories. Their length reach from twitter size to novelette, they are in the genres of SF and weird fiction.Considering that Rajaniemi published stories since some 10 years, one might get the imp...

A satisfying and eclectic collection of stories. There are a few recurring themes: dogs, social media and Finnish mythology. I was really looking forward to reading these stories and they didn't disappoint. I'm probably going to check out his novels in the future. Favourites:Invisible PlanetsHis Master's VoiceThe Oldest GameFisher of MenUnused Tomorrows and Other Stories

A truly eclectic and oft times bizarre collection of stories. Part surreal, part sublime, part cyberpunk - with some stories touching base with Finnish mythology/folklore and some stories having an almost light playful feel to them. There is even a sort of tribute to Calvino's Invisible Cities - but with planets which I found delightful (aptly titled "Invisible Planets"). The first few stories were a bit so-so for me, but it started picking up with "The Haunting of Apollo A7LB" - and then I real...

Netgalley - Anthology1. Deus Ex Homine I am not a Grateful Dead officiando but the line "What a long, strange trip it's been" seems apropos, especially toward the ending. **2. The Server and the Dragon. This story was kind of sweet and sad. Much better than the first one! Whew! ***I could not finish the rest of this book. Either I'm not high enough or I'm not intelligent enough for these stream of consciousness stories but they were not enjoyable at all to me.

Very few authors can put hard sf in a story without making it a boring science class or a pretentious show-off, and Rajaniemi is one of those chosen ones. You don’t feel dumb for not catching all those terms or weird names; in fact, they don’t really matter much, because they’re not the center of the story but an instrument when conveying big, complex concepts. I’ve been hearing about Rajaniemi for a long time, but the situation didn’t present itself for me to read one of his novels. Now that th...