Rip-Off is a very interesting project. An anthology of 13 fantasy and sci-fi short stories starting from the challenge of ripping off their favorite opening line for a classic piece of fiction. For this review I’ll talk a bit about the ones that stood out to me more.
The stories included in Rip-Off! are:
- “Fireborn” by Robert Charles Wilson
- “The Evening Line” by Mike Resnick
- “No Decent Patrimony” by Elizabeth Bear
- “The Big Whale” by Allen M. Steele
- “Begone” by Daryl Gregory
- “The Red Menace” by Lavie Tidhar
- “Muse of Fire” by John Scalzi
- “Writer’s Block” by Nancy Kress
- “Highland Reel” by Jack Campbell
- “Karin Coxswain” or “Death as She Is Truly Lived” by Paul Di Filippo
- “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal
- “Every Fuzzy Beast of the Earth, Every Pink Fowl of the Air” by Tad Williams
- “Declaration” by James Patrick Kelly
As a bonus, the authors introduce their stories, explaining what they ripped-off – and why.
“Fireborn” by Robert Charles Wilson
This one is more on the fantasy side. I liked the writing, there’s a musicality that comes from a lot of repetition. It’s an alternate earth setting, where there are humans, and fireborn. The latter hold elaborate dance competitions to determine, well basically who gets a promotion. I thought it was an interesting concept.
“No Decent Patrimony” by Elizabeth Bear
This is one of those sci fi stories that is disturbing by how close to reality it hits. In the near future the 1% have discovered a process that keeps them young and healthy indefinitely. Of course it has to be restricted, can’t have everyone going around not getting old and dead. So the US falls into a geritocracy where the people in power have been there for over 150 years. The plot itself felt more like just a way to explore this idea.
“Begone” by Daryl Gregory
A fantasy story about a man trying to get back to his wife. What I liked about it was how it kept me interested to know where it would go.
“The Red Menace” by Lavie Tidhar
Weird af. It packed a lot of story into a few words, as the main character tells us about his entire life, from the moment it was changed by communist fighters from another planet. It’s an alternate history story beginning between the two world wars.
“Muse of Fire” by John Scalzi
I loved the ending, and the story is nice, I really can’t say more without spoilery spoilers.
“Writer’s Block” by Nancy Kress
This is possibly my favorite. It’s about a writer who has writer’s block and reads a bunch of tips for how to get over it. He tries starting a bunch of different stories with “It was a dark and stormy night, but it shouldn’t have been”. The lines between reality and imagination blur more and more throughout the story. It was bit hard to follow in audio, but very engaging.
“Highland Reel” by Jack Campbell
I just loved the narration on this one. It’s a fantasy tale set in the Highlands of Scotland in the 18th century. I think it did a great job of adapting to the length, it feels complete, with the beginning, ending and everything in between. There’s plenty of context and things wrap up nicely.
“The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal
Predictably, this was my favorite. I listened to The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky last month and they blew me away. This story is the original Lady Astronaut story, which is a bit weird as it takes place 30 years after the events of the novels. It’s still like seeing old friends, old in the literal sense too. I think it would be good even without knowing the context, and would serve as a good teaser for the series.
Bingo-squares:
short story, some of them fall firmly under retelling, but not all
I had to scramble to read another anthology for the 2019 bingo, because I ended up using my initial one, The Mage-Born Anthology by Kayleigh Nicol for the twins square.