3 on Metamorphosis

 kw: story reviews, science fiction, fantasy, metamorphosis, coming of age, anthologies

Last evening I finished reading The Best of World SF, Volume 1, edited by Lavie Tidhar. The three stories that end the book have a common theme one could call either Metamorphosis or Coming of Age.

"The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir" by Kevin Tidbeck. Skidbladnir is a hermit crab. A big one, that needs not a snail shell for a home but a skyscraper. It is also an interstellar traveler. People have learned to communicate with these crabs for the sake of interstellar commerce. I am not sure what the crabs get from it. Skidbladnir is outgrowing its "shell", and needs help to locate a bigger one.

"Prime Meridian" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A woman down on her luck, in a dystopia where that is the usual lot, is portrayed very evocatively, by an author who somehow kept my interest, even while evoking someone skirting the edge of chronic depression. When opportunity arises, the woman grows to the challenge. Some caterpillars take a lot longer than others to turn into a butterfly.

"If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" by Zen Cho. A fantasy tale of an immense snake turning into a dragon...after a few tries. It's hard to say more without giving much too much away.

I am quite pleased that of 26 stories, only one had to be skipped, and for well over half I said to myself, "I'm glad I read that."