Book Review - Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction From Ukraine & The Diaspora

I don't usually back Kickstarter campaigns - but I love sci-fi & fantasy, and I don't think I've previously read any from Ukraine. So this was an instant buy - and it is a delight.

As with any translation, you have to accept that the phrasing may sound a little "foreign" and you won't immediately get all the idioms and references - but that's all part of the fun, right?

A tiny drumming sound grew alongside him, like chubby old fingers on glass, like rain on a coffin. He would here die, too, somewhere underneath living cities too large and important to bow down and take a look.

There's a gorgeous mix of folk-sci-fi and techno-fantasy. What ethereal creatures live in the nuclear ruins of Чорнобиль? What ancient customs need to be followed in the future? What sacrifices will we need to make in order to colonise other planets? What are the ethics of having sex with tentacled aliens on shore-leave?

A lot of the stories have an undercurrent of war - and there's a dose of futuristic wish fulfilment. I particularly like some of the riffs on classic sci-fi stories. This from Anatoly Belilovsky is excellent:

“Are you going to chug the wine?” said the corkscrew.
He looked around, opened a cabinet, selected a glass.
“That’s a white wine glass,” said the corkscrew.
“So?” he said.
“The volatile scents won’t be properly concentrated,” said the corkscrew. “It will interfere with the proper enjoyment of the wine.”

Some of the stories are micro-fiction, some are grim body horror, all are excellent.