Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories eBook Naomi Kritzer
Download As PDF : Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories eBook Naomi Kritzer 
Eleven stories from acclaimed SF and fantasy author Naomi Kritzer, four of them previously unpublished
Brother Mac, You Are Healed!
St. Ailbe’s Hall
Gift of the Winter King
Magefire
Masks
Kin
The Price
In the Witch’s Garden
Darknight
The Manual
Kitchen Magic, With Recipes
Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories eBook Naomi Kritzer
This short fiction collection contains some of Naomi Kritzer’s short stories from 2011 or before. Unfortunately, I think I prefer her more recent short fiction. That said, I enjoyed seeing her progress as an author.A lot of the stories in the collection involve religion in some way, a theme she also explored in her lesbian YA fantasy novel Fires of the Faithful. This isn’t to say that the stories are didactic or preachy — they never are. Instead, they just sort of explore issues of faith and religion. The stories vary from a narrator who’s a Catholic priest to a narrator who’s a modern day pagan. One story, “The Manual,” is a script that re-imagines God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as a software engineer, manual writer, and human resources representative. In the titular story, “Gift of the Winter King,” a Christian missionary comes to a culture in the far north (is this after some apocalyptic event?) who worship the Winter King, a god of winter. The narrator is a girl of this culture who gets the missionary to teach her how to read and write. “Brother Mac, You Are Healed” is a very short story (flash fiction?) about a girl who discovers she can faith heal computers. It may have been one of my favorite of the collection — that concept is just wonderful!
If I had to chose one favorite story, I’d go with “St. Ailbe’s Hall,” which you can also read on Strange Horizon. This story posits a near future where genetic engineering has made genetically modified dogs common. More intelligent than regular dogs, these creatures preform various menial jobs from nannies to street sweepers. However, they don’t have any more rights than animals. Thus, when a dog wishes to join the Catholic church, it causes a huge fuss.
One of the other best stories of the collection is “In the Witch’s Garden,” a retelling of “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Anderson. It’s set in a dystopic future and follows a witch who adopts a little girl who leaves home looking for her friend. I enjoyed the setting a lot (the settlements of scientists who wear all white were particularly interesting) and would actually be interested in reading more stories set there. There were also a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming.
Three stories in the collection connect in some way to Fires of the Faithful. “Magefire” is the short story that turned into the novel. While I’m glad she decided to expand it, I think it works relatively well on its own. “Masks” follows the backstory of a minor character from the book (the protagonist’s music teach). He’s a gay man living secretly in a homophobic culture, and he’s finding out that his lover has some dark secrets. “Kin” takes place in the same world, although I didn’t recognize any of the characters. The protagonist is a mage who adopts a baby, even though she’s on the front lines of a war.
Other stories include “The Price,” a strange little tale about a murderer who can’t remember who she murdered; “Kitchen Magic, With Recipes,” the story of a lesbian witch trying to get her daughter back (the recipes she bakes as spells are included), and “Darknight,” which was really not very good. To be fair, it was written when Kritzer was a teenager. Hey, it shows how much she’s improved since then! And most of my problems with the story are noted by Kritzer herself in the afterwords.
While this collection wasn’t bad, I still feel like her best stories aren’t a part of this collection. If you’re looking to try out her short fiction, I’d suggest starting with “Cat Pictures Please,” the story of an AI who loves looking at cat pictures on the internet.
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Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories eBook Naomi Kritzer Reviews
I can't write well today but by tomorrow I'll have forgotten. Unusually, I liked every story, even the self maligned "Darknight" from when she was 15.
These are not simple stories. Some, like "St. Ailbe's Hall" and "Giftt of the Winterking" address religious practices and human reality. "Kin," "Kitchen Magic, with Recipes" and "In the Witches Garden" deal with family made, not born. Some are wrenching. Two, "Brother Mac" and "The Manual", will appeal to those who have slogged the trenches of the computer industry.
I'm usually glad of a short story collection because the format dictates that the tales are worked, reworked and polished. It gives me time in between to contemplate and savor each one (and run errands). These did not disappoint.
First off I'm not big on stories that use faith as a central part of the underlying plot to the story being told, however I had read a short story by the author, called "Scrap Dragon" and I had enjoyed it enough to give the author a chance. It was an inexpensive download so if I was disappointed then it wouldn't have been an expensive lesson. I did enjoy the book. Most of the stories were well developed and entertaining. Some even made you stop and think which I found interesting. Where the author introduced short stories related to her principal series of books, I found them out of context with the other stories in the collection. There was a feeling that you were missing something that you would have gotten if you had read her previous work. Still I enjoyed the twist in the title story 'Gift of the Winter King' enough to recommend the book to others with the understanding that it is nice read but not a stellar read.
There's nothing quite like that moment when you discover an author who you've never read before - and who turns out to be rather brilliant.
This was the first time I'd read anything by Naomi Kritzer - yes, yes, I'm late to the parade, I know, she did after all win the Hugo Award for best short story in 2016. Still, this was my first time reading her work. And it felt magical.
There's a delightful clarity in her writing. It's not overly weighed down with flowery description or laboured in any way. She just tells the tale, with a light, masterly touch.
The opening story is a great example - of a young woman who discovers the unusual ability to bring computers back from the dead. If I could borrow her for that dead laptop over there, I'd be happy to slip some money her way... but it's a fun tale, deftly handled and with a twist at the end that suddenly makes you sit up with an ooooh.
A couple of the stories riff off her work in her novels Fires of the Faithful and Turning the Storm. I've not read those - so a little of the impact of the stories here was perhaps lost on me, though the story Magefire stands on its own merit while having the feel of a marvellous Easter egg for readers of the novels.
There are a couple of pieces that didn't quite land with me - such as The Price and The Manual, but the latter particularly plays around with form in a way that might not have resonated with me but such experimentation is heartily to be encouraged.
There were two standout stories for me. In The Witch's Garden is a story in a fractured world filled with people with fractured minds, whose memories and minds have been tinkered with. There are artificially enhanced animals, and the story itself is a twisted version of the Snow Queen fairy tale, wrapped up with slavery and sadness, despair and, ultimately, hope. It's a thought provoking piece, and haunting.
As good as that is, it's surpassed by St Ailbe's Hall. Again, the artificially enhanced animals feature here - but more prominently, with an animal capable of walking and talking and having been rescued from its owners who used it for menial chores. The question at the heart of this story is what if that animal were to show up at church and ask to worship alongside the others in there who call themselves Christian. Faith is an issue that recurs in this collection - the title story also dwelling on the subject - but St Ailbe's Hall is a powerful tale told without preaching and exploring the issue of belief. It's worth the price of admission on its own.
All told, the collection is a solid four stars - but if you are a fan of Kritzer's novels, the tie-in value for some of the stories will add an extra star for you.
This short fiction collection contains some of Naomi Kritzer’s short stories from 2011 or before. Unfortunately, I think I prefer her more recent short fiction. That said, I enjoyed seeing her progress as an author.
A lot of the stories in the collection involve religion in some way, a theme she also explored in her lesbian YA fantasy novel Fires of the Faithful. This isn’t to say that the stories are didactic or preachy — they never are. Instead, they just sort of explore issues of faith and religion. The stories vary from a narrator who’s a Catholic priest to a narrator who’s a modern day pagan. One story, “The Manual,” is a script that re-imagines God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as a software engineer, manual writer, and human resources representative. In the titular story, “Gift of the Winter King,” a Christian missionary comes to a culture in the far north (is this after some apocalyptic event?) who worship the Winter King, a god of winter. The narrator is a girl of this culture who gets the missionary to teach her how to read and write. “Brother Mac, You Are Healed” is a very short story (flash fiction?) about a girl who discovers she can faith heal computers. It may have been one of my favorite of the collection — that concept is just wonderful!
If I had to chose one favorite story, I’d go with “St. Ailbe’s Hall,” which you can also read on Strange Horizon. This story posits a near future where genetic engineering has made genetically modified dogs common. More intelligent than regular dogs, these creatures preform various menial jobs from nannies to street sweepers. However, they don’t have any more rights than animals. Thus, when a dog wishes to join the Catholic church, it causes a huge fuss.
One of the other best stories of the collection is “In the Witch’s Garden,” a retelling of “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Anderson. It’s set in a dystopic future and follows a witch who adopts a little girl who leaves home looking for her friend. I enjoyed the setting a lot (the settlements of scientists who wear all white were particularly interesting) and would actually be interested in reading more stories set there. There were also a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming.
Three stories in the collection connect in some way to Fires of the Faithful. “Magefire” is the short story that turned into the novel. While I’m glad she decided to expand it, I think it works relatively well on its own. “Masks” follows the backstory of a minor character from the book (the protagonist’s music teach). He’s a gay man living secretly in a homophobic culture, and he’s finding out that his lover has some dark secrets. “Kin” takes place in the same world, although I didn’t recognize any of the characters. The protagonist is a mage who adopts a baby, even though she’s on the front lines of a war.
Other stories include “The Price,” a strange little tale about a murderer who can’t remember who she murdered; “Kitchen Magic, With Recipes,” the story of a lesbian witch trying to get her daughter back (the recipes she bakes as spells are included), and “Darknight,” which was really not very good. To be fair, it was written when Kritzer was a teenager. Hey, it shows how much she’s improved since then! And most of my problems with the story are noted by Kritzer herself in the afterwords.
While this collection wasn’t bad, I still feel like her best stories aren’t a part of this collection. If you’re looking to try out her short fiction, I’d suggest starting with “Cat Pictures Please,” the story of an AI who loves looking at cat pictures on the internet.
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