The Arbitrary Placement of Walls

By Martha Soukup

Book Overview

This collection of 17 stories puts together a solid case for Martha Soukup's preeminence among science fiction short story writers at the end of the 20th century. In her best efforts, such as "Living... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0963094483
• ISBN13: 9780963094483
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Dreamhaven
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Let's not forget the Nebula winner

"The Story So Far" is indeed superlative, but let's also not forget to mention that this collection includes the three stories that were nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula, not to mention the one that *won* the Nebula -- "A Defense of the Social Contracts" -- a beautiful piece of social extrapolation that first appeared in the magazine Science Fiction Age. It's a collection very worth having.

The Most (but not the most recent) of Soukup

I was a bit disappointed that "The Arbitrary Placement of Walls" did not contain two of Soukup's stories from 1996: "Sweet Bells Jangled" and "Waking Beauty." I could have forgone some of the early tales for those. As it is, the volume contains nearly all of Soukup's fiction published through early 1996; only two of the three published in the chapbook "Rosemary's Brain" are omitted. Some of the stories seem to me oversimilar in tone and theme (and, yes, including "Sweet Bells Jangled" and "Waking Beauty" would have intensified this), but the overall quality is high. "The Story So Far" is indeed Soukup's best to date, with "Jones and the Stray" and the very funny "Good Girl, Bad Dog" also memorable.