An intimate first flight of short fiction from award-winning novelist Jo Walton (Among Others, The King's Peace).
A strange Eritrean coin travels from lovers to thieves, gathering stories before meeting its match. Google becomes sentient and proceeds toward an existential crisis. An idealistic dancer on a generation ship makes an impassioned plea for creativity and survival. Three Irish siblings embark on an unlikely quest, stealing enchanted items via bad poetry, trickery, and an assist from the Queen of Cats.
With these captivating initial glimpses into her storytelling psyche, Jo Walton shines through subtle myths and wholly reinvented realities. Through eclectic stories, subtle vignettes, inspired poetry, and more, Walton soars with humans, machines, and magic—rising from the everyday into the universe itself.
Industry Reviews
Praise for Starlings
A Verge Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book You'll Want to Read in January
A Chicago Tribune New Short Story Collection Worth Reading
A Barnes & Noble Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Book of January 2018
An Unbound Worlds Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book of February 2018
A B&N Favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2018
Locus Recommended Reading List
"Starlings isn't really a short-story collection. It's something better: a written showreel, illustrating yet again that [Walton's] imagination stretches to the stars (or the starlings), and that she's endlessly inventive in finding new methods to express it."
-NPR Books
"Starlings is a showcase of Jo Walton's diverse talents-a collection too varied to be summed up in a few words. From fairytale fantasy to hard science fiction, from laugh-aloud play script to finely crafted poetry, with a writing experiment or two thrown in, Starlings should delight Walton's existing fans and garner many new ones."
-Juliet Marillier, author of Daughter of the Forest
"Stephen King once wrote that 'a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger'-that is, sudden, pleasant, mysterious, dangerous and exiting-and the collected short fiction of Jo Walton is exemplary of the principle."
-Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother
"Displays Walton's formidable erudition, and her fascination with the various forms stories can take . . . Starlings as a whole may be the most interesting anatomy of that imagination than we've yet seen in one volume."
-Locus
"Jo Walton's short writings have for decades been among the things that make the Internet worthwhile. She makes science fiction illuminate life. This collection lives up to its title: iridescent, dark, gregarious, talkative and ever ready to fly up."
-Ken MacLeod, author of Newton's Wake and the Corporation Wars series
"Walton's diverse collection of stories and poems sparkles with originality and fun. The joy of this book will linger with me for a while."
-Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger
"Jo Walton's delightful collection, Starlings, runs the gamut from homemade fairy tales to hard-boiled cloned-Jesus detectives (just wait for the shaggy dog); to a play with figures out of Irish myth, and a talking dragon; to a selection of her fantastic poems. It's the kind of collection you can glide through, often while laughing out loud."
-Gregory Frost, author of Shadowbridge
"One of the things I love about Walton's work is her range of human possibility, from laughter to horror, but above all a reveling in profligate beauty. This collection celebrates the best in the human spirit."
-Sherwood Smith, author of Rebel and Revenant Eve
"Reading this collection felt like watching a wizard at the cauldron having fun with new spells . . . I recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys fantasy, Jo Walton's previous works, or wants to try shorter works before committing to longer ones."
-Infinite Text
"This collection of fiction and poetry from Hugo- and Nebula-winner Walton (The Just City) showcases her trademark focus on genre and philosophical questions . . . fans of the [short] form will have plenty to appreciate."
-Publishers Weekly
"I recommend Starlings to lovers of science fiction and fantasy who want bite-sized pieces to enjoy and savor. It's an eclectic mix of themes and tones, some humorous and some dark, that will keep you guessing."
-Den of Geek
"As varied, as skilled, as intriguing as her novels, this is a stunning collection of stories, vignettes, poetry and more."
-Best Science Fiction Books
"Coupled with Walton's frank self-assessments, the collection offers an incredible sense of intimacy. It's the closest we'll come to understanding how Jo Walton's dizzying writer's mind ticks along, and how her imagination flows. It's a rare opportunity, to peek in on the inventor in her workshop. Starlings is revelatory not only as a collection of fiction, but as a sort of biography of the process of writing itself. Fascinating."
-Barnes and Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
"Sharp, focused, and fresh."
-Geek Dad
"5/5 stars. There wasn't anything that I didn't like about [Starlings]. It ticked all boxes for me."
-The Misadventures of a Reader
"A wild and wonderful imagination at work."
-Emerald City Book Review
"A master class in studying technique, form, and ending stories with zingers."
-Lightspeed
"This prolific writer can indeed write great stories in a wide range of topics and tones."
-Smithereens
Praise for Jo Walton
On Necessity
"Brilliant, compelling, and, frankly, unputdownable." NPR
"As before, Walton has done a superb job of world building and character development, giving readers a novel that both stimulates and satisfies." Booklist, starred review
"There's more substance here than in many actual philosophy books." Romantic Times
On Among Others
"A wonder and a joy." New York Times
"Never deigning to transcend the genre to which it is clearly a love letter, this outstanding (and entirely teen-appropriate) tale draws its strength from a solid foundation of sense-of-wonder and what-if." Publishers Weekly, starred review
"There are the books you want to give all your friends, and there are the books you wish you could go back and give your younger self. And then there's the rare book, like Jo Walton's Among Others, that's both." io9
On The King's Peace
"The King's Peace is the novel that The Mists of Avalon should have been." Debra Doyle, author of School of Wizardry
"Walton writes with an authenticity that never loses heart, a rare combination in a genre where we are so often offered one or the other." Robin Hobb, author of Assassin's Apprentice
"There is not an ill-written sentence . . . Never lacks immediacy or loses its historical quality." VOYA>
