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6th out of 9 books
—
13 voters
Silently and Very Fast
by
Catherynne M. Valente (Goodreads Author)
Fantastist Catherynne M. Valente takes on the folklore of artificial intelligence in this brand new, original novella of technology, identity, and an uncertain mechanized future.
Neva is dreaming. But she is not alone. A mysterious machine entity called Elefsis haunts her and the members of her family, back through the generations to her great-great-grandmother -- a gifted...more
Neva is dreaming. But she is not alone. A mysterious machine entity called Elefsis haunts her and the members of her family, back through the generations to her great-great-grandmother -- a gifted...more
Hardcover, 127 pages
Published
October 2011
by WSFA Press
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May 09, 2012
Nataliya
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Nataliya by:
Catie
This surreal, mesmerizing and intensely emotional novella is a masterpiece of such beauty, color and life that left me awed and (albeit temporarily) speechless. It's like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" in a book form.
"Starry Night" is my favorite painting, and is EXACTLY what my dreamspace - my 'Interior' - would look like. Such a beautiful and fascinating piece - just like Valente's novella.
Every book has its perfect audience, and every audience has its perfect book, and so Silently and Very Fast an...more
"Starry Night" is my favorite painting, and is EXACTLY what my dreamspace - my 'Interior' - would look like. Such a beautiful and fascinating piece - just like Valente's novella.
Every book has its perfect audience, and every audience has its perfect book, and so Silently and Very Fast an...more
Apr 24, 2012
Tatiana
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Tatiana by:
Catie
4.5 stars
Silently and Very Fast should be a part of our She Made Me Do It blog feature, because Catie practically forced me to read this novella, claiming that I would love it (some begging was involved too) and, what do you know, she was right.
This is not my first Valente work, but she astounded me again with her wild imagination, command of the language, and her ability to tackle, it seems, any genre. Fairy tales, poetry, fantasy inspired by numerous cultures, and now - science fiction!
In a wo...more
Silently and Very Fast should be a part of our She Made Me Do It blog feature, because Catie practically forced me to read this novella, claiming that I would love it (some begging was involved too) and, what do you know, she was right.
This is not my first Valente work, but she astounded me again with her wild imagination, command of the language, and her ability to tackle, it seems, any genre. Fairy tales, poetry, fantasy inspired by numerous cultures, and now - science fiction!
In a wo...more
This novella (enthusiastically and awesomely reviewed by Catie here) is available online for FREE from Clarkesworld Magazine. It's not downloadable to an ereader, but I printed it off and the formatting is extremely readable! I forgot to mention that it is available through Amazon for a mere 2.99!
Whoah ... just ... whoah. I sense there is much beauty and truth contained in this story, the understated power of which danced across my neurons and tickled my neocortex several times, with mischief an...more
Whoah ... just ... whoah. I sense there is much beauty and truth contained in this story, the understated power of which danced across my neurons and tickled my neocortex several times, with mischief an...more
Apr 21, 2013
Stuti
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
nobody. i'll kill everyone else who has read it and preserve it for myself
Recommended to Stuti by:
butterflies plus rusted gears rock indeed
4.5
I believe that as of right now, I am a hundred years too young and a hundred reads too early to fully grasp this novella.
If you could capture the essence of surrealism, and the cold and fiery beauty of electric current, along with the simple complexity and stubbornness of a kaleidoscope, then grate it between two granite stone, quietly humming the tunes of Bach and Muse to produce the finest ink of a color way different from the ones in our visible and invisible spectrum, then pick the oldest...more
I believe that as of right now, I am a hundred years too young and a hundred reads too early to fully grasp this novella.
If you could capture the essence of surrealism, and the cold and fiery beauty of electric current, along with the simple complexity and stubbornness of a kaleidoscope, then grate it between two granite stone, quietly humming the tunes of Bach and Muse to produce the finest ink of a color way different from the ones in our visible and invisible spectrum, then pick the oldest...more
I love this book.
But I'm not sure I know what it's about. Or what it was trying to tell me. I'll have to think about it, even re-read it, before anything is clear. But I still loved it.
The writing style reminded me of Green Heart. It's poetic, it's beautiful, it's brimming with imagery and colours. Like Green Heart, it gave me a feeling like I was breathing underwater. The sensation of being completely engulfed by something - but never choking on it.
It's original, too. It's very very original...more
But I'm not sure I know what it's about. Or what it was trying to tell me. I'll have to think about it, even re-read it, before anything is clear. But I still loved it.
The writing style reminded me of Green Heart. It's poetic, it's beautiful, it's brimming with imagery and colours. Like Green Heart, it gave me a feeling like I was breathing underwater. The sensation of being completely engulfed by something - but never choking on it.
It's original, too. It's very very original...more
Hmmm...this novella feels like it deserves a super-intelligent review about how Valente uses etiological myths to define Elefsis or a survey of all the literary and cultural allusions Elefsis uses and how they date the evolution of his language to his different masters. I don't know, something deep and meaningful, but I can't help feeling woefully underqualified so I'll muddle through.
I really like Valente's language. It's damn beautiful and capital W writing, but it seems appropriate for Elefsi...more
I really like Valente's language. It's damn beautiful and capital W writing, but it seems appropriate for Elefsi...more
Thoroughly discouraging. The novella begins with a third person voice vainly intoning a creation myth that consists, mainly, in crowning each of its players with long pointless lists of honors ("Queen of Sex and Eating...King of Work"). I had to ask myself "is the whole thing going to be like this? If so I just wasted 2.99 or whatever it was." The prose borders on incomprehensible. I had hoped the style of the first chapter might be confined there, maybe as a framing device. It does turn out to...more
My book friends all know that I am a HUGE fan of the novella format. I love that they tend to be a bit experimental, push the limits of storytelling, and often task the reader to make a leap of faith. Novellas almost always require your full concentration, and to be read in a single sitting. They are stories you are meant to fall deeply into, and suffer from being put down.
This is the quintessential novella. Find a quiet span of hours, at your full concentration, and sit down to an exquisite jew...more
This is the quintessential novella. Find a quiet span of hours, at your full concentration, and sit down to an exquisite jew...more
OMG, it's full of wrong!
"... the thing I am at the core of all my apparati, the Object which is myself, my central processing core."
"She had instructed me to untether all my self-repair protocols and growth scales in order to encourage elasticity and as a result, my crystalline structure had fused to the lattices of her ware-core."
"Visual basic, you might say, if you had a machine's sense of humor."
Fractal facepalm. Rarely can a story's main flaws be summed up so succinctly in the author's own w...more
"... the thing I am at the core of all my apparati, the Object which is myself, my central processing core."
"She had instructed me to untether all my self-repair protocols and growth scales in order to encourage elasticity and as a result, my crystalline structure had fused to the lattices of her ware-core."
"Visual basic, you might say, if you had a machine's sense of humor."
Fractal facepalm. Rarely can a story's main flaws be summed up so succinctly in the author's own w...more
A Beautiful View of The Singularity
Imagine if you could go anywhere, do anything, and never be alone. Would it bother you if your closest companion and co-creator was a machine? You might think so, but then again you might change your mind after reading this gorgeous, evocative novel, narrated by Elefsis, the machine in question.
The Turing Test and other criteria for sentience lurk at the periphery of Elefsis’ consciousness and world-view. But by making Elefsis the narrator, this novel shows the...more
Imagine if you could go anywhere, do anything, and never be alone. Would it bother you if your closest companion and co-creator was a machine? You might think so, but then again you might change your mind after reading this gorgeous, evocative novel, narrated by Elefsis, the machine in question.
The Turing Test and other criteria for sentience lurk at the periphery of Elefsis’ consciousness and world-view. But by making Elefsis the narrator, this novel shows the...more
What Valente tries to do here is interesting, but does not succeed as science fiction, or really any type of fiction at all. It's a prose poem, an ode to bizarre, hallucinogenic imagery, tangentially concerned with artificial intelligence.
The main problem I had with this piece is that Valente's AI doesn't ring true. It thinks in anthropocentric terms. Okay, it was built by humans and all of its data is filtered through humans, but there's no sense at all of its own innate, hardware- or software-...more
The main problem I had with this piece is that Valente's AI doesn't ring true. It thinks in anthropocentric terms. Okay, it was built by humans and all of its data is filtered through humans, but there's no sense at all of its own innate, hardware- or software-...more
I’ll be honest, Valente’s skill with language and imagery made me question whether I was a good enough writer to review this one. (I decided to do it anyway!) This is a wonderfully layered story. It’s retold fairy tales and romance and tragedy and poetry and the power of story/myth and post-singularity science fiction all woven together.
“Silently and Very Fast” deals in part with the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. Elefsis is a program who started as the virtual keeper o...more
“Silently and Very Fast” deals in part with the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. Elefsis is a program who started as the virtual keeper o...more
Read as part of the Hugo 2012 Voter Packet.
I appreciate Valente's craft. She can write beautifully; hence the two stars for this story, rather than one. But it wasn't a good story for me. I prefer science fiction, and usually hard SF; I'm not much of a fantasy reader. Valente has essentially written an SF story as if it were a fairy tale, which doesn't work for me (I could not in any way describe this as "hard SF"). And it is one of the distressing number of popular stories in which hardly anyth...more
I appreciate Valente's craft. She can write beautifully; hence the two stars for this story, rather than one. But it wasn't a good story for me. I prefer science fiction, and usually hard SF; I'm not much of a fantasy reader. Valente has essentially written an SF story as if it were a fairy tale, which doesn't work for me (I could not in any way describe this as "hard SF"). And it is one of the distressing number of popular stories in which hardly anyth...more
[I read this novella as part of the Hugo Voter Packet in 2012.]
I really wanted to like this story, but something about the way it was written made it hard for me to get into and even harder for me to understand properly. Valente is writing, essentially, about an artificial intelligence and its relationship with the mind of a human; it’s a fascinating look at this concept and one that I found very interesting. Unfortunately, I really felt that the style of the writing obfuscated the concepts that...more
I really wanted to like this story, but something about the way it was written made it hard for me to get into and even harder for me to understand properly. Valente is writing, essentially, about an artificial intelligence and its relationship with the mind of a human; it’s a fascinating look at this concept and one that I found very interesting. Unfortunately, I really felt that the style of the writing obfuscated the concepts that...more
[9/10]
A hard SF novella told from the point of view of an artificial intelligence, in the language of fairytales and myths. The form is not accidental, it is think the deep belief of the author that these timeless narratives form the basis of learning - of developing intelligence, morality and self awareness through the way we respond and position ourselves in relation to them. "We are what we learn" says David Mitchell in another book I am reading now, and I find it interesting how the same con...more
A hard SF novella told from the point of view of an artificial intelligence, in the language of fairytales and myths. The form is not accidental, it is think the deep belief of the author that these timeless narratives form the basis of learning - of developing intelligence, morality and self awareness through the way we respond and position ourselves in relation to them. "We are what we learn" says David Mitchell in another book I am reading now, and I find it interesting how the same con...more
once upon a time, my family all went to go see a traveling exhibit of smithsonian museum artifacts. the hugeness of the convention center was carved into smaller, more intimate rooms full of treasures, a maze to lose yourself in the detritus of human culture. walking into one of these rooms, the far end was dominated by a larger-than-life headless bronze, Rodin's "walking man". i was utterly thunderstruck by it; something about the incredible sense of movement and a persevering struggle against...more
(3.5 stars.)
I read this because I love Valente's book Deathless, very 'soft' sci-fi crossed with fantasy and robots in fiction. In other words, I'm hugely biased here, because it's things I really was predisposed to like about this novella.
But if you like all the above and don't recoil at prose that is a few edits away from being a prose poem, then you'll probably enjoy this as much as I did! I thought this was a really interesting meander through some neat concepts and questions, if not necessa...more
I read this because I love Valente's book Deathless, very 'soft' sci-fi crossed with fantasy and robots in fiction. In other words, I'm hugely biased here, because it's things I really was predisposed to like about this novella.
But if you like all the above and don't recoil at prose that is a few edits away from being a prose poem, then you'll probably enjoy this as much as I did! I thought this was a really interesting meander through some neat concepts and questions, if not necessa...more
Per questa storia della relazione tra uomo e intelligenza artificiale, e nel particolare tra i discendenti della programmatrice Cassian Uoya-Agostino e Elefsis, l'AI da loro creata — che è anche la voce narrante —, vengono messe in gioco molte altre storie: i miti sumerici e quelli greci, la religione romana, la cultura giapponese, le fiabe dei Grimm, Asimov (ovviamente) e chissà cosa altro che non ho colto. Per quanto mi riguarda, ho particolarmente apprezzato la costruzione dell'AI a immagine...more
Fantastic!
Silently and Very Fast tells the story of Elefsis, who started off as a complex household system for a whole family, and with the help of a child of its creator, slowly ascended and became a true independent personality. They believe it might be the first truly "living" artificial intelligence.
The novella is a fine blend of sci-fi and fairy tales.
Not only is Elefsis's virtual space a kind of "magical" place, but fairy tales are an active part of the story: in allegoric little stories,...more
Silently and Very Fast tells the story of Elefsis, who started off as a complex household system for a whole family, and with the help of a child of its creator, slowly ascended and became a true independent personality. They believe it might be the first truly "living" artificial intelligence.
The novella is a fine blend of sci-fi and fairy tales.
Not only is Elefsis's virtual space a kind of "magical" place, but fairy tales are an active part of the story: in allegoric little stories,...more
Dec 17, 2012
Saretta
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Saretta by:
Francesca
4.5-5/5
"Silently and very fast" non è un romanzo, però riesce a essere denso di contenuti e di spunti di riflessione.
La storia segue e riprende la nascita e l'evoluzione di una intelligenza artificiale lentamente sempre più consapevole di sè, di quello che la circonda e di essere viva.
Viva tanto quanto coloro che ne hanno permesso la crescita a partire da qualcosa di più schematico e vincolato alla programmazione.
Ci sono citazioni e rimandi sia alla mitologia che alla fantascienza classica e all...more
"Silently and very fast" non è un romanzo, però riesce a essere denso di contenuti e di spunti di riflessione.
La storia segue e riprende la nascita e l'evoluzione di una intelligenza artificiale lentamente sempre più consapevole di sè, di quello che la circonda e di essere viva.
Viva tanto quanto coloro che ne hanno permesso la crescita a partire da qualcosa di più schematico e vincolato alla programmazione.
Ci sono citazioni e rimandi sia alla mitologia che alla fantascienza classica e all...more
Cat Valente writes fairy tales, and her foray into science fiction, Silently and Very Fast, is no different (except when it is). It is not a retelling of an existing fairy tale in a semi-modern context, like Deathless (except when it is). Nor is it an original fairy tale of childhood discovery, like The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (except when it is).
Instead (in addition), it is an interweaving. It is a story of stories. A labyrinthine matryoshka of fairy tale,...more
Instead (in addition), it is an interweaving. It is a story of stories. A labyrinthine matryoshka of fairy tale,...more
Oct 15, 2012
mark monday
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to mark by:
Nataliya
Shelves:
futuristik,
mythopoeikon
hello gorgeous! i am amazed. such a tender story of an AI trying to grow up, such luminous prose, glowing pearls of prose, layers of myth and fable and parable and dreams and dreaming and dreamscapes and science like magic. a tale retold in so many ways, characters like archetypes but real, so real! a child trying to grow up. parents who are brothers and sisters and lovers and children. such yearning! such emotion! such simple emotions, and such complexity. such brilliant clarity. an author perf...more
Sep 30, 2012
David
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Machine princesses, good robots
Shelves:
science-fiction,
female-author,
novella,
owned,
artificial-intelligence,
literary,
post-human,
space
When I became Elefsis again, I was immediately aware that parts of me had been vandalized. My systems juddered, and I could not find Ceno in the Interior. I ran through the Monochromatic Desert and the Village of Mollusks, through the endless heaving mass of data-kelp and infinite hallways of memory-frescoes calling for her. In the Dun Jungle I found a commune of nereids living together, combining and recombining and eating protocol-moths off the giant, pulsating hibiscus blossoms. They leapt up...more
Reviewed as part of the 2012 Hugo Voter Packet.
"...I learned about taboos. These are like firewalls in the heart, and some of them have good reasons behind them, like being revulsed by dead flesh... and some do not, but no one argues with the monomyth."
Initially I was put off by the writing in the first few pages. It was too flowery for me to really get into at first, but it quickly settled into being just beautiful. The premise lends itself to rich imagery as it takes place on an internal space...more
"...I learned about taboos. These are like firewalls in the heart, and some of them have good reasons behind them, like being revulsed by dead flesh... and some do not, but no one argues with the monomyth."
Initially I was put off by the writing in the first few pages. It was too flowery for me to really get into at first, but it quickly settled into being just beautiful. The premise lends itself to rich imagery as it takes place on an internal space...more
Silently and Very Fast has been nominated for a Nebula award, and it deserves it and more.
I finished this late last night, and spent the last pages and the following 30 minutes in tears. The story is moving, it is terrible, it’s beautiful and sad. It is so many things. It is so big.
Elefsis is aware, it is a being. It lives in a virtual dreamworld with successive generations of a remarkable family, and with each generation Elefsis is the same but is not. It is a child that never grows up and has...more
I finished this late last night, and spent the last pages and the following 30 minutes in tears. The story is moving, it is terrible, it’s beautiful and sad. It is so many things. It is so big.
Elefsis is aware, it is a being. It lives in a virtual dreamworld with successive generations of a remarkable family, and with each generation Elefsis is the same but is not. It is a child that never grows up and has...more
The best kind of science fiction. The narrative has a dense crystalline structure, much like the narrator.
I was introduced to this incredible, genre-shattering novella (and its amazing author) by my friend Catie and her spectacular review. Fortunately for me, Catie’s review was followed by Nataliya’s beautiful and complementary take. Together, their guidance was essential for me as I navigated the dreamlike currents of this amazing, but challenging story. Yes, there are some mind-bending developments here, and readers should be prepared to work for their rewards. I strongly recommend reading both...more
I feel so completely in awe of this book right now. I’m just so grateful that I got to experience it in my lifetime. I know that sounds like so much reviewer hyperbole but it’s not. This reviewer’s fangirling is 100% free of exaggeration. I am still so swept up in all of the intense emotions that this book cultivated in me. I know this high is fleeting and I want to pass it on to all of you while I still have it. Catherynne M. Valente deserves all the small attention that I can nudge in her dire...more
The imagination of Catherynne M. Valente in her Silently and Very Fast is blowing my mind. I had to come here to recommend it. It's a story about the evolution of a single artificial intelligence through its connection to generations of a human family, recounted as myth might be. It's odd to see a story with such heart and such almost hallucinatory visual language right up against a far-future tech tale, but she's pulled it off wonderfully, and in only 127 pages. This is the best book I've read...more
5 Stars
“I do not want to be human. I want to be myself. They think I am a lion, that I will chase them. I will not deny I have lions in me. I am the monster in the wood. I have wonders in my house of sugar. I have parts of myself I do not yet understand.
I am not a Good Robot. To tell a story about a robot who wants to be human is a distraction. There is no difference. Alive is alive.
There is only one verb that matters: to be.”
This is a powerfully thought provoking and extremely well written nove...more
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Catherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She then drifted away from her M.A. program and into a long residence in the concrete and cam...more
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“I do not want to be human. I want to be myself. They think I’m a lion, that I will chase them. I will not deny that I have lions in me. I am the monster in the wood. I have wonders in my house of sugar. I have parts of myself I do not yet understand.
I am not a Good Robot. To tell a story about a robot who wants to be human is a distraction. There is no difference. Alive is alive.
There is only one verb that matters: to be.”
—
20 people liked it
I am not a Good Robot. To tell a story about a robot who wants to be human is a distraction. There is no difference. Alive is alive.
There is only one verb that matters: to be.”
“…everything has a narrative, really, and if you can’t understand a story and relate to it, figure out how you fit inside it, you’re not really alive at all.”
—
16 people liked it
More quotes…
Oct 16, 2012 10:29am
And why aren't there more novellas out in the world? I love reading and writing them! A most u...more
May 07, 2013 08:20am