When I started the "Read Malay Novels Challenge" early this year, it is about reading any Malay book every month and that includes some pretty awful ones. My third pick, this sci-fi short story anthology, is pretty bad. To be fair, Malay novels and sci-fi are both book categories that I hardly prefer but I think the problem goes beyond that. After reading seven short stories out of 12, I can safely say that this book is just not well-written.
I usually avoid sci-fi because sci-fi stories tend to be technical-heavy. You know, the authors would take pains in explaining every single detail in their universe so you can fully immerse in it. When it comes to sci-fi, I prefer light explanations that make everything seems plausible and then I'm good. The problem I have with this anthology is the complete opposite: there's hardly any science in this. Azida would suggest some sci-fi concept into the story and bail! For example, the first short story in this anthology "Virus A2" is more romance than sci-fi. A woman falls in love and then, spoiler alert, her lover dies due to the virus. The virus itself is introduced in the driest infodump at the end of the short story and then, that's it. Other short stories have similar issues. Passages of [sci-fi concept] somewhere in the story instead of trying to incorporate the concept seamlessly with the plot.
It makes a really lacklustre read. It's almost like Azida simply wants to introduce the [sci-fi concept] rather than tell a story about it.
Even if you take out the [sci-fi concept] out of the story, the stories themselves have so many flaws. Flat one-dimensional characters, plotlines that jump around erratically, unconvincing dialogues, etc. The only upside is that the prose is easy to read. I can't even praise the short stories for being short because some of the stories here are too short. Just when the plot picks up and the story becomes quite interesting, it ends! For example, in "Mainan Teknologi", we find out the villain is a scientist fiddling with army vets to create powerful army cyborgs. That's intriguing, right? Well, just when the main character finds evidence to nail that guy, the investigation ends because of government intervention and the story is over. WHY? Some of the stories in here feel like an introduction chapter to a much longer fiction.
I'm actually rather surprised with this anthology. Even though I don't read much Malaysian sci-fi, Azida is one of the more recognisable writers in the genre. She has published a number of titles in magazines and co-written another sci-fi novel as well. So, I definitely had higher expectations. Most of these stories are written circa 2010 so it is possible that this anthology is a collection of stories back when she was just starting out and not representative of her writing skills now. I won this book in a giveaway and I have another Simptomatik Press title in my TBR. I read a Simptomatik Press book last year which is even worse that this one. I'm not looking forward to reading that book and I'll think twice of buying a book under this label.