The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir

by Karin Tidbeck

Life on the transdimensional ship Skidbladnir is a strange one. The new janitor, Saga, finds herself in the company of an officious steward-bird, a surly and mysterious engineer, and the shadowy Captain. Who the odd passengers are, and according to what plan the ship travels, is unclear. Just when Saga has begun to understand the inner workings of Skidbladnir, she discovers that something is wrong. Skidbladnir is sick. And it’s up to her and the engineer to fix it.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Aliens, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy

21 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 14, 2019

Reviews

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are the voyages of the starship ... Skidbladnir.



Skidbladnir is an old, failing ship that travels between the stars through hyperspace. It’s a cross between a spaceship, an old high-rise building and a hermit crab, with an immense, jellyfish-like body hidden within in the walls of the building it uses as a shell for its interstellar travels. Because Skidbladnir is an aging ship, it has frequent electrical and plumbing malfunctions that keep the ship’s janitor, a woman named Saga, busy. Soon it becomes apparent to Saga, the ship’s engineer Novak, and the captain that Skidbladnir has outgrown the building it’s using as its shell. The practical-minded captain decides to sell Skidbladnir to a buyer who can “take it apart” before she loses her entire investment in the ship, if and when it fails completely. Saga has a crucial choice to make as Skidbladnir’s state becomes critical.

“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” is narrated by Saga in a straightforward, linear manner, interspersed with a handful of relevant plot summaries from an old videotape (reinforcing the “aging” theme!) collection that Saga watches when she’s off-duty. The prose was a little too spare for me to completely engage with this story, and though some of the details were eye-catching, like the interactive star map in the captain’s cabin, the plot didn’t strike me as particularly fresh or exciting. But I appreciated the elegiac tone and the quirky nature of the ship itself.

Read it free online here at Tor.com. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 3 out of 5]

🛸 Free SF short from Tor 🛸

Okay, so this story is not overwhelmingly fascinating. To say the least. It's about a starship that has kinda sorta seen better days (hence the title and stuff). And about its new janitor (please don't yawn), a chick/girl/woman/whatever called Saga. (Which made me think of Saga repeatedly while I was reading. Which probably did this little story here no good whatsoever.)

Anyway, the story is pretty meh and boring and stuff, and I would have rated it 2 stars had it not been for the following luscious facts:

① The starship stewart is a “long-legged beaked creature” that keeps clattering its/her/his/whatever, um, you know, beak and stuff. And that’s, um, you know, pretty, um, you know, something. I guess.

② Saga the janitor spends her free time watching videotapes of an ancient SF TV show. Which makes her Instantly Very Cool (IVC™). Because I said so.



③ Skidnaldnir the starship is actually a giant hermit crab!!! I. KID. YOU. NOT. Meaning it’s my murderous children’s cousin thrice removed!!! (It might be twice removed, actually, but I need to double check the family tree to be sure.) Now how bloody shrimping amazing is that?! A decapod that doubles as a space ship!! This is giving me ideas, my Little Barnacles. Up until today, I was focused on world domination, but if I can turn all of my kids’ cousins into crustacean versions of the USS Enterprise, the universe is mine! So muahahahaha and stuff.

Oh, and believe it or not, it just so happens that Bob, Fleet Admiral DaShrimp’s Australian land hermit crab nephew, is currently staying with his beloved uncle. It’s a sign, methinks. Bob looks pretty hot, and I think he would make the mostest perfectest Nefarious Fleet Flagship (NFF™) a nefarious overlord such as myself could ever dream of. An Experimental Hermit Crab Spaceship (EHCS™) is officially him! So yay and stuff!



What do you mean that’s a crab, not a hermit crab? Are you trying to tell me I don’t know my crabs? Do you mean to teach me, the not-so-former breeder of murderous crustaceans, what a hermit crab looks like? You’ve got a lot of nerve, Puny Barnacles Mine!

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skidbladnir is a living interdimensional ship encased in a shell that carries a human crew in “The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck. Now the Ship is growing too large for its shell and is falling apart. The captain wants to sell off Skidbladnir for meat to make a deposit on a new ship, but the engineer Novik and mechanic Saga conspire to save her from that fate. Tidbeck has a preternatural gift for describing the otherworldly: “First it wasn’t there, and then it was, heavy and solid, as if it had always been. From the outside, the ship looked like a tall and slender office building. The concrete was pitted and streaked, and all of the windows were covered with steel plates. Through the roof, Skidbladnir’s claws and legs protruded like a plant, swaying gently in some unseen breeze.” There is some fun 90s nostalgia mixed in, as Saga discovers videotapes of an old Babylon 5-ish TV show called Andromeda Station, and the interludes describing the plots of the episodes are on the money. I wish the story had done a better job of supplying motivations for its characters. Novik and Saga stage their mutiny, and Skidbladnir trusts them, because the plot needs them to, not because those choices are earned.

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know what to expect from Tidbeck's style now, and I enjoy it immensely. This story was just elegant enough, and somehow Tidbeck makes me overlook the implausibility of the crab-building spaceship, because the message is beautiful and not overdone.

[Alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll also put the name of the story here, in case Goodreads decides to merge it into some other work:
The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck - /5★

Trans dimensional crab-ships are used to travel between worlds, but they eventually outgrow their shells and end up sold to be butchered for parts. But what if they could exchange their cramped shell for a new one, like wild crabs do?


The short story is found in Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2019 edition and can also be read on Tor.com.

[Jukaschar · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Tidbeck short story. I love it, it's very imaginative and I have a big soft spot for bioships and creatures that are very different from us and the feeling of тоска (russian for melancholic yearning and feeling of ennui, not the agitated kind of melancholy, but the more passive one) that often permeates tales like this. As alien as I often feel, being neurodivergent and very introverted and all that, stories like this make me feel like I, too, can be communicated with in a loving and caring manner, just like Saga and Novik communicate with Skidbladnir and prioritise her well being.

I definitely want to check out more by this author in the future.

[Chrystopher’s Archive · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like one of the best Eccleston-era Doctor Who episodes.

Free to read online here

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A free short sci-fi story from tor.com - available here.

So, now that I wrote this I better put it in a spoiler, as it explains the plot a bit...
Set on a transdimentional spaceship - which is actually an apartment building occupied by a crab/alien, who powers the ship, called Skidbladnir! The ship ferries passengers from planet to planet (or dimension to dimension?), is run by the captain, a bird-like steward, and engineer and a janitor. Saga is the janitor, who spends her time fixing things which go awry on the ship/building.
However Skidbladnir is growing too big for the building, and the captain wants to sell her on for meat. The engineer knows that Skidbladnir can take on a new shell, so he and Saga conspire to facilitate this while the captain ans steward are trying to make the sale.

I found the story well written and engaging. Nicely descriptive and quirky with the Andromeda episode outlines interspersed within. A little predictable I guess, but an amusing read.

4 stars.

[Uma | Books.Bags.Burgers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I would enjoy a series of this... The short story doesn't explain much but the world building was so intriguing and I'd love to learn more!

[ambyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waving between two and three stars, here. There's nothing wrong with this story except that it's, well, bland. There's no conflict, there's no character growth. There's an interesting spaceship concept that lends itself to original visual descriptions, but that's not enough to power 6,000 words of story on its own. Not what I expected from the author of Amatka.

[Javier Maldonado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leído en el avión camino a Coyhaique. Me gusta el estilo de Karin Tidbeck. Acá me recordó un poco a los clásicos relatos de CF de Ursula Le Guin. Muy recomendable.

[KP · Rating 4 out of 5]

when i grow up i want to captain a spaceship

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, if predictable. 3 solid stars.

[Zserb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nagyon olyan, amilyennek lennie kell. Harminckét oldalban nem nagyon van helye az írónak hibázni; nem is teszi. Igazán szép, néhol édesbús, csöndes és reményteli. És érdekes! A technikai háttér alapötlete úgy újszerű, hogy közben mégis ismerős. A szöveg szép, érzékletes, néhol hallható-tapintható.
Az ábrázolt világ szinte bármely mozzanatáról szívesen olvasnék még.
#A felidézett tv-sorozat pedig a Babylon 5 szellemiségét idézi, amiért csakazértis visszaadom azt a fél csillagot, amit óvatosságból le akartam vonni.#

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A crewmember in search of a vocation and a ship in search of a mission.

A story with echoes of "Murderbot" - complete with a loving pastiche of 'Star Trek'. Very like the story "Tin Woodman" by Dennis Putman Bailey and David Bischoff, which is to its credit.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This super lovely story can be read for free here: https://www.tor.com/2019/01/14/karin-...

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much to it - a short story, really - but very sweet, and I love the idea (huge, space-navigating organisms wearing buildings in the way hermit crabs wear shells; humans living in the spare bits).

[Danielle Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Tidbeck's Amatka but haven't yet read any of her other work, so I was excited to see this. There are some fun concepts and characters here, but it didn't blow my mind. A nice read, though!

Story is available on Tor.com here: https://www.tor.com/2019/01/14/karin-tidbeck-the-last-voyage-of-skidbladnir/

[Nerine Dorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, man, I loved this story so hard. It's not so much the story of Skidbladnir's last voyage, but more the realisation of the protagonist about what it means to be her own person. A coming-of-age kinda tale. But Skidbladnir's pretty darned awesome. I love this concept of a sentient, space-faring vessel so very much.

[Miriam Cihodariu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Tor short story reads like an elegy for an old ship, one which makes us look at it in an endearing light. The main character is Saga, the janitor who often needs to repair one thing or another to keep the old space ship afloat. It's endearing to read something like this when we are all used to seeing spaceships portrayed rather on the cool, techy, novelty side.

[Paulo Vinicius Figueiredo dos Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta é uma narrativa sobre o chamado da aventura. E o quanto ela nos tira do lugar comum. Saga é uma mulher que vivia em uma vila de um pequeno planeta na periferia da galáxia. Sua vida era absolutamente normal e ela não tinha perspectiva de ser ninguém. Quando a Skidbladnir aterrissa em sua vila e precisa de reparos, ela se oferece para ajudar e se torna parte da tripulação. Saga acreditava que a vida na nave seria interessante e a levaria a lugares diferentes. Só que nada disso aconteceu. A rotina se revelou chata e repetitiva e os trabalhos eram apenas ordinários. Quando a tripulação descobre que a Skidbladnir não só está doente como é uma nave bem consciente do que está acontecendo ao seu redor, tudo irá mudar não apenas para a tripulação, como para a própria Saga.

Essa é uma space opera bem legal contada do ponto de vista da Saga em terceira pessoa. No meio da história, Karin Tidbeck insere sinopses de episódios de uma série de space opera que a Saga gosta de assistir. É bem curioso por que Saga assiste os episódios completamente fora de sequência e a autora os colocou de uma forma em que eles se ligam de forma direta ou indireta com o que está se passando com ela. Uma metanarrativa bem diferente que provoca uma segunda leitura da história. Achei problemático o fato de a sinopse trabalhar com a relação entre os personagens e isto ser bem pouco trabalhado na história. A temática principal gira mais na busca de Saga por um sentido em sua jornada.

A Skidbladnir é senciente. Isso muda completamente a dinâmica narrativa. Antes a tripulação achava que a nave apenas transportava as pessoas de um lado para o outro. Só que a nave tem vontades e somente o engenheiro consegue entender e sentir empatia por ela. Mesmo de uma forma bem obsessiva ele acaba se envolvendo com Skidbladnir e deseja estar ao lado da nave. Saga está perdida no meio disso tudo. Isso porque ela não sabe se deseja estar ao lado da nave e do engenheiro ou apenas voltar para sua casa. Ela vai precisar encontrar em seu coração que caminho ela deseja seguir. Essa busca é parte importante da narrativa.

Senti falta de um aprofundamento nos demais personagens da nave. Faltou falar mais sobre quem eles eram ou o que faziam por ali. A capitã sombria era a capitã sombria. Ela apareceu uma ou duas vezes na história. Não sabemos como ela se tornou capitã ou o que ela fazia para sobreviver. A única fala dela é a de vender a nave (que está em estágio terminal) para poder comprar outra. Tem outro personagem que no começo era, teoricamente, mais próximo de Saga. Mas, é tão secundário que eu até esqueci o que ele fazia. Por essa falta de detalhamento e por se focar mais em Saga é que a história acabou não me prendendo muito. Até tem alguns altos conceitos como a viagem transdimensional e a nave caranguejo que troca de carapaça. Legal, mas não o suficiente para ser algo memorável.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' by Karin Tidbeck is a story told through Saga, the ship's janitor. Saga's job is to fix and repair the spaceship Skidbladnir, a living cruise ship that is similar to a hermit crab, in that it uses a high rise building as its shell, with it's tendrils embedded throughout the building and travels between points through interdimensional hyperspace. But after a few recent repairs, Saga and the ship's engineer, Novak, discover that Skidbladnir is sick and outgrowing its current 'shell'. The ship's steward also realises this, but would rather sell the creature for money on a deposit on a new ship, which could result in Skidbladnir being slaughtered for meat. Saga and Novak decide to mutiny and set it free instead.

The interludes of an old 'Babylon 5' like show called 'Andromeda Station', about an outsider coming to terms with living and working on a space station populated by aliens, are interspersed throughout the story. It matches up to the mood and goings on in the plot of the story and works well.

It's a quick and enjoyable read that's sort of a coming of age story from an author I've not read before. Something that's a bit different but also familiar at the same time time. Worth a read.

Available to read for free from the Tor.com website - https://www.tor.com/2019/01/14/karin-...

[Peter Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please give my review a helpful vote -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

Unusual creature.

Unusual way of traveling in space.

Skidbladnir is the name of a ship, or, to be more precise, it is the name of the creature who lives in a building like a hermit crab and can move the building/ship through other dimensions. So, what happens to hermit crabs when they grow?

The story is told through the perspective of Saga, who is a low-level mechanic on Skidbladnir. Unfortunately, I didn't find her to be particularly engaging, which made the story not very engaging. That's not to say the story is not well-written and there is a sense of whimsy and melancholy that comes through the story.

You might like it if you like that kind of thing.

[Marco · Rating 4 out of 5]

One day extra-terrestial sentients make contacts with humans... and they give us the gift of the entire universe that we can finally reach via transdimentional travel. Saga is given an opportunity to experience it working as a transdimentional spaceship janitor, and she takes it in an heartbeat. Her new life is a strange one: she finds herself in the company of an officious steward-bird, a surly and mysterious engineer, and the shadowy Captain. Who the odd passengers are, and according to what plan the ship travels, is unclear. Just when Saga has begun to understand the inner workings of Skidbladnir, she discovers that something is wrong. Skidbladnir is sick. And it's up to her and the engineer to fix it.
Another entertaining and notable short story from the gifted author of Listen. I am looking forward reading more of her fiction in the future.

[Lizabeth Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saga learns the ship she serves on is a living creature who is outgrowing her shell of a high-rise building. Saga and Novik, the engineer, are determined to save Skidbladnir from being sold for meat. She needs a new shell, so they'll find her a new shell.

This gripped me the moment I realized Skidbladnir was alive. I'm a sucker for stories like this. So enchanting. I wish it had been longer or had a sequel, but that is just me being greedy and not wanting to leave Saga, Novik, and Skidbladnir behind. Lovely from start to finish. 4.5 out of 5.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll give this three stars because of the very end, but throughout most of the story it was going to be two.

It's fine.

That's about all there is to say about it. It's dull and there's so much useless information. For a story this short it sure was a slog to get through.

And dear God that name! I had to shorten Skidbladnir to Skid because saying the former was so annoying. And it's in the story about a hundred times.

There's not really much else to say. It's just whatever.

[Erik Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if... Spaceships were giant hermit crabs and they used office towers as shells? What if... we used them till they outgrew the building then we cut them up for meat? What if.... You couldn't stand that thought so you took your hermit crab ship to an abandon city with all the skyscrapers you wanted and it molted and you moved in and roamed the galaxy with your new crab that you could no longer control but loved the freedom of traveling untethered.

[rixx · Rating 2 out of 5]

[The Last Voyage or Skidbladnir](https://www.tor.com/2019/01/14/karin-...) is an okay scifi short story – too predictable for my tastes, and the switch between concrete scenes and dream-like time skips feel unfinished. But the concept of sentient space ships is always a nice one.

[Hugo S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome sci-fi!

The world building is out this world on a par with the best of my favorite weird sci-fi writers, such as Jeff Vandermeer, Peter Cawdron and China Miéville. Too bad this is just a novelette because it left me wanting more but as short as it is it hit all the right buttons for me, ten stars out of five!

[K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Organic ships have long been an interest of mine in science-fiction. This was an amazing short story of one such being and her passengers. I especially love that Saga, our main character who is a maintenance worker for the ship, watches an old television show called Andromeda Station that is thematically similar to DS9. It ties everything together for me.