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The Executioness

(Khaim Novellas #1)

Tobias S. Buckell (Goodreads Author),

J.K. Drummond (Illustrator)

3.48 · Rating details · 897 ratings · 130 reviews

Magic has a price. But someone else will pay.

Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors' roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at firs ...more

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Hardcover, Deluxe Trade Edition, 102 pages

Published January 31st 2011 by Subterranean Press

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· 897 ratings · 130 reviews

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Feb 28, 2011 Stephen rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, 2011, kings-and-queens, dark-and-gritty, kings-of-badassia, fantasy

No fooling folks...a middle-aged MOM kicking some serious fantasy rump and raining pain and destruction on the assbozos that stole her children...can you say

Now, if that doesn’t sound like an appealing (and long overdue) premise to a fantasy story than may I please take a moment to remind you of the following:

HI…I AM ONE OF THE COOLEST MOVIE HEROES (MALE OR FEMALE) OF ALL TIME AND I WASTED AN ENTIRE COLONY OF SLIMY, ACID-BLEEDING, DEADLY-PROJECTILE-TEETH-SPEWING, TOUGH AS NAILS ALIEN M ...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Joel rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011, library-books, sci-fi-fantasy, novella

One day, Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi decided to write a pair of novellas set in a shared world. They obviously put a lot of thought into this fictional landscape, a place where magic exists, but its use carries a terrible price -- every time a spell is cast, a shoot of cursed bramble sprouts from the ground; one prick of its poison thorns will send you into a deep sleep from which no mere prince's kiss will awaken you.

It's a neat idea, rife with juicy metaphorical implications to go alo One day, Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi decided to write a pair of novellas set in a shared world. They obviously put a lot of thought into this fictional landscape, a place where magic exists, but its use carries a terrible price -- every time a spell is cast, a shoot of cursed bramble sprouts from the ground; one prick of its poison thorns will send you into a deep sleep from which no mere prince's kiss will awaken you.

It's a neat idea, rife with juicy metaphorical implications to go along with the unusual fantasy trappings, and Bacigalupi clearly had a lot of fun playing in the sandbox with his half of the project, The Alchemist. Buckell, meanwhile, plays around in the sandbox for a few minutes but soon gets board, abandoning the game and the sandbox altogether to wander off to a nearby tree and play army. And sure, army can be fun, but sometimes you want something a little more engaging than "pew pew pew!" and I didn't quite find it here.

That's not to say this is a totally bland story. Plus one point for an interesting protagonist, anyway -- a woman, a mother, an Executioness who inherited the trade from her dying father. Her children are kidnapped during a raid on her city (the shared setting in question), and she sets off, axe in hand, to rescue them. Along the way, she meets a predictably bland band of colorful characters and like-minded women, willing to fight for their destinies.

The attempt at a feminist war story is admirable -- the women fighters aren't Amazons, but cooks and washerwomen and artisans, given agency and exercising a will to power -- but man, is it obvious where all this is going. It's the literary equivalent of the mousey girl with a ponytail ditching the specs and shaking out her flowing locks. The villains are suddenly all, "Pff, they are just women... oh crap, look how many there are! [dies]"

There is also this bit about the fine line between fighting for a just cause and unbridled zealotry, but it was kind of shoehorned in there, and rushed at that (we've only got 104 pages to work with, and some of them are drawings). I think probably the best way to experience this would be as originally envisioned -- read aloud to you, interspersed with chapters of Bacigalupi's book (it's on Audible, check it out). The cerebral, brooding nature of The Alchemist would contrast nicely with the action-heavy, uh, action here. Or I guess you could just read one chapter of each at a time, but you aren't going to take two novellas in the bathtub, are you? Didn't think so. ...more

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Feb 23, 2015 Elspeth rated it it was ok

Shelves: twenty-fifteen, fantasy, returned

I am not having the best of days, and words are failing me at the moment. This was well written, but it was also dark, bleak, and just too high a price for the short story it was.

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Oct 24, 2011 Nicky rated it liked it

Shelves: short-stories-novellas, fantasy

The Executioness is a fun novella set in a shared world fantasy. I haven't read the other book, by Paolo Bacigalupi, yet; I'm not sure if this is the best order to read them in. I guess I'll report on that later, because I do have the other one too!

Anyway, apparently the seed of the idea was in having a middle-aged female protagonist, and all the different motivations and problems that would give her. I can only think of one other like this, and that's Boneshaker, but both of them do have the wo ...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Tatiana rated it liked it

Recommended to Tatiana by: Stephen

Shelves: fantasy, 2011

2.5 stars

Nothing remarkable here except that the main character is a middle-aged woman, a widow and a mother, who wields an executioner's axe and unwittingly becomes a legend and a symbol of resistance. The rest is not memorable, even though world-building and story are decent. ...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Stacey rated it really liked it

Shelves: my-review-or-notes, signed, subterranean-press, limited-ed

The Executioness is a side-by-side novella paired with The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi. In the forward, much is made of the idea that the Heroine is "different," because she's an older woman. I'm really glad they pointed it out, because there really wasn't anything in the story to establish that by her character, except that she had chidren already, and her father was old. Well, really, those two points don't exactly convince me that Tana is an older woman.

So while I really liked this story, I ...more

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Dec 31, 2010 Ranting Dragon rated it really liked it

Shelves: james

http://www.rantingdragon.com/the-exec...

Any time a spell is cast, bramble will sprout up somewhere in the world. Bramble that cuts and promises a poisonous sleep to any who don’t give it a wide enough berth. There’s no way to predict where the vines might pop up, it might sprout on your house or a thousand miles away. This bramble has slowly wrought decay upon the world, overrunning cities, destroying farms, and killing people.

Tara lives in this bramble-filled world and has recently taken up her http://www.rantingdragon.com/the-exec...

Any time a spell is cast, bramble will sprout up somewhere in the world. Bramble that cuts and promises a poisonous sleep to any who don’t give it a wide enough berth. There’s no way to predict where the vines might pop up, it might sprout on your house or a thousand miles away. This bramble has slowly wrought decay upon the world, overrunning cities, destroying farms, and killing people.

Tara lives in this bramble-filled world and has recently taken up her father’s mantle as an executioner out of necessity to feed her family. After Tara’s first kill as an executioner, raiders savagely attack her city and take her sons, leaving her with no one in her world to care for. Instead of retreating into grief like other mothers with captured family members, she sets off with only her ax in hand to save her children, and in the process she gives birth to the legend of the Executioness.

A new type of heroine
The introduction to The Executioness reveals that Buckell once heard a fellow author, Maureen McHugh, make a comment about how there were no middle-aged women like herself getting the lead role in fantasy novels; instead they were passed up for the “next hot thing”. Buckell took that as a challenge and, with Paolo Bacigalupi, came up with this story and beautifully laid-out world. The character of Tara is pulled off flawlessly. I could see my mother in her, but at the same time Tara has a savagery about her as a result of her being raised in such a brutal world. I strongly wish fantasy had more characters like Tara, and I hope that The Executioness will show fantasy publishers, authors, and fans alike that there is a desire and need to have these types of characters introduced into the typical fantasy fodder.

An unexplained magic system… which is a good thing
When I read a novel with any sort of magic system in it, I want to know exactly how that magic system works and I want it to make sense. The magic system in The Executioness wasn’t exempt from my normal questions. Why is it bramble instead of shards of rock? Why does it sprout up when you use magic? What does the bramble actually have to do with anything? However, after finishing this novella with those questions unanswered, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I prefer it that way. This story is told from Tara’s point of view, and, being a peasant woman who is barely able to feed her own family, she wouldn’t understand anything about the bramble. Like everyone else in the world, she just has to deal with it and make the best of what’s available to her – and that’s what she does. She doesn’t encounter any sage magic user whose sole purpose in the novella is to go off on a long monologue about what bramble is and why it affects the world. If Buckell had attempted anything of the sort, this novel would have definitely suffered. This is Tara’s story, from her perspective and no one else’s.

A fantastic fantasy debut
Before The Executioness, Buckell had only published novels in the science-fiction genre. While I imagine that he dabbled in fantasy in the past, this is still his first published work in the genre, and it’s a truly astonishing debut. Novellas are not something that I particularly enjoy reading, normally because I feel that they could always work out better as novels, but The Executioness was a great read that left me wanting a bit more in the same way that most good novels do, but not to the extent that I felt that the novella didn’t do its topic justice. It was perfect as a novella, and it would have been bogged down in details had it been a full novel.

Why should you read this book?
If you’re looking for a nice, light read and you have an hour to kill, head over to your local bookstore and plop down in a chair to read this fantastic novella. It really is a great read, and one that I will probably purchase just to say that I own it. ...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Wealhtheow rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

After Tana's father and husband are killed and her children taken by raiders, she goes on a one-woman mission to regain the remnants of her family. Her courage and will inspire others, and soon she comes to the attention of an army commander. He tells her that they have to wait the raiders out, but Tana is impatient. She raises an army of women, armed with peasant weapons (and the occasional arquebus), and they march on the raiders' city.

I really wish this had been twice as long, because there's ...more

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May 15, 2012 Jim rated it really liked it

This is a novella-length work, and shares a world with another novella by Paolo Bacigalupi, a world in which magic is outlawed, as its use leads to the spread of deadly bramble. It’s a great setup, as is the premise of the story: Tana’s home is attacked by a neighboring power. Her husband and her father (an executioner) are killed, and her children taken. So she takes up her father’s axe and hood and sets out to save them, beginning a quest “that will change lives, cities, and even an entire lan ...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Autumn rated it really liked it

Shelves: my-reviewed-books, sci-fi-fantasy

A group of " I drank too much kool aid " extremists kidnap Tana’s two sons to show them the "right" way to live. Wrong move. She hunts the kidnappers down with an executioner's ax and brings with her an entire mob of equally protective mothers that have lost their children to the same cause. Lesson learned: Do not mess with a woman’s offspring.

More than that, this short is story well written and should appeal to the Sci-Fi crowd. The only disappointment for me is the length. I wish it were long ...more

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Jul 25, 2019 Jenny Thompson rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

An odd little book. Buckell was attempting to tell a pretty big story in novella form, so naturally it all felt a bit underdeveloped and rushed.

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Feb 22, 2016 Paige Ellen Stone rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, kindle, magic, politics

This is the companion volume to Paolo Bacigalupi's novella, "The Alchemist" which I have reviewed separately. This is set in the same world as "The Alchemist" and it doesn't matter which one you read first. Where "The Alchemist" focused on getting rid of the "bramble", the thick thorny vines that increase their presence and their suffocating and isolating effect the more that practitioners us magic, this volume focuses on the story of Tana, daughter of an executioner and along with Tana, the onl This is the companion volume to Paolo Bacigalupi's novella, "The Alchemist" which I have reviewed separately. This is set in the same world as "The Alchemist" and it doesn't matter which one you read first. Where "The Alchemist" focused on getting rid of the "bramble", the thick thorny vines that increase their presence and their suffocating and isolating effect the more that practitioners us magic, this volume focuses on the story of Tana, daughter of an executioner and along with Tana, the only source of income for the family. Tana works in a butcher shop, cutting meat, which does not provide much income while her father, whenever he is called to perform an execution, earns enough to keep the family going.
One day, the bell used to summon Tana's father to do an execution rings and her father is too ill to go, so Tana goes instead. She makes a mess of the execution, taking three blows of her axe to behead the condemned. To her surprise, this earns her much more money than her father usually got and the "Merry Mayor" is pleased with the "show."
On her way back home, she encounters many people, all running in the direction away from Tana's home. She finds her way home only to discover that raiders have killed her father, her lazy drunkard husband and her two sons have been kidnapped. Tana sets out for revenge, has an encounter with four of the invading horde, loses badly, but somehow becomes a legend as "the one who battled the four".She become known as "The Executioness." She knows it is not true, but she uses it. Her travels find her seeking refuge in a caravan traveling the coast and she learns much about the world. Leaving the caravan, she finds she has people who will follow "The Executioness" into battle, fighting the invaders.
This story moves quickly and is enjoyable, with lots of action and good development of the character of Tana. I have read nothing else by Tobias Buckell, so I don't know how this compares to his other works.
As to the rest of the story, I must say that you'll have to read it because telling anymore would be to give away "spoilers" and my rule of thumb as a reviewer is not to do that. I assure you, if you are a fan of action fantasy set in Earth-like worlds, you will likely enjoy this very much. ...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Lexie rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-owned-read, review-blog-pr

I read both this book and its companion novella The Alchemist side by side (almost) because they follow two different paths that give a wider view of the world. The Executioness follows Tana as she leaves Lesser Khaim (the more or less 'poor folk' district) while The Alchemist follows Jeoz as he fights to save Khaim from the Bramble.

In his introduction Paolo mentions that part of the genesis for this combined world came from a writer's friend's lament that there were not more middle-aged women p I read both this book and its companion novella The Alchemist side by side (almost) because they follow two different paths that give a wider view of the world. The Executioness follows Tana as she leaves Lesser Khaim (the more or less 'poor folk' district) while The Alchemist follows Jeoz as he fights to save Khaim from the Bramble.

In his introduction Paolo mentions that part of the genesis for this combined world came from a writer's friend's lament that there were not more middle-aged women portrayed as heroes. Women who have had children and lived most of their life domestically. Tobias took that idea and ran with it.

Tobias is careful to emphasize the role that women have always played in battle and war. Women who help to keep the soldiers fed, who help to gather supplies and run the homestead while their men are away. Women who lose everything and are forgotten just as quietly.

The world is lush and evocative. There is a lot left unsaid, hinted at or offhandedly remarked upon, that point to something more. The fallen Empire of Jhandparan being overrun by the Brambles. The Southern Isles where the Paikan hail from.

I would love to know when the Brambles first arrived. Why they occur because of the magic. Why does it sprout? The Executioness doesn't delve into these issues except as a way to contrast the Paikan (holier than thou) attitude vs. everyone else. The Paikan think they are on a crusade to save the world, damn the consequences and feelings of others.

A telling moment is when Tana speaks with the 'leader' and they try to reach some sort of accommodation. The man doesn't seem to grasp why she would be so upset to lose her children when they are clearly going somewhere better. To him the loss of her children is trivial next to the larger picture.

Everything happens in cycles however and at the end of the novella Tana realizes a truth she didn't understand earlier. I sincerely hope there will be more set in this world. This feels like a thread from a much larger tapestry, one I am eager to see completed. ...more

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Jun 07, 2014 David rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: high-fantasy, i-have-ebook, novella

The story follows a mother of two who was first forced by circumstance into the role of a one-time executioner, and then forced by other circumstances into a conqueror, bearing the blown-up reputation of an "executioness". *blink* *blink* Yes, that the transition.

I think perhaps this short story would really have been better off as a longer novel. The actual idea, and the rather strong female lead, was pretty good. Things just seemed to escalate a little too quickly and I haven't quite lost that The story follows a mother of two who was first forced by circumstance into the role of a one-time executioner, and then forced by other circumstances into a conqueror, bearing the blown-up reputation of an "executioness". *blink* *blink* Yes, that the transition.

I think perhaps this short story would really have been better off as a longer novel. The actual idea, and the rather strong female lead, was pretty good. Things just seemed to escalate a little too quickly and I haven't quite lost that "mom" perspective of Tana, the protagonist.

Another problem I had with the escalation into war is the actual war itself. I couldn't help but notice rather glaring conflicts - in description, logistics, and scale - resulting in a general sense of disbelief. (view spoiler)

I haven't read the paired novella yet, so this was my initial exposure to this world they've built. It's an interesting dilemma, where magic use is forbidden due to the fact that it causes unchecked growth of a poisonous plant termed the "bramble" that can't be killed off, only hacked and burned to keep it at bay. But that's about the only thing that stands out about it.

It's a quick read, but don't expect it to be deep. The middle-aged (yes, the story keeps emphasising this) mom-protagonist is actually quite likeable, but more reflection and length would've probably improved the story; more opportunity to be attached to the characters. As it is, when I finished reading, I just shrugged.
...more

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May 27, 2011 Alice rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, library, thriller, fantasy

This is a shared-world novel with Paolo Bacigalupi's The Alchemist, and I'm glad I read the latter, first. Had I read this one, first, I might've been disappointed in The Alchemist. I wouldn't say it's better, exactly, but it is more epic in scope, with a heroine I can relate to better than in Bacigalupi's story.

The Bramble plays less of a role in this story; it's more of a setting than an antagonist. But that's understandable; Tana, the title character of Executioness, has plenty to deal with w ...more

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Sep 03, 2013 Melissa rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, novella

Amateurish, lazy, unimaginative writing. The plot never even bothered with causality. Instead the main character (who is a boring, empty two-dimensional shell) is acted upon. The story itself suffers from an identity crisis: what could very well be a coming-of-age story is instead covered up by a tacked-on "women's empowerment" story that comes off as shallow and clichéd. There are no real obstacles in the story; opposition (both external and internal) is dealt with in a few sentences and then i ...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Jenn rated it liked it

Reading the introduction, I think I was hoping for more. So often, women are sidelined as heroes, that it is great to see an author deliberately addressing that. However, it is disappointing that so often when this happens, it is framed as reliant on their status as a mother and undertaken very reluctantly. That isn't to say that Tana is not a formidable and interesting hero, I just wish that women were allowed the same latitude of reason for their heroic journeys.

Having first read "The Alchemis ...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Kat Hooper rated it really liked it

The Alchemist and The Executioness caught my eye as soon as it went up at Audible.com. (Both novellas are now available in print from Subterranean Press.) Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell offering linked fantasy novellas that take place in a shared world? Bacigalupi's story read by Jonathan Davis? What could be more promising? (It turns out that had I been familiar with Katherine Kellgren, who read Buckell's story, I would have been even more excited about this one!)

In this shared world, the ...more

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Aug 10, 2015 Wolfkin rated it really liked it

At least this time I was prepared for the short length of the novella. Still I think I preferred this book to it's companion novella. The surprising aspect to me was how little the characters interacted. This could have been two stories in an anthology. outside of a vague reference to "a blue city" and the acknowledgement of a bloody execution in The Alchemist, there's not much that links the stories together. I would love too see a third story link the main characters our even take a new charac ...more

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Oct 05, 2016 Nat rated it really liked it

A short novella with a powerful female lead. Feels somewhat nihilist, but we'll written ...more

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Sep 04, 2010 Patrick W rated it liked it

Shelves: in, fantasy, 2010, novella

This review was originally posted on my review blog (Stomping on Yeti) at http://yetistomper.blogspot.com/2010/... A Few Words: The Alchemist and The Executioness showcase two rising stars in the the genre but aren't completely successful in fully realizing the inherent potential in their shared fantasy world.[return][return]Pros: [return]1) Fast, fun stories that work both in print and audio formats[return]2) The Alchemist is a fantasy version of pitch perfect Bacigalupian exposition[return]3) This review was originally posted on my review blog (Stomping on Yeti) at http://yetistomper.blogspot.com/2010/... A Few Words: The Alchemist and The Executioness showcase two rising stars in the the genre but aren't completely successful in fully realizing the inherent potential in their shared fantasy world.[return][return]Pros: [return]1) Fast, fun stories that work both in print and audio formats[return]2) The Alchemist is a fantasy version of pitch perfect Bacigalupian exposition[return]3) Bramble ravaged world feels real as the vegetative threat influences the entire culture[return][return]Cons: [return]1) The worldbuilding away from Lesser Khaim is underdeveloped[return]2) Buckell attempts to put too much story into The Executioness, resulting in pacing problems[return][return]The Review: Fantasy is a genre that lives and dies by magic. It's what unifies a thousand different worlds and yet makes each one distinct. Each author imbues their world with a unique approach, relying on the reader�s sense of wonder to make their words come to life. In some stories, magic is re-entering a world that had all but forgotten it. In others, powers relied on for far too long are beginning to wane. In the shared universe constructed by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell, magic not only defines the world, it attempts to destroy it. It�s a world where magic comes at a terrible price, even if it doesn�t earn you an encounter with the executioner�s axe. The world of The Alchemist and The Executioness is slowly being consumed by a poisonous bramble which thrives on magic, encroaching ever closer with every whispered word and forbidden act. [return][return]It may be difficult to sell coma-inducing vegetative growth as a legitimate threat but it�s hard to deny that the two stories are their strongest when firmly entangled in thorns and vines. You can�t write paired novellas (or good ones, anyway) without fleshing out the world in advance. In the case of The Alchemist and The Executioness, the entire world is structured around the bramble, the culture that created it, and its effect on the peoples that resist it. It�s got depth but not necessarily breadth. As a result, when the stories leave the bramble behind, they border on becoming generic fantasy.[return][return][return]Luckily, Bacigalupi�s offering rarely strays far from the heart of the story, detailing the exploits of Jeoz the alchemist as he attempts to engineer a device capable of eliminating the resilient bramble. The intrigue caused by the possibility of this �balanthast� is somewhat predictable but the way that Bacigalupi develops the characters and their collective culture more than make up for the simple story. The interactions between Jeoz and his daughter are genuinely heartfelt and as the story progresses it�s easy to become drawn in. [return][return][return]Bacigalupi�s bread and butter has always been environmental fiction, and it doesn�t take a literary scholar to see the similarities between this imagined world and ours. With the ever encroaching bramble, humanity faces a slow death of their own creation while anyone capable of substantive change selfishly ignores potential solutions for personal gains. While the global warming analogs are hard to ignore, they are never heavy handed. This may be his first foray into fantasy but with it he proves that his trademark style transcends genre. Bacigalupi�s flawless execution of show-not-tell worldbuilding is what earned him the Nebula and Hugo awards. The same skills are present here even if they aren�t quite as ambitiously applied as in The Windup Girl.[return][return]The Executionness has a harder time keeping the story in the deep end of the world. The story begins promisingly as a middle-aged woman is called to do her dying father�s work. Tana reluctantly joins the ranks of the magister�s executioners as the only executioness - a title that sticks with her despite the tumultuous events that change everything else. Before long, Tana is off and running on a quest of vengeance. The problem is that Buckell attempts a novel�s worth of characterization and exploration but only has a quarter of the pages to deliver it. To compensate, he skimps on critical development, resulting in a strangely paced story that feels rushed on more than one occasion. The piecemeal presentation of the final two acts often resorts to what are essentially �training montages� and the scenes in which the novice quickly becomes a master are only missing the bad 80s soundtrack.[return][return][return]This is frustrating because Tobias Buckell has crafted a story worth telling. The middle aged female protagonist is appealing and unique, the villains are more than just cardboard blackhats, and way the story ultimately plays out is memorable. Tana travels most of the continent on her quest for revenge, abandoning the intricate city of Khaim � the same setting that serves as the foundation to Bacigalupi�s tighter, more intimate tale. On said journey, she encounters a variety of interesting factions only tangentially related to the bramble. Because they lack the shared infrastructure of Khaim that links the two novellas, they require additional exposition. Sadly though, there isn�t any room for much more than moving from one set piece to the next. Buckell just lacks the page count/play time necessary to fully develop the elements he has introduced.[return][return]Ultimately, the combination of new characters, new locations, new cultures, and an aggressive plot is simply too much development to juggle in a novella of this length. None are intrinsically problematic but sometimes it�s necessary to cut scope in order to deliver higher quality. Even if increasing the word count wouldn�t have made the already 5+ hour audiobook unwieldy, it would still have the negative result of either inflating the word count of the well-composed The Alchemist or unbalancing the two stories. [return][return]As of this review, I�ve both listened to the audiobooks and read the advance print copies. I�m reluctant to steer readers one way or the other or suggest a definitive reading order. On one hand, the stories were original meant to be read aloud and the dialogue and sentence structure clearly reflect this. On the other hand, if you are anything like me, you will pick up on a lot more of the subtle details that create a cohesive world if you have the ability to easily re-read a line or two. Not to mention the promised interior illustrations from Subterranean Press. [return][return]While the stories are quick and entertaining, it�s difficult to label them complete successes or failures. The Executionness explores an atypical heroine as she travels across a diverse landscape dripping with potential for future narrative exploration. It also gets caught over-achieving at times, trying to do too much with too few words. The Alchemist is less ambitious but the simple tale is brilliantly executed and much more suited to the length and format. Neither would be the same without the other and together they are more than the sum of their parts. When the linked creation actually gets the detailed development it deserves, the magic is plain to see. The key to future entries into this shared world will be maximizing that magic while eliminating the bramble. ...more

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May 08, 2018 Ying rated it it was ok

This sister novel to The Alchemist was not as well written as I thought it could be.

I applaud the author for trying to write from a female perspective, and for having such a fun idea to run with, but the protagonist (Tana) seemed a little too one-dimensional to me. Her only driving thought was ~*~*~her children~*~*~. Just because you add that she's a bad-ass fighter doesn't make her a multi-dimensional character.

I contrast this to The Alchemist, where I felt like the main character was more com ...more

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Sep 30, 2017 BJ Haun rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-from-bundles, short-story-novella

This was alright. The character development was good, I thought. This is a story that may have benefited by being in format other than a short story/novella, 'cause the build up to the climax and the climax itself happen a bit too abruptly to make sense. Like I have seen other reviews say, it makes little sense for (view spoiler) ...more

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May 02, 2018 Vickie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: booksthatmakemegowow, listened-to

I'm going to be looking for more from this author. I've not read him before, but he's been added to the WWBL.
A woman loses her children to a religious horde. She wants them back. She finds herself in a position not of her making, she just wants her family returned.
I like when something happens to someone in a book and they either rise above or wallow. She rises above.
This is in the same world as THE ALCHEMIST - Paolo Balcigalupi. Magic and deadly bramble. Bad and good. Excellent.
I can recomme ...more

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May 06, 2018 Helena rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2018

A simple story, exceedingly well-written. The only criticism I have for this short novella is the illustrations, which are beautiful but woefully lacking in one important way. This is a lovely book, rare in that it focuses on a very specifically middle-aged woman, past her breeding years. And yet all the illustrations clearly show a young beauty in her twenties at latest. A real shame in such a treasure of a book. But I don't normally pay much attention to illustrations, and the story is still w ...more

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Jul 01, 2018 Dragan Nanic rated it it was ok

A companion piece to The Alchemist without any interest in explaining the world or the situation in it (therefore preferably to be read after).

A sword and sorcery with a contemporary twist - main protagonist is a woman. While that opens up a lot of possibilities, unfortunately Buckell stays superficial. It reads like a retelling of Conan (the movie version), without really exploring either the feminine side or the executioness one.

Should have been way better. ...more

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Aug 05, 2017 Dareth McKenna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Great Story - I want more!

I really enjoyed this and The Alchemist. I was attracted to this after I read The Alchemist, which I bought when looking for more of Paolo Bacigalupi's work after I read Windup Girl. My only question now is - these are several years old now - has there been more written about this world? ...more

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Jan 14, 2020 Shadow rated it really liked it

I enjoyed this book for it's relatable, unique heroine and her realistic reactions to the tragedy she faced. But by the middle of the book, it began to feel like the story would have benefited if it was a bit longer. The worldbuilding felt sparse - more would have been nice. Many of the support characters felt flat. But it was an easy read with an emotional ending. ...more

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Aug 21, 2017 Joe rated it really liked it

This is why I still enjoy the short story format.
What a tidy tale.

Not just any middle-aged woman. A leader, an inspiration.
The story grew as she grew.
Axes and elephants.
Caravans and cities.
Her goal in sight was does she do..?

Read it. It is short and delicious.
Great use of words.

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Apr 27, 2018 Paul rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This is really a solid 2.5 and the only reason its not a 3 - it really could have benefited from being a full length novel. It's a great setting with an interesting main character, I just needed more story. ...more

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About Tobias S. Buckell

Tobias S. Buckell

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Born in the Caribbean, Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times Bestselling author. His novels and over 50 short stories have been translated into 17 languages and he has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. He currently lives in Ohio.