DW: The Hands That Are Not There by Melinda Snodgrass

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Discuss the story The Hands That Are Not There by Melinda Snodgrass.

No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling this for your good read friends.

Please do not discuss other stories in this thread.

[Dara]

I tried reading this one and couldn't get into it. Not sure exactly what it was about it but it didn't grab me.

[Andreas]

So far, this was the best story in the anthology, 4 stars for this one.

Prejudice and sexual relationship between races and politics are embedded within a frame story for different perspectives of this SF story.
It feels complete and not as ripped out of context like some of the other stories. Pacing, characterization, setting are all excellent. And the outcome made me think - a task that short stories should achieve at the very least.

I haven't read anything by the author and I wasn't impartial at all when she was introduced as Star Trek and Wild Cards author. But here she showed that she can swing a nice pen.

[Lee]

I enjoyed this one. It reminded me of something from the "golden age" of sci-fi. A weird cross between Poul Anderson and Phillip Jose Farmer. Maybe it's watching too much Star Trek & Star Wars or too many hours playing Mass Effect but I like when sci-fi explores human/alien relations, including sexual relations. And I liked the switch at the end too. I enjoyed it.

[Dara]

+5 cool points to Nienna for liking Mass Effect!

[Mark]

Did like it, makes me want read some more books in the same kind of theme.

[Heidi]

I really liked this story. The only complaint, not even a complain, but something I would prefer - is I wish it was in a womans point of view. Though I can see who the dangerous woman is in this story. I finished this thinking everything was resolved, though horrifying. I really liked that this was a complete story and not a teaser (which is what I felt about with every other story in this book).

If you look at these stories through a teachers eyes, I'd say this is A+ work. My experience with this book so far is a whole lot of writers didn't understand the assignment and made fluff. Even if they are entertaining stories, theres either no progress in the story - or they're like catching a fraction of an ongoing story and its the least important part of the ongoing one.

[Suzanne]

I think this one was my favorite so far - I like the alien/human interplay and really enjoyed the ideas. Heidi, I agree - this one felt complete.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I was bored by this one. Not much time spent on the "dangerous women" here.

I agree with Alex about the potential, but too much time was spent on sexy time for such a short story.

It's interesting to see a few people calling this their favorite.

I'm surprised to see no one bring up the question of true story or con for free drinks?

[Andreas]

Rob wrote: "It's interesting to see a few people calling this their favorite."

For me the citation is "So far, this was the best story in the anthology" with an emphasis on "so far": It is the fourth story and I read the anthology from front to end. The stories before were not as good: Abercrombie was cut out and didn't work for me, the Abbott was better and Nora's Song was just ok.