The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and other stories

The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and other stories by Vandana Singh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a first time reader of Sci-fi genre, this collection of short stories was a great start for me - particularly as the stories are set in India. In addition, this seemed to be a wise choice after a failed attempt at reading 'The Hitchhiker's guide to Galaxy'(not that I did not enjoy the book but because I held an omnibus edition and found it overwhelmingly big to read :-( ). All stories with the exception of one(Three tales from Sky river - which I did not understand how it fits in this book) left me in awe at the imagination of the author.

There are 10  stories - Hunger, Delhi, The Woman who thought she was a planet, Infinities, Thirst, Conservation laws, Three takes from Sky River, The Tetrahedron, The Wife, The Room on the Roof. And a short essay on Speculative fiction. The characters are contemporary with a dash of little quirkiness. What I liked most about the book is that just one of the stories is set in outer space(and that was equally enjoyable) and there was another one that featured aliens. This made the stories particularly easy for me to read as am not a very big fan of spaceships, aliens, outer space and the like that most science fiction stories are all about(excuse me if I have a wrong notion).

My personal favorites are Delhi, Conservation laws and the Tetrahedron.

A note to self: Reread this book a couple of years later! (When am hopefully more receptive to Science fiction and can better enjoy the details and subtleties)

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