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Forest of Memory
Katya deals in Authenticities and Captures, trading on nostalgia for a past long gone. Her clients are rich and they demand items and experiences with only the finest verifiable provenance. Other people’s lives have value, after all.
But when her A.I. suddenly stops whispering in her ear she finds herself cut off from the grid and loses communication with the rest of the world.
The man who stepped out of the trees while hunting deer cut her off from the cloud, took her A.I., and made her his unwilling guest.
There are no Authenticities or Captures to prove Katya’s story of what happened in the forest. You’ll just have to believe her.
But when her A.I. suddenly stops whispering in her ear she finds herself cut off from the grid and loses communication with the rest of the world.
The man who stepped out of the trees while hunting deer cut her off from the cloud, took her A.I., and made her his unwilling guest.
There are no Authenticities or Captures to prove Katya’s story of what happened in the forest. You’ll just have to believe her.
88 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 2016
27 people are currently reading
2,879 people want to read
About the author
Mary Robinette Kowal
252Ìýbooks5,252ÌýfollowersMary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winning alternate history novel The Calculating Stars, the first book in the Lady Astronaut series which continues in 2025 with The Martian Contingency. She is also the author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, The Spare Man and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, four Hugo awards, the Nebula and Locus awards. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Uncanny, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary Robinette has also worked as a professional puppeteer, is a member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses, and performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and Neal Stephenson. She lives in Denver with her husband Robert, their dog Guppy, and their “talkingâ€� cat Elsie.
Her novel Calculating Stars is one of only eighteen novels to win the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards in a single year.
Her novel Calculating Stars is one of only eighteen novels to win the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards in a single year.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 359 reviews
August 25, 2021
Do you ever just want to read a short book? Something with a beginning, a middle and an end that only takes an afternoon? Once upon a time, paperbacks were only about 250 pages. So, as a teenager, I could read 3 or 4 in a weekend. I found myself missing that experience, so I went to the library and deliberately checked out a number of short books.
This one is only 85 pages. An afternoon read with a cat.
So, continuing my policy of no spoilers, I will tell you that this is SF, and that it immediately immerses a reader in a future setting, with a future vocabulary. The back of the book will let you know that the protagonist deals in Authenticities and Captures, so I don't think it's a spoiler to say that she hunts down what we would call antiques, and also captures her unique life experiences to share.
This is an intriguing read, and one that does not hand the reader a clear cut ending. It is one of those books where you lean back and think about it, and likely draw your own conclusions about what happened.
So, there you go. A nice short read!
This one is only 85 pages. An afternoon read with a cat.
So, continuing my policy of no spoilers, I will tell you that this is SF, and that it immediately immerses a reader in a future setting, with a future vocabulary. The back of the book will let you know that the protagonist deals in Authenticities and Captures, so I don't think it's a spoiler to say that she hunts down what we would call antiques, and also captures her unique life experiences to share.
This is an intriguing read, and one that does not hand the reader a clear cut ending. It is one of those books where you lean back and think about it, and likely draw your own conclusions about what happened.
So, there you go. A nice short read!
July 7, 2016
Katya lives in a hyper-connected world where everyone is always online and real-time experiences are recorded, buffered and can be uploaded as desired and even sold.
So when her connection to the net is jammed and she is abducted because she's witnessed something really strange, she's suddenly without the tools that she has relied on her whole life. The story is told by Katya after the experience, and it's clear through her story how much she is used to relying on digital storage to augment her memory normally. Her recollection of events is no different from that of someone from our own time, but she constantly expresses her surprise at how vague she's being, or when she doesn't have absolute recall of things like what she ate for a certain meal.
The story is about this recollection. What's actually going on is never revealed, although Katya has some wild speculation, and that's a bit unfortunate. It makes the novella feel like part one of a larger novel dealing with AIs and corporations and conservation and potential anti-AI action, and I really want to read that book. But again, it's worth mentioning, this novella isn't about that stuff.
It's an excellent story, told brilliantly, and I strongly recommend it. The ending fits, but I'd like to read the rest of a mosaic novel that this should be part of.
So when her connection to the net is jammed and she is abducted because she's witnessed something really strange, she's suddenly without the tools that she has relied on her whole life. The story is told by Katya after the experience, and it's clear through her story how much she is used to relying on digital storage to augment her memory normally. Her recollection of events is no different from that of someone from our own time, but she constantly expresses her surprise at how vague she's being, or when she doesn't have absolute recall of things like what she ate for a certain meal.
The story is about this recollection. What's actually going on is never revealed, although Katya has some wild speculation, and that's a bit unfortunate. It makes the novella feel like part one of a larger novel dealing with AIs and corporations and conservation and potential anti-AI action, and I really want to read that book. But again, it's worth mentioning, this novella isn't about that stuff.
It's an excellent story, told brilliantly, and I strongly recommend it. The ending fits, but I'd like to read the rest of a mosaic novel that this should be part of.
February 9, 2017
This left me wondering.
And I'm still wondering.
Gosh, I wish this was a bigger book, I would have loved to know more. Such intrigue and mystery. I want more!
And I'm still wondering.
Gosh, I wish this was a bigger book, I would have loved to know more. Such intrigue and mystery. I want more!
August 15, 2016
Katya lives in a futuristic world where everyone and everything is linked to the web. Her AI speaks in her ear and fills her vision telling her about the people around her, their histories, past business deals, and anything that could be of interest to her in her job as an "Authenticities" (basically antiques) dealer. One day, on her way back from a purchase, she sees a man shoot a deer (very illegal) and realizes that her connection to the web has crashed, leaving her marooned in the real world with a potential maniac. What's he doing and is she going to survive?
I see where Kowal was trying to take this novella, but it didn't really work for me. She wrote as her narrator, trying to recount a story without the use of computers, which, in this world is particularly difficult as everyone in the future uses computers to remember anything, and shows her discomfort at her disconnected state by inserting misspellings and typos. But, she didn't do this consistently... it was just random enough for me to forget that she was using this device and say to myself, "Typo!" and then remember that it was supposed to be there. So, it turned into this annoying distraction.
I was most interested in Katya's job as an Authenticities dealer, but, when Kowal moved the story off the grid, that essentially removed that element. In this passage, Katya's analyzing a typewriter: "It looked to be from the mid-twentieth century, though without picking it up or using my loupe, I couldn't confirm that. The fine dust caked into the grooves around the base seemed real enough, though. Most people who print fakes know enough to add dust to make it seem older, but they usually put it on too thickly and without regard for the use patterns of everyday objects." pg 7, ebook. The parts that I loved the most read like a futuristic Antiques Road Show, which would have been awesome if the story had continued along that vein.
The novella reached for depths that it never really explored, but this passage caught my attention: "It feels like he wanted me there to bear witness, but maybe it was just an opportunity that presented itself because I stopped. If I hadn't, if I had biked on through, would I have known that this was a cusp point in my life? Probably not. It makes you wonder, doesn't it, how many other cusp points you sail through in life without any awareness." pg 11 ebook. I do wonder about that. Life seems to be a series of stumblings and fortunate events but is it really as random as it seems? If you take one road, instead of another, does it even matter? Aware or not, life unfolds... I don't know. What do you think?
What ruined this short read for me was that I didn't get the ending at all. I essentially had to go back and read it all again, but then I still had a moment of "Huh?" Katya describes my over-arching feelings well: "There were so few things that made sense about the whole experience; I'm not sure why I expected events to suddenly appear orderly and rational now." pg 25, ebook
I do not recommend Forest of Memory unless you're looking for a puzzling sci fi read that raises the question of reliance on AI at the expense of everything else. And, if you find deeper meaning in it than I did, please do explain it to me. Thanks!
I see where Kowal was trying to take this novella, but it didn't really work for me. She wrote as her narrator, trying to recount a story without the use of computers, which, in this world is particularly difficult as everyone in the future uses computers to remember anything, and shows her discomfort at her disconnected state by inserting misspellings and typos. But, she didn't do this consistently... it was just random enough for me to forget that she was using this device and say to myself, "Typo!" and then remember that it was supposed to be there. So, it turned into this annoying distraction.
I was most interested in Katya's job as an Authenticities dealer, but, when Kowal moved the story off the grid, that essentially removed that element. In this passage, Katya's analyzing a typewriter: "It looked to be from the mid-twentieth century, though without picking it up or using my loupe, I couldn't confirm that. The fine dust caked into the grooves around the base seemed real enough, though. Most people who print fakes know enough to add dust to make it seem older, but they usually put it on too thickly and without regard for the use patterns of everyday objects." pg 7, ebook. The parts that I loved the most read like a futuristic Antiques Road Show, which would have been awesome if the story had continued along that vein.
The novella reached for depths that it never really explored, but this passage caught my attention: "It feels like he wanted me there to bear witness, but maybe it was just an opportunity that presented itself because I stopped. If I hadn't, if I had biked on through, would I have known that this was a cusp point in my life? Probably not. It makes you wonder, doesn't it, how many other cusp points you sail through in life without any awareness." pg 11 ebook. I do wonder about that. Life seems to be a series of stumblings and fortunate events but is it really as random as it seems? If you take one road, instead of another, does it even matter? Aware or not, life unfolds... I don't know. What do you think?
What ruined this short read for me was that I didn't get the ending at all. I essentially had to go back and read it all again, but then I still had a moment of "Huh?" Katya describes my over-arching feelings well: "There were so few things that made sense about the whole experience; I'm not sure why I expected events to suddenly appear orderly and rational now." pg 25, ebook
I do not recommend Forest of Memory unless you're looking for a puzzling sci fi read that raises the question of reliance on AI at the expense of everything else. And, if you find deeper meaning in it than I did, please do explain it to me. Thanks!
July 17, 2016
I enjoyed this novella/short story very much - a world where everyone is connected into the net, and normal goods like a boring old dictionary are incredibly coveted, for their status as antiquities. We're left wondering what's actually happened to the main character, a woman abducted and held in the forest by a man mysteriously doing something or other with the deer (or is she?)... it's all a bit hazy, but it's welcome in this for the fun of being immersed in another world for a short period.
June 27, 2022
eh. just alright. average worldbuilding and average prose and average plot mechanics coalesce to create a narrative that could have been more compelling with greater length and attention to detail. overall unmemorable.
May 22, 2016
For a short novella, I actually got surprisingly invested in this � and didn’t really realise until the end, where I was rooting for� something more. A rescue, a redemption, something. The sting in the tail of the story, while most of it was obvious to me, works well and adds to the meaning of everything that comes before it, which is exactly how stories should be written � especially short ones.
The setting of the story, while not revolutionary � the whole idea of society being connected, of storing your memories practically in the cloud, of never being out of touch � is done well, too; not too obtrusive, and yet it permeates the story.
The conceit of the typewriter and the typos, etc, just drove me a bit mad, though. Nope, cannot be doing with typos, even on purpose, apparently. But that’s a personal peeve, probably driven by my editing work, and didn’t get in the way of the story itself.
In the end, I just wanted a little more. I wanted the why, and we got some of it, but I wanted the motives of people we didn’t even meet in the story. So of course it was limited by the narration, but. But. Gimme!
The setting of the story, while not revolutionary � the whole idea of society being connected, of storing your memories practically in the cloud, of never being out of touch � is done well, too; not too obtrusive, and yet it permeates the story.
The conceit of the typewriter and the typos, etc, just drove me a bit mad, though. Nope, cannot be doing with typos, even on purpose, apparently. But that’s a personal peeve, probably driven by my editing work, and didn’t get in the way of the story itself.
In the end, I just wanted a little more. I wanted the why, and we got some of it, but I wanted the motives of people we didn’t even meet in the story. So of course it was limited by the narration, but. But. Gimme!
June 3, 2016
If your memory isn't perfect, how can you know what is true? How can you convince others that your experience of the world is truthfully reported? I liked this brief little book that owes as much, or more, to the conventions of mystery and suspense writing as the strictures of speculative fiction. Kowal's novella imagines a world where technology has pervaded our bodies to an extent that being offline is an anomaly and where even our relationship to nature is imbued with connectivity. What happens if someone decides to sever that invasive monitoring and let nature be itself? There are lots of purposefully unanswered questions and a fresh take on narrative unreliability that I enjoyed immensely.
Read
May 20, 2023When I read the blurb for the book I remember thinking that this might be rough (what with a man coming out of the forest and kidnapping the protagonist) but, to my surprise, the story was rather cute in a weird way. So this review is an anti-warning, I suppose: if you want to read this novella but are afraid that it may contain violence, just go ahead.
January 13, 2016
I received an egalley of this novella from the publisher for review. Thank you to Tor.com Publishing! This review is my honest opinion. Forest of Memory will be released on March 8, 2016.
In Forest of Memory, Katya deals in Authenticities and Captures: finding, authenticating, and selling items of the past, items that others desire because they are unique and laden with history and experience ('wabi-sabi'). Katya is in the habit of Capturing experiences - perhaps a recording of utterly quiet deer crossing a road - that others find valuable. Everything she needs to remember or know is taken care of by her AI, an 'i-Sys'.
While headed through a forest, her AI goes dead, her connection to the cloud network drops, and her life record stops abruptly. A man walks out of the forest, shoots protected deer in front of her, and abducts her because she is a witness. But what has she seen? What is the man doing? How does she get away?
What really happened?
The story is told by Katya after the fact, so you already know she's survived her three-day abduction. And yet there is no record of what happened to her. Someone wants her story - wants to knowÌýwhat happened. As she types out her story, relying on her organic memory instead of her recording devices, you just have to believe that this is what happened. And it seems that even Katya doesn't trust her own memory. She struggles with the faultiness of her recollection versus the perfect recall experience she's always known with her AI.
"Have you ever tried to do this? Have you turned off your Lens, turned off your i-Sys, stepped away from the cloud, and just tried to REMEMBER something? It's hard, and the memories are mutable."
I enjoyed this story because I wanted to know what happened too: how did Katya get from Point A to Point B? What occurred during those three days? What were the motives of her abductor, 'Johnny'? These questions alone were enough to keep me reading. At a short length, this novella was quite well paced so I never thought it lagged at any point.
The technology described, like Katya's earbud, the eye motions to call up and swipe information, the AI that served all of her needs, sketched just enough of a future laden with pervasive electronic connections. By the end, I was fascinated with Katya and her world's reliance on technology, and also a little repulsed!
I think this story moves purposefully towards an uncertain end ("I've given you the gift of uncertainty."), and leaves some tantalizing questions up in the air. If Katya isn't sure of what happened, or what the answers are, then can you, the reader, figure it out? I found this mystery pleasing in and of itself, but might have wanted a few more connections to be made explicit.
I'm uncertain if I liked the heavy use of typos: I might be a little OCD about copyediting, so the numerous egregious mistakes in the text constantly tripped me up. They're supposed to illustrate that Katya is typing her story out, and leaving the mistakes in. Maybe this is intended to reinforce the errors of memory, but it seemed unnecessary to me. Someone listening to the audio version of this may not be bothered at all.
Forest of Memory was an enjoyable read that kept me going for the answer to 'what happened?'. I would love another story from this world to explore some of the initial ideas brought up by Katya's job, like searching for the provenance of an heirloom typewriter or a well-used book.
July 4, 2016
3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this (very) short novella. It does a lot in a few pages but I was not satisfied with it in that I felt there was so much more story to tell. The author does a great job of pulling you in and building tension/suspense but then the ending just wasn't satisfying.
January 6, 2016
This is more of a 3.5 read. I liked it a lot, but the pacing could be slow. There's a lot of interesting work about the idea of connectivity, memory, and verification.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
October 5, 2020
“If I hadn’t, if I had biked on through, would I have known that this was a cusp point in my life? Probably not. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, how many other cusp points you sail through in life without any awareness.�
Outstanding novelette of a not-too-distant future. Excellent storytelling. Kowal weaves an increasingly tight web of mystery and suspense drawing the reader into her logical but unsettling climax. Love the cover art.
“Have you tried to do this? Have you turned off your Lens, turned off your i-Sys, stepped away from the cloud, and just tried to REMEMBER something? It’s hard, and the memories are mutable.�
The intentional typos take some getting used to but if I were forced to compose on a manual typewriter the results would be even more incomprehensible.
“I’d actually been asleep for nearly a day and a half. It was, indeed, lucky I hadn’t been killed when he shot me.�
Quibbles: 1. She has about the same body mass as a deer. The tranquilizer would not have knocked her out ten times longer, let alone risk killing her. 2.She knows how fast she was going on her bike and she was cut off for twenty minutes; she can figure the coverage of the disabling field. And, since he was stalling the deer as she approached, her i-Sys should have cut out long before she approached the deer.
“The lid cracked, and I remember being relieved that it was a sealed bottle, because that meant he wasn’t trying to poison me. As if there weren’t easier ways to do me in. Trust me, once you start having paranoid thoughts, everything becomes suspicious.�
Outstanding novelette of a not-too-distant future. Excellent storytelling. Kowal weaves an increasingly tight web of mystery and suspense drawing the reader into her logical but unsettling climax. Love the cover art.
“Have you tried to do this? Have you turned off your Lens, turned off your i-Sys, stepped away from the cloud, and just tried to REMEMBER something? It’s hard, and the memories are mutable.�
The intentional typos take some getting used to but if I were forced to compose on a manual typewriter the results would be even more incomprehensible.
“I’d actually been asleep for nearly a day and a half. It was, indeed, lucky I hadn’t been killed when he shot me.�
Quibbles: 1. She has about the same body mass as a deer. The tranquilizer would not have knocked her out ten times longer, let alone risk killing her. 2.She knows how fast she was going on her bike and she was cut off for twenty minutes; she can figure the coverage of the disabling field. And, since he was stalling the deer as she approached, her i-Sys should have cut out long before she approached the deer.
“The lid cracked, and I remember being relieved that it was a sealed bottle, because that meant he wasn’t trying to poison me. As if there weren’t easier ways to do me in. Trust me, once you start having paranoid thoughts, everything becomes suspicious.�
May 8, 2017
I’m steadily working my way up to total fanboy status regarding Mary Robinette Kowal’s work. As I’ve mentioned several times on the blog, her insight, perspective, and wit are one of the great draws of Writing Excuses, and her work that I’ve read (Shades of Milk and Honey, The Lady Astronaut of Mars, and her contribution to the Shadows Beneath anthology) I have absolutely loved.
I have her most recent novel, Ghost Talkers, on my to-read list, as well as Word Puppets, a collection of her shorts, but the book that drew me first was Forest of Memory, a novella published by Tor.com. The cover art, by Victo Ngai, of a surreal forest with an etherial buck jumping away from the viewer, captured my attention wholly.
Paired with the title, the image piqued my interest, and I wanted to know how the seemingly disparate images would connect to each other.
What I found in the novella is yet another example of Kowal’s stellar craftsmanship. The world, though never explicitly seen, feels enormous and lived-in, and the characterization is shows remarkable depth for its quickness.
Forest of Memory also asks a question that is increasingly important these days: in a world of perpetual connectivity, what would it feel like to suddenly find yourself alone? Unable to reach out to the entire world at a moment’s notice? Cut off from the global conversation?
I think about it often, because while I used to disconnect for several months at a time (as a result of working in the mountains), I haven’t truly disconnected from the web in almost a decade.
Almost 10 years of using the internet every single day. It’s remarkable. I wonder if it’s an inextricable part of my life and future. But it’s not all bad, of course. I socialize on the web, and have used the internet to build a life for myself in the writing community, which has been terrifically rewarding and healthy, not to mention profitable in some ways. I use the internet to learn, to laugh, to play, to connect. But I also use it to distract, to numb, to shout into an echo chamber with rage at the political problems of today. It is counterproductive and addictive.
What would it be like to lose something so wonderful and so destructive??
Kowal’s story is near-future science fiction, where the internet is ubiquitous, and devices are directly integrated into the body and brain. The protagonist collects antiquities, and deals in authenticity—the sale of legitimate artifacts and their stories. That last bit might be a little on the nose, but it’s worked well into the plot and setting, and it doesn’t feel as overbearing as it might have with a less skilled author. It does raise a good point, though. Digital facsimiles are all around us, and there may come a time, soon, when replicas are more readily available than the real thing.
I’m digressing from the story again. Spoilers follow, so if you want to read Forest of Memory—and you do—come back here when you’ve finished the 88-page story.
Kowal’s protagonist is riding along on a highway through the forests Oregon when a group of deer cross her path. She stops and begins recording them, knowing she can sell this moment, this experience, on the web. The moment is interrupted when one of the group, a buck, is shot. An illegal act. The hunter appears and begins working on the body of the buck, so the protagonist tries to run. She, too, is shot. Tranquilized, it turns out. Like the buck.
She wakes, kidnapped by the hunter, who is doing something to the bucks and deer. When she tries to use her tech to connect to the web, to call for help, she discovers that she can’t. She’s offline. She is terrified.
What follows is her strange captivity, watching the man work, wondering what he’s doing to the animals before releasing them, coming to some sort of terms with the discomfort of being disconnected. The hunter assures her that, once his work is done, he will release her and she’ll be able to connect to the net.
She tries to sleuth out what he’s doing, and the reader is lead to understand that he’s installing some sort of signal-blocking technology into the animals, so that the web doesn’t work around them. Through their conversations, he informs her that a wealthy party is interested in having him complete the work, and is additionally interested in purchasing an antique from her—a typewriter—and a story written on the selfsame typewriter about her experience. After her days of captivity, she is released, and soon is able to reconnect to the net.
The experience shakes her, but leaves her (largely) unharmed. For me, reading it, I was left thinking about technology addiction, unadulterated appreciation of nature, and just how good Mary Robnette Kowal is at this whole “writing� thing.
I have her most recent novel, Ghost Talkers, on my to-read list, as well as Word Puppets, a collection of her shorts, but the book that drew me first was Forest of Memory, a novella published by Tor.com. The cover art, by Victo Ngai, of a surreal forest with an etherial buck jumping away from the viewer, captured my attention wholly.
Paired with the title, the image piqued my interest, and I wanted to know how the seemingly disparate images would connect to each other.
What I found in the novella is yet another example of Kowal’s stellar craftsmanship. The world, though never explicitly seen, feels enormous and lived-in, and the characterization is shows remarkable depth for its quickness.
Forest of Memory also asks a question that is increasingly important these days: in a world of perpetual connectivity, what would it feel like to suddenly find yourself alone? Unable to reach out to the entire world at a moment’s notice? Cut off from the global conversation?
I think about it often, because while I used to disconnect for several months at a time (as a result of working in the mountains), I haven’t truly disconnected from the web in almost a decade.
Almost 10 years of using the internet every single day. It’s remarkable. I wonder if it’s an inextricable part of my life and future. But it’s not all bad, of course. I socialize on the web, and have used the internet to build a life for myself in the writing community, which has been terrifically rewarding and healthy, not to mention profitable in some ways. I use the internet to learn, to laugh, to play, to connect. But I also use it to distract, to numb, to shout into an echo chamber with rage at the political problems of today. It is counterproductive and addictive.
What would it be like to lose something so wonderful and so destructive??
Kowal’s story is near-future science fiction, where the internet is ubiquitous, and devices are directly integrated into the body and brain. The protagonist collects antiquities, and deals in authenticity—the sale of legitimate artifacts and their stories. That last bit might be a little on the nose, but it’s worked well into the plot and setting, and it doesn’t feel as overbearing as it might have with a less skilled author. It does raise a good point, though. Digital facsimiles are all around us, and there may come a time, soon, when replicas are more readily available than the real thing.
I’m digressing from the story again. Spoilers follow, so if you want to read Forest of Memory—and you do—come back here when you’ve finished the 88-page story.
Kowal’s protagonist is riding along on a highway through the forests Oregon when a group of deer cross her path. She stops and begins recording them, knowing she can sell this moment, this experience, on the web. The moment is interrupted when one of the group, a buck, is shot. An illegal act. The hunter appears and begins working on the body of the buck, so the protagonist tries to run. She, too, is shot. Tranquilized, it turns out. Like the buck.
She wakes, kidnapped by the hunter, who is doing something to the bucks and deer. When she tries to use her tech to connect to the web, to call for help, she discovers that she can’t. She’s offline. She is terrified.
What follows is her strange captivity, watching the man work, wondering what he’s doing to the animals before releasing them, coming to some sort of terms with the discomfort of being disconnected. The hunter assures her that, once his work is done, he will release her and she’ll be able to connect to the net.
She tries to sleuth out what he’s doing, and the reader is lead to understand that he’s installing some sort of signal-blocking technology into the animals, so that the web doesn’t work around them. Through their conversations, he informs her that a wealthy party is interested in having him complete the work, and is additionally interested in purchasing an antique from her—a typewriter—and a story written on the selfsame typewriter about her experience. After her days of captivity, she is released, and soon is able to reconnect to the net.
The experience shakes her, but leaves her (largely) unharmed. For me, reading it, I was left thinking about technology addiction, unadulterated appreciation of nature, and just how good Mary Robnette Kowal is at this whole “writing� thing.
August 23, 2016
I picked this little book up at the library because I was surprised to see such a small book. It's hard to get novellas published, but this looks like part of a novella series from Tor. I'm not a reader of SF so don't feel quite qualified to review this, but as a reader of short fiction, I was impressed.
Set in the future, when technology is more advanced and antiquities are high commodities, this is the provenance tale behind an old typewriter Katya finds and is preparing for sale. She types this story on the machine, and it includes her typos. A bit gimmicky: for me as a proofreader, it drove me a bit crazy. But I'm all for woodsy stories, and as she gets abducted into the forest, there is a bit of thriller and mystery. I won't spoil it, but I did find the ending seemed rushed and flat. I would love to see this expanded into a novel, however. The material and setting and characterization is all there. But maybe the author doesn't know what is happening either, so she had to let it stand as is. Still, I enjoyed it for its originality and brevity.
Set in the future, when technology is more advanced and antiquities are high commodities, this is the provenance tale behind an old typewriter Katya finds and is preparing for sale. She types this story on the machine, and it includes her typos. A bit gimmicky: for me as a proofreader, it drove me a bit crazy. But I'm all for woodsy stories, and as she gets abducted into the forest, there is a bit of thriller and mystery. I won't spoil it, but I did find the ending seemed rushed and flat. I would love to see this expanded into a novel, however. The material and setting and characterization is all there. But maybe the author doesn't know what is happening either, so she had to let it stand as is. Still, I enjoyed it for its originality and brevity.
April 16, 2017
Forest of Memory is a forgettable novella dealing with real memory vs. technology assisted memory and how we remember events. It was just an alright read that I wouldn't recommend to others. The novella fails to deliver the ending in a way that makes the themes powerful. Katya is a collector and reseller of antiques in the future. In the future, antiques are anything that wasn't created by a 3D printer. During one of her jobs, she loses her connection to the internet that is always on in her brain and gets kidnapped. Her kidnapper is shooting deer in the woods but doesn't want anyone to know about it. This is the first time that Katya has to rely on her actual memory instead of the constant recording that she usually could use when the internet is available. For a novella that is so concerned with memory, it doesn't leave much in the reader's memory when finished.
April 16, 2016
A very intriguing set up with our protagonist making a living selling antiquities such as typewriters in a technologically advanced but unspecified future date. She is en route to a client when she's kidnapped by a mysterious man who may or may not have something to do with the disappearance of deer.
This was rather a frustrating novella for me, since I liked the characters and style of writing, and the world while largely only hinted at had well imagined tech. It felt like there was much more to the world which was never explored, and ultimately the story raised far more questions than it answered, almost like it was the first chapter of a much bigger book. If you're a fan of open ended stories which let you make up your own mind, then go for it. Personally I like some closure!
This was rather a frustrating novella for me, since I liked the characters and style of writing, and the world while largely only hinted at had well imagined tech. It felt like there was much more to the world which was never explored, and ultimately the story raised far more questions than it answered, almost like it was the first chapter of a much bigger book. If you're a fan of open ended stories which let you make up your own mind, then go for it. Personally I like some closure!
March 10, 2016
The story plays with the themes of memory, recollection, and authenticity. Did something really happen if no one was there to record it? Is an account true if filtered by our fallible memories? If someone tells a story, can we ever be sure they're not lying?
Some people found an anti-technology message in this story. I really don't. It just asks some important questions about a technological society: how much are we willing to trust our memories, our records to technology? what happens when the connection suddenly drops and we're isolated? do we still need to exercise our memory in an age of vines and snapchats?
Only 4 stars because, while a very good story, it feels quite short at the end, like the prologue for something more (and maybe it is - I didn't immediately notice the small connections that tie this story to one of MRK's universes! So it's entirely possible the deer network will resurface again). Still, an excellent read and food for thought.
(disclaimer: I was a beta reader for a draft version of this story)
Some people found an anti-technology message in this story. I really don't. It just asks some important questions about a technological society: how much are we willing to trust our memories, our records to technology? what happens when the connection suddenly drops and we're isolated? do we still need to exercise our memory in an age of vines and snapchats?
Only 4 stars because, while a very good story, it feels quite short at the end, like the prologue for something more (and maybe it is - I didn't immediately notice the small connections that tie this story to one of MRK's universes! So it's entirely possible the deer network will resurface again). Still, an excellent read and food for thought.
(disclaimer: I was a beta reader for a draft version of this story)
March 11, 2020
What happens if you are always connected and can rely on a personal AI assistant including recordings of everything you experience - and suddenly you are disconnected? This is exactly the situation that Katya has to face and what we read is her personal report of what has happened during the 3 days of her disappearance.
Ted Chiang has already written about infallible, artificial memories in his novella with the focus on how such memories help to make wise decisions. In "Forest of Memory" the personal impact is different. Katya is insecure, struggles with gaps in her memory and knows that she might have got things wrong.
This was a fascinating look into the near future and I loved the unreliable narrator. What confused me at first were the many typos. In an ebook you never know so my initial thought was bad proof-reading or sabotage until I realized that the author might have done this intentionally. A quick Google search showed that indeed she had.
It was really a pity that the novella ended so soon. A second read will show if I have missed important clues to solve the mystery, assuming they are hidden somewhere.
Ted Chiang has already written about infallible, artificial memories in his novella with the focus on how such memories help to make wise decisions. In "Forest of Memory" the personal impact is different. Katya is insecure, struggles with gaps in her memory and knows that she might have got things wrong.
This was a fascinating look into the near future and I loved the unreliable narrator. What confused me at first were the many typos. In an ebook you never know so my initial thought was bad proof-reading or sabotage until I realized that the author might have done this intentionally. A quick Google search showed that indeed she had.
It was really a pity that the novella ended so soon. A second read will show if I have missed important clues to solve the mystery, assuming they are hidden somewhere.
November 27, 2016
Hmmmm. It initiates a conversation about living off the grid and what one man--backed by some unknown entity--may do as a result of this grid.
That's really all I can say. Nothing is settled or established, and it seems as though the author wanted to end it with a knowing smile. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Elbowing me in the side and going, you see what I did there?
I do, I did, but I wanted more. Our narrator went on tangents that were a little annoying when I wanted more meat--more explanation!
All in all though, it's a clever idea and I appreciated what the author did. I just wanted more of it.
That's really all I can say. Nothing is settled or established, and it seems as though the author wanted to end it with a knowing smile. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Elbowing me in the side and going, you see what I did there?
I do, I did, but I wanted more. Our narrator went on tangents that were a little annoying when I wanted more meat--more explanation!
All in all though, it's a clever idea and I appreciated what the author did. I just wanted more of it.
June 30, 2016
Started a bit slow, but really took off, and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. The narrative presentation was a bit odd (interview-style), but I got used to it quickly and ended up finding this to be a very pleasing short.
April 27, 2016
I loved this. Short and powerful, it has stayed with me for days after completion.
July 3, 2016
Interesting, so many unanswered questions! And designed to be that way, I'm certain.
July 17, 2016
Short but interesting. What happens when you can't use your tech and need to rely on your own memory?
April 10, 2019
I thought the world set up in this story was pretty interesting, but the story was not tight enough for me at all. I'd be interested to read this as an expanded story that took its time and was more clear on the message the author was trying to convey. The focus on some details (main character's job dealing in Authenticities, the prevalence of technology and social media in this 20-minutes-in-the-future world) was really enjoyable, but those were definitely more thought out than the actual story itself.
January 24, 2022
4.5 stars - Kowal demonstrates that she’s much more than feminist alternate history.
A small story about an abduction told by the victim, a truly unreliable narrator, who’s incapable of recalling crucial facts without her uplink which normally records everything.
A small story about an abduction told by the victim, a truly unreliable narrator, who’s incapable of recalling crucial facts without her uplink which normally records everything.
March 6, 2018
I’ll admit my main attraction to FOREST OF MEMORY was the cover. I mean, it’s stunning. But when it came time to reading it, I couldn’t get invested.
This is more of a sci-fi story which I wasn’t quite expecting, and I’m fine with that. My issue was there was lack of description for this world and character’s positions. Even when things were explained, I was still perplexed.
Kowal had this unique writing style, and I found it fascinating how she wrote from the main character’s perspective as if she had to write it down without the help of technology, adding typos and the like.
The last quarter of the book picked up and left me intrigued, but unfortunately, I didn’t fall in love.
This is more of a sci-fi story which I wasn’t quite expecting, and I’m fine with that. My issue was there was lack of description for this world and character’s positions. Even when things were explained, I was still perplexed.
Kowal had this unique writing style, and I found it fascinating how she wrote from the main character’s perspective as if she had to write it down without the help of technology, adding typos and the like.
The last quarter of the book picked up and left me intrigued, but unfortunately, I didn’t fall in love.
March 3, 2016
This book was provided to me by the publisher at no cost.
Mary Robinette Kowal takes the idea of memory and its fallibility as her central theme in this novella, and pairs it with the ever-fascinating ideas of narrative, and unreliable narrators, and their motivations.
Kowal's narrator lives in a world of permanent connection, through her intelligent system, and a world of permanent life-casting - ideas that have a strong hold on the world of science fiction writing at the moment. I was strongly reminded of Ted Chiang's awesome "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling." That story is a much more rigorous exploration of the same general themes, not least because it is much longer and because it pairs those themes with ideas connecting language and meaning and memory. The two work really nicely together.
Anyway, Katya is telling a story to persons unknown who have asked for the story of three days when she was offline. (The page before the story opens has this dedication: "For Jay Lake and Ken Scholes / Who asked me to tell them a story" - which is pretty amusing in context.) She is a dealer in Authenticities, meaning old stuff with wabi-sabi (a Japanese term, she explains, of something that witnesses and records the graceful decay of life), as well as Captures on the side - that is, she sells the record of her personal experiences. The difficulty she has, of course, is that for the three days she was offline she will need to rely on her own memories, rather than asking for a replay from her i-sys. She is super aware of the possibilities here of her own unreliability, reflecting on them and looping back on herself as she considers whether or not to trust herself. It's a wonderfully constructed piece of worry.
There's not a whole lot of action in the story, really, and it raises enormous questions about the world in which it's set and the reasons for why someone wants Katya's story. I rather hope that Kowal might consider writing more stories, or a novel, set in this world and further exploring the issues raised.
Mary Robinette Kowal takes the idea of memory and its fallibility as her central theme in this novella, and pairs it with the ever-fascinating ideas of narrative, and unreliable narrators, and their motivations.
Kowal's narrator lives in a world of permanent connection, through her intelligent system, and a world of permanent life-casting - ideas that have a strong hold on the world of science fiction writing at the moment. I was strongly reminded of Ted Chiang's awesome "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling." That story is a much more rigorous exploration of the same general themes, not least because it is much longer and because it pairs those themes with ideas connecting language and meaning and memory. The two work really nicely together.
Anyway, Katya is telling a story to persons unknown who have asked for the story of three days when she was offline. (The page before the story opens has this dedication: "For Jay Lake and Ken Scholes / Who asked me to tell them a story" - which is pretty amusing in context.) She is a dealer in Authenticities, meaning old stuff with wabi-sabi (a Japanese term, she explains, of something that witnesses and records the graceful decay of life), as well as Captures on the side - that is, she sells the record of her personal experiences. The difficulty she has, of course, is that for the three days she was offline she will need to rely on her own memories, rather than asking for a replay from her i-sys. She is super aware of the possibilities here of her own unreliability, reflecting on them and looping back on herself as she considers whether or not to trust herself. It's a wonderfully constructed piece of worry.
There's not a whole lot of action in the story, really, and it raises enormous questions about the world in which it's set and the reasons for why someone wants Katya's story. I rather hope that Kowal might consider writing more stories, or a novel, set in this world and further exploring the issues raised.
May 4, 2016
In an unspecified future where everyone is connected, Katya, a dealer in Authenticities, items from the past, falls off the grid. This is her account, typos included, of what happened during the three days she was off the grid. Believe it or not, she swears its true, even though she has no proof, technical or physical.
Such a riveting tale. The synopsis tells you a lot, but actually reading the story from Katya’s point of view was fun. She rambled a bit and apologized for her typos. Once I could shut off my editing filter, I found it quite fun.
A mysterious hunter, alias � Johnny, kidnapped Katya and revealed to her what his involvement was with the missing deer in the forest, and at this point the story took me down the proverbial rabbit hole.
Science fiction and futuristic technology along with intriguing characters captured my imagination. But I had some difficulty navigating the ending. It felt somewhat abrupt and I reread it, trying to squeeze more of a conclusion out of it. If the author chose to, she could make this part of a larger book and I’d gladly reenter this world.
I received this book as a gift.
Such a riveting tale. The synopsis tells you a lot, but actually reading the story from Katya’s point of view was fun. She rambled a bit and apologized for her typos. Once I could shut off my editing filter, I found it quite fun.
A mysterious hunter, alias � Johnny, kidnapped Katya and revealed to her what his involvement was with the missing deer in the forest, and at this point the story took me down the proverbial rabbit hole.
Science fiction and futuristic technology along with intriguing characters captured my imagination. But I had some difficulty navigating the ending. It felt somewhat abrupt and I reread it, trying to squeeze more of a conclusion out of it. If the author chose to, she could make this part of a larger book and I’d gladly reenter this world.
I received this book as a gift.
May 21, 2016
In a world where you're always connected to the network, where you have a little AI in your head recording everything you see and hear, what is it like to be offline? What is it like to have to rely on your actual human memory? It's a simple concept Mary Robinette Kowal explores in Forest of Memory, and she doesn't play with it as much as I would have liked, but the narrator's voice carries the story through an incredibly tense scenario. Katya, who buys and sells Authenticities like 20th century typewriters and Captures like "the sound of a real-life forest," is kidnapped by...someone who is doing...stuff to deer. The bulk of the story is her encounter with this man, and her attempt to retell it without being able to access any digital record of it...but retell it to whom, and for what purpose? It's in the last couple pages, when Kowal closes the frame story, that the true narrative reveals itself. Or does it? Forest of Memory leaves the reader with more questions than answers, but it does so in such a cleverly sinister way you'll be satisfied anyway.
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