Book Review: Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories by Naomi Kritzer
This is the first collection of speculative fiction stories by Naomi Kritzer, headlined by the title piece, which won a Hugo Award in 2016. There’s seventeen stories in all.
“Cat Pictures Please” is a sweet story about an artificial intelligence accidentally created from a search engine. It wants to do good, and to be good, but is still learning what that means. It talks about some early attempts to help human beings, and what did and didn’t work. Oh, and it would like you to post more cat pictures. (I personally am doomed.)
The last story in the volume is “So Much Cooking” told in the form of posts from a recipe blog in a time of plague sweeping the United States. As things grow worse and worse, and ingredients become more scarce, the recipes become more inventive. At the same time, the family of the blogger becomes larger as they take in other survivors. It’s very strong on the theme of sharing and working together to endure in times of hardship.
Some of the stories are heavily inspired by other works, such as “In the Witch’s Garden” which is an sfnal take on The Snow Queen, but not the bit most people use, and “What Happened at Blessing Creek”, a horrific tale inspired by the Little House series.
Others feature supernatural beings finding connections with humanity, such as “The Golem”, set in Prague during World War Two, and “The Good Son”, about a member of the Fair Folk who falls in love and finds his lies trapping him in perhaps a better life.
Overall, I found this a strong collection of good stories–a couple were written as gifts to specific people and come off a bit indulgent.
I understand that a YA novel loosely based on the “Cat Pictures Please” story is due to be released next year. In the meantime, the original tale stands quite nicely on its own, and this book is worth a look.
