The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories Paperback – February 15, 2014

There are so many surprises in these stories, moments of which gave me a wry laugh, a heartache, or drew me in further. I had not previously read any of Vandana Singh's work, and in a way, I'm glad I didn't know anything about the stories, it made the process of discovery that much sweeter. So that you can you enjoy that feeling for yourself, I don't really want to tell you much about this short story collection, but I will say it is strongly influenced by Dr. Singh's passions both academic and personal, and the stories are set in modern India. The majority of the stories have fascinating, complex women as their main characters, and two of the stories have older or elderly men as their main characters. Both of these are refreshing changes from the usual "strong brave man" who tends to show up in specfic and scifi. The fantastic elements in the stories are not introduced with a wink or fanfare, they simply ARE, and that's the soul of the beauty in this collection. The stories do not rely on trickery or flash to draw you in. Instead, they capture you with compelling characters, finely sketched domestic settings, and the magical set amongst the everyday.I often rip through short story collections like eating a box of junior mints at the movies, but this collection demanded my attention in a quiet, powerful way and I read the stories one at a time or in groups of two. Highly recommended.

This may be 5 yet it was so out of my comfort zone that it was difficult to limit my judgment to a simple number. I have not read much speculative fiction. Honestly, I did not know that it was a sub-genre of literature. These stories are quite myth-like in feel. Myths for the adult reader. As the author states"... there is still a strong undercurrent of writhing that questions and subverts dominant paradigms and persists in asking uncomfortable questions" thus the emergence of speculative fiction, a blending of fantasy and science fiction. Within these strange stories, we see the the familiar topics of self, love, dreams, rage,struggle, and family. Again, in the author's words: "Reality is such a complex beast that in order to begin to comprehend it we need something larger than realist ficton. I would suggest that if you have never read speculative fiction, this would be a wonderful introduction. It is somehow strangely compelling and wonderful.

Singh's writing is fantastic. She's inventive, intimate, and dexterous as she interweaves personal inner worlds of emotion with a cosmic mythos and scientific mystery. If you enjoy the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Edgar Allen Poe, or the intricate world-building of Neal Stevenson and Brandon Sanderson, or the underlying mythos in Roberto Calasso and José Saramago—in short, if you enjoy fantastical experiments that manage to both leave behind the constraints of our daily existence while being utterly relevant and relatable to said existence, then you'll enjoy this collection.

Vandana Singh is an amazing writer. Her deeply imbedded cultural themes are brought through the high energy transformation portal afforded by today's evolved science fiction and fantasy literature. The stories have bitter, depressing elements, yet the overall mood, and often the conclusion, tend to be sweeter and looking up. The title story, especially the end, reminded me of that renowned US Southern writer, Flannery O'Connor; and yet, even here (and quite unlike O'Connor), the rather dark tone was cast against a very bright and shining background.

Dr. Singh is an amazing writer. She captivated me with her unique take on science fiction. Her references to her Indian heritage were interesting and made the book come alive for me. I would recommend it to anyone, not only science fiction enthusiasts.

The author is from India and her stories present interesting insights into Indian culture.

Some great stories here!

This gorgeous collection of speculative short stories swept me away. Vandana Singh is a truly skilled writer.This collection includes ten short stories and one brief essay, where Singh writes about the importance of speculative fiction (in this case she was preaching to the choir). The stories themselves are a mix of science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. Most of the stories are set in India, although one takes place on the Moon and one takes place in New England.My favorite of the collection is probably the opening story, “Hunger.” An Indian house wife who loves science fiction novels and dreams of other worlds feels trapped within her own, occupied with planning her daughter’s birthday party. This party is more for her husband than her daughter, as it is a chance for him to impress the higher ups at his firm. Most of the story stays within the bounds of reality, only veering outside it within the last few pages.Like with “Hunger,” the protagonists would often be people with a sense of hollowness in their lives, unfulfilled by the demands of respectable society. In “Tetrahedron,” the protagonist is a college aged women who’s engaged to man her family approves of, but she dreads a future with him. When a mysterious tetrahedron appears out of nowhere in her city, she becomes obsessed with understanding its mysteries.These restless protagonists are often women, such as in “Thirst,” where a wife dreams of water and serpents. She begins to understand her own family’s legacy, and why the women of her maternal line have always been drawn to water.In “Delhi,” the protagonist at drift is a man, who on the brink of suicide was pulled back from a bridge and given a card, which led him to the office of a fortune teller. He received a computer print out of a woman’s face and the advice that she was the reason he had to keep living. Who is this woman? The protagonist doesn’t live entirely in the present — he glimpses visions of the future and the past, so the mysterious woman could be from anywhere in history. I loved this story’s chilly hints about what the future holds.Some of the stories contain traces of sly humor; this is most obvious in the titular “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet.” A respectable middle-class man retires and finds out that he doesn’t really know his wife. And then she starts saying that she’s a planet! What will the neighbors think?“Three Tales from the Sky River” may be the only one of these stories that’s also available free online (check Strange Horizons). It’s possibly the shortest story in the collection, but it’s still incredibly lovely. “Three Tales from the Sky River” is three original fables from star-faring people. Even if you don’t have time to read this full collection, I would suggest at least giving this story a look.In “The Room on the Roof,” a sculptress moves into the house of a thirteen year old girl. This story falls somewhere in the category of fantasy or magical realism, and there’s enough layers that I’m still sorting it out.Some of the stories are more science geared than others. “The Tetrahedron” would be one of these, but “Conservation Laws” and “Infinities” are the two others. “Conservation Laws” takes place on the Moon, and through a story within a story structure heads to Mars as well for a strange, epic tale of aliens who preserve our reality. In “Infinities,” a mathematician becomes obsessed with the idea of infinity even as violence between Hindus and Muslims breaks out around him.I enjoyed pretty much all of the stories. The only one that never really landed was “The Wife,” the one set in New England. On the whole, 9/10 is pretty good for a short fiction collection. I’m so glad I got the chance to read this book, and I look forward to exploring more of Singh’s work.

This is NOT an anthology of science fiction stories. It is a collection of strong short stories which use various tropes of science fiction as plot devices to further the stories of the protagonists. Several reviewers have held them as examples of speculative fiction. That's vague. Actually these stories are all about finding one's truer self, in my opinion.Those stories are:1. Hunger2. Delhi3. The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet (best story of the book)4. Infinities5. Thirst6. Conservation Laws7. Three Tales from Sky River8. The Tetrahedron9. The Wife10. The Room on the RoofThere are distinct shades of magic realism here, duly accopanied by strong characterisation and very good literary techniques. Unfortunately, I found them a tad soporific. Nevertheless, Recommended.

This book contains one of the finest short-stories that has probably been ever published in the history of Speculative Fiction! Most of the stories are Science Fiction, while some are Fantasies. Four of the stories (from a total of 10 in the book) are at their SUPREME BEST; them being "Delhi", "Infinities", "Conservation Laws", and "The Tetrahedron". The others are truly spectacular too in their own ways and are very satisfactory enough.The writer, Vandana Singh, has been terrific at writing these stories, and I could almost call it to be on the lines of Ursula K. LeGuin's works. The stories may be simple enough in their literal sense, but its subtleness could only be understood by the reader only when he starts asking himself the questions from a philosophical perspective. There is lots to ponder upon after reading through the lines, and much to absorb and even change the reader's life altogether. A knowledge of science is not truly required to understand the stories, but I will say having read, the reader if ignorant in science would certainly might want to search for some knowledge on the topics that are dealt within the scope of this book.All the stories (or so it seems to me) are based in North India, mostly in Delhi, by which it provides and gives a fresh outlook (at least to me since most of my earlier science fiction readings have never been based in India) where Delhi's history and culture combines with science to form a situation so heightened in imagination, a feeling so intense and bewildering, that no other science fiction as yet been able to fulfil such cravings of my heartfelt combinatorial artistic requirements for the sake of providing pleasure to the neuronal network within the cranium of yours truly.The book starts with a story that acts like an introduction to the world of science fiction, while it ends with "A Speculative Manifesto", an essay by the writer, which talks about what Speculative Fiction is and how it can be understood in a wider perspective.Now GO READ THE BOOK ..., and Make the Best of It While Your Mind is still Human, and has the Ability To Reconstruct Thoughts in Ways That No Other Species Can! Get Astonished ..., and Transcend!! :)

Amazingly, the Amazon price was higher than the retail price printed on the book cover (despite it being eligible for 'prime' delivery).