Memory: A Novelette
27 July 2015
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About this book:
Written by Argentine author Teresa P. Mira de EcheverrÃa and translated into English by Lawrence Schimel, Memory explores the nature of oppression, genetic engineering, non-binary relationships, and—you guessed it—memory, on a colony on a terraformed Mars.
This novelette was a finalist for the Ignotus (the Spanish national science fiction awards) and originally appeared in the anthology Terra Nova: An Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Science Fiction. It was released in this edition on 27 July 2015.
It has appeared on several of Book Riot‘s lists: 100 Must-Read Latin American Books (25 April 2016), The Re(a)d Planet: 10 Short Stories About Mars (28 May 2016), 100 Must-Read Works of Speculative Fiction in Translation (22 June 2016), Speculative Fiction in Translation for Women in Translation Month (18 August 2016), and Speculative Fiction in Translation: Argentina (6 November 2017).
Reviews:
I don’t think the value of any story hinges on the moral righteousness of the characters, or even the author, and as a writer I sometimes find the pressure for so-called positive representation to effectively judge all marginalized writing against a politics of respectability; that said, Memory is not merely a feel-good celebration of love and the survivors of abuse should proceed with some caution. Still, the novellette is excellently crafted and beautiful, if painful, to read—and it still is in fact diverse. The very end heightens the motif of desire across a malleable torus of time, and it satisfied and stuck around with me for several days after. Overall, Memory is a sensual sucker-punch of short fabulist science fiction.
—K. Tait Jarboe, “Memory by Teresa P. Mira de EcheverrÃa,” Strange Horizons, 4 July 2016
This novelette is an exploration of oppression, freedom, love, polyamory, memory, and time itself.
—A.J. O’Connell, “The Re(a)d Planet: 10 Short Stories About Mars,” Book Riot, 28 May 2016
Nostalgic future, which looks like a summer afternoon of the past, from childhood, is well known to every reader of fiction from the work of Ray Bradbury. When the place is Mars, no doubt about conscious desire on the part of the author to connect with precisely this vision of the planet, not one of the more popular lately (as we see in psevdofantastichniya film Ridley Scott’s “Martian”). Romanticize Mars is important for history that deals with desire. . . . Where clear where vague, always strong at its core, each echo is actually a creative act. So neither the first meeting with Mr. Cappadocia and his old Chevy on Mars is not a retelling of a Martian chronicle of Bradbury or revolution against the ground reflects the trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. And the desire of Jedediah not near to desire freedom at Delaney or near-death wish in Tiptri. For the author of “Memory” Memory is the most important thing about identity, just as the memory is something important and meaningful reading good fiction.
—Vladimir Poleganova, “An Unforgettable Mars,” auto-translated by Google, Coven of troubadours [Сборище на трубадури], 10 December 2015
. . .it’s worth your time to read and evaluate for yourself. I found the writing and characterization beautiful. . .
—Karen Burnham, “Although Flawed, MEMORY by Teresa P. Mira de EcheverrÃa Features Beautiful Writing and Revolutionary Ideas,” SF Signal, 6 August 2015
I would recommend this novelette if you are interested in a quick, deep read and, of course, if you like science fiction stories!
—Márcia, “BOOK REVIEWS: MEMORY BY TERESA P. MIRA ECHEVERRÃA,” Every fairytale needs a good old-fashioned reader, 29 June 2015
In many ways, Memory reminds me of Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles in terms of the latter’s use of Mars as a kind of exotic backdrop to the human drama that plays itself out. De EcheverrÃa, like Bradbury, is interested less in the science of Mars and more in what it means for humans to colonize and change another planet—what does this do to humans’ perceptions, beliefs, and desires? How does a radically different environment change how we think about what it means to be human?
Most interesting of all, to me, is how much Memory makes me think about a famous novella (Death in Venice) by my favorite author of all time (the German writer Thomas Mann). Mann’s story, too, explores desire and “unconventional” love and its connections to art, memory, and death. Unlike Memory, though, Death in Venice despairs for a world in which love isn’t policed and bounded. De EcheverrÃa’s story, in its lyrical and ultimately positive portrayal of non-binary, expansive love, seems like the answer to Death in Venice‘s question.
—Rachel Cordasco, “MEMORY by Teresa P. Mira de EcheverrÃa is a Mind Expanding Sci-Fi Read,” SF Signal, 27 June 2015
Entry filed under: Fiction. Tags: Lawrence Schimel, Memory, Teresa P. Mira de Echeverria.