Rate this book

The Man Who Bridged The Mist (2011)

by Kij Johnson(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Asimov's Science Fiction

review 1: This story is a wonderful piece of world building, concerning an architect who is tasked with building a long bridge across a mysterious valley connecting two isolated villages. The mist that fills the valley has strange properties and is home to large, deadly creatures. One of the beauties of the novella is that Johnson’s descriptions of the mist and the creatures are from the viewpoint of the characters who are so familiar with them that no further descriptions are necessary, letting the readers’ imaginations fill in the gaps. In lesser hands this would have been disastrous, but Johnson deftly weaves the mysteries into her story, letting them take a back seat to the human relationships between the architect and the natives. I hope that there will be more stories set ... morein this fascinating setting.
review 2: I like stories that lie on this particular border of fantasy and science fiction: stories set in strange cultures or places that are in themselves the fantastic element, allowing the focus to be on the characters and how they react to their environment. This story has the requisite stranger come to town, which allows the reader to experience a simple and scary and beautiful location through his fresh eyes. It's a lovely read and worthy Nebula-and-Hugo Best Novella nominee, though I think it will probably lose out to the gorgeous Valente piece. less

Download links for: The Man Who Bridged the Mist

Advertising