
Slipping: Stories, Essays & Other Writings
A Punk Lolita fighter-pilot rescues Tokyo from a marauding art installation. A young architectâs life is derailed by an inquisitive girl who happens to be a ghost. Unwitting recruits discover biohazardous plants on an inhospitable planet. Loyalty to a favourite product can be addictive when it gets under your skin.
Reviews
âAn art installation so tactile as to feel alive, a ghost that lurks alongside a promising architecture student, a girl gutted from the inside to make a premiere athlete: all stitched together into a punk tapestry of stories and other short pieces. Cape Town author Beukes (Zoo City, 2016, etc.) makes good use of her South African homeland, though she often turns Johannesburg and Cape Town into futuristic wastelands, as in âThe Green,â a sci-fi militaristic nightmare of a short story, or âRiding with the Dream Patrol,â an unsettling look at where our cyberfuture could be headed (hint: bad places). There are also more straightforwardly bizarre entries, bordering on pure science fiction but never losing Beukesâ dark comedic edge, particularly âUnathi Battles the Black Hairballs,â wherein a fighter pilot (a woman, of course) must save Tokyo. Also, there are talking cats to spice things up (where there are hairballs, there must be cats). Some of the most effective pieces are the shortest, such as âDial Tone,â where Beukes evokes the lonely desperation of her nameless narrator in less than four pages, as the character places crank calls and is often simply soothed by the dial tone. Or âConfirm/Ignore,â in which the narrator berates readers, and society at large, for their obsession with pop culture: âOne day I get Bette Davis and Bettie Page confused. This is not my fault. Itâs yours.â Her brief autobiographical piecesâon her first forays into journalism and a letter to her young daughter on the meaning of beautyâwrap up the slim volume nicely. Utterly bizarre and equally addictive, these pieces demonstrate that Beukes has only tapped the surface of her prodigious and wide-ranging talent with her novels.â âKirkus
âWhether theyâre set in modern-day Johannesburg or on a planet circling a distant star, these powerful, beautifully written stories are always about today and the darkness of the human soul.â âPublishers Weekly
âA fantastic, comical, alternate historical dieselpunk affair . . . filled with astonishing characters, fine dialogue, and an abundance of ideas and is packaged with John Coulthartâs cool Futurist-Constructivist-
âSouth African writer Beukes (Zoo City; Broken Monsters) showcases her evolution as an author with these 26 piecesâmostly short stories with a few nonfiction entries at the end. Stories such as âBrandedâ recall Beukesâs debut, Moxyland, with its combination of cyberpunk elements and South African patois. That distinct regional flavor gets sanded out of some of the later tales, which hop among genres deftly. One of the more bizarre, âUnathi Battles the Black Hairballs,â features a cameo by magical realism author ÂHaruki Murakami. Some selections are more likely to appeal to readers unfamiliar with Beukes. For example, âThe Greenâ is a fantastically creepy sf story of grunt soldiers on a planet with invasive local flora. Another good starting point is the title story âSlipping,â which tells of a runner who has undergone extensive physical modifications. VERDICT Even the early stories, many set in Beukesâs native Johannesburg, have a rough energy and imagination that shows why she Âremains an author to watch. âLibrary Journal
âBeukes writes with passion and a hot immediacy, employing demotic prose that often attains a gritty poetry. She favors capturing the explosive instant rather than the multi-linked chain of circumstances that constitute most stories.â âLocus
âShows off [Beukesâ] skill across a range of genres . . . brilliant.â âNew York Journal of Books
âTantalizing, dark, and thought-provoking.â âBooklist
âExceptional on all counts . . . Slipping is an essential collection, one of the yearâs best.â âBarnes & Noble Sci Fi & Fantasy Blog
âLauren Beukesâs distinct voice and viewpoint have positioned her as one of the freshest, most exciting talents in writing today. Slipping will only further her reputation.â âCemetery Dance
 âBeing Beukes, hard topics are described and explored, and being Beukes one can easily trust in the author to be both sensitive, intelligent and eloquent throughout.â âVentureadlaxre
âLauren Beukes is one of the most talented writers working today. Moving from witty to sad to horrifying, she makes it all seem effortless. Weâre lucky to finally have her short work in one place.â âRichard Kadrey, author of the Sandman Slim series and The Everything Box
âLauren Beukes is one of the best weâve got, and this fierce collection, showing the full breadth of her remarkable talent, is a pure dark joy.â âWarren Ellis, author of Gun Machine and Transmetropolitan
âLauren Beukes is a remarkable talent, that rare writer who can go in any direction she desires and always deliver. In Slipping you have the chance to see her at her most versatile and powerful. A wonderful collection from one of the strongest voices in the game.â âMichael Koryta, author of So Cold the River and Those Who Wish Me Dead
âSlipping is a dizzying array of stories, a âgreatest hitsâ from a prolific and imaginative writer. Thereâs a mash of scenarios and genres from alternative histories to Manga, cyberpunk to feminist fairy tale. Itâs kick-ass speculative fiction with brains and heart. 10/10 stars.â âStarburst
âLauren Beukes is one of the most creative, thought-provoking writers working today, and Slipping puts us right in the bloody depths of her brain and gives us an intimate tour. This book writhes with ideas and undeniable energy.â âSteph Cha, author of Dead Soon Enough
âWhile each story in this collection is unique, they all have that one piece in common that make me so passionate about [Beukesâs] previous novelsâthereâs a sense of some underlying real world threat in even the most intensely science fiction story lines. Much like Margaret Atwoodâs The Handmaidâs Tale, the reader is left with feelings of unease, that though what youâve just read is fiction, it still hits too close to home to not make you nervous.â âPages and Pints
âThe dazzling short pieces collected in Slipping, which range from reportage to tender bits of personal reflection to weird sci-fi horror, together serve to confirm the impression Beukes already created in her novels: this is a writer who can do anything.â âBen H. Winters, author of Underground Airlines and the Last Policeman series
âA ferocious collection from our brightest, sharpest talent.â âAdam Christopher, author of Made to Kill
âBold, brazen, and brilliantânow this is a collection to die for. Beukes fearlessly skewers personal relationships, social injustice and pop culture (among other things), and every story is a masterclass in flair, wit and fresh ideas.â âSarah Lotz, author of The Three and Day Four
âSlipping is a rare surprise, and one that demonstrates Beukes wide-ranging talent. Whether sheâs writing about corporate branded future punks and celebrants, or the downtrodden casual menaces of daily life, from a compilation of tweets to a handful of remarkable non-fiction essays, her stories prove, repeatedly, that she is a masterful writer and that she has a voice that absolutely must be heard. Hold on tight to this oneâyou do not want it to slip away.â âMichael Patrick Hicks, author of Emergence
âEveryone should be reading this author and start tracking her wonderful talent with characters.â âBrad K. Horner
âNot only is [Beukes] quite adept at the strange science that surrounds time travel, a la The Shining Girls, sheâs quite skilled at crafting the perfect and perfectly horrible short work . . . literature in all its darkness and beauty.â
âDrunk in a Graveyard
âSlipping is a diverse and fascinating collection of stories and essays. It contained some of the most thought provoking pieces I have read in a long time.â âFemlitica
âLauren Beukes, judging from these tales, is one of the best fictional chroniclers of modern life per se.â âSee the Elephant
âIf you have read [Beukes] before, you definitely need to get on it with this book, whether you like science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, or just plain weird.â âThis Ainât Livinâ
âSatirically glamorous, Bruce Sterlingâs Pirate Utopia (2016, Tachyon) captures a comically refined view of the proceedings as only Bruce Sterling can.â âSpeculition
 âBased in Greek myth, Summerlong is Rick Riordanâs Percy Jackson series for adults and is equally compelling. Here, just as Abe, Joanna, and Lily become strangely mesmerized by Lioness, so too the reader becomes so drawn into this novel that it is impossible to put aside.â âCurious Mind Garden
âSlick and stylish, Beukesâ visions of the future both entertain and alarm in the way that great science fiction should.â âPop Culture Beast
 âEach of these stories are wildly authentic, vastly entertaining, and a constant focus on the darkness in this world.â âFor the Love of Words
âWeird and wonderful âŠÂ Slipping is a staggering mix of horror, crime, humor, dystopian views, and science fiction.â âLit Reactor
âLauren Beukes has established herself as one of the genreâs most exciting voices. The stories assembled here not only show off her eclectic range of influences and interests, but the strength of her voice, her passion for her subjects, and that fantastic blend of anger, analysis, sensitivity and wit.â âSci Fi Now
 âLauren Beukesâs fiction starts with big ideas and runs them through an assortment of permutations . . . incisive writing.â âVol. 1 Booklyn
 âBeukesâs writing is acerbic, sharp, and intuitiveâ âFairy Bookmother
âBeukes captures the essence of what it means to be alive in all its many forms, as the life force of the characters tears itself right off the page and meets the reader head on.â âStrange Alliances
âWhether the story takes place in present day, the near future, or somewhere else entirely, through sharp use of dialogue and description, readers instantly get a handle on her characters as they experience fear, love, hate, joy, confusion, exploitation, and adventure. The stories are funny and freaky, sad and scary. They are bold and beautiful, violent and vibrant. 10/10 stars.â âFantasy Faction
 âSlipping is a stunning, diverse collection of genre-spanning short fiction by one of South Africaâs best speculative fiction authors.â âWorlds in Ink
âThis is an excellent collection of stories, essays, and tidbits.â âFat Robot
âI knew going in that Beukes was a powerfully talented wordsmith;
ââŠa lively mix of 19 stories, a set of twitter mash-up stories, a poem, and five non-fiction pieces.â âLocus, Year in Review
âThis was hit after hit of what I like best about [Beukesâ] writing: sly, sharp digs at who we are, who we want to be, and the tricks we fall for, all with a gritty, near-future cyberpunk backdrop.â âRhian Bowley, author of The Dream Feeders
âLauren Beukes is a fantastic writer, no doubt about that.â âFiction Fantastic