White Time

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Margo Lanagan's North American debut, Black Juice, won a 2005 Printz Honor award. Now the Sydney, Australia-based author returns with a new collection of stories about the slippery space between reality and other dimensions.

Horn Book Magazine

“Taut, vivid, original: another winner.”

Publishers Weekly

Australian author Margo Lanagan's 10 thought-provoking, loosely connected short stories in White Time will appeal to both fantasy and science fiction fans, especially those who enjoyed her Black Juice. Each 20-page story captures a pivotal moment in the main character's life. In "Wealth," for instance, an Ord named Rill grapples with her decision to work secretly with a wealthy Leet to earn enough money to free her irresponsible brother from jail, not knowing the Leets' murderous plans. The textured language and imaginative situations will draw readers into these challenging tales. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Janet L. Rose

The future, an ant colony, a medieval village: this set of ten short stories depicts universal human characteristics in a variety of settings. In The Queen's Notice, Dybbol, a fighter ant, has become the Queen's favorite and no longer has the same relationship with the rest of the colony. Written from his point of view, he tries to, but ultimately cannot, resist his fate of serving the queen. The Night Lily deals with the devastation of war, and how in the end, life goes on as usual. Tess, in The Boy, can see the emotional baggage people take with them—the intimate details of their past pains and sadness that they carry on their shoulders and are unable to shed. In Welcome Blue, people gather to welcome their savior while a flower farmer gathers his crop. The being from another world visits the farmer, however, but he refuses to be drawn into the mass mentality of being the "chosen one." The last story is an age-old tale of the haves and have nots, and wealth is counted in how much hair people have. Students will need to weed through the made-up words and unique settings to find the true essence of the stories, the human characteristics that are portrayed, and how they are relevant in today's world and to themselves. Each story can provide a starting point to an interesting discussion. Note: Swear words are used.

VOYA - Rebecca Moore

"The different-ness of things that seem alike-that's the wonder of the universe," declares one of Lanagan's characters, and readers will find many such provocative differences in this enigmatic and subtle collection of short stories. Lanagan's worlds, whose haunting familiarities serve to illumine their innately alien natures, range from science fiction to fantasy to the unclassifiable space between. A girl goes "occupation tasting" with a man who redirects time-traveling entities stuck in a reservoir of "white time." A boy fights fat cells that grow from unexpressed emotions. Elfin missionaries birth "light seeds" to pursue their love-quest. A boy in a war-torn city has a comforting night visitor that "looped and swung like innards.o Lanagan tells these tales with a polished style and deceptive simplicity; beneath her delicate touch, the narratives barely dent the surface tension of their imagined worlds. Her habit of skating into the stories without exposition-as if writing for the world's inhabitants, who need no guide-reinforces the familiarities and differences, as well as presupposes readers' intelligence, trust, and openness of mind. Told without judgment or answers, the stories skim over vast depths of things unsaid, which Lanagan leaves readers to plumb on their own. Although some tales will connect with readers better than others, all are worth pondering. Recommend this collection to lovers of thought-provoking speculative fiction. First published in Australia in 2000, these stories were written in conjunction with the 1999 Clarion West Writer's Workshop.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-This esoteric short-story collection celebrates creative and expressive literature in a big, broad way. Lanagan's themes range from reckoning to healing, and her conflicts tackle eating disorders, terrorists, and self-empowerment. One heartening story, "Big Rage," is a modern-day social take on "Beauty and the Beast." At once romantic and tragic, filled with rough-and-tumble jousting scenes, it is the story of a woman whose control-freak husband continually overshadows her, and she is broken by his opinion of who, and what, she is. When she stumbles upon a wounded man on a beach, she takes a risk and helps save him. Slowly, she begins to heal. Nested within the artful prose and riveting action of these stories is writing that challenges readers with fantastical and emotional dexterity. Here are intricate styles, genres, and examples of the lengths an author can go to raise storytelling to personal, profound, and mysterious heights. The selections are not simple to navigate through, but if given the concentration they deserve, they reveal an unfettered sensitivity, intelligence, and humanistic conscience.-Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

From the author of the exemplary collection Black Juice (2005), ten more stories featuring teenagers (mostly) living in or encountering alternate realities. Some entries involve nonhumans, from an ant-like hive-soldier whose courage is rewarded by the pheromone-laced "Queen's Notice" to a gang of tiny, quarrelsome elves on a "Midsummer Mission" to cement a budding romance. Others include a weary psychic who almost traps herself with "The Boy Who Didn't Yearn"; a troubled youth harvesting flowers who meets space aliens in "Welcome Blue"; and a servant who is called away from his twin children's "Dedication" to dress the corpse of a princess killed in battle. In the title story, a student assignment takes in-crowd wannabe Sheneel into a mind-destroying limbo to snag stranded time travelers. Ranging from shocking to poignant, arch to tragic, each compelling entry is rich in imaginative twists and details, and will engender strong, complex reactions from readers. (Short stories. YA)