Dilip Thosar is back with ‘FourTaler’, Four Short stories with a smattering of Science Fiction. Earlier I had read and reviewed his book- A Sci-Fi sixpack. Now, these four short stories for me don’t make a book.
Dilip Thosar’s first book showed his expanse of what he could do with Sci-fi; however, this one is a bit of a diversion- and many may not perfect sci-fi. And maybe it will not keep the niche audience of sci-fi happy. However, knowing how small the Sci-fi audience is could help expand his reader base.
I like the cover design consistency and the use of subheadings or tags in the story title. Though some titles do not give the right direction, summation or indication of the story. Something that Dilip could consider for the next set of stories.
FOURTALER – FOUR STORIES.
HYPERTURN- one good turn deserves another; the first story needs to be read with focus. It is good as it brings some imagination and possible concepts to the very base of a sci-fi story. INTELLIGENCE-Search for Extra-terrestrial, the search continues, and this is a subject that has been over-exploited by Sci-fi authors. However, Dilip does manage to bring a twist that is interesting but not something that has not been previously attempted. THE PRINCE’S WEDDING – In Search of Excel Ones is an odd one out, but I loved the end, which brings the fallacy of romance alive. And the last one, YET ANOTHER FRANKENSTEIN – The Idiot Baulks. This one has many questions raised through the ages- but is there some story that is yet t be finished- only Dilip would know.
Dilip Thosar is my batchmate from the class of ’87, IIM Ahmedabad. I know he would always try to remain a step ahead of the readers. There is imagination and conceptual clarity in his stories. However, he could be better placed in keeping the narrative simplified.
Si-fi does not necessarily need the use of over-complicated acronyms and technology. It is based on a current understanding with a thadka of future thinking. Now, one must decide if that future will be short or ages away.
SUGGESTION
I would only want Dilip Thosar to consider the length of his paragraphs. They seem to go long, which affects the ease of reading and the aesthetics of the format.
NET-NET on FourTaler
Go ahead and give FourTaler a reading, and enjoy the possibilities. Let your imagination run wild as Dilip Thosar plays with some concepts. You can order paperback or kindle edition here.
EXAMPLE OF A CONTEMPORARY REFERENCE FROM FOURTALER.
Their minds were now occupied and preoccupied with more issues raked up by the fourth estate and social media – Corruption, elections, poverty, war, religion, inflation. The heads of governments were, as always, struggling deep in the flux of politics. The USA was on the verge of disintegrating into sovereign independent states over extreme hard opinions on very important issues like gender and skin-color inclusivity, the sex rainbow and wokism. The newly formed Ruskraine was busy bombing neighboring countries where pro-NATO heads continued getting help from the tottering Europe and the teetering USA. European nations were busy converting from their ancient system of democracy to being Islamic states. The Indian polity was struggling to understand whether Hinduism was secular or not. Liu Cixin was busy taking over from Xi Jinping as the Zhōngguó rén was busy adopting capitalism and the entire Zhōnghuá rénmín gònghéguó was struggling with yet another civil war they called a revolution, with the troublesome appendages of Taiwan and Hongkong adding to the fomenting entropy.
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