The Girls by Lori Lansens

Rose & Ruby Darlen are 29 years old. They are the world’s oldest surviving craniopagus twins - which means that they are conjoined at the head. The mesh of veins, muscle and tissue that holds them together means their health has always been precarious, and now Rose learns of a fatal aneurism in her brain which will kill them both, in time.

So she decides to write the story of their lives. Rose is the artistic twin, the physically stronger and more facially deformed, and Ruby is the weaker, prettier one who takes pleasure in television and hunting for ancient Native American relics in their backyard. The two are destined to do everything together, even be considered by the public as one person (which they hate), and yet they've never looked into each others eyes. They grow up being looked after by their 'Aunt' Lovey; the kind and stubborn nurse who delivered them into the world and adopted them when their mother disappeared; and their ‘Uncle’ Stash, Lovey’s Slovakian migrant husband.

Rose’s writing is whimsical and nostalgic; she casts a spell over her life story and enchants it with magic moments and foreshadowing signs. She romanticizes a lot, even though she accuses her sister Ruby of being the one with her head in the clouds. Ruby gets her say too, though – Rose’s chapters are irregularly punctuated by Ruby’s shorter, more to-the-point submissions. Ruby writes on yellow legal paper (as opposed to Rose’s clattering laptop typing), and prefers to write about the present day and what their daily life is like, rather than telling stories of their past.

The girls’ story is tainted with tragedy, loss and misunderstanding; yet there is hope. It is also a story of incomprehensible love, the intense relationship of sisters, and, in short, life. Rose and Ruby Darlen’s ‘life story’ involves very little travel from their small town in Ontario, spans only 30 years and doesn’t include a huge array of characters… yet it is a huge story. Two huge stories. I think Lansens was making the point that every life is a big story. Life itself is the ultimate story; snaking and weaving through existence; and we should all feel the weight of our own value and our own stories. Each molecule of each of us is important. I think that’s what The Girls was getting at, ultimately. And it’s a message that is depicted beautifully by Lansens’ perfect blend of the twee and the raw, finding meaning in the small things and illuminating them with subtle tones.

The Birthday of the World: and other stories by Ursula K. LeGuin

Up unitl this one, I was a LeGuin virgin. I had heard of her, because of my skirting of the sci-fi genre with Miéville and Gaiman, and various others... but I always thought that I am not "really into science fiction" and would therefore not enjoy a full-blown sci-fi master like LeGuin.

I was wrong.

The Birthday of the World is a collection of 8 short stories; some set on worlds and in universes LeGuin has explored in previous novels, some set in new, strange places. Each story is bizarre in its own way, crafted by an experimental imagination that plumbs the depth of each 'what if'. LeGuin has an uncanny way of delicately creating these stories on near-unthinkable planets, strange and fanciful - while at the same time mirroring the quirks and hypocrisies of our society. It's sci-fi at it's best; and there are no ray guns.

In Coming of Age in Karhide, adolescents of a genderless society reach their sexual maturity and become male or female for the first time. Each time they copulate their gender can change. Going from sexless to multi-sexual is a confusing time, as you can imagine. The Matter of Seggri is set on a planet where women greatly outnumber men, and men are confined to huge castles where all they are permitted to do is fight each other and play sports. The fittest ones are sent to whorehouses... to be whored out to the women and hopefully produce sons (although this is unlikely). Both Unchosen Love and Mountain Ways take place in a society where marriage is a complex four-person knot called a 'sedoretu'. Not all the stories concern gender, though - my favourite of them all was Paradises Lost, which is set on a ship flying through space, between Earth and a possibly-inhabitable planet 200 years away. It explores the 'middle generations'; those that are born and die on the ship, and how they cope with being just a means. Psychologically and socially it is fascinating. The belief systems these people cling to, the 'perfection' of the ship - no diseases, no bacteria, no crime, no money. No open spaces. No animals.

What are science fiction stories but slightly fanciful thought experiments? Take an idea: 'what if ...?' and run with it, as logically as possible. What if robots took over the world? What if there was no such thing as male and female? What if aliens landed? LeGuin is a 'master of the craft' ; her stories are shocking, believable, endearing and thought-provoking. She is a shining beacon of sci-fi writing, and I will definitely be picking her up again.

**EXTRA: For those interested, see what Le Guin has to say about this book here.