The Edge of the Map by Jax Goss

The Edge of the Map Reviews

• 
  Wayne

  This is an excellent collection of very short stories. The stories are mostly slice-o-life stories. For some reason, I assumed they'd mostly be fantasy oriented, but I was wrong. This wasn't at all a disappointment, and there wasn't a mediocre story in the lot. They made me laugh, they brought tears to my eyes, they got me thinking.
  
  The characters felt like they were the author's friends, that she had heard these stories from the friends while sitting around a fire. Many of them are people I'd like to meet myself.
  
  I mentioned the stories are very short. Most are two pages, with a few three or four pages. In terms of length, the stories are both absolutely right and completely wrong. Each one is just the right length and needs nothing further. However, I wanted each one to keep going for many more pages.
  
  Given the length of the stories, I probably could have read this in two or three days, and that's what I initially intended to do. After the first pair I read, I decided to stop there for the day. These were fudge truffle delicacies I wanted to savor, not M&Ms to gorge on.
  
  I'd be hard-pressed to name a favorite, or even two. Ask me again in an hour, and my answer will probably change. Right this moment, though, I'll give you three: "Smile", "Key", and "Numbers".
  
  Excellent first book, and I'm looking forward to more stories. The map always needs extending and the edges pushed further back, no?
  
• 
  Dominica

  I first came across Jax's writing through the LJ Idol competition this book grew out of. I bought this book through Smashwords a while ago but only loaded it onto my Kindle while I was in India. Then, while I was there and I had a bit of time to read, but not enough to get through a full chapter of the other Kindle book I was reading (Dark Matter by Brett Adams), I decided to start this book because I knew the pieces were short and I'd be able to fit them in whenever I had a bit of time to spare.
  
  Whilst not expecting to get through it so quickly, I ended up reading a few shorts in each sitting, and finished it off the whole thing while enjoying a boat ride on the backwaters of Kerala. I think I might've read about 30-40% of the book there? I very easily could've gone back to the other book, but I just kept wanting to read more of The Edge of the Map because it was so easy to get through.
  
  I made some notes while I was reading about which pieces were my favourite. I did get to a point where I was just like "They keep getting better, the more I read, and the open endings of some leave me wanting more." So I didn't note all of the pieces I really liked due to that, but I will point out the ones I did write down.
  
  My first really favourite story was Numbers, about someone who sees most of a phone number on the back window of her car, and calls a bunch of numbers trying to find who left it. I really liked the message in it.
  
  I loved reading about Great Aunt Lucina in Uphill, Both Ways, Barefoot. She sounded like an amazing woman who had some interesting views in apartheid South Africa.
  
  Parasite made me sad.
  
  Cracks is really, really good. It was one of the many pieces that particularly struck a chord with me.
  
  What I loved most about Smile is you're not given the gender of the narrator. I read into it as there being a same-sex relationship, but I like that the reader is given the freedom to choose and interpret it their own way.
  
  Jetsam is the story I remembered loving the most when I read it during LJ Idol. It's about a boy, Bobby, who finds a bunch of items jettisoned from the sky.
  
  Brouhaha was a cool story about a sexy woman taking a typical, though fairly popular guy, somewhere unexpected.
  
  And the final story, Stealing Roses, was just beautiful. A great piece to end it on.
  
  With such an assortment of pieces, it was great to dip into the lives of so many different characters. If you're looking for a quick read, I definitely recommend this book.
• 
  Sally

  Okay, small disclaimer first - I kind of sort of know the author here. Not in person, not extremely well, but we're LJ friends who met during season 6 of LJ Idol. A lot of these stories were written for Idol: some I recognised, some were entirely new to me.
  
  The mixture is absolutely delightful: realistic fiction meets small doses of magic, memories of South Africa meet outright fantasy. I knew that the writing itself was going to be stellar but just in case you haven't read Jax Goss' stories before: she writes gorgeously.
  
  My absolute favourite was Numbers, which actually made me go "aww!" out loud. Close on its heels are the utterly amazing Stealing Roses, and the richly yet simply told Greased Lightning. Smile is just gorgeous, and Jetsam really made me grin from recognition as much as fun - and the knowledge of what comes after the end! I was charmed by Run, Don't Walk and adored Here There Be Dragons: two that I definitely recognised. I think. (My memory kind of fails.) Whisper and Towers and Gingerbread Houses are especially beautiful, and Sparkle is quietly chilling. And the ending of Empty Gestures absolutely stole my breath away...
  
  Whether or not you know the author, I do recommend giving this collection a read! Each story is only about a page or two long, making it very easy to use each one as a little reward in between cleaning the flat or something.
  
• 
  Lisa

  A selection of cute, humorous, touching and/or sweet vignettes. Goss has a particular talent for creating an unique voice for all of her characters. I do think the stories would have been stronger if they had been fleshed out more, but they do work as a series of vignettes. I loved the first story ("Here there be dragons") in particular.
• 
  Fern Campbell

  Having been unable to read barely any books for the past eight months, this was a perfect start back to reading. My copy almost got stained with tears at a couple of the observations, especially in "Towers and Gingerbread Houses", which I related to strongly from my own teenage years.
  
  This was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours. Thank you, Jax
• 
  Marts (Thinker)

  I've read some of these short stories by Goss, and so far they are rather good, I wish the best in all her writing...