Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing

South African writer Beukes (Zoo City; Broken Monsters) showcases her evolution as an author with these 26 pieces—mostly short stories with a few nonfiction entries at the end. Stories such as "Branded" recall Beukes's 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, "Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs," features a cameo by magical realism author Haruki Murakami. Some selections are more likely to appeal to readers unfamiliar with Beukes. For example, "The Green" is a fantastically creepy sf story of grunt soldiers on a planet with invasive local flora. Another good starting point is the title story "Slipping," which tells of a runner who has undergone extensive physical modifications.