This week we’re reading Letters from the Front by Vinay Patel
Please discuss below - no need to finish it first, discuss as you go along but please add spoiler tags for anything that could be considered a spoiler!
If you’ve previously read the book and want to join in the discussion, that’s great too!
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I was really looking forward to this as Demons of the Punjab is one of my favourite stories. I will admit to being slightly disappointed in this but I think that is more because of the choice of format. I always find prose which tries to replicate alien communication a little impenetrable and although Vinay Patel does a pretty good job with the Thijarian communications, it did interrupt the flow of the story.
That said, I did like the parallels drawn between Prem and the Thijarian on their respective ‘fronts’ facing death from different perspectives. Prem is writing home trying to reassure Umbreen (Yaz’s grandmother) but at the same time detailing the losses he is experiencing of both family and friends. The Thijarian, on the other hand, is documenting the killings he is taking part in as a matter of fact. There is no emotion - at least initially. When communication from his homeworld stops, you can feel the panic and confusion. What does this mean for him?
This glimpse into how the Thijarian race went from assassins to observers of death is fascinating and the story does complement Demons of the Punjab. It’s just I sort of wish the Thijarian aspect had been written in a slightly different way.
Honestly not much to say other than what @deltaandthebannermen’s already said, except that the the alien communication did work for me, and so it’s an 8 on my end!
I thought it was an interesting story and I actually really did like the format, being told in letters and documents. I wish I had seen the story that this goes with to better understand it. I’ll have to come back to it when I watch the episode to reevaluate my opinion.
Prems letters are definitely the better half of this one, it’s very heartbreaking at points
This storybook in its entirety is okay. I don’t think there’s any particular highs to this one but there’s definitely a few lows. Oddly enough it feels like the older short trip books.
Happy to finally be done with this storybook though
Having only seen ‘Demons of the Punjab’ once when it aired, there isn’t much I can say about this story in relation to that episode. I enjoy the use of letters – I’m a sucker for an epistolary – to convey the narrative, and I like the understated way the two narratives complement one another, with individuals away from their homes; Prem is away from home, going through hell, and eventually returns to something (briefly) pleasant, and the Thijarian is away from home, enjoying its purpose, and eventually returns to a hellish homeworld.
A short yet effective piece, but one I can’t earnestly rate higher than a 6/10 until I’ve rewatched the episode and better familiarised myself with the context this story exists in.
Prem’s letters are used to tell the story rather beautifully here, the format serves the story well. Still, the aliens are far less well characterised in their extracts, which makes it all fall a bit flat imo
