Sigrid Ellis's Reviews > Mirabile

I re-read Kagan's collection of Mirabile stories on my birthday at my partner's recommendation. After all, there's rather a shortage of books about middle-aged folks who aren't interested in being a hero anymore. There's a shortage of books about getting the job done, and then getting it done again tomorrow because the work is never ending. A shortage of books talking about raising up the next generation to do your work because the work will be there long after you die. And there is a shortage, a shameful shortage, of works that make this sound like a really nifty way to live.

Mirabile does that.

This is a book for people with kids, or with a legacy of which their life is just one small part. It's a book for people who are tired of looking for the big reward that makes everything special, and who like the smaller rewards of companionship and well-cooked dinner. It's a book for everyone who has cursed the designers of the system in which they work, and who spend their days trying to make that system better for the next folks. It's a science fiction book about real life and real jobs and real families and real community, and my birthday was the perfect day on which to re-read it.