The Only Harmless Great Thing

By: Brooke Bolander

Narrated by: Courtney Patterson

Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novelette

Finalist for the Hugo, Locus, Shirley Jackson, and Sturgeon Awards

The Only Harmless Great Thing is a heart-wrenching alternative history by Brooke Bolander that imagines an intersection between the Radium Girls and noble, sentient elephants.

In the early years of the 20th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey, slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.

These are the facts.

Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.

©2018 Brooke Bolander (P)2019 Tantor

Unique and poignant

An unusual story of human ignorance, that combines a few atrocities into one creative narrative.

A fantastic story about man trying to play God

There is so much meaning packed in this little short story, this is a must read for anyone who has the time to read it. A graphic look into the bestial nature in all living things, portraying man as an selfish and ignorant godhead while the animals of the book are the beings with great insight and humanity. Full of sharp criticism of man’s egocentric ideals, and how they cause downfalls for anyone, human or beast, in the name of progress. Witty, critical, and beautiful, I cannot wait for more from Brooke Bolander.

Interesting but I couldn’t get past the seething hatred of all males in whatever species.

It began in a very interesting set of parallel tales, but very early on seem to take the form of a seething hatred of all males, no matter the species, and I just could not it beyond the bias to listen to the whole story