Norse Retellings and Dark Identities
Reviews of Darkness Blooms, The Open Book, and Ragnarok: A Witch's Curse
Review: Darkness Blooms (anthology) ed. Alin Walker and Monica Louzon
17 dark stories about identity. Some of them, obviously, a cyberpunk – I’d put “Correctional Memory” (Detrick Boden) in this category. Others are more dystopic. “Boom Town” is an indictment of white supremacy and Christian supremacy (By Rebecca E. Treasure). “A New Night Parade” has corpses programmed to dance. “The Dream and the Weaver” postulates a world in which sleep and dreams are for sale.
These are all good stories. I think my favorite, though, is “Old Grief” by Andrew Milne…a truly disturbing story in which unknown bioterrorists engineer humans to feel far more pain, forcing us underground. It unfortunately falls into the “fix the planet by removing humans” trope, but it’s so well written I was able to forgive it.
Recommended to people who want to explore the darker edges of human society.
Review: The Open Book by L. Marie Wood
A longer novella sold as a standalone. CW: Gore. This is the kind of horror written to disturb and disgust, so not my type of horror (I prefer to be creeped out). It’s an evil book story that intersperses what happens to the readers with stories from the book. One of which at least I’m pretty sure is a fragmant from a previously published Wood story…I remember it from somewhere and it’s not a storty you’re going to mistake for anything else. The others might be too.
No real plot, just a series of really terrible things happening to people who mostly don’t deserve it. Recommended for extreme horror fans.
Review: Ragnarok: A Witch’s Curse by Leanbh Pearson
A pretty straightforward retelling of the legend of Ragnarok, from Loki’s perspective. I prefer takes on the legends where Loki isn’t demonized, literally. Pearson takes the approach that he did all the evil stuff, because Odin’s an asshole.
It doesn’t really add anything new, but if you aren’t intimately familiar with the story…or need a refresher…it’s a decent translation/retelling.
Short Fiction
A Kiss to Build a Dream On by Cynthia Gomez (Tree and Stone)
Set in Oakland when being gay was illegal, centered around a gay bar…but what it is is a fairy tailor story. Or possibly a fairy tailor.
The tailor’s shop opens when the queer people need a quick disguise…but soon becomes more than that.
Recommended to anyone who doesn’t trust the cops.
A Man Walks Into A Bar: In Which More Than Four Decades After My Father’s Reluctant Night Of Darts On West 54th Street I Finally Understand What Needs To Be Done by Scott Edelman (Lightspeed)
Whewf for that title. Dear Scott, you slightly overdid this one.
It’s a wish fulfillment story about Donald Trump that would very much piss off Donald Trump. If he ever finds it. Which he might. I half hope he does and gets mad. Half hope he doesn’t because I don’t want him hurting Scott!
Embot’s Lament by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s Science Fiction)
A time traveler is entangled in an abused woman’s consciousness. If they interfere in her life, they lose their ability to return home. Forever.
So, what do they do when she tries to get away? I really enjoyed this one. Recommended.
What It Means to be a Car by James Patrick Kelly (Tor.com)
Told in dialogue between a sentient car and its passenger. The author postulates that a car would get pleasure from transporting passengers, which I appreciated. But it’s really about a rich woman who uses poor people as stepping stones to her goal. So, it’s an eat the rich story. Also very enjoyable.
The Carnival Girl by Leanbh Pearson (Robert N. Stephenson Flash Fiction Competition)
It’s a vignette with a CW for homophobia. Anything more I say is a spoiler.
To Helen by Bella Han (Clarkesworld)
An English translation of a Chinese story, but its translated by the author so I know it’s at least in the spirit. The narrator lives in a world where only the poor have to age…or do they? It’s a new take on an old trope, but very well written.
De Profundis, A Space Love Letter by Bella Han (Clarkesworld)
In the future, people have forgotten how to tell stories. They let machines do it all. Existential fear of AI, perhaps? But it’s beautifully written and worth appreciating. Han has a turn with words in English and I wonder how she does in Chinese…
Good to the Last Drop by Mike and Anita Allen (Sudden Fictions)
Woman makes awful coffee. Summons a demon to help…fun little flash piece about perception.
Slow Burn by Mike Allen (Cosmic Horror Monthly)
CW: Gore, child death.
This is an interesting twist on supernatural serial killer horror. And it’s very gory. If you go for that kind of thing, you will enjoy this…it’s very well written.
If not, I’d steer clear. I don’t normally say that, but it’s…ya know. THAT kind of horror. Sorry, Mike.
Reynalda by Theodora Goss (The Collected Enchantments)
If you marry an animal wife, you may want to not kill any member of her species. Pretty, if a little dark.
Saint Orsola and the Poet by Theodora Goss (The Collected Enchantments}
This is probably some actual Eastern European folk tale I’m not familiar with. It’s beautifully written and also expresses the way such stories change over time, and how the world changes, but the stories remain. An ode to folklore.