nananananovellas
Sep. 23rd, 2018 10:07 amScans vaguely to "Para bailar la bamba". Two novellas.
The Barrow Will Send What It May, Margaret Killjoy, sequel to 2017's The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion which I reviewed here. I would start with that one if you want to read these; Barrow doesn't spend a lot of time recapping character introductions, and I think the references to what happened in Lamb would be pretty confusing if you haven't read it. I liked Barrow, although I didn't find it quite as exciting or compelling as Lamb, and I was vexed by a plot hole I just couldn't figure out. If your story is structured like a mystery, I feel like the solution has to hang together, even if what you care about is actually character stuff. Also possible I am just being dumb, of course... if anyone else reads this, here are my two questions, rot13'd:
1) Ubj qbrf Fronfgvna xabj nobhg gur obbx naq erfheerpgvba fcryy? Ur qbrfa'g trg gur obbx hagvy ur nggnpxf Ybxv, Qnzvra, naq Vfbyn ng Tynpvre, ohg ur nyernql unf uvf jubyr cyna gura.
2) Jul svir tenirf va gur onfrzrag? Ybxv naq Qnzvra, ohg jub'f va gur guveq svyyrq tenir? Bar rzcgl tenir sbe Vfbyn, ohg jub'f gur bgure rzcgl tenir sbe?
Anyways, aside from my tendency to get hung up on details, I continue to really enjoy the voice and POV in these. Danielle's anarchist perspective and squatting experience make her such a neat character to put at the center of supernatural mystery-thriller business.
Secondly! I don't normally negative-review online short fiction - either I want to rec it or I don't want to waste time talking about it - but I will negative-review novellas that I got through the library system rather than being in a magazine, because they feel more like books, I guess. But maybe novellas in magazines are more like novellas than online short fiction? Anyways, this was a novella in Beneath Ceaseless Skies and I thought the concept was interesting but the execution was tedious, alas. The Emotionless, in Love, Jason Sanford.
The Barrow Will Send What It May, Margaret Killjoy, sequel to 2017's The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion which I reviewed here. I would start with that one if you want to read these; Barrow doesn't spend a lot of time recapping character introductions, and I think the references to what happened in Lamb would be pretty confusing if you haven't read it. I liked Barrow, although I didn't find it quite as exciting or compelling as Lamb, and I was vexed by a plot hole I just couldn't figure out. If your story is structured like a mystery, I feel like the solution has to hang together, even if what you care about is actually character stuff. Also possible I am just being dumb, of course... if anyone else reads this, here are my two questions, rot13'd:
1) Ubj qbrf Fronfgvna xabj nobhg gur obbx naq erfheerpgvba fcryy? Ur qbrfa'g trg gur obbx hagvy ur nggnpxf Ybxv, Qnzvra, naq Vfbyn ng Tynpvre, ohg ur nyernql unf uvf jubyr cyna gura.
2) Jul svir tenirf va gur onfrzrag? Ybxv naq Qnzvra, ohg jub'f va gur guveq svyyrq tenir? Bar rzcgl tenir sbe Vfbyn, ohg jub'f gur bgure rzcgl tenir sbe?
Anyways, aside from my tendency to get hung up on details, I continue to really enjoy the voice and POV in these. Danielle's anarchist perspective and squatting experience make her such a neat character to put at the center of supernatural mystery-thriller business.
Secondly! I don't normally negative-review online short fiction - either I want to rec it or I don't want to waste time talking about it - but I will negative-review novellas that I got through the library system rather than being in a magazine, because they feel more like books, I guess. But maybe novellas in magazines are more like novellas than online short fiction? Anyways, this was a novella in Beneath Ceaseless Skies and I thought the concept was interesting but the execution was tedious, alas. The Emotionless, in Love, Jason Sanford.