Sex as something pleasurable, soft and warm, is a mammalian concept. In the cold salty dark of fathoms, it’s not even survivable. This short story built in scales and slithers to a chilling reimagining of Lovecraftian horror.
“The fire came from me, from my mouth and from all the desire I’d ever had for him, all the unrequited love. It rippled over his flesh, dug into the crevices of skin and burned away the lies, curling back his skin and exposing his true self—black as the midnight sun… He died as I wanted him to—on his knees before me."
A long and brutal story about obsession, darkness, and deviance. Maybe it’s because I just finished watching Netflix’s multicultural Criminal, but I fully got this. Not being able to stop from going back to a bad person, the drinking, the loss of control, the shock of understanding what it means to fulfill your desires, to fulfill someone else’s... these rivers ran deep.
“There probably was a war, a long time ago. But it’s over, and we’re forced to keep pretending, simply so that a corrupt military government can remain in power.”
Gasp, what a strange fierce story set in an impoverished future city, in a world endlessly at war. Jet has been selected for the dubious honor of providing all her eggs to create lab grown soldiers. While this will enrich her family it will also continue the war... if there even is a war.
The trees are alive, alive, alive! That was fun, spooky fun.
“This is the engine,” Kelly whispers, “This is us.”
There is a hallucinatory beat to this story that drags you down, unsteadily, into the past of mad woman, a killer, a beast to her desires. You don’t know what’s real but you can feel the pounding of blood, desire, and need. So much need! It’s shades of Clive Barker but done better.
It was like an original Grimm folktale; with deranged magic, no happy ending, and a high body count.
“There is someone she must look for here in this wasteland, someone she must find. But the horse does not slow, and the night does not end…”
This story would have been at home in Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Kingston is a survivor; a sad, lonely women of tenacious strength who lives long enough to see the end of the world.
A tale of Targaryen madness and mythology. It was desperate, deep, and dark... if only the ending had been stronger.
Set in the same world as Take Your Daughter To Work it is not as good and does not add to the original story. This is about an ex-slave stone artisan kidnapped by a cult to bring a god to life. It was too long and too mysterious.
“...hundreds of cloud-like creatures blossom and spill forth like sea anemones expanding to catch the currents... Ropey spirals of wet flesh unfurl and catch the rotting ruins, suckling them up.”
This one lost me. There was too much left unexplained in this ruined world. Was she a sacrifice? Was she cylon? Was she just crazy?
Average Rating of 3.45 but I will happily round up to four because this was quality work.
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