Julia Rios

Supporting indie publishing on Kickstarter is a good thing, right? This anthology sounded like a cool project to support. So I did. And then I started reading – almost six months ago now. The majority of the stories were mediocre at best, imo – there were the “so what?”, stories, there was uninspired writing, there were fragments instead of stories, there were the “you think you’re funny, but you are not” stories…

I ended up using the book as a palate cleanser when I couldn’t decide what to read next.

There was just one memorable story:

“Meteorites” by Anjali Patel – a retelling of Ray Bradbury’s “Kaleidoscope”. It was wise and heartbreaking, delightfully written. Why couldn’t the rest of the book be the same?

Well, at least I am done now.
… (mais)

Summer 2019 (Hugo Award Nominee 2019 - Best Short Story);

Unlike the fable many are told as children of George Washington's teeth being made of wood, they were in all fact made from the teeth of slaves. This is the tale of where nine such teeth came from, set in a world like ours but made of magic and magical creatures.

While I don't consider this piece an overwhelming favorite of my life, I do think it's done incredibly well. The matter of fact tone the narrator/historian takes with the tales of the people, the lives of slavery, the life of George (facing the effects of the teeth), and every bit of sorcery seering through the words sells this world.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading Clark's novella The Black God's Drums now, too ( which was, also, nominated for a Hugo).… (mais)