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It's Yuletide, and the collection is GREAT! I have only just begun to dip into it, and I've already found a number of excellent stories.
My first three recs are my THREE gifts for the same book series, all absolutely brilliant. I felt like I'd been gifted with an incredible mini-anthology. The first can be read canon-blind as an atmospheric, non-gory horror story. The second two are for the Getting Sober at the Worst Possible Time prompt and probably are best read with canon knowledge.
Cass Neary - Elizabeth Hand
East Side Drowning. 1047 words.
The Lower East Side in the late 70s was its own thing. Pleasure above all else; find connection; getting out alive is optional.
Ghost Therapy.
“You learn a lot when you are dead, it turns out. Not really the things you expect.”
“I don’t really expect to learn anything after I’m dead. Just blank, like an overexposed piece of film.” I looked away from the phone, watching the gulls soar above the waves. Smelling the faint rot of seaweed over the salt. Letting my heartbeat slow.
There was a long moment of silence. “Yes, I felt that way too.”
The Girl Beyond Good and Evil. 1463 words.
I remembered an old punk mellowed by the heroin we shared, talking about his addiction program, and how he hadn’t felt the need until he was back in the same environment, with the same people. How he wasn’t that person anymore, until he, like liquid, was poured back into the same glass. I wasn’t sober, yet, just a person who hadn’t had a drink or taken a pill in days.
Don't Need to Know Canon
17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois
A Beginner's Guide to Octopus Football. 2190 words.
Excerpts from the Volunteer Orientation Manual of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Stadium, circa 20020: notes on modern immortal octopus culture, etiquette, and their favorite sport.
What it says on the tin. I guarantee you don't need to either know canon or care about football; I don't and I don't. All you need to know is that it's set in a far, far future in which there is no more death. It's delightful and hilarious and will warm your heart.
Chalice - Robin McKinley
Fill to me the parting glass. 1973 words.
Three first bindings, and one final Chalice.
What you need to know: In this land, a pair of magic users are bound to the land and keep it whole and healthy. One is the Master, a wizard. The other is a Chalice, a woman who makes potions with some drinkable liquid, usually water. There, now you can read this lovely fantasy fic about four unusual Chalices.
Need to Know Canon
An Episode of Sparrows - Rumer Godden
This Lovely Green. 1483 words.
"I'll have a garden or nothing at all," Lovejoy said.
The prompt was "Tell me about Lovejoy's gardens over the years." I really hoped someone would write it, and they did, and it was everything I wanted. It has a very convincing adult Lovejoy and Tip, and gardens, and beauty and joy won by hard work and determination under difficult circumstances. Which is exactly what the book is about.
The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
dear fellow traveler. 3000 words.
The Crossing of the Bridge is a ceremony that requires each new emperor or empress, on the first solstice of their reign, to walk the entire length of the bridge over the Istandaärtha from eastern to western shore, alone save for their nonecharei, carrying nothing but a brazier of incense. We can be relatively sure that this tradition traces its roots to the very creation of the Wisdom Bridge, and that the first emperor to enact it was Edrehasivar the Seventh.
A collection of documents unravelling a historical mystery; also a very sweet outsider POV of Maia.
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Magic Casements. 5699 words.
Becky is the one who rescues Mr Carrisford's monkey, and so the one whom the Magic happens to instead.
Excellent take on a premise that easily could have been done in a very preachy manner, but instead captures the beauty and sweetness of the original work. Of course it's inherently anti-classist, just not in an anvillicious way.
The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet) - C. S. Lewis
The Hressni Who Asked Why. 2818 words.
A little girl among the hrossa of Malacandra asks questions and starts an apprenticeship program between the seroni, hrossa and pfifltriggi.
A charming story about a cultural exchange between the various beings of Malacandra.
What have you enjoyed in the collection so far?
My first three recs are my THREE gifts for the same book series, all absolutely brilliant. I felt like I'd been gifted with an incredible mini-anthology. The first can be read canon-blind as an atmospheric, non-gory horror story. The second two are for the Getting Sober at the Worst Possible Time prompt and probably are best read with canon knowledge.
Cass Neary - Elizabeth Hand
East Side Drowning. 1047 words.
The Lower East Side in the late 70s was its own thing. Pleasure above all else; find connection; getting out alive is optional.
Ghost Therapy.
“You learn a lot when you are dead, it turns out. Not really the things you expect.”
“I don’t really expect to learn anything after I’m dead. Just blank, like an overexposed piece of film.” I looked away from the phone, watching the gulls soar above the waves. Smelling the faint rot of seaweed over the salt. Letting my heartbeat slow.
There was a long moment of silence. “Yes, I felt that way too.”
The Girl Beyond Good and Evil. 1463 words.
I remembered an old punk mellowed by the heroin we shared, talking about his addiction program, and how he hadn’t felt the need until he was back in the same environment, with the same people. How he wasn’t that person anymore, until he, like liquid, was poured back into the same glass. I wasn’t sober, yet, just a person who hadn’t had a drink or taken a pill in days.
Don't Need to Know Canon
17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois
A Beginner's Guide to Octopus Football. 2190 words.
Excerpts from the Volunteer Orientation Manual of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Stadium, circa 20020: notes on modern immortal octopus culture, etiquette, and their favorite sport.
What it says on the tin. I guarantee you don't need to either know canon or care about football; I don't and I don't. All you need to know is that it's set in a far, far future in which there is no more death. It's delightful and hilarious and will warm your heart.
Chalice - Robin McKinley
Fill to me the parting glass. 1973 words.
Three first bindings, and one final Chalice.
What you need to know: In this land, a pair of magic users are bound to the land and keep it whole and healthy. One is the Master, a wizard. The other is a Chalice, a woman who makes potions with some drinkable liquid, usually water. There, now you can read this lovely fantasy fic about four unusual Chalices.
Need to Know Canon
An Episode of Sparrows - Rumer Godden
This Lovely Green. 1483 words.
"I'll have a garden or nothing at all," Lovejoy said.
The prompt was "Tell me about Lovejoy's gardens over the years." I really hoped someone would write it, and they did, and it was everything I wanted. It has a very convincing adult Lovejoy and Tip, and gardens, and beauty and joy won by hard work and determination under difficult circumstances. Which is exactly what the book is about.
The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
dear fellow traveler. 3000 words.
The Crossing of the Bridge is a ceremony that requires each new emperor or empress, on the first solstice of their reign, to walk the entire length of the bridge over the Istandaärtha from eastern to western shore, alone save for their nonecharei, carrying nothing but a brazier of incense. We can be relatively sure that this tradition traces its roots to the very creation of the Wisdom Bridge, and that the first emperor to enact it was Edrehasivar the Seventh.
A collection of documents unravelling a historical mystery; also a very sweet outsider POV of Maia.
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Magic Casements. 5699 words.
Becky is the one who rescues Mr Carrisford's monkey, and so the one whom the Magic happens to instead.
Excellent take on a premise that easily could have been done in a very preachy manner, but instead captures the beauty and sweetness of the original work. Of course it's inherently anti-classist, just not in an anvillicious way.
The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet) - C. S. Lewis
The Hressni Who Asked Why. 2818 words.
A little girl among the hrossa of Malacandra asks questions and starts an apprenticeship program between the seroni, hrossa and pfifltriggi.
A charming story about a cultural exchange between the various beings of Malacandra.
What have you enjoyed in the collection so far?
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