Sunday, September 20, 2015

English Wildlife, by Alan Smale

Asimov's Science Fiction, October/November 2015; 15,372 words
Rating: 3, Good, ordinary, story

A man and his girlfriend visit England, and he worries about her intense interest in old stone carvings of snarling heads called "green men," because of the leaves carved around them.

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

The narration and dialogue are consistently clean. The descriptions are realistic, and there's a reasonable amount of tension. The idea that British nobility has a streak of lion lycanthropy (leocanthropy?) was amusing.

We found it a little hard to suspend disbelief in the relationship. Richard clearly is not obsessed with Corinne. He seemed to be tired of her. It makes no sense that he doesn't simply go home alone after she walks out on him.

1 comment (may contain spoilers):

  1. I agree with this rating from what I read of this story.

    I just bounced right off it. The relationship didn't work for me

    ReplyDelete