Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Some Gods of El Paso, by Maria Dahvana Headley

Tor.com October 28, 2015; 4,198 words
Rating: 3, Good, ordinary, story  Recommended By:  Locus

In a magical, 2020s Texas, Lorna and Vix sell sex, but they mostly trade emotions; they'll take what you don't want, and sell the kind you do. As long as the law doesn't catch them.

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

Pro: This is really the Legend of Lorna and Vix, from their dim beginning to their disputed disappearance. Instead of going out in a hail of bullets, they went out in a storm of love.

Con: The story seems to be trying to symbolize something, but it's not quite clear what it is. These emotions are quite the same as drugs. The story says it all happened "after the government collapsed but before God and the law got forgotten," but there's no sign in the story that anything is wrong with the government.

Other than that, it's a simple, straight-forward tale, with no twists or real surprises.

There's some confusion as to whether this is the 1920s or the 2020s. However, a boy kills himself using car exhaust, and that doesn't seem to have been possible with 1920s vehicles. A few other things seem out of place in the 1920's.


No comments (may contain spoilers):

Post a Comment (comment policy)