(High Fantasy) The narrator seeks a plague cure a long-dead scholar may have left in a bottle. Or it might be a new kind of plague. But how to decide? (4,927 words; Time: 16m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
"Message in a Bottle," by K.J. Parker [bio] (edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin), appeared in The Djinn Falls in Love, published on March 14, 2017 by Solaris.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: The library where you can’t read the books is always amusing. The effort to find the cure is interesting. The narrator is a great character.
Best line: “What’s the weather like on your side?”
Con: The narrator is a wimp, and the ending is unsatisfying. Because of his one mistake, he runs and hides. I even see why he doesn’t trust the formula. But he said the book gave him an outline of the research required to produce a cure. Why not just do that?
There are no djinn in this story.
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K.J. Parker Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Best line: “What’s the weather like on your side?”
Con: The narrator is a wimp, and the ending is unsatisfying. Because of his one mistake, he runs and hides. I even see why he doesn’t trust the formula. But he said the book gave him an outline of the research required to produce a cure. Why not just do that?
There are no djinn in this story.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
K.J. Parker Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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