(SF) Porous enjoys being a prison guard up until a new prisoner arrives who stirs things up. (11,908 words; Time: 39m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
"Leash on a Man," by Robert Reed [bio] (edited by C.C. Finlay), appeared in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction issue 09-10|17, published on September 1, 2017 by Spilogale Inc.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: Porous not only gets to stay at the prison, he gets to run it. He wants to save people, not kill them, and so he defeats the warden’s plan to have Constance killed.
Con: Constance’s transformation from a frightening god in exile to a frightened girl afraid of a deer is difficult to believe. If she’s lost that much, one wonder why anyone wants to kill her.
But even allowing how much she’s lost, it makes no sense for Porous to make her a guard.
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Con: Constance’s transformation from a frightening god in exile to a frightened girl afraid of a deer is difficult to believe. If she’s lost that much, one wonder why anyone wants to kill her.
But even allowing how much she’s lost, it makes no sense for Porous to make her a guard.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 09-10|17)
Robert Reed Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
I found the world-building generally hard to believe. And I felt like we were missing some pieces to the puzzle of Porous and Constance. Or at least I missed them.
ReplyDeleteI could see a small woman who's probably never seen an animal before thinking a buck with a full rack of antlers was a monster.