★★★☆☆ Average
(Fantasy Dystopia) In the middle of a plague, a man terrorizes the community with macabre carvings. (2,031 words; Time: 06m)
"The Scrimshander," by Damien Krsteski [bio] (edited by Scott H. Andrews), appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue 255, published on June 28, 2018.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Definition: A scrimshander (one who scrimshaws) is a sailor who passes the time on long voyages by whittling things from wood or bone.
Pro: The story makes the caricaturist and his daughter real enough that it hurts when she dies.
We know the Scrimshander was just a myth, so it’s suitably creepy that the caricaturist becomes the Scrimshander after his daughter dies.
Con: It doesn’t make a lot of sense that the city leaders don’t want any coverage of the plague, so the caricaturist’s gesture of fooling the paper into printing his cartoon seems like a futile one. Nor is it at all clear why the public would regard the Scrimshander as a hero not a monster.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 255)
Damien Krsteski Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: The story makes the caricaturist and his daughter real enough that it hurts when she dies.
We know the Scrimshander was just a myth, so it’s suitably creepy that the caricaturist becomes the Scrimshander after his daughter dies.
Con: It doesn’t make a lot of sense that the city leaders don’t want any coverage of the plague, so the caricaturist’s gesture of fooling the paper into printing his cartoon seems like a futile one. Nor is it at all clear why the public would regard the Scrimshander as a hero not a monster.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 255)
Damien Krsteski Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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