★★★☆☆ Average
(Historical Fantasy) Judith takes a job as companion to a young man who appears to be terminally ill and has retired to a family estate by the sea. (3,496 words; Time: 11m)
"On the Lonely Shore," by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas), appeared in Uncanny Magazine issue 27, published on March 5, 2019.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.178 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: I figure this to be set in a society something like Victorian England, partly because of the use of laudanum and partly because of the class system.
Much of the mystery of the story is figuring out what’s happening to Balthazar. I had just about concluded this was a mainstream historical fiction about a young man with tuberculosis when Balthazar revealed he was turning into a merman (more or less).
Con: The writing is uneven, with a surprising amount of narrative intrusion, particular at the start of the story.
The speculative element is barely enough to qualify this as fantasy, since it comes so late in the story and has no real influence on the plot.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Silvia Moreno-Garcia Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Pro: I figure this to be set in a society something like Victorian England, partly because of the use of laudanum and partly because of the class system.
Much of the mystery of the story is figuring out what’s happening to Balthazar. I had just about concluded this was a mainstream historical fiction about a young man with tuberculosis when Balthazar revealed he was turning into a merman (more or less).
Con: The writing is uneven, with a surprising amount of narrative intrusion, particular at the start of the story.
The speculative element is barely enough to qualify this as fantasy, since it comes so late in the story and has no real influence on the plot.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Silvia Moreno-Garcia Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
I liked this one. I give it 4-stars. The genre came at the end, and it became clear that this is a fantasy at the end. I am comfortable with the amount of genre that was in it.
ReplyDelete