Sunday, August 11, 2019

The Fine Print, by Chinelo Onwualu

[Anthology]
★★★★☆ Fun to Watch it Unroll

(Arabian Fantasy) Nuhu bought his wife from the Djinn, but she hasn’t turned out to be what he wanted, and now the Djinn want’s his first-born child in payment. (4,975 words; Time: 16m)


"The Fine Print," by (edited by Nisi Shawl), appeared in (RSR review), published on by .

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

Review: 2019.266 (A Word for Authors)

Pro: The story is broadly amusing, with a running joke in with the Djinn operates like a modern commercial operation.

One has to salute Nuhu’s determination to find some loophole that’ll let him keep his son, and his clever arguments with the Djinn are entertaining.

At the end, it’s clear he’s just made yet-another ill-thought-out deal with the Djinn. He’s traded his Fox Wife for his Fox Child, and there’s every reason to believe he’ll be unhappy with that deal eventually.

Con: Nuhu is quite a jerk, and he got a better deal than he deserved. It’s very difficult to see, given the kind of man he is, why he even wanted to keep the Fox Baby.

Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Chinelo Onwualu Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

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1 comment (may contain spoilers):

  1. Now online at Apex 124 (Jul 2021): https://apex-magazine.com/the-fine-print/

    ReplyDelete