Monday, October 14, 2019

The Valley of Wounded Deer, by E. Lily Yu

[Lightspeed]
★★★☆☆

(Fairy Tale) In distant Ruyastan a single prince survives her mother’s efforts to hold power by slaying all descendants of her sons. (3,479 words; Time: 11m)

Presumably there’s no connection with the “Ruyastan” in David Romano’s 2015 piece “Morbid Fiction in the Middle East,” but it’s rather timely given that in his story, “Ruyastan” is a thinly disguised Turkey and the “native group” is the Kurds.

"The Valley of Wounded Deer," by (edited by John Joseph Adams), appeared in issue 113, published on .

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

Review: 2019.586 (A Word for Authors)

Pro: The prince faces a dilemma: she can take the throne by violence, but then be no better than the Dowager, or retreat and let others do the violence, and then be a scavenger like the ravens, or else give up on being King and let the Dowager poison her.

It’s amusing that she gets a different result than any of these.

Con: So what’s the message of this story? If faced with injustice, don’t fight it; just suffer it in silence and hope for a miracle? And how could you imagine that a cook would survive as king?

Other Reviews: Search Web
E. Lily Yu Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.

1 comment (may contain spoilers):

  1. I agree with the 3-star rating and the comments. Reads like a well-written fable. If there is something more, I am not getting it.

    ReplyDelete