★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention
(Portal Fantasy; Wayward Children) In the Market, every exchange has to give fair value to both sides. Lundy and her friends want to do a quest that’ll generate so much fair value that they never have to work again. But they’re just kids. (5,894 words; Time: 19m)
"Juice Like Wounds," by Seanan McGuire [bio] (edited by Lee Harris), published on July 14, 2020 by Tor.com.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2020.395 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: From the start, we know that three will go on the quest and only two will return. Up until the big conflict, we don’t know which one, although people who read the other stories will know that Lundy lives quite a while longer than this. That adds a nice bit of tension.
The narration and dialogue are flawless, as we’d expect from this author.
Con: There just isn’t a lot to this story. The girls go on their adventure. Fight a giant wasp. Kill it, but lose one of their own. The end. I was sad that Mockery died, but the story hadn’t developed her enough for me to care very much.
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Seanan McGuire Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: From the start, we know that three will go on the quest and only two will return. Up until the big conflict, we don’t know which one, although people who read the other stories will know that Lundy lives quite a while longer than this. That adds a nice bit of tension.
The narration and dialogue are flawless, as we’d expect from this author.
Con: There just isn’t a lot to this story. The girls go on their adventure. Fight a giant wasp. Kill it, but lose one of their own. The end. I was sad that Mockery died, but the story hadn’t developed her enough for me to care very much.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Seanan McGuire Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Nice to see this off-screen bit from In an Absent Dream.
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