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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
The Cheesemaker and the Undying King
I loved this story. No, I mean I LOVED this story.
This is how the story starts... I am such a masochist, but I enjoyed the heartbreak right in the beginning. I think it's hard to make the reader care about character you just met - or actually, before you met them. But I cared, I loved Tana and Renae and Ranae so it's saying something. This is a sad story, but it's also a story about fighting with what we get, with what we do best, even if it's just cheese-making. Now that I'm writing it out, I realised that it kind of reminds me of [b:A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking|54369251|A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking|T. Kingfisher|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1593743861l/54369251._SX50_.jpg|84842875] in that aspect, though I liked this short-story better.
Just read it, it's quite short, free and very well written. I rest my case.
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-cheesemaker-and-the-undying-king/
I loved this story. No, I mean I LOVED this story.
Tana was in a humid cave checking the rind on a round of Tomme when the messenger arrived to tell her that the war was lost and her wife was to be hanged.
This is how the story starts... I am such a masochist, but I enjoyed the heartbreak right in the beginning. I think it's hard to make the reader care about character you just met - or actually, before you met them. But I cared, I loved Tana and Renae and Ranae
Spoiler
dies right in the beginningTana’s family had been cheesemakers for as long as anyone knew, but none of them ever had a royal commission. She was summoned to the palace with a basket of her best and it was there that she’d met the queen’s swordmistress, a hawkish-faced woman with brown eyes that Tana fell right into.
Don’t be nervous, Renae had said. She’s only your divine and supreme ruler, after all. Then she’d plucked a slice of a cave-aged two-year gouda off Tana’s carefully-arranged tray, winked, and disappeared into the dining room where the queen was waiting.
Just read it, it's quite short, free and very well written. I rest my case.
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-cheesemaker-and-the-undying-king/
(On the non-fiction side, I'm always grateful to Arley Sorg for excellent recommendations. I will check out Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa!)
Great
"The Hammer of God" by Jonathan Maberry: A novella with a solid world-building and history that are more hinted at than spelled out. It starts out as a murder investigation with nuns as the detectives, and takes some turns that I didn't expect.
Good
"Nobody Ever Goes Home to Zhenzhu" by Grace Chan: Tightly paced, visually written, impactful.
"The Plastic People" by Tobias S. Buckell: A story about generational responsibility, or the lack thereof, and the other side of the "good Samaritan". It flows really well and is an uncomfortable mirror.
"It Came Gently" by Aigner Loren Wilson: It's a piece of flash fiction, so no plot or character, but that brief image and the sentiment it left are all there.
"The Cheesemaker and the Undying King" by Lina Rather: A novelette about a tyrant, wars, executions, surviving and a cheesemaker. The preparing, making and tasting of cheeses were fascinating.
OK
"Test 4 Echo" by Peter Watts: A lot of it went over my head. If you strip down to the basics, it's about two characters talking about consciousness and personhood.
"Magical Girl Burnout Bingo" by Lauren Ring: What if Magical Girls, after their forced retirement due to life-threatening injuries, didn't die but went on living their post-Magical Girl life?
"If We Do Not Fly at Sunset" by Andi C. Buchanan: It's a short piece about being different in different ways. Not very memorable.
Great
"The Hammer of God" by Jonathan Maberry: A novella with a solid world-building and history that are more hinted at than spelled out. It starts out as a murder investigation with nuns as the detectives, and takes some turns that I didn't expect.
Good
"Nobody Ever Goes Home to Zhenzhu" by Grace Chan: Tightly paced, visually written, impactful.
"The Plastic People" by Tobias S. Buckell: A story about generational responsibility, or the lack thereof, and the other side of the "good Samaritan". It flows really well and is an uncomfortable mirror.
"It Came Gently" by Aigner Loren Wilson: It's a piece of flash fiction, so no plot or character, but that brief image and the sentiment it left are all there.
"The Cheesemaker and the Undying King" by Lina Rather: A novelette about a tyrant, wars, executions, surviving and a cheesemaker. The preparing, making and tasting of cheeses were fascinating.
OK
"Test 4 Echo" by Peter Watts: A lot of it went over my head. If you strip down to the basics, it's about two characters talking about consciousness and personhood.
"Magical Girl Burnout Bingo" by Lauren Ring: What if Magical Girls, after their forced retirement due to life-threatening injuries, didn't die but went on living their post-Magical Girl life?
"If We Do Not Fly at Sunset" by Andi C. Buchanan: It's a short piece about being different in different ways. Not very memorable.
I so wish this was longer. The world building and story telling was phenomenal. To show the future in such a brutal present time, to show that hope is there still… this was amazing