“The Stars Look Away From This Vessel” by dave ring [1517 words]
After receiving a mysterious broadcast, two working stiffs enter a derelict ship for salvaging, and discover too late what the message means.
This story piqued my curiosity, but by the end I didn’t feel as though I had enough information about the characters or the setting for the tragedy to hit home. The odd, bold-faced interludes breaking the story up were an enigma to me, either by intention or perhaps some cultural reference I am not privy to.
“Ten Unsent Letters to the Dark Lord” by Ada Hoffmann [2293 words]
A “list story”, as the title indicates, with said letters written by the Dark Lord’s henchman while they are in prison being interrogated by the Good Queen’s men. The henchman is unwaveringly loyal and writes of their jailers’ attempts to reverse the Dark Lord’s brainwashing.
List stories have never been for me. I can’t think of a single one that has ever stuck with me for more than a minute after reading it, and I imagine this one will go the same way once I am finished writing this review. To be fair it is not boring or poorly written. There’s nothing in it to dunk on and I’m not really a “dunker” type of reviewer anyway. It’s just not particularly appealing to me.
Item 202 