Between Two Dragons

Short Story by Yoon Ha Lee
Text and audio from Clarkesworld, read by Kate Baker.

Admiral Yen Shenar is the most brilliant tactical mind in Cho, a small empire lying between two larger, fiercer ones (the titular dragons). When Yamat invades, and Feng-Huang is slow to offer help, Admiral Shenar brilliantly pushes back the Yamat forces. But political enemies within the government see to his downfall, and have his memories wiped. He proactively hires a programmer to wipe them first, making sure to preserve his tactical acumen.

This programmer at the Ministry of Virtuous Thought is our storyteller, and she speaks hypothetically to him, giving him the beginning he's missing to his own story. But the military and political intrigue isn't the real story here. It is more about the great sacrifices a brilliant man makes for his country and what sacrifices he won't make, the changes he is willing to make in himself for the greater good, and the unsure future. The ending not only leaves open the outcome of the final battle to ward off the invading space fleet, but Shenar's future. We hope that he'll be able to fight off his political enemies this time, and effect some real change in the country's cruel and unusual abuse of political prisoners. He is the sort of man that plans these things far ahead, but we don't know how successful he can really be.

4 amnesiac military tigers out of 5.

Wearing the Dead

Short Story by Alan Smale

Read for Pseudopod by Kris Johnson

Trevor is a kid taking care of the ghost of his dog while befriending a former gang, Robbie, member hiding out with his emotionally distant mother. Neither mother nor son has coped well with the death of the father, or the subsequent death of the family dog, Trixie. Trixie haunts them, but only Trevor can see her. This is really a story about Trevor's attempts to grow up and have some agency in his life, and his partial failure to do so. A sort of failed-coming-of-age tale.

Robbie in a good replacement father-figure, seemingly a better parent than Trevor's Mom by a long shot. He tries to teach Trevor to stand up for himself against the bullies and understand and atone for his part in Trixie's death. Tragically, Trevor can only act by hoping for the help of others, he doesn't seem to get the concept of doing things for himself. His mom doesn't help things any, but Trevor's cluelessness makes things worse for everyone. Particularly in the conclusion to the story, where whether Trevor is delusional about the dog or not, he certainly makes things worse for himself and his mother's relationship either way. I like to think he is crazy though, it makes for a more tragic and interesting reading.

3.5 ghost dogs out of 5.

Gretel

Short Story by Camille Alexa
Read for PseudoPod by Claudia Smith

Hansel and Gretel are drug-addicted teenagers in a rehab clinic. They fall in love over a couple hits of acid, save up pills for a bribe, and make their escape. Of course, then they become lost in the woods and stumble on a strange cottage with an old woman in it. The rest of the story is pretty much the same as you'd expect.

There are two main changes from the fairy tale: Hansel and Gretel as teenagers in love rather than siblings, and the running theme of drug addiction. Other than that, the kids are actually starving, rather than greedy, and the witch is a lot more sinister and obvious, daily eating little strips of skin and body parts, rather than being just implied to want to eat them. I'm not sure that the love adds much, just that Gretel tends to be self-sacrificing to save Hansel because he thinks she is beautiful. The teenage love is intense and irrational and maybe sweet for some readers, but I don't believe it improves the story over the original.

The drug theme, on the other hand, is the only important innovation over the traditional story. It does change things, and as the only change besides description, I think the success of the story hangs on this. Being lost in the woods is a metaphor for addiction, made all the more clear by the witch deliberately getting the kids addicted to a strange, powerful opium-like drug. The orderlies watching TV all day, taking bribes, and tacitly encouraging the kids not to take their medication (so they can sell it back to the orderlies as bribes) is an interesting replacement for the trail of breadcrumbs. What should have been a way out of addiction disappears without the kids even realizing it, by self-interested orderlies rather than forest creatures. The kids are finally able to find their way back to the road when they throw away the witch's opium pipes during their escape, completing the metaphor.

The witch herself is an interesting creation in this version. She apparently feeds on escaped kids from the rehab clinic, but laments how much harder she has it compared to the good old days when it was a hospital for morphine-addicted civil war soldiers. She's definitely a supernatural entity, I suppose the door is left open for most of the witchy details being part of some kind of drug trip, but I prefer a more literal reading. It is surprising that more isn't done with the effects of her magic drug though, and how that alters the perceptions of the kids.

Gretel makes a nice journey, overcoming both her various addictions (better when fighting a witch than with a bunch of uncaring, corrupt orderlies) and her fear and lack of action. She starts off compliantly going along with the witch, then subtly defying her for the sake of Hansel, and eventually taking action to save both of them. A real bit of personal growth there, with self-sacrifice and inner-beauty and all that. I think Hansel might be brain damaged though, he just repeats "You're beautiful," over and over for the whole story.

To summarize: Gretel is a good character who changes over the course of the story, the witch is a terrifying supernatural creature who also facilitates drug addiction to keep her victims in line, and the whole story is one big modern addiction metaphor. Some descriptions are a bit overkill, and I'd like to have seen a bit more than the basic simplicity of the original, but I liked this one well enough. 3.5 opium witches out of 5.

The Dark Level

Short Story by John F.D. Taff

Read for Pseudopod by Ian Stuart

A very effective horror story about man's search for a parking space. And once he gets there, his search for the elevator. A parking garage is one of the few remaining dark and creepy places we encounter in everyday modern life, and it is nice to have a story set in one. I had a few problems with this story in retrospect, but I want to emphasize how effective it was. This was one of the more scary and suspenseful PseudoPods and it kept me up listening to it late at night when I was fully expecting to fall asleep and listen again in the morning. And it actually had me nervous and jumpy while listening to it.

On a second listen, however, it loses some of this. The scream Jim doesn't hear, but we are informed of by narration when he first sees the garage is right out of an 80's campy horror film, gives away that it is bad a bit too early (we know we're reading a horror story, but I like to not be so sure about it), but it also just seems like we get some vital hint the character doesn't. It was kind of obnoxious and the whole story would be better to just cut that line.

Once Jim is in a garage, he hears noises which creeped me out on first listen, but remain unexplained, and now that I know what the horror was, don't make any damn sense. I like some element of the unexplained in my horror, rather than explaining everything away, but when you have a very clear definition by the end of what was going on in the parking garage, I would like the completely unexplained non-sensical but scary noises to get some explanation. Because the one we have not only doesn't account for them, but seems to preclude my default assumption.

Third, the metaphors chosen to describe things spell it all out a little too well, a little too early. Dark, creepy metaphors are good, but not ones that give away the whole story by choice of idioms. That said, the central concept is good, if not totally unique, and the ending is just great. This one has style and atmosphere, but I'd advise against thinking too hard about it, or you might find the story crumbling away like a partially digested business suit.

2.5 unsafe parking spaces out of 5.