Short Stories 366:216 — “At the Roots of the World Tree,” by Catherine Lundoff
[image error]I feel like I keep saying “this story was so very much my thing” when I talk about Out of this World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories, but it’s because… well, this story was so very much my thing. First off, we’ve got an esoteric bookstore that’s more than it appears, and even seems to nudge the bookseller in one direction or another at times. Second, said bookseller is a socially awkward queer bookseller, and, I mean, hello. Oh, and also the fates personified just walked in, which is so unfair because his co-worker usually gets super hot elves and he instead gets a trio of women who can tell him his fate, complete with how he’s going to shuffle off the mortal coil. Bookstore customers, am I right?
Sometimes the store speaks to Ash, and when it does, Ash generally listens. And in this case, maybe it would get three three fates to, y’know, leave before anything cataclysmic (or personally terrifying) happens. Instead, upon perusing some of the more, uh, special texts, we learn our somewhat-bumbling Ash is just the fellow to delay Ragnarok a bit. Would he mind?
Of course he minds, but also, the end of all reality—or at least some version of it, Ash isn’t sure—is sort of motivating no matter how awkward you might be, and so Ash is off on an adventure. A terrifying, awkward, totally-out-of-his-depth adventure. All he wanted was a shift at the bookstore, but instead he’s going to try to delay the end of the world and hopefully not die in the process. The tone of “At the Roots of the World Tree” is so lighthearted and amusing throughout, and I adored it from the start. I also love how the queerness in this particular tale is so beside the point, but still flavours the whole of the tale (and there’s even a little nod to a happy-for-now for Ash at the end).
When I asked Lundoff where this one came from, she was kind enough to tell me. Bookselling, folks. It just stays with you.
I used to own my own queer/feminist bookstore and I’ve worked at a few. Never met any Norns, though, more’s the pity. I suspect this one came up one day was I wondering why I’d never done anything with Norse mythology or bookstores.
