Christmas Tale

by Mark Lawrence

Genres: Short Stories

3 pages, ebook

About the author

My books vary a LOT - so here's a handy guide.

[My new book Daughter of Crows is out in March 2026!]

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Mark Lawrence is married with four children, one of whom is severely disabled. Before becoming a fulltime writer in 2015 day job was as a research scientist focused on various rather intractable problems in the field of artificial intelligence. He has held secret level clearance with both US and UK governments. At one point he was qualified to say 'this isn't rocket science ... oh wait, it actually is'.

Mark used to have a list of hobbies back when he did science by day. Now his time is really just divided between writing and caring for his disabled daughter. There are occasional forays into computer games too.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.

this is the FIFTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2020 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards, because i have not compiled as many as usual this year.

IN ADDITION, this may be the last year i do this project since GR has already deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. because i don't have a lot of time to waste, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case gr decides to scrap 'em again. 2020 has left me utterly wrung out and i apologize for what's left of me. i am doing my best.

DECEMBER 25: CHRISTMAS TALE - MARK LAWRENCE

yes, i've already read a mark lawrence story during this year's short story advent calendar, but this one is called CHRISTMAS TALE, for goodness' sake! and, since it is a christmas story involving satan and demons, (theoretical/conceptual) dead puppies, and bread falling buttered-side down, it is pretty much the perfect holiday story for our collective 2020 moods. may your days be merry and bright, all! or at least virus-free. make good choices!

read it for free here

DECEMBER 1: PG - COURTNEY SUMMERS
DECEMBER 2: THE JUMPING MONKEY HILL - CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
DECEMBER 3: ORIGIN STORY - T. KINGFISHER
DECEMBER 4: THE GREAT SILENCE - TED CHIANG
DECEMBER 5: A CLEAN SWEEP WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS
DECEMBER 6: BORED WORLD - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 7: VAMPIRE - ROBERT COOVER
DECEMBER 8: A STATEMENT IN THE CASE - THEODORA GOSS
DECEMBER 9: STET - SARAH GAILEY
DECEMBER 10: MARGOT'S ROOM: EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 11: HORROR STORY - CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
DECEMBER 12: TERRAIN - GENEVIEVE VALENTINE
DECEMBER 13: IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN - ZEN CHO
DECEMBER 14: GHOUL - GEORGE SAUNDERS
DECEMBER 15: DURING THE DANCE - MARK LAWRENCE
DECEMBER 16: CLEARING THE BONES - CELESTE NG
DECEMBER 17: THE WAITER'S WIFE - ZADIE SMITH
DECEMBER 18: DEMOLITION - FIONA MCFARLANE
DECEMBER 19: NO PERIOD - HARRY TURTLEDOVE
DECEMBER 20: DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE - GG
DECEMBER 21: RUB-A-DUB-DUB - TONY MILLIONAIRE
DECEMBER 22: HANSA AND GRETYL AND PIECE OF SHIT - REBECCA CURTIS
DECEMBER 23: BRIDESICLE - WILL MCINTOSH
DECEMBER 24: I, CTHULHU, OR, WHAT'S A TENTACLE-FACED THING LIKE ME DOING IN A SUNKEN CITY LIKE THIS (LATITUDE 47° 9' S, LONGITUDE 126° 43' W)? - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 26: THE MONSTERS OF HEAVEN - NATHAN BALLINGRUD
DECEMBER 27: TWO DREAMS ON TRAINS - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 28: THE MARTIANS CLAIM CANADA - MARGARET ATWOOD
DECEMBER 29: UNDER THE WAVE - LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 30: MR. SALARY - SALLY ROONEY
DECEMBER 31: A/S/L - EMMA CLINE

come to my blog!

[La Coccinelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just a short little snippet from the author's website. It's not even a story. It's just the beginning of a scene. It could've been really funny, had it been followed through with... but as it is, it's just a bit of nothing. A couple of Satan's minions recruit a couple of demons to make Christmas especially aggravating. That's the premise. Unfortunately, it's also the whole story. Just when we find out what the plot's going to be, the story ends.

I guess you could view this as an exercise in minimalism. Or you could interpret it as self-contained. But I think I probably would've gotten more out of reading a few Goodreads synopses! Really. This is a good start, but I was hoping for a lot more.

[Badseedgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even Satan wouldn't want Christmas this year.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quirky little Christmas tale about Satan, demons, dead puppies, and bread falling butter-side down,....and all the other "demonic" holiday events. Quirky...but funny!

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet. Sums up Christmas pretty well too ;)

[Gab · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was just a waayy too short short story...I didn't get much of it. 😅

[Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free on author Mark Lawrence's Website.
This Christmas story could have been written by Ebenezer Scrooge, before his "awakening". The things he mentioned ... and the impact of Christmas, well, it was just TOO REAL that by the end of it I wanted to give up and say "Bah Humbug!"

[chvang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Satan is buying Christmas.

This is less a short story and more a long(ish) joke. There isn't a plot so much as a setup for the punchline. But I snorted and smiled, so Mark Lawrence succeeds again.

You can find it for free here:

http://www.marklawrence.buzz/story/ch...

[Brian Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um, don't trust my review. Accidentally pushed 2 stars and can't undo it for some reason. User error, no doubt. I haven't read this but I love Lawrence. Since I can't remove the 2 stars, the best I can do is change it to 5. I tried turning it off and on again, but that didn't help :p