Lena’s Comments (group member since Nov 17, 2014)

Lena’s comments from the Spells, Space & Screams: Collections & Anthologies in Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror group.

First They Came For the Pigs by Chadwick Ginther DNF
I do not like being thrown into the deep end of high fantasy - skip.

Go Home Again by Simon Strantzas ★★☆☆☆
“Closure was a lie the world wanted to believe.”
I sped through that unpleasant story about a girl returning to her old home and memories of abuse.

The Shaft Through the Middle of it All by Nick Mamatas ★★★½☆
Never mess with an ol’bruja’s garden.

Letters to a Fungus by Polenth Blake ★★★★★
That was short and hilarious. An escalating series of letters to an invading fungus during suburban warfare.

The Pearl in the Oyster and the Oyster Under Glass by Lisa M. Bradley ★★½☆☆
That was so odd. Never is it mentioned how, or why, there is a walking, taking, working bear with secret mushroom empathy. The rest of the story is about mushrooms eating oil spills then being eaten by people/bears.

A Monster in the Midst by Julio Toro San Martin ★★★★☆
A robot reveling in schadenfreude, you gotta love it. In a steampunk world where mushrooms have replaced trees one aristocrat hoped to save the world. His robot knew better, and quietly, maliciously, laughed all the way.

Dust From a Dark Flower by Daniel Mills ★★★☆☆
A fungal horror version of Typhoid Mary.

Where Dead Men Go to Dream by A.C. Wise
★★★½☆
I’ve read many Wise short stories and he never fails to get less than three stars. Veiled in magic and symbolism this was a pretty basic story for everyone with a failed relationship - did you really see the other person or just your desires reflected back?

Yes, Congratulations, that was a great idea!

Our Stories Will Live Forever by Paul Tremblay ★★★★☆
That was lovely. What started off as a writer scaring himself on a plane took a sharp turn into the eternal. Definitely too sharp a turn, even for a short story, but I still enjoyed it.

Tubby McFungus, Fat From Fungus by Molly Tanzer and Jessie Bullington DNF
This was about cats making merkins. I could have lived without knowing what merkins were. I let this one go.

It's possible the God was meant to be real, it's possible he was killed too, but no outcome was a good one and it was presented in dismal fashion. I did not enjoy it.

Goatsbride by Richard Gavin ★★☆☆☆
I read this twice and still didn’t like it. Village girls are fed moldy wheat and fantasize about a goat lover. The men hang them.

Great to have you here Kasia!

That is great news Fiona!

Norwegian-American electric Hulk type movie for your international flavor addiction: https://youtu.be/7fyR7hdbP3M

Corpse Mouth and Spore Nose by Jeff VanderMeer ★★☆☆☆
That was a bad dream. Just a messed up bad dream.

'Dark' Season 3: Claudia Tiedemann hailed as more powerful than GoT's 'Daenerys and her three dragons' by fans
https://meaww.com/dark-season-3-final...

Canavan wrote: "As I recall, Lovecraft, Barlow, and William S. Burroughs are all characters in this novel, right?

Correct.

I finished Dark! Most of me thinks That was gorgeous! and the rest of me thinks there was an episode missing that focused on Claudia-Regina’s conception-birth-babyhood and Agnes-Tronte’s conception-birth-babyhood.

And maybe it got off the rails a little on episode 5 but they put in several cute little info-dumps, think Jurassic Park, to get that unsteady train rolling.

Someone finish and talk to me about it, lol!