The Inheritance > Strays

[Hanne]

This one was kind of nice. I liked the idea of the Queen of the Strays, a position that is clearly not recognized by the evil "step-father".

I got the mother's desperation as well, that you can't save them, you can only try to protect your own cub. Even if that's a very sad message to give.

[David Sven]

She must think a bit about dead cats. This is the second story with road kill. At least they aren't putting anything in their mouth. This was a little strange because there was very little hint of anything magical until right at the very end.

[Hanne]

oh boy, i had forgotten about that link already. i prefer this paint tracing of dead cats to the idea of putting the bones in their mouths indeed!

i think i like the stories with little magic better than the ones where it is key to the progress. perhaps because i've always been fond of large fantasy novels, but of quiet and subtle short stories :)

[Kathryn]

I still have two left, but this is my favorite Lindholm short story. So perfect and beautiful.

[Alfred]

* Spoiler ahead * Ash09: Wasn't sure which cat story you landed on, so I randomly picked "Stray". (Will backtrack to the early stories later)

What a sad tale. Lonnie rescuing those cats and marking their deaths were really poignant. I half expected Mandy to "mark" the outline of Lonnie's body with bright orange paint. I liked the story all the way to the end until the Queen Cat transformation, which became a little surreal for me. Did it happen or did it not?

Lonnie, a real fighter to the end despite being thrown out of the window (literally, twice), treated like crap, crippled and scarred. Lonnie being bullied and inappropriately touched by the three boys were disturbing. Equally disturbing were passersby laughing at or ignoring someone in distress. This girl gets no break.

Also, Lindholm using words like "fuck" and "weenie", unheard of with Hobb!

Couldn't help noticing that the urban setting is once again inner city-like, decrepit neighborhood, junkie/prostitute mother, scummy boyfriend, people living on welfare, a young protagonist, 1st person POV. Anyway, I don't usually read urban fantasy or short stories, so this particular story was a welcomed good impression.

Solid 4/5 stars.

[Ash09]

Whoops, I hit on the earlier cat tale, the one about road kill. It was as cute as a tale about road-kill cats can be. Will grab the next one now lol. I've been out!