“The Court Magician” by Sarah Pinsker

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This is our discussion of the 2019 Hugo Award "best short story" finalist...

“The Court Magician” by Sarah Pinsker
It can be read on-line at Lightspeed Magazine.

This is part of our discussion of the 2019 Hugo Award short story & novelette finalists.

[Rachel]

Ooh this one went kinda dark - reminded me of some time travel movie from a few years ago in certain ways ... i guess this is also about how rich people use the poor? i liked the narrator reveal at the end. I wouldn't have minded a more....vindictive ending though.

I wonder if the woman chanting was one of the ones who had gone before? and what happens to the people and things that are problems?

[Caitlin]

I really loved this, from a "be careful what you wish for" sort of thing. I'm always intrigued by stories that incorporate a danger for the hunger for knowledge. Kind of the darkside of the Ravenclaw or wizard stereotypes.

[Andrea]

I liked it, though was of course disturbing, a "price of magic" tale, or "everything has a cost, nothing is for free". You'd definitely have to have a certain level of stubbornness to keep going after you lost your first finger! Especially as it is someone else who benefits, and the truth is, you have no idea the cost for everyone else (like what did happen to the women...and why was she chanting names in the first place, and why do even more women come later to chant names knowing? Are those the people that go "missing"?)