112 pages
Published July 30, 2014 by Subterranean.
Sometimes science fiction writers come up with the most effective horror tales - Stross has here riffed on Lovecraftian creatures, weird animal lifecycles, "Cold Comfort Farm" and the endless grind of bureaucracy and mixed them into a chill little number that will have you not quite looking at snails in the same way again.
A nasty/nice little bit of Lovecraftiana involving perhaps what Aunt Ada Doom did see in the woodshed. And the origins of HP Lovecraft's gynophobia (not misogyny: he was genuinely terrified of women). And CDGS' familiar riff on bureaucracy and the military mindset - what do you think is going to happen if you try to make practical use of something large, unpredictable and very dangerous? (see also "River of Teeth" by Sara Gailey). As one notes on his pad, "see mental health records". I wonder if it's also a skit on the way the police (at least in the US) now more resemble an army, what with being obliged to take on ex-military equipment so we get the cops in Bumfark, Idaho riding around in armoured cars and full body armour when a flashlight and some attitude would probably get them further.
For whatever reason I didn't find this that …
A nasty/nice little bit of Lovecraftiana involving perhaps what Aunt Ada Doom did see in the woodshed. And the origins of HP Lovecraft's gynophobia (not misogyny: he was genuinely terrified of women). And CDGS' familiar riff on bureaucracy and the military mindset - what do you think is going to happen if you try to make practical use of something large, unpredictable and very dangerous? (see also "River of Teeth" by Sara Gailey). As one notes on his pad, "see mental health records". I wonder if it's also a skit on the way the police (at least in the US) now more resemble an army, what with being obliged to take on ex-military equipment so we get the cops in Bumfark, Idaho riding around in armoured cars and full body armour when a flashlight and some attitude would probably get them further.
For whatever reason I didn't find this that horrifying - more amusing - but it was certainly a good read. (also, nicely set in its own past, which is a hard trick to do, but this novella published in 2014 takes place in around 2005-6, given the references to MySpace and the Palm Treo and the closing note.)
