Best of Apex Magazine - review #10 - Sexagesimal by Katharine E K Duckett
Sexagesimal may refer to the numbers on the sections, and I assume they're times and... probably stupidly... that they seem to match up to how long the section takes to read. That's almost certainly me being silly, no? But once that was in my head I couldn't see the puzzle from another angle.
THERE ARE SPOILERS - I SUGGEST READING IT FIRST, AT
http://www.apex-magazine.com/sexagesimal/
Sexagesimal by Katharine E K Duckett
The sections switch back and forwards in time, or untime (we're in an afterlife where your memories sustain your continued presence). We unravel the story in flashbacks and eventually lost memories of an affair, and worse, the collapse of the central couple's relationship. The parasites that are uncovered are both creepy, possibly intelligent enough to be mean, and provide the solution to a number of questions set up by the story.
This is another well written story, that uses it's sections with flair and doesn't falter or trip, and I like it well enough. Maybe a touch more than well enough. Again, it's a sad story in a lot of sad stories.
(Given I'm reading in a meh winter where the cold and dark predominates, I'm a little too aware of how the grey piles up, however dramatic and individual each day might be. Also... I'm just a touch sensitive to mentions that not having children meaning that you let down your antecedents, right now)
I like it. I may well remember the parasites a while.
But despite the strength of some stories, as I would normally have finished the anthology by now, I am thinking I'd find it hard to pick it up again given that so far
I'm remembering it as exceedingly sad.
Definitely not a book to read at worlds end.
THERE ARE SPOILERS - I SUGGEST READING IT FIRST, AT
http://www.apex-magazine.com/sexagesimal/
Sexagesimal by Katharine E K Duckett
The sections switch back and forwards in time, or untime (we're in an afterlife where your memories sustain your continued presence). We unravel the story in flashbacks and eventually lost memories of an affair, and worse, the collapse of the central couple's relationship. The parasites that are uncovered are both creepy, possibly intelligent enough to be mean, and provide the solution to a number of questions set up by the story.
This is another well written story, that uses it's sections with flair and doesn't falter or trip, and I like it well enough. Maybe a touch more than well enough. Again, it's a sad story in a lot of sad stories.
(Given I'm reading in a meh winter where the cold and dark predominates, I'm a little too aware of how the grey piles up, however dramatic and individual each day might be. Also... I'm just a touch sensitive to mentions that not having children meaning that you let down your antecedents, right now)
I like it. I may well remember the parasites a while.
But despite the strength of some stories, as I would normally have finished the anthology by now, I am thinking I'd find it hard to pick it up again given that so far
I'm remembering it as exceedingly sad.
Definitely not a book to read at worlds end.