Prairie_Dog
Registered Rodent
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2016
- Messages
- 1,228
I just finished reading the newly released The Privilege of the Happy Ending: Small, Medium, and Large Stories which is a collection of shorter fiction by Kij Johnson. It mainly is short stores, but contains at least one novella length work. It is composed of various flavors of fantasy, from contemporary to Lovecraftian.
These stories were mainly published previously in other places, magazines or on the web. They range from the three contemporary “Apartment Dweller’s…” shorts to medium and larger stories. The largest is the novella “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe” which is set in the Dreamlands of H. P. Lovecraft. In this amazing work, Professor Vellitt Boe must go and try to rescue one of her students who has run away with a dreamer from our world. It is a substantial work of Cthulhu Mythos fiction, and one that almost completely subverts expectations. The other longer work is the titular “The Privilege of the Happy Ending” which is probably the “medium” work. It’s a story of a little girl, her bold hen, and hordes of ravening monsters.
Overall, I enjoyed the collection. Of course, in this type of work the reader will find some stories resonate more with them than others. However, these stories certainly show the depth and breadth of Ms. Johnson’s writing. It’s a substantial body of work, and I absolutely recommend it.
