review

IF DRAGON’S MASS EVE BE COLD AND CLEAR – KEN SCHOLES

By karen t. brissette

Posted on December 23, 2018

If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Cold And Clear by Ken Scholes
My rating: 3/5 cats
One Star

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

boilerplate mission statement intro:

for the past two years, i’ve set december’s project aside to do my own version of a short story advent calendar. it’s not a true advent calendar since i choose all the stories myself, but what it lacks in the ‘element of surprise’ department it more than makes up for in hassle, as i try to cram even MORE reading into a life already overcrammed with impossible personal goals (live up to your potential! find meaningful work! learn to knit!) merry merry wheee!

since i am already well behind in my *regular* reviewing, when it comes to these stories, whatever i poop out as far as reflections or impressions are going to be superficial and perfunctory at best. please do not weep for the great big hole my absented, much-vaunted critical insights are gonna leave in these daily review-spaces (and your hearts); i’ll try to drop shiny insights elsewhere in other reviews, and here, i will at least drop links to where you can read the stories yourselves for free, which – let’s be honest – is gonna serve you better anyway.

HAPPY READING, BOOKNERDS!

links to all stories read in previous years’ calendars can be found at the end of these reviews, in case you are a person who likes to read stories for free:

2016: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…

scroll down for links to this year’s stories which i will update as we go, and if you have any suggestions, send ’em my way! the only rules are: it must be available free online (links greatly appreciated), and it must be here on gr as its own thing so i can review it. thank you in advance!

DECEMBER 23

On the ride home, we’d had our discussion, and father dissected the components of the service.

“At the end,” I told him, “they prayed for the Santaman’s return. Do they do it every Dragonsday?”

He nodded. “Some of them do it every day.”

“Not just on Dragon’s Mass Eve?”

“No.”

“But they believe one day it will work?”

“Yes.”

“They really really believe?”

He nodded again. “They really really believe. And I used to, too. Even your mother, in some ways, believed. Only she believed that if there was a Santaman, he expected us to work while we waited and make things as good as we could.” He looked thoughtful for a moment.

“But we don’t believe now,” I said.

He smiled at me. “I don’t believe now. Do you?”

I smiled back. “No, I really don’t. I think…” I tried to find something to hitch my thought to. I remembered the growing stack of bound cardboard covers he kept in the drawer beside his bed, each containing my carefully written pages of our fictional misadventures spread out over a half-dozen Dragon’s Mass Eves. “I think it’s a good story but I don’t think it’s true.” Then, I said what I knew he was going to say next. “But I suppose being true isn’t always required.”

He smiled. “Exactly so.”

OH GOOD ANOTHER SAD CHRISTMAS STORY, WHEEEEE! i guess it’s not technically a christmas story, but a dragon’s mass eve story with an absentee hero figure called santaman, assorted creatures, largely undefined, and a generational passing of a torch as a father dies and is mourned before mourning paves the way for motherhood. also a character named parson brown LIKE IN THAT SECULAR XMAS CAROL! and it’s fine. i took a break from baking and crafting and wrapping to read it and it was longer than i thought it would be (TWSS) and i swear i’m not resenting it on those grounds, but i didn’t respond to it in any particular way other than feeling pleased at having notched my short story advent calendar belt for the day. does this make me a grinch? perhaps. but it makes me a grinch who is ACHIEVING ALL THE GOALS! which is a christmas miracle, so i’ll take it.