Friedrich the Snow Man by Lewis Shiner
My rating: 3/5 cats
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i’m going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don’t think i will be reviewing each individual story “properly.” i might just do a picture review or—if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can’t be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we’ll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i’m no good at finding them myself unless they’re on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <— that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 28
With a supreme effort of will, and using the broomstick as support, I was able to lift myself onto the boots and stagger about, sending the children who had unwittingly animated me running in terror. They fled a short distance and peered at me from the protection of the surrounding trees. I had no wish to alarm them, and so attempted some reassuring words. The effort proved most difficult, as I seemed to have no mouth, only a corncob pipe thrust into the uppermost sphere of snow, below whatever objects served as my eyes.
“Did he . . . say something?” one of the children asked. He spoke in English, a language I do not know well.
“I mean you no harm,” I managed to respond.
Slowly they emerged and began to approach me. “What’s your name?” one of them asked.
“Friedrich,” I tried to say, though the sounds that emerged were much distorted.
“Frosty!” cried one of the children happily. “His name is Frosty!”
“Nietzsche!” I corrected him firmly, but the children all laughed.
“Gesundheit!” one of them said.
a wintry story in which nietzsche and frosty the snowman become one. somewhere, someone’s prayers have been answered.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/2013/12/11/friedri…
DECEMBER 1: FABLE – CHARLES YU
DECEMBER 2: THE REAL DEAL – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 3: THE WAYS OF WALLS AND WORDS – SABRINA VOURVOULIAS
DECEMBER 4: GHOSTS AND EMPTIES – LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 5: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE – NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER – JOHN SCALZI
DECEMBER 7: A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT – DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 8: DEEP – PHILIP PLAIT
DECEMBER 9: COOKIE JAR – STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 10: THE STORY OF KAO YU – PETER S. BEAGLE
DECEMBER 11: THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES – ALAN BEARD
DECEMBER 12: THE TOMATO THIEF – URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 13: THE JAWS THAT BITE, THE CLAWS THAT CATCH – SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 14: ROLLING IN THE DEEP – JULIO ALEXI GENAO
DECEMBER 15: ANTIHYPOXIANT – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 16: THE AMBUSH – DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 17: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAITOR AND A HALF-SAVAGE – ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 18: THE CHRISTMAS SHOW – PAT CADIGAN
DECEMBER 19: THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS – PAUL CORNELL
DECEMBER 20: THE TRAINS THAT CLIMB THE WINTER TREE – MICHAEL SWANWICK
DECEMBER 21: BLUE IS A DARKNESS WEAKENED BY LIGHT – SARAH MCCARRY
DECEMBER 22: WATERS OF VERSAILLES – KELLY ROBSON
DECEMBER 23: RAZORBACK – URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 24: DIARY OF AN ASSCAN – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 25: CHANGING MEANINGS – SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: SHOGGOTHS IN BLOOM – ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 27: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SUDDEN DEATH – CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
DECEMBER 29: DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE – EMMY LAYBOURNE
DECEMBER 30: AM I FREE TO GO? – KATHRYN CRAMER
DECEMBER 31: OLD DEAD FUTURES – TINA CONNOLLY
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