The Tale of Clancy the Scrivener

by Ramsey Shehadeh

After a fraught, improbably long life, a post-apocalyptic archivist resigned to cataloging ephemera from the "old world" times finds his life upended by an orphaned girl . . .

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 20, 2023

About the author

Ramsey Shehadeh splits his time between writing software and writing stories. His fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Shimmer, and The Drabblecast, as well as in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's STEAMPUNK RELOADED anthology.

Reviews

[Alyssa (HeartwyldsLibrary) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, started out uninteresting but then once the parts about the plague and how it affected people came into play it started to get intriguing. Definitely feels like a small tale in a bigger story. I do kind of wish there was more though.

[Beth N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tor is going through a phase at the moment. It's a phase of liking body horror in its short fiction. I hope that, as with most phases, this is one that Tor will grow out of.

Because body horror aside, this is quite a touching little story. Old man who has lived many lifetimes looks after non-verbal orphan girl in post-plague-apocalypse. We love this sort of stuff. Clancy spends his days copying out old Atari magazines and cookbooks in a historic monastery setting, a past/future blurring that both jars and soothes. There are even hints of a darker side to society with secret police and dangerous wildlands beyond the walls.

It's the sort of writing that makes you want to know more. Sadly the 'more' in question came through a filter of gory horror that somewhat muted my curiosity.

Some readers will no doubt love this but for my personal tastes I would have preferred more grandfatherly affection and fewer bodies splitting apart.

[Paul (Life In The Slow Lane) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's hope for us old boomers yet.

Set in the post-apocalyptic 2080's (I think). A plague has rendered most humans victims of terrible, sudden-onset deformities, which spells their doom, for they are not allowed to survive. Clancy, an archivist (scrivener) and an elderly man now, must hide his plague effect, which is, he dies and is reformed, much younger, hence he has possible immortality. He raises a mute young girl, who keeps his secret.

Lovely writing and a well-crafted short story. I liked it.

[Alex Sarll]

An unexpected hybrid of Canticle For Liebowitz and Wild Cards, but I love the idea of post-apocalyptic copyists working on an old Atari mag. I wasn't wholly convinced by the restrictions on which texts are and aren't acceptable to the order, but then I suppose I never am, so that works.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting tale of a time in the future when a plague has caused much of civilization to collapse. One old man who lived through the time now works on transcribing only true things about the world. When he rests, he spends his time bringing a young girl (who does not speak) around town, where we get to see the after effects the plague has had on the world.

But the old man is getting weaker and suffering from more pain, and wonders how it would affect his relationship with the girl, for the plague has had an effect on him too, one that he has to hide from a world that fears, and kills people who are not normal.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminds me a bit of Canticle of Leibowitz. Some kind of apocalypse happened and this is the aftermath. The glimpses I got of the world-building were interesting, but the whole story felt like it needed more to it.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this riff on post apocalypse fiction. A pretty dark setting but I appreciated the glimmer of hope.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting "gimmick" to get the story rolling with a nice twist or two to keep you going to the end. Very good.

[Anagha S Setlur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Liked the premise. Liked the ending. The writing was pretty captivating too. Go for it 😁👍.

[umainthewild · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely took an unexpected turn there. It felt like a small part of a bigger story though.

[Mabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! And I wish it could be a whole novel - I feel there's definitely potential for the story to be expanded.
It felt like Canticle For Liebowitz, but with a character-driven focus. I loved the relationship between Clancy and the orphaned girl.