What do you think?
Rate this book
Cautionary Tales
Collection of short stories and novellas.
CONTENTS
Allies
Dead in Irons
Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair
Everything That Begins with an "M"
Fellini Beggar
Frog Pond
Generalissimo's Butterfly
Into My Own
Lammas Night
Meaning of the Word
Swan Song
Un Bel Di
An Indulgence
CONTENTS
Allies
Dead in Irons
Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair
Everything That Begins with an "M"
Fellini Beggar
Frog Pond
Generalissimo's Butterfly
Into My Own
Lammas Night
Meaning of the Word
Swan Song
Un Bel Di
An Indulgence
255 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
5 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
259 books477 followersA professional writer for more than forty years, Yarbro has sold over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than three dozen essays, introductions, and reviews. She also composes serious music. Her first professional writing - in 1961-1962 - was as a playwright for a now long-defunct children's theater company. By the mid-60s she had switched to writing stories and hasn't stopped yet.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 13, 2021
In truth, I probably wouldn't have ever read this book - Yarbro is synonymous with dark fantasy/romance for me, thanks to her Saint Germaine books, and that's not really my thing. But as I was cleaning out my deceased sister's holdings I came across this and, much like horror anthologies, I'm a total sucker for author short fiction compilations. And one of the stories on my "to be read" list was in here, so...
And, yes, up front - there's one story here I didn't finish. "Allies" was just too heavily invested in its sci-fi setting for me - not that that's a story flaw, I just really only like very particular forms of sci-fi and human zooming around in spaceships is not one of them. Related to that, the other, general sci-fi tales here were likely not to find much purchase with me, although I did read them all the way through. So having said that:
"Frog Pond" is a radioactive, post-apocalyptic slice of country livin' - cute but slim.
"Un Bel Di" is an interesting tale set in an alien scenario completely devoid of human beings and involves a predatory pedophile (the closest relative term) who finds himself in a position of power with a subjugated alien race more than willing to supply him with a specially bred personal servant. As I said, interesting.
"Into My Own" features an egotistical but brilliant playwright coming to terms (or not!) with the idea of a cyborg replacement of his consciousness - and what makes his art human. Good.
"The Meaning Of The Word" has an archeologist on a dead world discover an alien Rosetta stone to a long gone culture. Honestly... not my kind of thing.
"Dead In Irons" is a surprisingly grim and grisly piece about smuggling, power dynamics, sexual harassment and (eventually) murder on board a faster than light freighter. Pretty entertaining sci-fi horror - very grim.
"Everything That Begins With An 'M' " is a modern fable in which a village projects all it's spiritual hopes and doubts onto a (presumably) retarded simpleton. Good for what it is.
In "Swan Song" a wealthy arms manufacturer finds that his new choice to run his space science department has a bit too much knowledge of old Finnish folklore. Okay, if a bit didactic, but I like the ambiguous ending.
"The Fellini Beggar" (as already said by another) is a somewhat Bradbury-esque story where an interviewer tracks down a deformed beggar (who once had a memorable cameo in a Fellini film, 'natch) to find out in what way he was compensated. Nice.
Count Cagliostro, that wannabe sorcerer and accomplished charlatan, works at solving the problem of his promise to evoke actual demons for some noblemen on "Lammas Night" - a fun historical piece.
"Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair", the reason I read the book, is a straight up horror/comedy, charming and macabre, about a teenage ghoul and how she gets on in the world (murder and a job at a morgue are the easy answers).
Finally, "The Generalissimo's Butterfly" was probably the best thing here - a soft science fiction tale about a former "scientist of the revolution" who must deal with the repercussions of the surveillance technology she invented when she is called out of exile to help the dictator she once supported. A brutally and emotionally honest story. Excellent.
There's also a short poem to end the book. And that's it.
And, yes, up front - there's one story here I didn't finish. "Allies" was just too heavily invested in its sci-fi setting for me - not that that's a story flaw, I just really only like very particular forms of sci-fi and human zooming around in spaceships is not one of them. Related to that, the other, general sci-fi tales here were likely not to find much purchase with me, although I did read them all the way through. So having said that:
"Frog Pond" is a radioactive, post-apocalyptic slice of country livin' - cute but slim.
"Un Bel Di" is an interesting tale set in an alien scenario completely devoid of human beings and involves a predatory pedophile (the closest relative term) who finds himself in a position of power with a subjugated alien race more than willing to supply him with a specially bred personal servant. As I said, interesting.
"Into My Own" features an egotistical but brilliant playwright coming to terms (or not!) with the idea of a cyborg replacement of his consciousness - and what makes his art human. Good.
"The Meaning Of The Word" has an archeologist on a dead world discover an alien Rosetta stone to a long gone culture. Honestly... not my kind of thing.
"Dead In Irons" is a surprisingly grim and grisly piece about smuggling, power dynamics, sexual harassment and (eventually) murder on board a faster than light freighter. Pretty entertaining sci-fi horror - very grim.
"Everything That Begins With An 'M' " is a modern fable in which a village projects all it's spiritual hopes and doubts onto a (presumably) retarded simpleton. Good for what it is.
In "Swan Song" a wealthy arms manufacturer finds that his new choice to run his space science department has a bit too much knowledge of old Finnish folklore. Okay, if a bit didactic, but I like the ambiguous ending.
"The Fellini Beggar" (as already said by another) is a somewhat Bradbury-esque story where an interviewer tracks down a deformed beggar (who once had a memorable cameo in a Fellini film, 'natch) to find out in what way he was compensated. Nice.
Count Cagliostro, that wannabe sorcerer and accomplished charlatan, works at solving the problem of his promise to evoke actual demons for some noblemen on "Lammas Night" - a fun historical piece.
"Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair", the reason I read the book, is a straight up horror/comedy, charming and macabre, about a teenage ghoul and how she gets on in the world (murder and a job at a morgue are the easy answers).
Finally, "The Generalissimo's Butterfly" was probably the best thing here - a soft science fiction tale about a former "scientist of the revolution" who must deal with the repercussions of the surveillance technology she invented when she is called out of exile to help the dictator she once supported. A brutally and emotionally honest story. Excellent.
There's also a short poem to end the book. And that's it.
June 9, 2011
In the introduction to this book, James Tipree, Jr. (a very fine writer indeed) refers to a certain kind of story, not the kind found in this volume, as 'the jolly engineering dilemmas of plastic space jocks on the Aldebaran mail run'. I know the kinds of stories she means, and they aren't my favoured form of science fiction.
However, reading this volume made it clear to me that Yarbro's real preference is horror; not the sort of cosmic, weird horror I favour but a certain shudder-inducing, take-two-steps-back and shudder horror of realising just how macabre or revolting or cruel a certain situation or person is. Several of the stories in this volume are this sort of horror; one of them is not framed as SF, and is perhaps the most effective of them for it. The rest are mainly placed in stock SF settings, apart from a few notable exceptions including one that seems to me to have the closest kinship to Tiptree's (vastly superior) work. I still have a couple of stories to finish at the end of this book; a detailed discussion of the contents will follow once I do that.
_____________________________
Having finished the book, it seems to me that the SF identification is a bit of a red herring. This is an early-career collection; one in which a writer with a predilection for fantasy but no firm favorite amongst its variants is experimenting with all kinds of narrative styles and settings.
6 of these stories are more or less in the conventional SF mould: futuristic settings, space travel, alien worlds, advanced technology. These include the weakest stories herein, 'Frog Pond', little more than a squib, 'Un Bel Di': chilling but could as well have been set in a fantasy world or our own, 'Allies', again chilling, but a story that could have been framed as supernatural or even straight realism, 'Dead In Irons' which could easily have been a maritime story. All these stories derive their kick from a realisation of how twisted or cruel some individual is, which seems to have been Yarbro's favoured key to horror. Two other Sf stories, 'Into My Own', which inquires into identity and the line between artificial and natural, and 'The Meaning Of The Word', a study in professional obsession, are better although rife with stock elements.
'The Generalissimo's Butterfly' is less easily pegged as SF, and comes closest to Tiptree's own work, so fearless in its examination of the machinations of power and violence. 'Swan Song' is a compelling idea executed reasonably well, deriving its power from mythic echoes.
'Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair' is straight horror,and effective of its kind if a bit minor. Nasty rather than truly chilling. 'Lammas Night' is a squib, but as it deals with the occult mountebank Cagliostro, it is an interesting precursor or outlier to Yarbro's famous St-German series.
Finally we have two gems of Bradburyesque North America magic realism which bookend the collection: 'Everything that begins with an "M"' and 'The Fellini Beggar'. These two stories are most decidedly not SF of any variety whatsoever, and they are worth the price of admission in themselves.
However, reading this volume made it clear to me that Yarbro's real preference is horror; not the sort of cosmic, weird horror I favour but a certain shudder-inducing, take-two-steps-back and shudder horror of realising just how macabre or revolting or cruel a certain situation or person is. Several of the stories in this volume are this sort of horror; one of them is not framed as SF, and is perhaps the most effective of them for it. The rest are mainly placed in stock SF settings, apart from a few notable exceptions including one that seems to me to have the closest kinship to Tiptree's (vastly superior) work. I still have a couple of stories to finish at the end of this book; a detailed discussion of the contents will follow once I do that.
_____________________________
Having finished the book, it seems to me that the SF identification is a bit of a red herring. This is an early-career collection; one in which a writer with a predilection for fantasy but no firm favorite amongst its variants is experimenting with all kinds of narrative styles and settings.
6 of these stories are more or less in the conventional SF mould: futuristic settings, space travel, alien worlds, advanced technology. These include the weakest stories herein, 'Frog Pond', little more than a squib, 'Un Bel Di': chilling but could as well have been set in a fantasy world or our own, 'Allies', again chilling, but a story that could have been framed as supernatural or even straight realism, 'Dead In Irons' which could easily have been a maritime story. All these stories derive their kick from a realisation of how twisted or cruel some individual is, which seems to have been Yarbro's favoured key to horror. Two other Sf stories, 'Into My Own', which inquires into identity and the line between artificial and natural, and 'The Meaning Of The Word', a study in professional obsession, are better although rife with stock elements.
'The Generalissimo's Butterfly' is less easily pegged as SF, and comes closest to Tiptree's own work, so fearless in its examination of the machinations of power and violence. 'Swan Song' is a compelling idea executed reasonably well, deriving its power from mythic echoes.
'Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair' is straight horror,and effective of its kind if a bit minor. Nasty rather than truly chilling. 'Lammas Night' is a squib, but as it deals with the occult mountebank Cagliostro, it is an interesting precursor or outlier to Yarbro's famous St-German series.
Finally we have two gems of Bradburyesque North America magic realism which bookend the collection: 'Everything that begins with an "M"' and 'The Fellini Beggar'. These two stories are most decidedly not SF of any variety whatsoever, and they are worth the price of admission in themselves.
October 9, 2024
What it lacks in consistent clarity & power, 'Cautionary Tales' makes up for in its multi-directional output - SF, horror, otherworldly third-world noir lit. Recent reads by fellow 1970s scribes, Michael Bishop and Vonda McIntryre, proved emblematic of the decade with their colorful approach to the genre, and while Yarbro paints a powerful landscape, she lacks the narrative power of her two peers. Sometimes she reads like Paul Bowles writing for EC Comics, and at other times, tepid horror dosed with with far too many characters at play, which ultimately give little to grasp on besides a name only. Still, despite her lack of description, it's a powerful insightful collection in its own right. And the undercurrent for many of these tales about disillusioned workers/grunts trying to survive the daily grind is something to applaud. I find that more and m ore today, modern writers tend to shy away from writing raw-knuckled about the low-levels of poverty & grunt-work.
Allies - invisible alien force haunts a swamp that the corporation must protect. Profile rules.
Dead in Irons - the corporation will make you do the dirty work with little compensation. In this case, cryogenic janitors deal with bureaucratic bullshit on a transport starship.
Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair - zombie tale played for laughs...? but who's laughing?
Everything That Begins with an "M" - idiot savant beckons a curse in a medieval village.
Fellini Beggar - interview with a puppet/person hybrid who starred in Fellini's last opus.
Frog Pond - EC Comic-style shortie about toxic waste and biodiversity of the worst kind. Very jokey.
Generalissimo's Butterfly - most powerful tale in the bunch. An engineer is given a choice to regain her freedom. Robotic butterflies to spy on the citizens of this nameless Latin American town is the undercurrent plotline. Lesson learned: you can't trust nobody. Existentially gutted is the only way to survive.
Into My Own - playwright contemplates downloading his talent into a wise-cracking computer. Did Robert Sheckley ghostwrite this one?
Lammas Night - gaslight revenge about marital infidelities. mildly entertaining if you're so into old-fashioned adulterous revenge plots.
Meaning of the Word - archeologist discovers an alien language in a sand pit. Fair.
Swan Song - a teasing dialogue between two wealthy scientists ends with a glimpse into a mythical Finnish apocalypse.
Un Bel Di - the 2nd best tale is a politically dark one. Touches on sexual abuse (from one alien species to another) in this disturbing but wholly unique tale. Ugly parable of political/religious deception.
An Indulgence - yes, an indulgence. A poem, actually.
Again, a solid collection. Two things that did bother me: 1.) James Tiptree Jr.'s intro didn't do much for me. A backcover blurb alone would have achieved the praise. 2.) After each story, Yarbro discusses them. Shrug. I find this unnecessary to have its reason/flaws/genesis explained by the author themselves. Let the story do the work.
Allies - invisible alien force haunts a swamp that the corporation must protect. Profile rules.
Dead in Irons - the corporation will make you do the dirty work with little compensation. In this case, cryogenic janitors deal with bureaucratic bullshit on a transport starship.
Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair - zombie tale played for laughs...? but who's laughing?
Everything That Begins with an "M" - idiot savant beckons a curse in a medieval village.
Fellini Beggar - interview with a puppet/person hybrid who starred in Fellini's last opus.
Frog Pond - EC Comic-style shortie about toxic waste and biodiversity of the worst kind. Very jokey.
Generalissimo's Butterfly - most powerful tale in the bunch. An engineer is given a choice to regain her freedom. Robotic butterflies to spy on the citizens of this nameless Latin American town is the undercurrent plotline. Lesson learned: you can't trust nobody. Existentially gutted is the only way to survive.
Into My Own - playwright contemplates downloading his talent into a wise-cracking computer. Did Robert Sheckley ghostwrite this one?
Lammas Night - gaslight revenge about marital infidelities. mildly entertaining if you're so into old-fashioned adulterous revenge plots.
Meaning of the Word - archeologist discovers an alien language in a sand pit. Fair.
Swan Song - a teasing dialogue between two wealthy scientists ends with a glimpse into a mythical Finnish apocalypse.
Un Bel Di - the 2nd best tale is a politically dark one. Touches on sexual abuse (from one alien species to another) in this disturbing but wholly unique tale. Ugly parable of political/religious deception.
An Indulgence - yes, an indulgence. A poem, actually.
Again, a solid collection. Two things that did bother me: 1.) James Tiptree Jr.'s intro didn't do much for me. A backcover blurb alone would have achieved the praise. 2.) After each story, Yarbro discusses them. Shrug. I find this unnecessary to have its reason/flaws/genesis explained by the author themselves. Let the story do the work.
August 4, 2024
I could spend years analyzing this little collection, but I’ll try to be concise.
Read it if you like exploring the horrors of humanity. Read it if you can find the humanity in an alien and the alien in humanity. Do not read it if you’re easily made uncomfortable. Do not read it if you want to go to sleep with a clear and empty mind.
Remember, the tales are cautionary. Every story could become a reality…even if we never colonize another planet or figure out how to grow nictitating membranes.
Read it if you like exploring the horrors of humanity. Read it if you can find the humanity in an alien and the alien in humanity. Do not read it if you’re easily made uncomfortable. Do not read it if you want to go to sleep with a clear and empty mind.
Remember, the tales are cautionary. Every story could become a reality…even if we never colonize another planet or figure out how to grow nictitating membranes.
October 25, 2016
2.5 - 3 star rating.
I picked this book up at a local thrift shop, inmediately delighted by both the cover art, and that it was the work of a female author; which is seldom a staple within both the genre and era of this type of publication.
I suppose as a modern female reader myself, I subsequently and automatically had an idea of what I would find within the collection; namely a female voice, female protagonists and some awesome vintage - feel sci-fi.
I was more or less satisfied on the final point of that assumption.
This being my first and only exposure to Yarbro's work, I can't say with certainty if her lack of strong female protagonists is a staple of her work personally, or more of a byproduct of her generation within the genre. Regardless, I was very disappointed by the lack of female voice and perspective overall in these stories. Nearly every single piece in this collection boasts a male protagonist; if a female character is included in the narrative at all, she is either subjugated, or victimised, (and in one story specifically, she is more monster than human, and not remotely sympathetic) and ultimately minor.
The stories mostly have an outdated sort of quality to them, yet are not completely without merit, and I do not regret having read the entire collection. It was fairly diverse as far as story setting goes, and I think more than anything, functions as an insightful collection that can give a 21st-century reader perspective into the evolution of the sci-fi genre itself.
I picked this book up at a local thrift shop, inmediately delighted by both the cover art, and that it was the work of a female author; which is seldom a staple within both the genre and era of this type of publication.
I suppose as a modern female reader myself, I subsequently and automatically had an idea of what I would find within the collection; namely a female voice, female protagonists and some awesome vintage - feel sci-fi.
I was more or less satisfied on the final point of that assumption.
This being my first and only exposure to Yarbro's work, I can't say with certainty if her lack of strong female protagonists is a staple of her work personally, or more of a byproduct of her generation within the genre. Regardless, I was very disappointed by the lack of female voice and perspective overall in these stories. Nearly every single piece in this collection boasts a male protagonist; if a female character is included in the narrative at all, she is either subjugated, or victimised, (and in one story specifically, she is more monster than human, and not remotely sympathetic) and ultimately minor.
The stories mostly have an outdated sort of quality to them, yet are not completely without merit, and I do not regret having read the entire collection. It was fairly diverse as far as story setting goes, and I think more than anything, functions as an insightful collection that can give a 21st-century reader perspective into the evolution of the sci-fi genre itself.
June 24, 2015
Read this years (decades) ago, so I don't remember with it great clarity, but I do remember being as struck with the creepiness of some of these tales as I was with some of the best Harlan Ellison stories. I've always intended to read read more Yarbro and finally recently started the Saint-Germain series (which is quite different from these stories but also quite excellent).
August 13, 2020
I really liked this #pursebook. The author explained why and how she had written each story. Each was individual and felt they had been written by different people. Some were super creepy while others were much more tame. Good stuff.
October 6, 2024
A collection of what I think are the early stories of Yarbro, with short comments by her after each one and an introduction by the great James Tiptree, Jr. Of course I liked some better than others, but enjoyed each story. "Dead In Irons" is brutal.
August 1, 2021
Some are better than others, but quite charming. Cabin 33 was in another anthology and made me want to pursue more of her work, which I am.
October 22, 2025
Regrettably, I didn't enjoy any of these. Between all the gimmickry, ambiguity, and pointlessness, there's no room left for substance. The stories all feel like they take place on a stage, but the space beyond that stage is a vast nothingness. I disliked the author's attitude presented in the brief "about" segments after each story; she rubbed me the wrong way. All she's interested in are her cheap gimmicks, and the story takes a back seat. I think there's enough of it here for me to safely conclude that I don't like her work, so I'll avoid it in the future (outside of any potential anthologies). The only positive is the masterpiece of a cover by Leo and Diane Dillon.
Yarbro seems quite fond of opera, but how does she expect her readers to have any knowledge or appreciation for it? "It was not a question"—she makes extensive use of this statement or variations of it (E.g., "He said, more than asked.") after a given character's statement, which is unnecessary and annoying.
...
"Everything that Begins with an "M" "
5/10
...
"Frog Pond"
5/10
I don't understand what "Stan" was up to, where he came from, or anything.
...
"Un Bel Di"
5/10
I did like the anatomy of the extraterrestrials. The story is loosely based on some opera, apparently.
...
"Lammas Night"
5/10
...
"Into My Own"
5/10
...
"Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair"
5/10
I don't appreciate that Diedre is a "ghoul" for seemingly no reason. How or why did she become a "ghoul"? Also, in the "about" for this one, Yarbro calls her a "teeny-bopper" more than once, misusing the term.
...
"The Meaning of The Word"
5/10
...
"The Generalissimo's Butterfly"
5/10
...
"Allies"
4/10
This one made me angry. I noticed as I was reading that she deliberately (and rather awkwardly) withheld the gender of each character. It was distracting and took away from the story, which mainly consisted of their interactions with each other. Listen, I need to at least have a rough idea of who a character is and what their appearance is like; otherwise, they're just empty words on paper. Imagine watching a film where all the actors' faces (and bodies) are blurred beyond recognition and their voices distorted... Sound like fun to you? After making it through this torture, I learned in the "about" section that writing it this way was pretty much all the author cared about; her attitude was infuriating. If you refuse to offer a meaningful or entertaining story, then don't waste my time.
...
"Dead in Irons"
5/10
...
"Swan Song"
4/10
...
"The Fellini Beggar"
4/10
...
"An Indulgence"
4/10
Just a poem, I suppose; I don't like it.
...
Yarbro seems quite fond of opera, but how does she expect her readers to have any knowledge or appreciation for it? "It was not a question"—she makes extensive use of this statement or variations of it (E.g., "He said, more than asked.") after a given character's statement, which is unnecessary and annoying.
...
"Everything that Begins with an "M" "
5/10
...
"Frog Pond"
5/10
I don't understand what "Stan" was up to, where he came from, or anything.
...
"Un Bel Di"
5/10
I did like the anatomy of the extraterrestrials. The story is loosely based on some opera, apparently.
...
"Lammas Night"
5/10
...
"Into My Own"
5/10
...
"Disturb Not My Slumbering Fair"
5/10
I don't appreciate that Diedre is a "ghoul" for seemingly no reason. How or why did she become a "ghoul"? Also, in the "about" for this one, Yarbro calls her a "teeny-bopper" more than once, misusing the term.
...
"The Meaning of The Word"
5/10
...
"The Generalissimo's Butterfly"
5/10
...
"Allies"
4/10
This one made me angry. I noticed as I was reading that she deliberately (and rather awkwardly) withheld the gender of each character. It was distracting and took away from the story, which mainly consisted of their interactions with each other. Listen, I need to at least have a rough idea of who a character is and what their appearance is like; otherwise, they're just empty words on paper. Imagine watching a film where all the actors' faces (and bodies) are blurred beyond recognition and their voices distorted... Sound like fun to you? After making it through this torture, I learned in the "about" section that writing it this way was pretty much all the author cared about; her attitude was infuriating. If you refuse to offer a meaningful or entertaining story, then don't waste my time.
...
"Dead in Irons"
5/10
...
"Swan Song"
4/10
...
"The Fellini Beggar"
4/10
...
"An Indulgence"
4/10
Just a poem, I suppose; I don't like it.
...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews