The Lay of Lilyfinger

by G.V. Anderson

A fantasy adventure story from G.V. Anderson "The Lay of Lilyfinger" is a Tor.com Original

An acclaimed musician and her apprentice travel to the newly freed country of Skinnere to play a complex and culturally fraught song that will lay bare the wounds of empire, occupation, and sacrifice of its players and listeners.

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

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Magic, Music

35 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2021

About the author

G. V. Anderson’s short stories have won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, and been nominated for a Nebula.

Her work has been translated into several languages, and can be found in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed and Tor.com, as well as over a dozen anthologies such as The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror.

She lives in Dorset, UK.

Reviews

[Zala · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful short story about a musician and her apprentice; it weaves the worldbuilding into the story so seamlessly while also developing the voices of the characters, in as little as 30+ pages.

“Inside lay robes of Yamzemayan velvet. She reached in to stroke the pale, stippled nap. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
Pom blinked, unsure what to say. Traditionally, such velvet was Yamzemayan skin harvested after death. When Damese looms made faux velvet possible by weaving cloth out of nap fibres, shavings of unusual length or colour became highly sought after. Pom’s mother had shaved herself raw to buy food for her children. So what kind of velvet was this? Someone’s skin, or the woven nap of a hundred hungry mothers? Either way, it was wrong to call it beautiful.”

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

She reached over her shoulder gingerly. They’d grown a little with her shedding, her wing stubs, but they would never regenerate, not fully. Not as well as some lizards regrew their tails. They would protrude just enough to invite disgust, to upset the cut of her clothes, to catch in doorways. She would have to ligate them—tie them off with cord to cut off the blood supply—before the bone formed. Painful, yet necessary.

my objective self appreciates the author's inventiveness and craft, my subjective self says "meh."

i read her other free tor short (Hearts in the Hard Ground) last year, and found it lovely and sad PLUS it scored some bonus points for cat and zombie bird content.

this story, while longer and much more ambitious in scope, was not my particular cuppa—or it wasn't my particular cuppa at the time of my reading—as we all know, the reader's mood carries as much weight as the writer's skills when it comes to what we get out of a story. and i'll be honest, this one didn't linger in my readerheart. it's certainly well-written, and she manages to cram a lot of detail and worldbuilding into a relatively short story (although fairly long by tor-short-standards), but it's a wrong story/wrong reader situation, and i'm swiping...whichever way one swipes to release the story into the wild to find its better-matched reader.



read it for yourself here:

https://www.tor.com/2021/05/05/the-la...

come to my blog!!

[Prabhjot Kaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

But music, like the people making it, could not be controlled.

Saaba-niszak, a gifted musician along with her apprentice, Pom is travelling to Skinnere to play the Lay of Lilyfinger. The Lay is the traditional centrepiece of a Skinnish girl’s Staining ceremony and they were hoping to be hired. The girl’s mother, Aurig was reluctantly impressed with them although she was not happy with Pom's heritage but they get the gig.

As the story progresses, Saaba-niszak's story unfolds and it saddened my heart to learn her story.
Homesickness didn’t strike her often, but when it did, it hit hard.

We are told about Pom and his heritage and how the world has been cruel to him. I loved Pom from whatever little I got to know about him.
There was injustice everywhere, if one knew where to look. A price to pay for living in a messy world. The thought tired her.

It had broken her heart to lose her own language; it broke her heart that he’d never had his.

The part that moved me the most was when Saaba-niszak was in pain and she cursed in so many different languages except for her mother-tongue.
It was said that pain brought one’s mother tongue forward. To her dismay, nothing came to mind.

The writing is beautiful but I struggled with keeping up with different races/species. There was some explanation but it escapes me even when I am writing this review. There was a lot of information about music which makes sense as this story is about music and a musician and her apprentice bard but still the story could have been better. I did love this artful cover and that's what lured me to read this in the first place honestly.

3.75 stars

[Alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lay of Lilyfinger by G.V. Anderson - 3+/5★

A short story with strange and not so well defined creatures (a snake with wings, a furry mongrel, a conquering race of beasts, all speaking and having hands and fingers). Covered topics: coming of age, the pain of being ripped from one’s culture and not being able to return/reconnect; what one must give up or sacrifice to achieve one’s dreams.


The short story is found in Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2021 Edition and can also be read on Tor.com.

[Lizzie S · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lay of Lilyfinger is a lovely short story from tor.com about a musician and her young apprentice who have traveled to play at a coming of age ceremony for a merchant's daughter.

I am amazed by the richness of the world building G. V. Anderson accomplished in 32 pages and found the story to be beautiful and moving. A wonderful free read!

[Roslyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

There is complex world-building and excellent characterisation in this short story. I greatly enjoyed it and will be on the lookout for more by this author.

[Avery · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I understand everything in this short story, I feel as though I might need to reread it. I enjoyed reading about relationship between the apprentice and the teacher, the strick expectation of how one was taught and how one expects the same of their own student.

I do feel as though some extra information could have been left out, and others included more. I'm not sure I know what each person is supposed to look like - I'm a little confused what they actually are.

But other then that, I enjoyed this short story.

[Preet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent. I'm sitting here just having finished this story with tears in my eyes. It's moving and poignant, but also powerful and fierce. Bravo!

It's my first time reading something by G.V. Anderson, but what an introduction!

[Marita_z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice one, I would love to read a whole story.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo único que lamento, es que no haya sido más largo. Me encantó 💙

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a story about art, about a group of bards preparing a performance of culturally significant music at a coming of age ceremony. All the characters are competent, with no plot-induced stupidity to keep the story going. It’s possible to glean dramatic tension from a low-stakes story like this, but unfortunately it didn’t hold my attention. A short story should be hold enough tension to carry the reader through to the finish in one sitting, and it took me three attempts to finish this. While the background is interesting, I found the descriptions lacking. The group of bards has 4 different species, but I couldn’t tell you what they looked like beyond on being furry, and having scales, and they all have fingers. The vast house they are to perform in is by the sea, and the doors are large and slide, rather than swing, but I could tell you what the house looked like or even what it was made from. The instruments are either wind or string, but beyond that I couldn’t describe them. The prose just didn’t conjure the scenes in my mind.

[Erin Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I need to re-read this because I just haven't been in the right headspace. I read Hearts in the Hard Ground last year and it was an instant favourite. The Lay of Lilyfinger is a more ambitious project, while still being only a little longer - I actually feel like this project could have benefited from being given the space of a novella to breathe. I felt like at times the balance between giving the reader enough information about this rich world and not cramming too much in was kind of off.

I will definitely be revisiting this story with a clearer head, at some point. I would actually recommend this to fans of Friends at the Table (actual play podcast), not for any specific elements but it's very much the sort of ideas I could imagine them exploring.

[deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Lay if Lilyfinger" is such a gorgeously written and deeply-realized work, and it just sweeps the reader right into a fantastic world of music, heritage, storytelling, and the things that one is willing to give up in pursuit of something bigger. It's obvious that Anderson has so much of this world worked out and imagined; it is so SO easy to just step right into the story alongside the characters and follow them along. Anderson also has a vivid, strong prose that really suits the book - it's very descriptive without being superfluous (actually it's very fitting to the main character, Saaba-niszak, too). I saw on her website that Anderson is working on her first full-length novel and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

[Vy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For such a story, the world-building was quite effective, and the themes were quite well thought out. A questionnement on roots, and the disconnect some feels with their culture.

The story in itself was nice, the stakes were not really high enough to feel invested in their story, it felt like observing the events, not living them, maybe? The only point that really made me pause although was that I could not picture what any character looked like, the master is supposed to be a snake with wings, and hands maybe to play her instrument? As for the rest of the orchestra, it was even less clear.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggled to get into The Lay of Lilyfinger - I started and stopped it no less than five separate times before finally diving in properly and I'm quite glad I did. The amount of work in such a short story is absolutely formidable. The Lay of Lilyfinger has such a vivid image of its world and such clarity of theme (diaspora, homesickness, the culture we pass on through our language and our traditions and our very own blood and flesh). Beautiful work.

[Sevi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this short story of only 32 pages G.V. Anderson has crafted a fascinating, culturally rich fantasy world that I can only wish were explored in a work of larger volume. Safe to say this is one of the best Tor Shorts I have read in a while.

[a ☕︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

this relies too much on made-up fantasy words and leaves the descriptive prose seriously lacking. the result is that this is too muddled, weird, and colorless to follow. you almost have to rely on the cover for some guidance on what the author wants you to take from her writing. sija hong does her best, but failing marks for anderson.

[Tiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely would’ve loved this much more if it was a fully fledged out novel! The world-building was extraordinary! That said, its full potential greatly suffers from the short story form; a novel would’ve allowed it to expand further, blossom more and in turn, fully inform and enthral its audience with the idiosyncrasies of its world.

[Roland · Rating 2 out of 5]

It throws you in the deep right from the start, then it’s true that the big picture gradually clears out as you get familiar with the species, their distinct slang and other peculiarities, but the plot just could not grip me. It felt too much like a teaser or an epilogue for a full length novel.

[Michelle Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely and hopeful story about music and its links to culture and history - that of the victors and stolen from the oppressed. Also, dragon-people?

Free to read on tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2021/05/05/the-la...

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

An imaginative fantasy story about coming of age, music and generational baggage. It's a good way to explore the issues raised, but could have used a lot more world building to give a clear sense of the characters and setting.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normally not keen on short stories, but read this as part of an anthology and I was invested in the characters, enjoyed the writing style, and at the ending was simultaneously left satisfied but wanting more.

[Cath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did not expect this to break my heart

[Heaven Ashlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cover art is absolutely stunning.

[Hanneleele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one had many interesting moments of worldbuilding but not enough space to explore them.

[Vanellope · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty

[Pers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Constant Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf'ed

[Engel Dreizehn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good description + atmosphere on the musicians' and their world's culture + place all packed into a short but sweet story.

[Fatima · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantasy that doesn’t skim on power-archy or colonialism of it all.