Puss Reboots: Blog: December 2007: Fragrant Goddess

Recent posts

Reviews:
Among the Impostors by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Berenstain Bears Accept No Substitutes by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Better Than Running at Night by Hillary Frank
Bleach 5 by Tite Kubo
Bleach 6 by Tite Kubo
Bleach 7 by Tite Kubo
The Bone Man by Frederic S. Durbin
Buy Jupiter by Isaac Asimov
Castro Valley by Devon Weston, Robert Phelps, Lucille Lorge
Cats Are Not Peas by Laura Gould
Chain Letter 2: The Ancient Evil by Christopher Pike
Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
Don't Ask by M. Rickert
Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley
Finisterra by David Moles
Fragrant Goddess by Paul Park
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Happy Halloween Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
How Big is Your God? by Paul Coutinho
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Jingo by Terry Pratchett
Letters from Iceland by W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice
Miss Bianca in the Orient by Margery Sharp
N is for Noose by Sue Grafton
O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton
Olivia by Ian Falconer
Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer
Osama Phone Home by David Marusek
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Return of the Indian by Lynn Reid Banks
Sleep No More by Greg Iles
Stray by Benjamin Rosenbaum and David Ackert
Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr
The Turret by Margery Sharp
The Twilight Year by Sean McMullen
Two Weeks After by M. Ramsey Chapman
Unpossible by Daryl Gregory
Urdumheim by Michael Swanwick
Who Brought Tulips to the Moon? by S.L. Gilbow

Miscellaneous:
Betrayed by Elmo
BTC Database Complete
The Last Few Days
Neighbor Cats

Previous month

"Fragrant Goddess": 12/06/07

The seventh story in October/ November issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction is yet another ghost story. The editors call it "an interesting counterpoint to Albert Crowley's tale."

The story starts as a reunion between old lovers. They are older and the narrator is a little beat up with the passage of time. He's wondering if his ex will still be interested in him even though she his married and with a school aged daughter.

During their reunion she mentions finding the recipe for a legendary elixir called "Fragrant Goddess." From there the story spirals back in time to explain the importance of this great find and frankly I started to lose interest.

Eighteen pages just aren't enough time to build as complex a story as Paul Park is attempting here. The story spirals further off center and ends up with a similarly ambiguous ending as "Recreation Room." Except without the prophesies of Madame Lock, the ending here is less fulfilling.