The Bones of Giants: 10/17/09

Today's story from Fantasy & Science Fiction is "The Bones of Giants" by Yoon Ha Lee. Her visual writing style always takes me a few pages to fall in step with her story.

Lee's stories seem to be ones filled with extremes. In The Bones of Giants there is an abundance of death to the point that necromancy has become a means of adding bodies to the work force. Ghouls are used as servants. Ghoul steads take the places of long dead horses. There is so much death that there seems to be little reason for the main character to live.

His suicide though is prevented by a mysterious woman who offers him a job. She also offers him an education, teaching him reading, writing, math, the arts and of course, ultimately necromancy. He has all these skills already but they are primative. In their time together he learns the reason behind her advanced skills and her specific interest in him.

If they work together they might be able to put a stop to this over abundance of the living dead and make room for life itself.

While reading "The Bones of Giants" I was most reminded of Poe and Lovecraft. There's a tiny bit of Pratchett and Gaiman in there too.

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