Author Topic: Pseudopod 516: The Fox  (Read 2854 times)

Bdoomed

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on: November 12, 2016, 04:30:07 PM
Pseudopod 516: The Fox

by Conrad Williams.

“The Fox” was first published March 1st 2013 as a chapbook by This Is Horror and reprinted in THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR: VOLUME SIX.

In 2007 CONRAD WILLIAMS won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel for The Unblemished. In 2008 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella for The Scalding Rooms. In 2010 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for One.

Your narrator – Kaushik Narasimhan – is management consultant by day and struggling writer and general dilettante by night. He tweets at @Kazarelth and his writing can be found at Kaushik’s Blog.



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“Megan was trying to push past her mother and now I was able to breathe more easily. Kit was just trying to shield Lucy from what was inside the coop. Or rather, what wasn’t. The chicken-wire had been torn open. All four chickens were gone. No feathers, no signs of a fight whatsoever. Just one spot of blood on the ramp leading into what Megan had been referring to as the ‘chook-chook’s bunga-oh’.”




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Unblinking

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Reply #1 on: November 17, 2016, 02:38:11 PM
Hmmm...  A lot of evocative moments in this one, with the hard to explain details like the multiple chickens missing along with the multiple children missing which doesn't line up well with the wildlife in the area.  Some kind of werefox maybe?

Overall though, this story didn't come together for me.  I was searching for the connection between elements, like his own childhood memory, and in the end I'm not entirely sure how it was all supposed to tie together.





Ichneumon

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Reply #2 on: November 18, 2016, 10:15:42 PM
I agree. I wasn't sure at first if it was the narration or the story. Some parts were very creepy, but it was more that I was anticipating something to happen. The finale in the tent ended up feeling abrupt and unsatisfying.



dagny

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Reply #3 on: November 23, 2016, 04:52:57 AM
I actually really loved this one. The narration was fantastic. I agree it was a bit ambiguous, but I still liked it.

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JoeFitz

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Reply #4 on: February 07, 2017, 09:40:27 PM
I enjoyed the narration and tone of this episode. There was something very evocative of the echoes between the two strands of this piece.