Pseudopod 012: Skinwalker: Deception

[Bdoomed]

Pseudopod 012: Skinwalker: Deception

By M. B. Nelson
Read by Mur Lafferty

Delores took a long swallow of tea. It scalded her throat, but she didn’t care. Pain was her friend now, and physical pain at least gave her the feeling she was alive, that she still continued. The cicadas hummed, the sheep bleated to be out of their pens, the dogs barked, the world went on whirling, and Monty was dead. It didn’t seem possible that this day would arrive, and now that it had she felt — what?



Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[Unblinking]

I didn't care for this one.  The lycanthropy just seemed added on at the last minute.

[yicheng]

They're not cursed werewolves of european lore.  They're navajo skinwalkers.  Think more dark shamanism, and not Underworld 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker

[Unblinking]

They're not cursed werewolves of european lore.  They're navajo skinwalkers.  Think more dark shamanism, and not Underworld 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker

Six of one, half dozen of the other, as far as I'm concerned.  Though they had different cultural origins, they pretty much boil down to the same concepts.  I've read many stories where skinwalkers and werewolves are used interchangeably, and this story's no exception.

And in the end, it still felt tacked-on regardless of what it's labeled as. 

[Scattercat]

Yeah, I didn't care for the Surprise!Werewolf at the end.  It felt like a deus ex machina.  (lycanthope ex deciduum?)

[Millenium_King]

I didn't much care for this one.  Perhaps it suffered because I had already listened to the fantastic "Love like Thunder" and "Reservation Monsters" both of which play with similar themes of Native American magic and monsters.  I felt the "lore" of this one was sloppy and abrupt.  In "Love like Thunder" I had a real clear picture of how the magic worked and just what to expect - this one came out of left field.  Likewise, I am pretty sure that had I not already been familiar with the concept of skinwalkers, I might have found this one even more jarring and abrupt.

Finally, I didn't even feel that the concept was original.  Having the policeman doing the investigation turn out to be the killer is a very, very old hat.