Thursday, January 15, 2009

Kij Johnson's "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" (short story, fantasy, free): Description of a magical trick

It made very easy read, but what the heck is the point of the story? But it's included in a "best of 2008" anthology & is on this year's Nebula preliminary ballet - so take your call.

Story summary.

Aimee owns a bunch of monkeys who can perform a vanishing trick on stage in fairs - they enter an ordinary tub, & vanish in front of audience. After some hours, they return to Aimee's tour bus, sometimes bringing in trinkets from apparently far away places. No one, not even Aimee, has a clue to what happens. That's the whole story.

Collected in.

  1. Jonathan Strahan (Ed)'s "Best SF and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 3" (2009).

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, July 2008.
Rating: B.
Download full text from author's or publisher's website.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2009 in short story category.
Nominated for Nebula Award 2008 in short story category.
Related: Stories of Kij Johnson.

2 comments:

John D. said...

Re-read sections 14 & 15. And take out the word "might".

Tinkoo said...

Thanks John.

So it's about personal grief & the resulting pessimism in protagonist's outlook. With vanishing monkeys used in a symbolic way.