Clarkesworld #12, September 2007

“The Ape’s Wife” by Caitlin R. Kiernan tells of Ann Darrow, the woman captured by King Kong in the movie, (or so I assume, not having seen the film). Here, Darrow seems trapped between realities, playing out different versions of her life. In one, she is on the island, and Kong has gone off to fight while she waits for his return. In another, she is homeless in the city. I was quite intrigued as to where this would lead, and there is a kind of closure, but the story is a very long one—nearly nine thousand words—and a lot is told in memory and interior monologue. The pace dragged, and I must admit I lost interest before the end.

M P Ericson’s “Lost Soul” tells of a man, Rajiv, whose wife has passed on, and the mysterious village necromancer who offers to resurrect her—for a limited time, for a price. Rajiv’s plight, the loss of his wife and his poverty, make him initially sympathetic, but this is undone by the way he treats his daughters. Rajiv is successful in resurrecting his wife, but he disobeys the necromancer’s instructions and encounters a version of her he had not expected, a version perhaps uncomfortably close to the truth. This is a nice development, both in terms of Rajiv and his former wife, and it’s a nicely paced story with a thoughtful point about how we force others into deceiving us. Worth checking out.