Short story collection. Klages’ narrators are often (but not always) children, and she is absolutely aces at a child’s narrative voice: authoritative, secretive, with an eye for details often missed by adults; The Education of a Witch is a prime example. The stories don’t always have fantastical elements, but they often feel as if they could, even the ones firmly grounded in fact. I loved Mrs Zeno’s Paradox, which clearly grew from watching someone help themselves to just half of whatever piece of food is left, as well as Amicae Aeternum, in which two girls find a way for their friendship to survive separation and reach into eternity.
Tag: author-ellen klages
Someone in Time: Tales of Time Crossed Romance, ed. Jonathan Strahan
Short story collection, all about time traveling and falling in love. Some authors took the assignment literally (Theodora Goss’s A Letter to Merlin, in which time-traveling agents, sent to influence the behavior of historical figures, try to communicate with one another); others take a more roundabout route (Zen Cho’s The Past Life Reconstruction Service, in which people get to relive their past lives in search of answers for their present lives). Other standouts were Sam J. Miller’s Unabashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the Chronoverse, a poignant and unforgettable wail of pain; and Time Gypsy by Ellen Klages, which creates one of those beautiful perfect cause-and-effect time-travel loops while also pulling in themes of feminism, gay rights, and found family. Really great collection overall.