England under the White Witch
Our second piece of audio fiction for October is "England under the White Witch" written by Theodora Goss and read by Kate Baker.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Theodora Goss's publications include the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting (2006); Interfictions (2007), a short story anthology coedited with Delia Sherman; Voices from Fairyland (2008), a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems; and The Thorn and the Blossom (2012), a novella in a two-sided accordion format. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, Locus, and Mythopoeic Awards, and on the Tiptree Award Honor List. She has won the World Fantasy and Rhysling Awards.
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ISSN 1937-7843 Clarkesworld Magazine © 2006-2021 Wyrm Publishing. Robot illustration by Serj Iulian.
Jessica Broughton wrote on October 15th, 2012 at 11:40 am:
Beautiful story and beautifully told.
I love how Goss takes the idea of "What if The White Witch won?" and explores what it means to live not only under a dictatorship but in a place where it is always winter and never Christmas.
Bravo!
Languorous Lass wrote on March 22nd, 2017 at 10:21 am:
Overall, I loved this story. Unlike Kate, it didn't make me think of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe -- I thought about The Snow Queen. The references to Naziism (sp?) and other totalitarian regimes were excellent. And Anne was a compelling character. So was her mother – I admire the way Theodora made me care about her in just a few paragraphs. Wish she had reappeared in more detail later in the story.
Two quibbles: to me, Anne's lecture at the end was a bit too long and on-the-nose. It would have worked better for me if it was shorter. The rest of the story had already made the same point in a much more subtle way.
Also, using the name "Jack Kirby" may have been Theodora's way of paying tribute to the great comics artist, but hearing it jolted me right out of the world of the story.
As I said at the beginning, though, I loved this story overall. I'll definitely be checking out more of Theodora's work.