Earlier this year, one Hilary Goldstein (Editor and Chief at IGN) had a short story published in the May/June issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. I had the opportunity to get a copy to review this story and it was a delightful read.
When I flipped through the pages of this issue and begin reading, I was brought into this world and instantly the mind churns and cranks out the vivid imagery described in the first few paragraphs. It does not take long before you cringe at the image of Snow slicing her own palm as she falls and wondering what will happen after the darkness falls upon her.
This story takes us to a world with Seven Dwarves and a girl named Snow, that we all might be familiar with, but don't read too far into that familiarity as it will be turned on its head soon enough. This story tells of how Snow was banished from her kingdom for her beauty and after falling to darkness awakens to find herself in a house with seven dwarves. After all that the story takes a unique twist in that we find out these dwarves are not what we remember. Our mental image of the Disney movie from long ago is pushed aside once Quinn opens his mouth and suggests Snow share his bed with him, "I will allow you to sleep on top of me." he suggests.
Not too far into the story we find that the dwarves are tasked with a important role as each one takes charge over a chest containing a demon that represents "it's own infectious brand of immoral indulgence." As the pages turn you start to see some mild characteristics of each sin in each dwarf. Quickly the story sees its twist now that Snow has showed up to muddle the routine of the dwarves.
This particular short story paints an interesting image in my head as I read it. Often times I feel its whimsical nature and other times I feel uncomfortable and unready for what the next page will have and I believe that Mr. Goldstein has done a great job giving a different take on a story we are familiar with.
The characters are all given unique personalities that, like I mentioned, have a bit of small characteristic or two of each demon they take charge over. Unus stands tall as being a leader, but we quickly see he is taking a lot of strong decisions into his own undeserving hands at times. September is the closest friend Snow has in the story and he plays along with our curiosity as we read through.
The only thing I wish from this story is more of it. I feel that it does a great job of giving us a different narrative on a story we know, but I feel it has the potential to be fleshed out into a full story. The sequences before Snow appears and even her stay with the dwarves feel like he could keep going and tell more if he wanted to. I also wanted more back story or just time in general with each dwarf and descriptions leading us to their sin that they protect. After reading it I feel we only get a lot of time with September and Unus, but as a reader I want more.
After all is said and done, I enjoyed this short story a lot. Its imagery paints a nice picture and the narrative and dialog keep the story at a solid pace. I recommend anyone that loves the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to read this short story and revel in someone else's shake-up of the story.
-Scott
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