Tag: Fireside Magazine

The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington – Phenderson Djéli Clark

Fireside Magazine Issue 52, February 2018

Spoilers Ahead!

The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington is a 2019 Hugo Awards finalist in the Best Short Story category.

“By Cash pd Negroes for 9 Teeth on Acct of Dr. Lemoire”

– Lund Washington, Mount Vernon plantation, Account Book dated 1784.

George Washington, slavery and magic collide in this alternate history. While I will never understand the mentality that makes people think slavery is ever an option I enjoyed reading about the strength and character of the nine slaves included in this story. I particularly loved anticipating the impact each particular tooth would have on George.

For the blacksmith understood what masters had chosen to forget: when you make a man or woman a slave you enslave yourself in turn.

You can read this short story online here. I’ll definitely be rereading this story.

Rating: 5 out of 5.
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STET – Sarah Gailey

Fireside Magazine Issue 60, October 2018

STET is a 2019 Hugo Awards finalist in the Best Short Story category.

This story is told in an unusual and interesting way. It’s a scientific paper with annotations. For me the story came alive more in the annotations, although the footnotes provide sufficient information for you to learn the story behind the story. I tend to gloss over whenever I encounter copious footnotes in any text so that influenced my reading experience here.

I had to force myself to get to the guts of the actual story. I felt the pain and anger in this piece but overall it didn’t work for me. I see journal articles and I automatically think of dry, wordy documents I drudged through to find information for university assignments, so I don’t think this format was ever going to be a winner for me.

You can read this short story online here. I found this version didn’t flow as well for me as the PDF version with handwritten notes, even though they contain the same text.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
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