★★★☆☆ How Much Harm, by Seanan McGuire
All dressed up, maybe we'll do something tomorrow
How Much Harm
Seanan McGuire
All dressed up, maybe we’ll do something tomorrow
How Much Harm is Seanan McGuire's January 2023 Patreon reward. Here's how she introduces it:
This month's story attempts to answer the question "if you were Death for a day, how much harm could you do?". It's also about temp work and administrative assistants, because why not.
Something soft and standalone to start the new year.
I have mixed feelings about this one, but disappointment has to be the strongest. I had just finished "Come, Lady Death" by Peter Beagle, which has a similar premise. Unfortunately, both stories share the characteristic of ending just when it looks like things are going to become interesting. The first-person narrator of How Much Harm (if she ever gives a name, I missed it), is an accomplished and much in demand temp worker, secretary, administrative assistant (she uses both descriptions). She develops a portfolio in work for abstractions of ideas -- the Easter Bunny, the Sandman, etc. Her ultimate engagement in this story is with Death.
So, that was pretty well done. I enjoyed the way McGuire set the story. What I didn't enjoy was her failure to take it anywhere. Now, I strongly suspect McGuire would disagree with my assessment. I suspect she'd say that her failure to take the story anywhere is where she wanted to take it.
Fair enough. OK, it's creative, and it makes sense on its own terms. But I wanted something to happen.