[On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]

Strange Horizons, May 16, 2022

“Sestu Hunts the Last Deer in Heaven” by M. H. Cheung

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

“Sestu Hunts the Last Deer in Heaven” by M. H. Cheung takes place in a fantasy world after the gods have been destroyed. The godless world is now populated by women without wombs, who bear children, made out of clay, from external pouches. However, unless a sacred deer is killed to supply the newborn infant with a soul, it will be a lifeless thing. The plot follows a hunter, accompanied by a woman about to give birth in this bizarre way, as she tracks down the sole remaining deer.

As my brief and incomplete synopsis shows, this is a strange and highly original story. The author creates an exotic mood through the use of unusual themes such as those noted above. (For instance, the women are immortal and no longer sleep, because they have eaten the peaches of the gods.)

The style is a mixture of formal and informal. Although there are sections that read like poetry, there are others that sound like dialect. The word and, for example, always appears as an’, even in the midst of otherwise very elevated narrative. This peculiar combination of literary writing and ungrammatical language is often awkward, and seems affected.

Victoria Silverwolf likes the illustration that accompanies this story.