The Power of 3 by Anna Tambour (ParSec #1, Autumn 2021) starts off with an alternative take on the Three Little Pigs story that ends (spoiler) with the pig beating the wolf to death. The other two fairy tales are also different versions: the second is a long and rambling Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where Goldilocks is a ferret, and we get far, far too much family backstory about the bears; the third is an overlong and overwritten Aladdin story.
I initially thought this one must have come from the slush pile but apparently the writer is a World Fantasy Award finalist. You would never guess from the likes of this incontinent blather:
Mid, uh, Mama Bear knew more than she let on. She knew what he was doing, but sometimes this life was all too much for her who was now just a low-class sneaky nomad, by, she reminded herself, compassionate choice.
For after all, what did she need him for? Or any him? She’d always been as independent as her mother, and her mother’s mother, and all mama bears from the first to, as proper time would have it, eternity.
But she was a soft touch, and when he came a-begging with no malice in his eyes about her cub, she let him graze beside her in the blueberry patch.
And by the time she heard bushes rustle behind, and saw him chuffing the cub along in protective panic, it was almost too late.
When he told her his story in her all too easily found den, it was too late. Her compassion, that thing more useless to a mama bear than plastic wrap for freshness—that extraneous to needs and able to damage you if you don’t throw it away thing—that thing compassion had snuck into her heart and lodged there. p. 47
Oh dear. The indignity of being rummaged (and the pathetic, hopefilled thrill). Lifted up high, my spout scoops air laden with fragrances—oatmeal soap, some supermarket shampoo; ohh er! a whiff of Terre d’Hermès perfume for men but always in a place like this, worn by a woman who wants to be seen as casually rich and certainly independent; its price is not just for the name but the story that it’s been created by a ‘great nose’. But trust me. My nose says—and do I have a nose!—it’s a mix of citronella candle and spray-on insect repellent with added pepper for irritation. The smell physically hurts my nostrils, tingles on my skin, and if I had a dog it would make my dog sneeze and run from me. And I’m quite convinced it would ward off swarms of bugs. No one should wear this, especially if you love dogs. p. 48
Less is more.
– (Awful). 4,600 words. ParSec website.