{"id":2375,"date":"2022-01-13T16:05:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T16:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=2375"},"modified":"2022-08-10T15:39:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T15:39:31","slug":"eyes-of-the-forest-by-ray-nayler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=2375","title":{"rendered":"Eyes of the Forest by Ray Nayler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eyes of the Forest<\/em><\/strong> by Ray Nayler (F&SF<\/em>, May-June 2020) opens on a colony planet that has a distinct Deathworld<\/em> vibe1<\/sup> (i.e. it is inimical to human life), and sees Mauled by Mistake treating the wounds of her apprentice Sedef, who has just been attacked by a lashvine. However, once Mauled is finished applying the nanobot medical patches, Mauled tells Sedef that (a) she herself has also been badly wounded in the attack, (b) they are out of medical supplies, and (c) Sedef will have to go back to the depot and get more.
The rest of the story sees the inexperienced Sedef make her way to the depot before returning to treat Mauled. During her journey we see that the human settlers have colonised an exotic and brightly illuminated world where anything that isn\u2019t brightly lit is food. Consequently, humans have to wear lightsuits to protect themselves on the surface. As Sedef makes her way to the depot we also learn something about the colony\u2019s history, that most humans retreated underground after arrival, and now only wayfinders like Mauled and Sedef go out on the surface.<\/span> Light relief is provided by flashback passages which limn the pair\u2019s mentor\/student relationship:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to be at the depot before dark [said Mauled]. Changeover is the most dangerous time to be out. As the forest modulates its glow for sundark, any slight suit anomaly is particularly visible.\u201d
\u201cWe learned that. And there are animals, [our tutor] Beyazit said, that specialize in hunting during changeover. Some of which no one has ever seen. Predators we haven\u2019t even\u2014\u201d
\u201cPredators?\u201d Mauled by Mistake gave out an incredulous bark, followed by a stream of intricate profanity. Sedef had heard that the wayfinders had a whole second language of profanity so inventive it was almost unintelligible to others. She couldn\u2019t understand all of this expression\u2014something about Beyazit\u2019s father being born in a quiver of nightwing penises? Could that be right?  p. 68<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The subject of predators comes up again when the pair meet another wayfinder in a shelter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeyazit is telling the prospects to beware of predators,\u201d Mauled by Mistake said in the young man\u2019s direction.
\u201cBeyazit should start each day by eating a bowl of his own entrails,\u201d the young man said without looking up. \u201cHe almost got me killed once.\u201d
\u201cWho of us has he not almost gotten killed?\u201d
Later, over a cold dinner of nutrient broth and noodles Sedef had made and packeted herself, Mauled by Mistake said, \u201cThe first thing to understand is that there are no predators in the forest. This old word does not fit. Only the ignorant use it.\u201d
\u201cBut death is always waiting,\u201d Sedef protested. \u201cThe forest is filled with teeth.\u201d
\u201cYes,\u201d Mauled by Mistake said. \u201cYou know your recitations well. The forest is filled with teeth. Death is waiting. Always. And so on. But there are no predators. There are only scavengers. When they attack you, and they will\u2014and when they kill you someday, which they likely will\u2014it will be by accident.\u201d
\u201cBut the suit lights are a defense against attack. They indicate we are dangerous.\u201d
The young man released a stream of profanity involving something about Beyazit attempting to whistle through a mouthful of various parts of his relatives\u2019 anatomy. \u201cThe suits don\u2019t indicate we are dangerous: They simply indicate we are alive.\u201d  pp. 69-70<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Mauled is supposed to be a woman, but it is hard to visualise this character as anything other than a grumpy, mansplaining, 50-year-old bloke.2<\/sup>)
The story (spoiler) comes to an exciting climax when Sedef realises that she won\u2019t get back to where Mauled is before Changeover, when there is a chance that the arrival of sundark and its accompanying EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) may knock out her suit lights . . . . This subsequently happens, and then a \u201cpuma\u201d appears: Sedef\u2019s solution to this terminal problem is ingenious, and provides the story with a neat pay-off line.
This is a hugely appealing story, particularly so for those attracted to old-school SF.
**** (Very Good). 5,650 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Deathworld<\/em> by Harry Harrison (Astounding Science Fiction<\/em>, January-March 1960).

2. Mauled can\u2019t be a man because, of course, that would turn Mauled and Sedef\u2019s relationship a dreadfully patriarchal one. <\/span>And if you have both Mauled and Sedef as men there will be no women left in the story. The horror!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eyes of the Forest by Ray Nayler (F&SF, May-June 2020) opens on a colony planet that has a distinct Deathworld vibe1 (i.e. it is inimical to human life), and sees Mauled by Mistake treating the wounds of her apprentice Sedef, who has just been attacked by a lashvine. However, once Mauled is finished applying the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[296,101,633,25,634,148,12],"class_list":["post-2375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ray-nayler","tag-296","tag-101","tag-deathworlds","tag-fsf","tag-master-apprentice","tag-ray-nayler","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2375"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5265,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2375\/revisions\/5265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}