Butcher starts off this short story by pointing out that this was one of the first short stories he’d ever written, and as such, it wasn’t his best work. But here, I must disagree. Or at least, not quite agree. I loved this fantastic short story, and I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction to Harry Dresden’s apprenticeship days.
I just don’t know what I think about this short story. I liked the tone, I liked the way in which it was written, but I wasn’t really sure whether or not it was even a story until I got to the afterword. I just don’t know enough about the history of World War II or even the Allied Nations to actually pull apart this fictional historical biography.
I love new spins on old stories. After all, there is something about faery tales that brings us back again and again and again. And An Unwelcome Guest is a brilliant way to reimagine Rapunzel. Nix’s spin on such a classic left me outright laughing and grinning. It was cute, funny and not at all what I was expecting.
It was a little difficult to get into the flow of this short story. Not so much because of the style of writing, or even the militant background, but just because in the creation of these short stories, it was quite a change of pace. A strange demon like creature walks out of the middle of nowhere and heads off towards a nuclear testing site. Not sure what couldn’t go wrong there really.
This short story kind of reminds me of Firefly – cowboys and spaceships.
No matter how many times I read this book, I am caught anew by the beauty of Austen’s words and the excellent story that is shaped by them. There’s a reason that this is such a well-known classic. Regardless of the quote, there are so many moments in this story that people immediately know, whether they’ve read it or not.
I started this story loving the old man. I felt sympathy for this seemingly innocent creature standing alone in his garden, pruning the roses. Genuine concern when he was being interrogated by the unknown woman. But, as the story unfolded, I quickly switched my alliances.
