Title: Last Rites
Author: Louise Cooper
In: The Mammoth Book of Dark Magic (Mike Ashley)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Death, Fantasy, Magic
Dates read: 30th April 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 1994
5th sentence, 74th page: Again the warning gesture, but now the sly humour was back.
They’re in a world surrounded by chaos. And their leader is about to pass on… who will perform the last rites?
This was a seriously tripped out story. I did enjoy it. But I can’t really remember much of what happened… I suppose many of the more trippy stories that I read are like that though. They have this ethereal quality that makes you feel like you’ve forgotten what you’ve read… even though you only just turned the last page. And it’s kind of suited that a story about chaos does this so well…
I think that this is one short story that I’m going to want to read again and again. It is intriguing and was most certainly enjoyable. But I felt like I was constantly missing things as I went through the story. There were so many symbolic moments interwoven throughout the story and tales of chaos. Moments that may have a little more clarity to them after I read through this story a second time.
Definitely an enjoyable short story. One that I look forward to reading again in the future. It is the kind of story that will intrigue and enthral. The world of chaos and the questions it raises at the end… well, it was really quite intense.
Earth and Skye 
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