Some time ago a fellow blogger mentioned the FANTASY HIVE site, a place for all things related to speculative fiction in its many forms: news about upcoming books, movies and tv shows, interviews with authors, and so on. Amid such bounty, it stood to reason that some short stories would find their place for our enjoyment, and the very first of these stories to be published on Fantasy Hive was Neither Fruit Nor Flesh, by R.J. Barker, author of the highly acclaimed Age of Assassins, one of the best debut novels of 2017.
Unexpectedly, it was not a fantasy-themed story – which shows how wrong we are when we believe an author could possess only one kind of ‘voice’ in their narrative set of skills: Neither Fruit Nor Flesh starts as a mainstream tale, and then step by step it slides seamlessly into horror. The unnamed main character, a young woman slightly obsessed with her appearance and even more with cleanliness and healthy living, has an accident while she’s out running: her head turns at a sudden noise, she collides with some hedge plant on her path and a thorn pierces her face near one eye.
According to the doctors who treat her, there was no damage and once the eyepatch covering the injury will come off, she will be as good as new, but she starts to obsess about the extraneous material – the filthy material – covering the thorn that might have entered her body, contaminating its carefully maintained health. What starts at this point seems to be a journey into hell fueled by a hygiene-fixated frame of mind, one that colors the young woman’s awareness so much that it ends up affecting her perceptions of herself and the world she lives in.
That is, until the story takes a very, very unexpected turn, one that ends in a scene that is as startling as it is horrifying, despite the equally weird build-up until that moment. Horrifying and very well done.
My thanks to Fantasy Hive for this welcome gift, that I’m sure will be only the first of many.
My Rating: 
Space and Sorcery 
Currently listening to the Age of Assassins audio book. Would be nice to try a different genre by the same author.
I do keep meaning to do more Short Read Sunday posts … things like this would be perfect.
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Sites like Lightspeed Magazine and Clarkesworld should prove veritable mines of wonderful stories: I hope you find many such treasures 🙂
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I’ve been intrigued by Age of Assassins but intimidated by its length (and the fact that it’s pretty far outside my wheelhouse). A short story seems like a very good way to test the waters of R.J. Barker before diving into a full-length novel!
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This story is completely different from Age of Assassins, so I’m not sure it would be a good samples of Barker’s fantasy work. What I can tell you is that you will not be bothered by the novel’s length, because the story is so immersive you will find yourself at the end in no time at all 🙂
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Yes! A short story that I’ve actually read (over on the Hive). It’s definitely a bit horrifying isn’t it.
Lynn 😀
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The ending was as unexpected as it was scary… But a good kind of scary at that! 😀
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Glad you enjoyed it! I love horror stories 🙂
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And I did not see the horror coming until it was there, in plain sight: I love it when an author ambushes me that way… 😀
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When I saw the name RJ Barker, I immediately thought, HECK YES I need to check this one out! How awesome too that it’s a horror story instead of fantasy. Now this I really gotta see…also, speaking of Barker, I just started Blood of Assassins today, woohoo!
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Oh great! I can’t wait to hear what you think about it: it’s even better than its predecessor… 😉
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I just finished it and had to come back and tell you because wow, it was AMAZING. Absolutely correct that it was better than the first one. I was practically in tears at the end, OMG!
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OMG indeed… 😀
And if the trend keeps up (and I have no doubt it will!) we are in for a spectacular conclusion of the trilogy. I can hardly wait….
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Another promising find to read – thanks! 🙂
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You’re more than welcome! Happy reading 🙂
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I’m glad you loved RJ’s story as much as we did at the Hive! I had the pleasure of hearing him read it out loud, too, and can confirm that the man is indeed a genius.
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What an amazing experience that must have been! I’m quite envious…. 🙂
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I have heard all sorts of good things about this author – many thanks for a really readable, interesting review on this short story:).
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Thank you for stopping by! 🙂
And I’m glad if I’ve raised your curiosity for this author by a few more notches: he’s an amazing writer, indeed.
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I’ve put him on the list… which never seems to shrink!
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Book lists are only doomed to get longer, and longer, and longer… 😀
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I keep waiting to meet mine as it loops around the universe and doubles back on itself…
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😀 😀 😀 😀
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