“Playing With Spades,” Mari Ness (2009) E

Date read: 8.6.09
Read in: Fantasy Magazine
Reviewer: Emera

Understated, confidently written, and pretty elegant, “Playing With Spades” is a short story with an enjoyably weird premise: the nameless, card-playing protagonist can never find a Queen of Spades in any deck she touches. Author Mari Ness teases the reader with the expectation of a big reveal, but never provides one, spinning out the story in a series of drifting vignettes of discontent and disconnection, sans neat resolution. I was a little peeved at the excessive and distracting name-dropping of modern-day conveniences (Wikipedia, Starbucks, et al.), but overall found the story enjoyable, if not terribly memorable.

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Mari Ness
Fantasy Magazine interview with Mari Ness