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February 18, 2010
The Language Of The Whirlwind by Lavie Tidhar
The February 2010 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine contains a story by Lavie Tidhar entitled The Language Of The Whirlwind.
Beyond the images I was hooked into wanting answers, ah a newbie mistake, because there aren't any answers, no reasons for why. It just is. So we follow the priest and the boy and we watch what happens and wonder. My initial reaction was slight disappointment, because I wanted more, but thinking about it, I think the ending is perfect.
It's set in Tel Aviv, after a catastrophe, a mountain has risen up in the city, everything has descended to post-apocalyptic-ness. There's some lovely writing, with great images and descriptions. I particularly loved the quick incisive summation of before compared to after:
He used to like Louis Armstrong music, pizza with olives, fresh cold water from the fridge, cartoons on Saturday morning TV. Now his thoughts were fire and his nights were waiting...
In many ways it's standard apocalypse, a broken city, some broken people. But the flavours added to it is enough to make it feel different. That's what Lavie does well that I like, sprinklings of foreign (to me) spice.