Comments on: PC048: “I’ll Gnaw Your Bones,” the Manticore Said

By: PaulthePotter

PaulthePotter — Fri, 01 May 2009 01:33:44 +0000

Well.. I enjoyed the reading of it and the ending and all. I am suspicious of the message. I think I may not have gotten the message that the author wrote. If I did, I strongly disagree that as sentient beings, we have the right to alter other beings sentience simply because we are more evolved. I had nightmares from the whole “Ice pick in the brain thing”.
PTP

By: Zorknot

Zorknot — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:14:53 +0000

I think this was perfect as a short story. It started out with the question of whether certain creatures should be treated as animals or not, and it ended with a surprising answer to the question that leaves the reader asking his or her own questions.

Expanding this into a novel would be very difficult I think, unless you made the novel a series of vignettes or something. Or if you changed the conflict to something more grandiose and less cerebral.

I find the question the story asks intriguing, and I feel that if it was a subplot to a novel it would lessen it’s impact.

The ending with her hand in the manticore’s mouth is so touching and yet in the context of the story raises so many questions, I don’t really see how it could be improved. Awesome story.

By: Dave (aka Nev the Deranged)

Dave (aka Nev the Deranged) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:13:36 +0000

I liked the world this story is set in, and I feel like this wasn’t quite a big enough glimpse of it. It feels, as Sabre Runner said, like a chapter from the middle of a novel. If it were, I’d probably read the whole thing.

By: phignewton

phignewton — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:21:11 +0000

who hurt who?!

By: Sabre Runner

Sabre Runner — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:17:33 +0000

I read this story when it was published in the Israeli magazine “Don’t Panic”. What I thought of it then, along with other readers, is that it’s an interesting encounter from what could be a great world but it seems to be missing a lot, like we’re only hearing one chapter of a much larger book.

By: The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: April 17, 2009

The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: April 17, 2009 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:01:30 +0000

[...] Fiction: Listen to “‘I’ll Gnaw Your Bones,’ the Manticore Said” by Cat Rambo over at the [...]

By: scatterbrain

scatterbrain — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:22:20 +0000

I simply don’t understand Cat Rambo; she has stories like “Dead Girl’s Wedding March” that border on the genius, and then there’s the stories like “The Worm Inside” and this story which aren’t up to much or perhaps have interestering ideas but are mumbled in drawn-out text.

By: epilonious

epilonious — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:19:48 +0000

I enjoyed this story almost more than I felt I should have.

I appreciate stories that take the fantastic and approach them with a tone of “same crap different day” but still manage to put in a sweet moment at the end. To me it makes them amiable, realistic, and adds comfort without being too ‘precious.’