Currently Reading - The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection

[aesmael]

6. “Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes” by Somtow Sucharitkul AKA S. P. Somtow

The first story I really liked this time around. A story of possession and the fate of the world in 1980s / late 1970s Thailand, at first I thought it was set in the future, until I realised of course the dates were being given in the Thai solar calendar. Which would explain Star Wars playing at the cinema.

If I tried to list the aspects I enjoyed I’d be giving a rundown of the whole story, but especially I want to highlight the visiting anthropologist with her notepad and degrees (seldom do I see this sort of outsider character done from, well, the outside), and the very ending which had me at first appalled and then laughing.