The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boeby Kij Johnson
At least it was short. The author went all-out trying to create a magical world in colors and shapes, with mountains, valleys, oceans and mysterious moving lights under the ocean that you weren't supposed to speak about. The bad guys were the gods, of course--jealous petty little beings who meddled in human affairs and spread misery whenever they woke up long enough. Then there were the ghouls--or was that gogs?--some sort of smallish human-dog creature who delighted in fresh corpses but could be coaxed into helping out a traveler--if you promised them a whole graveyard full of fresh corpses at the end.
Early on I decided she was an artist or had written her florid prose with an artist's color chart near by. An obsolete color chart to boot. I recognized the words--or thought I did--but they didn't bring up the images she desired. Try for yourself: cerulean...
vermilion...carmine?
I'm not doing the book justice here, so I'll stop. I think you can tell by my tone that it didn't exactly grip me. It shows promise and most people loved it.
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