Quasar

Keep up with new short speculative fiction. About

Variations on a Theme from Turandot

ShortStory 7,264 words Recommended by 4 award/anthology sources

Read at Strange Horizons ↗

The soprano playing Liù keeps trying to change the opera’s gruesome plot, starting with her own death scene.

Fairy Tale RetellingBodily AutonomyHistorical Europe

More tags 17

MetafictionalIntertextualSlipstreamPhilosophicalFragmentedConsciousnessTraumaSecondary WorldLyricalSacrificeContemporaryLiterary SFContemplativeFantasyLiteraryIdentityBittersweet

Content warnings 3

deathsexual-violenceviolence

Quasar links out; the story lives on Strange Horizons, where the author gets the click.