Bufo Rex by Erik Amundsen
To my shame I must admit I have read work of precisely one author in this anthology, and even that exposure is limited to one story only. So rather than going though the whole lot and see what appealed to me most I decided to trust the VanderMeers’ good taste and pick the top two stories. To my surprise they had one striking feature in common. The use of repetition. That is where the similarity ends though, they are very different stories.
Bufo Rex, a story by Erik Amundsen is, as the title suggests a story about a toad. A rather important one too. He introduces himself as follows.
I am called Bufo, I grow fat upon insects. I make my board under leaves, upon logs and my bed lies in the bogs. My throne is the toad stool and witch’s butter is for my biscuits.
Bufo tells us about a number of increasingly unpleasant encounters with humans each beginning with the same introduction. All manner of superstition surrounding toads are discussed in this story. Starting with the fable that it is looking for a bride and ending with it’s alleged link to the devil and witchcraft. At some point a toad must say enough is enough.
I suppose you could say this story is about superstition. Starting at a humorous note, the bit between the introduction and the first repetition reminded me of the story Frogs and Scientists by Frank Herbert. It turns darker toward the end though. A very unusual perspective indeed.
This is part of the BookSpot Central Short Fiction Round Table spotlight on stories that will be included in Best American Fantasy 2008 edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and forthcoming from Prime Books. Please see the intro to the spotlight.
