The path through time that the museum depicts is the exact opposite of what jules is experiencing on his own path through time the past may have been more dangerous to capital-m man, but his childhood was so much safer and more stable than his life is now with his parents divorced, and his aunt and mother's relationship in a precarious place, presumably because of his mother's drinking, her public emotional outbursts, and her bitter grief over her failed marriage to an unfaithful man. Half the pleasure was knowing the horror you were headed toward.

The Path led you to him, whether you hurried or didn’t. Stepping onto the Path’s nighttime street was like being picked up out of normal life and set down in olden days, and then, as you walked, older and older days, and all the way back to when animals were huge and everything was tusked, with the short-faced bear at the very end of it all, Arctodus: slavering, shaggy and clawed, his roar filling the room, teeth and tongue slimy and eyes like holes in ice, monster-king of the Path.Īrctodus was in every kid’s nightmares once you walked the Path he was with you forever, like a god. Jules is twelve years old, attending the wedding reception of his beloved aunt lydia, which is being held at his favorite place-a natural history museum whose interactive exhibit, the Path Through Time, takes visitors backwards through the stages of human civilization, ending up in man's wild and unprotected beginningtimes, with a memorable figure. And F&SF just seemed to go off the rails almost completely at some point, though I hope that was just a momentary thing.He wanted to feel little-kiddish again, that safe kind of scared that didn’t seem to exist anymore. Clarkesworld and Tor.com probably published more better stuff than most on average but also produced some of the ones I liked the least. Cosmic Roots was rarely great but rarely bad and would occasionally pop out a notable one. Of these you've mentioned on the thread, Strange Horizons had a very poor batting average but posted one of my favorite stories of the year at least once. I'm not sure there's a magazine out there that didn't publish something good and something bad, though.

It was a lot of fun for quite awhile and I read a lot of good stories, but too many bad ones. I guess I'm doing all right - what prompted me to visit was that I'm recovering from a minor medical thing and it seemed like something fun to do that I was capable of. Well, I'm glad you're now able to point people to the Good Stuff.

The Tyger by Tegan Moore