Fairy Tale Spotlight: Chatting with Anubis [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the entire story including the twist at the end.]

"Chatting with Anubis" is a short science fiction story written by Harlan Ellison. It was published in 1995.

This was kind of a short one. The story here is about two researchers, trying to find the lost tomb of Ammon in Egypt. They end up finding a tomb, but it was a bit more than they bargained for.

What happens in this story is they end up finding Anubis himself. This was presented very well and excitingly. I was hooked. Anubis is basically my favorite Egyptian God. Love him. Even the name of the story got me bouncing a little bit.

Harlan did not disappoint. The researches really do have a chat with him, and he was everything I wanted him to be. He had a scary grin with lots of teeth, and yet he was such a very smooth talker. Absolutely had me. Heck yeah!

But from here we find that it is not the tomb of Ammon at all, and the reason Anubis is there guarding it is to keep the person in the tomb from moving on to the afterlife. It's a sort of punishment for someone he personally hates. The writing here really does a crazy job trying to hold back the name of this individual until the last second, so I am kind of doing that in this blog too.

Anubis says that this person was convicted of the crime of "killing all the gods." Because he did this, he has to remained imprisoned in that tomb for eternity, and Anubis is the jailer. He does let the two researchers go so that they can tell the story, but no one will ever find that tomb again.

So who was he holding in the tomb? Well... it was Moses. Yup. So yeah... It was Moses who killed the gods of Egypt. You can't make this stuff up. Actually Harlen did make this up.

Hey, guess what? I actually still liked the story, but I have a sort of bias with Anubis. I do, however, think the thing with Moses is a little on the dumb side. It kind of broke my brain a little just to see that name pop up towards the end. Seriously, what a weird story to tell. I only recommend this story if you're an Anubis fan. He is well-represented in this story.

This blog was written on June 29, 2024.

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