Bloodchild

I thought the story “Bloodchild” had some interesting and symbolic aspects to it. While at first it seems like just anther fantasy short story, after continuing the reader can see that many parts of the story can be taken in different ways.

The story is set in some fantasy kingdom where humans are enslaved to a bug-like people who inject their young (in egg-form) to live inside of the human until they eventually eat their way out to become independent beings. The human who serves this purpose is something like an indentured servant to the bug, and since it takes many years for the babies to reach their maturity inside the body, the master and servant often form a close bond.

This story focuses on a young boy who has been chosen by one of the bugs (who is also a friend of his family) to incubate the eggs. He is given second thoughts on how eager he is to fulfill his destiny when a birthing gone wrong appears before his eyes; another bug’s servant who didn’t have the babies removed in time rushes to the boys house where another bug has to cut them out and set them on a dead animal carcass. The story ends with the boy accepting his fate in order to save his siblings from taking his place as host.

One of the most obvious parallels this story presents is the incubation of eggs to the process of being in labor. Both are excruciating for the “hosts”, and the servant in the story is even given a form of painkiller to ease the process along. Also, the act of cutting the babies from the host’s stomach relates closely to the practice of a c-section. While human children are often not so parasitic, the complications and perils are still an issue in modern births.

Another in the story is indentured servitude/slavery. While in the story it is noted that some of the humans consider being chosen to be a great honor, it’s still apparent that they would have to go through with the process whether or not they approved. In the story, humans are the slaves rather than the masters, and we are under the control of beings who are stronger and more advanced than ourselves.

While I thought the story was horrifically graphic at times, I thought it was well-written and was an interesting concept to explore. It seemed like a plot that has often been explored in sci-fi novels and movies, but not been elaborated on in fantasy. I thought that that in itself was an interesting kind of twist to the genre.