SEASONS OF WAR: Tales From A Time War - ed. Declan May (2015) PART 13

Declan May obviously loves language.  You can tell that from any part of his writing.  It turns out he wrote the extravagant word gymnastics of  'The Nightmare Child', for example, but in this last story in this more than accomplished collection, that adoration for sound is equally evident and just as memorable.  Descriptions like 'cruel, twisted tailor-made naissance' and 'Gallifrey, spoiled in the heat of war and turned into a desperate, treacherous, brutal beast' abound here, but even if they didn't, his decision to list the thirteen Chronosmiths individually (Wigs, Rags, Hynchcliffe, Sheepskin, Plunder, the Baronessa, Precedent, Jargon, Gammon, Spinach, Thurber, Myopapa and the Cigarette Crow, fact fans) demonstrates an unusually strong love of linguistic legerdemain which cannot be denied.  He even dips into French at one point!  As for the story...well, read it for yourself and see what you think.

Read them all, in fact...