Aurealis “Tree Song” by Avril Mulligan
“At Dawn’s Speed” by Dirk Strasser
“My Spirit Shall Not Always Strive” by Bryn Dodson
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Three tales of characters encountering different parts of their worlds appear in this issue.
In “Tree Song” by Avril Mulligan, beings who live in trees observe a young girl, who seems to have a special connection with the trees, enter their forest. The tree-dwellers are able to enter an underground network of tunnels and roots, that allow the trees to communicate with each other. One of the tree-beings wishes to have the girl enter the arboreal world, but their meeting leads to an unexpected twist of fate.
This story is best described as poetic, both for its evocative imagery and for the fact that it is rather vague and mysterious. The synopsis above is likely to be inaccurate and misleading, as the relationship between the tree-people and the city-dwellers is enigmatic. The special nature of the young girl also raises more questions than answers.
“At Dawn’s Speed” by Dirk Strasser takes place on a slowly rotating planet. The human inhabitants keep moving in order to escape the deadly rays of the sun. Two people set out on a dangerous journey, seeking for a legendary place of refuge where they no longer need to run away from the light.
The story’s worldbuilding is interesting, and the many hazards the main characters face create a great deal of suspense. The plot is somewhat episodic. A sequence in which the protagonists face people who have been transformed into something like killer zombies, for example, seems out of place.
“My Spirit Shall Not Always Strive” by Bryn Dodson is set at a future time when medical technology allows people to remain healthy and youthful for an indefinitely extended lifetime. The narrator stops using the regeneration process in order to live for a time with a religious sect that rejects the procedure.
The story mostly consists of the narrator’s description of the sect’s agrarian lifestyle. The author offers a balanced view of both societies, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of both. Readers expecting a clear-cut resolution, or more of a plot-driven work than a meditation on mortality, will be disappointed by this quiet tale.
Victoria Silverwolf has an upstairs air conditioner that isn’t working.