In quiet command of his theme and with the relaxed self-assurance of a sophisticated story-teller—whose prose is as fluid and smooth as even the most style-conscious reader could wish for—Ian R. MacLeod takes us to a peaceful, agrarian world in “The Master Miller’s Tale” (from F&SF, May 2007) where wind-borne magic’s dying days meet head-on the birth of a would-be steam-powered, mechanically progressive industrial revolution. Clashing cultural viewpoints are mirrored on the individual level through the eyes of the main character, Nathan Westover, son of the master miller of grain whose highly respected, generations-old grain mill sets magestically atop Burlish Hill, and to which all in the village send their grain to be milled. Following his father’s passing, young Nathan becomes the new Master Miller. This is his story.