Aurealis“Sword, Salmon, Castle” by Aidan Doyle
“World Made Whole Again” by John Kinsella
“The Sculptor” by Chris Butler
Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett
The 154th issue of Aurealis has three original short stories, including a novelette.
“Sword, Salmon, Castle” by Aidan Doyle
Hiroko is a sushi chef in this SF short story set in the future. After her parents and brother die in an accident, she works with her grandfather in the family restaurant. Then one day, an elderly woman enters with her husband of fifty years, and everything changes.
The woman has been traveling back in time to repeat this day for some time to extend her time with her terminally ill husband. But on this occasion, Hiroko becomes aware of what she is doing and expresses her own need to travel back in time.
The story was nicely crafted but offered only small innovations for a well-trodden story idea.
“World Made Whole Again” by John Kinsella
After being split in half, the world rejoins in this unfathomable SF short. Ophelia and Stet were lovers before the split and feel compelled to find each other again. Ophelia is in the northern half and moves south, while Stet moves north from the southern half.
But the planet’s rejoining is far from perfect; each of them meanders through their struggles to reach the line where the two halves coalesced. The ground is rock-hard and alien, yet they each continue toward a reunion.
This story was hard to read and would typically be abandoned after the first half page. Rarely do you find a story so buried in obscure imagery that the reader can skip a page without diminishing or improving their understanding.
“The Sculptor” by Chris Butler
“The Sculptor” is an SF novelette that follows Moon’s training to be the next Sculptor in a compound on a distant planet. No one knows how the Compound came to be. And they accept that the Sculptor selects a new person to be born from the containers whenever someone dies.
Like all the Moons before her, Moon is inquisitive, eventually finding a strange door deep in the lowest levels of the Compound. A hologram warns her to stay away from that room. Ultimately, the old Sculptor approaches the end of his days, and Moon will have to take over, making some difficult decisions for the good of the Compound.
The author created a multi-layered story that was enjoyable to read. The author explained very little and allowed the reader to make their own discoveries.
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