Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, July 2019

“The Crystal Zyst: A Eula Banks, State Certified Engineer, Story” by Marc A. Criley

Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett

There is one first publication story in the July issue of Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores.

“The Crystal Zyst” by Marc A. Criley

The police call out Eula and her team, in this SF short, to rescue three children from a zeitle. At first, all seemed predictable and Eula guessed it should only take minutes for a team member to penetrate the zeitle of slowed-down time to pull out each child.

But when a team member doesn’t return, Eula discovers that a massive level-20 or more zyst has trapped the children inside a time bubble of crystal. Just touching the zyst caused the team member to become frozen in time.

Poorly equipped for such an unprecedented situation, Eula must find a solution before the trapped children die from carbon dioxide poisoning.

The author maintained an engaging pace through the story and gave the reader an interesting ending.