"The Wood-Witch’s Tale" by Jill Elaine Hughes
"The Final Machine" by Simon Kewin
"Daddy’s Little Boy" by Christopher Kastensmidt
"The Wood-Witch’s Tale" by Jill Elaine Hughes is a humorous retelling of the story of Hansel and Gretel. Hansel is a greedy kid who can’t get enough of the witch’s candy house; Gretl is a smart, sallow girl with a murderous little mind. As in the original fairy tale, neither of them gets eaten, but the similarities end there, as the witch tries to convince Gretl to become her apprentice, and Gretl shows a mind of her own.
While the twist on the fairy tale is refreshing, "The Wood-Witch’s Tale" provides fairly vacuous entertainment with no great mysteries of life to teach us. In fact, I would say that the deepest moral of the story is this: be careful when picking out which children to have for dinner. But then, you probably already knew that.
"The Final Machine" by Simon Kewin is a beautiful story of trust and hope in dark times. Mackenzie’s ship has been monitoring a vessel, half ship, half asteroid, known simply as the Final Machine. Created by a ruthless, murderous race known as Draconians, the Final Machine supposedly has the capability to bring the entire universe to an end. In order to destroy it, Mackenzie must rely on the advice of one of the Xin, a mysterious group of people often revered as gods, who operate outside of any of the concerns of the Million Star Council. Only the Xin can help them deactivate the vessel—but can Mackenzie trust it?
One of the things that struck me the most was how completely I trusted Mackenzie to make the right choices. From the beginning to the end, we had a confidence—one which in no way ruined the story or the tension of the story—that his choices would be the right ones. Maybe not the ones which would keep him and those around him alive until the end of the story, but the right ones, nonetheless. And we feel the solemn grandeur of the universe, as fresh and awe-inspiring as looking up at the night sky for the first time, throughout every carefully woven phrase of the story. "The Final Machine" is a masterful, compelling work, with deep themes underlying it that brush against life, eternity, and the meaning of existence.
"Daddy’s Little Boy" by Christopher Kastensmidt is not your usual tale of childhood ambition. When Garrett announces his desire to be an assassin when he grows up, his parents agree to support him in any way they can—and they do mean any way they can. While neither deep nor beautiful, the story is still well-written and amusing, in an odd, twisted way.
While the twist on the fairy tale is refreshing, "The Wood-Witch’s Tale" provides fairly vacuous entertainment with no great mysteries of life to teach us. In fact, I would say that the deepest moral of the story is this: be careful when picking out which children to have for dinner. But then, you probably already knew that.
"The Final Machine" by Simon Kewin is a beautiful story of trust and hope in dark times. Mackenzie’s ship has been monitoring a vessel, half ship, half asteroid, known simply as the Final Machine. Created by a ruthless, murderous race known as Draconians, the Final Machine supposedly has the capability to bring the entire universe to an end. In order to destroy it, Mackenzie must rely on the advice of one of the Xin, a mysterious group of people often revered as gods, who operate outside of any of the concerns of the Million Star Council. Only the Xin can help them deactivate the vessel—but can Mackenzie trust it?
One of the things that struck me the most was how completely I trusted Mackenzie to make the right choices. From the beginning to the end, we had a confidence—one which in no way ruined the story or the tension of the story—that his choices would be the right ones. Maybe not the ones which would keep him and those around him alive until the end of the story, but the right ones, nonetheless. And we feel the solemn grandeur of the universe, as fresh and awe-inspiring as looking up at the night sky for the first time, throughout every carefully woven phrase of the story. "The Final Machine" is a masterful, compelling work, with deep themes underlying it that brush against life, eternity, and the meaning of existence.
"Daddy’s Little Boy" by Christopher Kastensmidt is not your usual tale of childhood ambition. When Garrett announces his desire to be an assassin when he grows up, his parents agree to support him in any way they can—and they do mean any way they can. While neither deep nor beautiful, the story is still well-written and amusing, in an odd, twisted way.