Diabolical Plots #119, January 2025

“The Year the Sheep God Shattered” by Marissa Lingen

“The Statue Hunt” by E. Carey Crowder

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

“The Year the Sheep God Shattered” by Marissa Lingen takes place in a fantasy world where children and the elderly make deities out of clay. Adults between childhood and old age cannot create them. These pottery gods must be destroyed and replaced each year in order to obtain benefits from them. The plot deals with an adolescent who threatens the community because she does not want to destroy the god she made.

The story serves as a metaphor for the difficulty of growing up and leaving childhood behind. Given the theme, this quiet little tale is best suited for young adults. Others will find it to be pleasant, light reading.

“The Statue Hunt” by E. Carey Crowder features a university situated within a generation starship. Two academics search for a statue that is the object of a traditional competition between student groups. They discover a threat to the inhabitants of the ship.

The background to this story is detailed and interesting, if not always relevant to the simple plot. (The fact that it is possible for people to choose to leave the starship for their own single-person vessels, journeying within them in suspended animation, is evocative, but plays no real part in the story.) Lacking a full resolution, this work reads like the beginning of a much longer tale. This is the author’s first published piece of fiction, and certainly shows promise.

Victoria Silverwolf is currently reading The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain.