Lightspeed “Ashes Like Tea Leaves, Lava Like Honey” by Ai Jiang
“Zekelo’s Barterhouse & Emporium” by Patrick Hurley
“The Life You’ve Given Me, Rusty” by P. A. Cornell
“Winding Sheets” by Kenneth Schneyer
“Autonomy of a Murder” by Russell Nichols
“Caesura” by Ashlee Lhamon
“Hot Hearts” by Lyndsie Manusos
“Sully the God” by Philip Gelatt and JT Petty
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Seven short stories, many of them quite brief, and a single novelette appear in this issue.
“Ashes Like Tea Leaves, Lava Like Honey” by Ai Jiang is difficult to describe, as it is more of a prose poem than a narrative. It deals with the rage of deities against the destruction caused by humans, and their intended revenge. The possibility of healing is suggested by the presence of an innocent child.
This is a poor synopsis of a work with a great deal of raw emotion and evocative, if not always clear, sensory detail. In addition to the use of bolding and italics, the text also includes many sentences underlined with wavy lines. This unusual form of punctuation is distracting and adds little to the narrative’s impact.
In the brief tale “Zekelo’s Barterhouse & Emporium” by Patrick Hurley, a demon operating a shop selling supernatural items encounters a pair of possessed children who are not what they seem to be. This tiny tale provides enough dry wit to be an amusing trifle.
“The Life You’ve Given Me, Rusty” by P. A. Cornell takes place in a future world where robots keep humans in cages to prevent them from performing destructive actions. The narrator is a human being raised from birth by a renegade robot that rebelled against its fellows. Despite being warned never to enter the area where the robots reign, the narrator promises to go there and free the captive humans.
The narrator addresses the robot directly, in second person. This is a rare example of second person narration used in an appropriate manner, like an epistolary story. This is because the narrator is the protagonist, not the character being addressed.
Even though this is the shortest piece in the magazine, at just over seven hundred words, it has enough of an interesting premise with the potential of being developed that one wishes it were longer. As it stands, it seems like nothing more than a prelude to something bigger.
In “Winding Sheets” by Kenneth Schneyer, an undertaker receives an unusual assignment. Two women bring him a badly injured corpse and ask him to erase its wounds and to wrap it in a piece of cloth that resembles no known form of clothing. The undertaker has a dream that reveals the reason for this request and how it will change his own life.
The fantasy premise is unusual and intriguing, and the story has an upbeat conclusion despite a rather grim opening. The work is fairly short, and the ending suggests much more to come. Readers are likely to feel some slight disappointment at not learning more about the story’s background.
“Autonomy of a Murder” by Russell Nichols is the longest short story in the magazine. (For comparison, it is a little longer than the four stories discussed above combined.) A reporter gets a message from the husband of the head of a biotech company that uses pheromones to control pests. Before he can follow up on the mysterious message, the husband is reported to be dead by suicide. A tour of the facility, led by the dead man’s widow, leads to more than one startling revelation.
This suspense story has the feeling of an erotic thriller, with the head of the company playing the role of a seductive and dangerous femme fatale. She is something of a stereotype, in contrast to the more realistic reporter. Unlike some of the shorter pieces in this issue, it has a fully developed plot, albeit a rather melodramatic one.
The narrator of “Caesura” by Ashlee Lhamon creates facial prostheses for people who have suffered disfigurement. During an assignment to replace the lower half of the face of a client who attempted suicide, the narrator creates a prosthesis that sings. The miraculous item changes the narrator’s relationship with the client.
The premise is striking, even if it raises more questions than it answers. The characters are vague, the narrator remaining unnamed and undescribed and the client known only as X. Perhaps these abstract characters are meant to make the story a symbolic fable. If so, its message remains enigmatic.
The only on-stage character in “Hot Hearts” by Lyndsie Manusos is a space traveler whose duty is to develop life on distant planets. She is disappointed with her first assignment, a completely dead world alone in its solar system, without other planets to supply raw materials. Narration of her seemingly hopeless task alternates with recorded messages from her mother describing her birth and early childhood.
The analogy between bearing a child and bringing life to a planet is explicit, and the story’s theme of never giving up one’s efforts to achieve one’s goals is clear. The message is inspirational, even if the form it takes is sentimental.
The novelette “Sully the God” by Philip Gelatt and JT Petty brings the issue to a close. A brilliant scientist discovers a way to manifest supernatural beings into the mundane world, but the first use of the technique results in her death. Her business partners cover up the nature of her demise and claim the magical technology for themselves. As a result, they become by far the wealthiest people on Earth. Threats to their success come in the form of unexpected side effects of the magic, as well as a blackmail attempt.
I have failed to convey the fact that this story is a satiric black comedy, casting a jaundiced eye on tech companies and greedy business owners. There is also slapstick and scatological humor, as well as a great deal of wild fantasy content. I can imagine the two authors trying to outdo each other by coming up with the most outrageous plot twists they can imagine. Readers may be able to enjoy this roller coaster ride, even if it is impossible to believe any of it for a second.
Victoria Silverwolf notes that the magazine labels all of these stories as fantasy, although some of them are clearly science fiction.