Mysterion, August 2021

“Vocation” by Jessica Snell

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

The narrator of “Vocation” by Jessica Snell lives alone in an enormous sentient library inside a gigantic house on another world. When Earth became uninhabitable, aliens took humans to this planet and created the immense houses for them. Now people either dwell in the wilderness outside the houses, barely surviving, or they live inside the houses, one person to a room. The library gives reading assignments to the narrator, which offers lessons about the meaning of home to the humans who lived on Earth.

The premise is unusual and interesting, particularly for anyone who loves books. The narrator’s relationship with the library, which proves to be both enemy and friend, is intriguing. The story’s Christian theme is subtle, and serves to illuminate the point that people are not meant to be alone.

Victoria Silverwolf has an oven at home that has stopped working.