Mysterion“Did You Hear the Angels Sing?” by H.L. Fullerton
“Devil Dog” by Len Bailey
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Two encounters with the miraculous appear in the latest issue of this on-line publication of Christian-themed speculative fiction.
In “Did You Hear the Angels Sing?” by H.L. Fullerton, a band of angels appear at the opening of a minimart. Those who witness the event are killed, one by one, with the implication that the murders are committed by government agents who want to suppress knowledge of the miracle. The story’s protagonist mourns the death of his husband, is questioned by the authorities but denies he heard the angels sing, and anticipates changes in himself and the world.
The premise is intriguing, and the author manages to make it seem real. The story ends without revealing the full effect of the angels’ song on humanity. The reader is likely to wish that this brief work were longer.
“Devil Dog” by Len Bailey takes place in rural Kentucky during World War Two. A young girl’s dog suffers from a bad case of mange. She meets a soldier home from the war. He leads her into a frightening place in the backwoods, in order to show her a way to cure the animal. He also tells her a secret. Later, she discovers the truth about the soldier.
The main appeal of this story is the convincing portrait it paints of the coalmining country and its people. The reader will probably predict the true nature of the soldier long before the author reveals it. This warm, gentle tale is full of genuine emotion, but some may find it overly sentimental.
Victoria Silverwolf accidentally read the magazine’s December 2020 story also, and thought it was quite good.