Mysterion, January 2025

“As The Stars of Heaven” by Marshall J. Moore

“Thin Black Line” by Frederick Gero Heimbach

Reviewed by Mina

In “As The Stars of Heaven” by Marshall J. Moore, the missionary Gilbert is called out to help one of his Shimmer “flock” that is acting erratically and is in distress. The description of the alien Shimmer and their culture is the most interesting part of this tale—I rather liked the description of their bioluminescent communication. The Shimmer Gilbert is taken to is possessed by a demon. Gilbert communicates to the Shimmering (a group of Shimmers) that he needs to carry out an exorcism. A simple tale about the power of faith, but I am not sure how much emotional resonance the story would have for a reader who is not a practising Christian.

“Thin Black Line” by Frederick Gero Heimbach takes the exorcism trope and merges it with the film The Recruit. The author has a tongue-in-cheek style (“the Embassy Hotel’s repute was, if not full-on ill, certainly under the weather”) and the exorcism priests work in twos, much like cops. On his first day on the beat, Father Ciaran starts to question whether a demon was involved in the murder under investigation or whether it’s that unheard of case, a human homicide.

The unreasonable Catholic prejudice against “Lefties” has unfortunately survived to this day, so it was good to see it aired.