Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #55, February 2023

“Every Day Something Tries to Kill Me” by Todd Honeycutt

“Jack O’Wraiths” by Phil Emery

“The Demon Fesman” by Lynn Rushlau

Reviewed by David Wesley Hill

There are three readable stories in this issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, the first of which, “Every Day Something Tries to Kill Me” by Todd Honeycutt, introduces us to Timo, who is on a quest to retrieve a giant’s eye for the Queen. Climbing Mt. Haun, he becomes ensorcelled by ancient magic, trapped in a never ending battle with the cursed shade of the dead wizard Moltinan. Each day this evil thing assumes another form in which to attack Timo, who begins to fear that he will never break free of the eternal cycle—until he finally realizes that sometimes the key to winning is to lose…. A rewarding tale with just enough character development and world building to bring the story to life.

Next up is “Jack O’Wraiths” by Phil Emery, whose titular character has a special talent—Jack can sense the lingering traces of dead gods, and draw power from the ancient ghosts. He uses this ability in his employment as a monster killer for hire. Accepting a contract to slay a giant man-eating worm, Jack lures the awful creature to the ruins of an old charcoal furnace, where he hopes to summon the vestiges of a deceased fire deity to kill the beast. Unfortunately, Jack has miscalculated, and calls forth not the wraith of a burning god but the shade of a water goddess—a goddess with a broken heart. As the coils of the worm tighten around him, Jack must figure out how to turn sorrow into a weapon before all life is crushed from his body…. An exciting fantasy story with quick pacing, a complicated protagonist, and a satisfying epiphany.

The last and longest story in the issue, “The Demon Fesman” by Lynn Rushlau, takes us to the country of Demial, where demons aren’t born, they’re made—raised into demonhood from the souls of dead mortals “to serve as guides for humanity, sharing knowledge about the future and providing sage advice.” Since demons are unimaginably powerful, it’s important to be picky about whom to elevate, and at this Convention of Demons, or Convoco, the late philanthropist Fesman is to be honored by the assembly of Demon Speakers for his good works. Others, however, considering Fesman to be an unworthy monster, responsible for the deadly collapse of an apartment complex, attack the convention to prevent Fesman from being raised, taking hostage Novice Demon Speaker Reigh and killing several of her friends. With a knife at her throat, Reigh is forced to participate in a ritual to summon Fesman for questioning by the terrorists, when, of course, things go from bad to worse… An entertaining, complex fantasy with many excellent moments, unfortunately flawed by an overly ambiguous ending and an unexplained teaser in the penultimate paragraph.