Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #68, May 2026

“The Devil in the Details” by Rev. Joe Kelly
“Huntress of the High Trails” by Robert Rhodes
“The Head of Spurius Halfheart” by Harry Laurei

Reviewed by David Wesley Hill

The last time I reviewed Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, back in November, 2025, I lambasted the editors for publishing an entire issue of stories relying on that same tired, century-old trope of the hero thief. Apparently, the HFQ editors either did not read my review, or else they did not care to follow my advice, for the protagonist of the very first story in the May issue, “The Devil in the Details” by Rev. Joe Kelly, is—you guessed it!—a thief. Resigning myself to reading yet another rote exercise in the same trite literary vein, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself wrapped up in the tale. What makes the story readable—nay, enjoyable—is Kelly’s focus on detail—for instance, a brief mention of Adam Smith sets the time of the tale as sometime in the 1770s, while the text is scattered with enough idiom and specificity to engender a concrete sense of place, although I would quibble with calling a claybeg “big,” considering how it was a cut-down version of a two-handed broadsword. Nitpicking aside, “Devil in the Details” is an entertaining read, with enough characterization and mêlée action to be … recommended!

Next up, and also recommended, is the novelette, “Huntress of the High Trails” by Robert Rhodes, which thankfully breaks trope with a protagonist who isn’t a thief but an—ahem—huntress! At last! Before I go on with my review, however, let me state that I never read author or editorial notes about a story for the simple reason that I believe each work of fiction is a ding an sich, a thing in itself, and as such, every element to understanding the story must be included in the story (although I’ll allow footnotes and epigraphs, as pioneered by Jack Vance). With this philosophy in mind, from the tale itself, I cannot say anything about its milieu except that it’s vaguely Slavic, since I Googled every name and place in the story and found no correlation with real-world history or locations. That being said, there’s enough self-referential background to make the world understandable, and to identify the good people from the bad invaders. There are some truly thrilling parts as the protagonist, Valeriya, the titular huntress, defends a refugee mother and child from evil pursuers, including flying snakes … The thing is, unfortunately, there’s a lot of world-building going on in a limited space, and some important concepts, such as “Green Law,” are never explained. Ultimately, this didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story, but it did leave me hoping the author would expand their world into a novel …

Last up this month, and rounding out a trifecta of recommendations, is the novelette, “The Head of Spurius Halfheart” by Harry Laurei, which follows the adventures of two amiable rogues, Yorris and Todric, who are seeking to bring the head of the titular Spurius to the city of Kyanmark in order to claim the immense bounty on the remains of their erstwhile companion in crime. Despite its length, the story moves briskly, with some excellent combat scenes, particularly the fight against the deadly twin assassins Eko and Keo. The milieu of the tale is somewhat confusing, though—at times it seems to take place in ancient Egypt, along the banks of the Nile, with references to ziggurats and pyramids, shadoofs and khopeshes. Other references, however, seem anachronistic—mammoth-yaks? And windmills, for instance, according to Wikipedia, didn’t make their first appearance until 500 CE in Persia. That being said, the background hangs together, sort of, as does the tale as a whole. Think Road to Morocco … with a decapitated head and Djinn.