Beneath Ceaseless Skies #391, September 21, 2023

“Breath, Sinew, Witch, Friend” by Anaea Lay

“Where the River Comes From” by Kaitlyn Zivanovich

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

Two stories featuring protagonists trying to find themselves who encounter strange characters appear in this issue.

“Breath, Sinew, Witch, Friend” by Anaea Lay takes place in a world in which people undergo so-called second childhoods, in which they try to discover their specific relationships with magical powers. (This stage of life seems to be roughly equivalent to adolescence, psychologically if not physically.) The narrator, on such a quest, welcomes a stranger into the café she runs. Their friendship faces a challenge when the stranger’s identity is revealed.

I have greatly oversimplified a story with a complex background that requires several paragraphs of exposition. The author displays great imagination and originality, as well as a gift for characterization, but readers are likely to be confused at first. Some readers will find the narrator’s decision at the climax questionable.

The main character in “Where the River Comes From” by Kaitlyn Zivanovich is the child of exiles, born in the foreign land to which her parents are forced to flee. She grows up caught between two cultures, unsure to which she belongs. Meetings with a god, both before and after she and her family are allowed to return to their homeland, allow her to find her place in the world.

This is a quiet, gentle story, with a great deal of insight into the emotions of the protagonist. It serves as a moving allegory for the experiences of immigrants and their children.

Victoria Silverwolf has to pick up some stuff for the cats today.