Beneath Ceaseless Skies #421, November 28, 2024

“The Vessels of Song” by Avram Klein

“Speaking the Sun” by Thomas Bales

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

Two fantasies with very different settings, themes, and moods appear in this issue.

“The Vessels of Song” by Avram Klein takes place in Eastern Europe during the early seventeenth century. The narrator is the leader of a group of wandering Jewish musicians. He relates how he and his companions entered an inn inhabited by demons.

The author captures the narrator’s voice in a completely convincing manner. Although the demons are a serious threat, the story is full of wit without descending into farce. The imaginative use of Jewish folklore makes for an engaging work of historical fantasy.

The narrator of “Speaking the Sun” by Thomas Bales performs the task of causing the sun to rise each day by speaking all night from an isolated point of land. (Whether this is really necessary in order to bring daylight or whether this is merely a ritual thought to have such power is ambiguous.)

The plot deals with the relationship between the narrator and a man who comes to visit him from time to time over many years.

The author’s style is evocative, and is appropriate for what is essentially a bittersweet love story. One intriguing aspect of the story is the fact that it is forbidden to talk to the narrator as he performs his lonely task. The man who visits him communicates via drawings. However, he chooses to violate this rule a few times, and speaks openly. I thought this weakened the impact of his voiceless expressions of affection.

Victoria Silverwolf wrote this review on an American holiday.