Beneath Ceaseless Skies #422, December 26, 2024

“Furious Communion” by R.K. Duncan

“The Beloved Sisters of the Sun-Bleached Hills” by Shoshana Groom

Reviewed by Chuck Rothman

Beyond Ceaseless Skies finishes up the year with two stories.

“Furious Communion” by R.K. Duncan is a series of Catholic confessions by Jacques Feram, who is a king from a cursed family line. These alternate with comments by Regine Dubois, his queen, who seems to formerly be a deer turned human and is kept in a tower. I didn’t find the story particularly engaging.

Shoshana Groom’s “The Beloved Sisters of the Sun-Bleached Hills” is a neat take on the story of Scheherazade, set before the thousand and one nights. It’s an epistolary story of letters between Durdana and Zarina, two women of the country who observe the king murdering one woman each night and speculating on what might happen. Durdana wants to do something about it. I liked the point of view and the way the story sheds light on the emotional issues of the part of the story that are never talked about.

Chuck Rothman’s novels Staroamer’s Fate and Syron’s Fate are available from Fantastic Books.