"St. Elmo’s Torch" by Douglas Kolacki
"Meeting Serena" by Timothy Faller
"Living Death" by Rebecca Shelley
"Dawn in Rwanda" by Peter Cummings Thatiah
"Legend of a Saint" by Fred McGavran
"Sign of the Cross" by Jon Sprunk

I am not a regular reader of spiritual and Christian SF, and this issue only reaffirmed my dislike of the genre. The stories tended to be simplistic in their message, and not very graceful in their execution. I was most disappointed by the lack of editing–some of the stories could have been salvaged with a light edit.

The opening story, "St. Elmo’s Torch" by Douglas Kolacki is a story of Maltese knights who are besieged by Turks, until salvation comes from an unexpected source. An ethereal man appears to some of the knights, and as the time goes by he becomes better defined, more real. The historical details are interesting and well-researched, but the author has an unfortunate tendency to deposit them in random lumps. The writing is clunky and rife with clichés–friend and foe, soft underbelly, etc. While this story is not without redeeming qualities, I would not recommend it.

"Meeting Serena" by Timothy Faller is a short tale, and there is not much happening–a married couple (cynical husband, extra-nice wife) go out for dinner with a woman they just met, Serena. And they talk–or rather, Serena talks. A lot. While a story with nothing but conversation can work, this one does not quite pull it off. The climax of the story is not very exciting, and the tale is too didactic for my taste.

"Living Death" by Rebecca Shelley is a decent fantasy story–the Shree, anthropomorphic magical creatures–live in a forest, the whereabouts of which are unknown to the humans. All humans that come across Shree territory are bonded into service, and compelled to forget their previous life. The tale revolves around a young Shree, Nolerok, who is sent to perform his first assignment–bonding of some recently captured humans. While the story is well-written, the plot is too predictable (not necessarily a problem, but in a story as plot-driven as this one it seems a shortcoming), and the message is too moralistically simple.

I liked "Dawn in Rwanda" by Peter Cummings Thatiah, but I wish it were edited better. It is a deceptively simple tale, dealing with an ethnic conflict between Tutsi and Hutu. The imagery is quite powerful, and the main character, sketched in a few sparse, descriptive strokes, is alive and memorable. However, numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes detracted from my enjoyment of this piece, and I found flowery dialog tags to be distracting.

Fred McGavran‘s "Legend of a Saint" is the best story in this volume. It has none of the didacticism of some of the other tales, and offers a refreshing view of religion and faith. The protagonist, Harris, is an attorney, who is also quite involved with his church’s affairs. The church wants to build a columbarium, but money is an issue. To the rescue comes creepy rich widow, Mrs. Hollingsworth. But her help does not come for free–as a payment, she demands that the body of a saint her deceased husband smuggled out of Italy during WWII be interred in the church. With a plaque commemorating Mr. and Mrs. Hollingsworth.

Harris finds himself investigating the identity of the saint, and in the process he grows closer to his depressed daughter. This is a sensitive and moving tale that offers reflection on the meaning of faith, rather than a message that can be fit on a bumper sticker.

"Sign of the Cross" by Jon Sprunkis a story of an injured crusader who is helped by a Muslim family. It’s an interesting take on the legend of St. George, and the characters are engaging and three-dimensional. However, this story does not quite succeed–the protagonist does little to affect his fate, and sometimes his failure to act is downright disappointing.

All in all, I would recommend this issue to the readers who like straightforward, life-affirming messages in their fiction.