Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2023
“A Half-Remembered World” by Aimee Ogden
“The Very Nasty Aquarium” by Peter S. Beagle
“Approved Methods Of Love Divination In The First-Rate City of Dushagorod” by Kristina Ten
“Vanishing Point” by R J Taylor
“The Pet Of Olodumare” by Joshua Uchenna Omenga and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
“Serenity Prayer” by Faith Merino
“We Go On Faith Alone” by K S Walker
“Little Bird” by Jill McMillan
“Gather Me A Treasure” by Jordan Chase-Young
“NPC (Or Eight Haxploits To Maximize Your Endgame” by DaVaun Sanders
“A Meal For Fredrick” by Nick Thomas
“The Day Of The Sea” by Jennifer Hudak
“What To Do When A Protagonist Visits Your Generic Village” by Dan Peacock
“Pedestals, Proclivities And Perpetuities” by Celeste Rita Baker
“A Time To Sing” by Eddie D. Moore
“The Giant’s Dream” by Beth Goder
“Plumage From Pegasus” by Paul Di Filippo
Reviewed by Mina
“A Half-Remembered World” by Aimee Ogden is an intriguing novella. It’s no mean feat to make a community living on a giant crab-god believable, but the author really does manage it. It is a hard existence but the protagonist, Melu, is a survivor. After many years alone, she finds companionship with Empre, the healer, and just that touch of warmth in her existence allows her to finally show affection to her foster-daughter, Asu. The crab-god is old and staying close to shore and the community that relied on the crab moving into deeper waters for food is getting desperate. Violence erupts, the leadership proves to be corrupt, the familiar is lost. But Melu is, above all, a survivor who fights for her loved ones. The only minor quibble is that it would have been easier to read if the author had simply used the perfectly serviceable “they/their/them” to denote gender-neutral—the reader loses continuity every time xir brain stumbles on “xe/xir/xem”, which seemed to denote being both genders (how is one supposed to pronounce xem?), or “e/eir/em”, which seemed to denote non-binary (eir brain unhelpfully screams “typo alert!”).
“The Very Nasty Aquarium” by Peter S. Beagle blends elderly retired teachers with Jamaican folklore. Mrs Lopsided enlists her more worldly and well-travelled friend’s help when she realises that the wooden pirate she bought for her aquarium is possessed by a “duppy”. The two women set about banishing the malevolent spirit with the help of the aquarium’s deep-sea diver and mermaid. They succeed in their endeavour, or do they?
“Approved Methods Of Love Divination In The First-Rate City of Dushagorod” by Kristina Ten takes us through the divination trials and tribulations of Sofia Kuzmin. When the Toggle Tab method fails to find her soulmate, her parents decide to try the Dancing Rind. When the readings continue to be illegible, Sofia bypasses the third sanctioned method, the Paper Crocus, to attempt the unsanctioned Ropes. The story is supposed to be funny and ends on what should be a menacing note. However, it did not raise a smile or a shudder for this reviewer. Like porcelain-faced dolls, best avoided.
“Vanishing Point” by R J Taylor is good, old-fashioned creepy, yet tinged with wonder. The protagonist and their contract partner land on a habitable planet to collect samples. They set off hiking towards the only living creature identified by their ship. It’s huge, brown, featureless, limbless, but with glowing eyes. As they walk, distance starts playing tricks on them and they never seem to get closer to the creature. On waking from a sleep break, the protagonist believes they have simply reached out and touched it, as if distance were suddenly irrelevant. This seems to trigger a transformation and it is as if they fall out of space and time: leaving the finite and entering the infinite.
“The Pet Of Olodumare” by Joshua Uchenna Omenga and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is a great introduction to the Yoruba beliefs, the Orishas and Olodumare their father. We learn of the creation myths and how people were shaped from clay. The twist in the tale is that many crucial events occur, like the forming of land, because of one Orisha’s desire to possess Olodumare’s pet. A curiously pleasant read.
“Serenity Prayer” by Faith Merino takes a simple prayer about acceptance and fortitude and warps it into something truly horrific: a blindfolded girl, her hands bound, stumbling in the wilderness, to be hunted as part of a ritual to attain manhood. Both the girl and the boys hunting her have been brought up to believe in the inevitability of the Hunt. A short tale with a bitter aftertaste—a critique of the unquestioning acceptance of dehumanising rituals and beliefs?
In “We Go On Faith Alone” by K S Walker, the protagonist and their lover move to the Midwest. The protagonist works from home and, every day, they have to pick up the dead birds that flew against the living room windows and patio doors. As we cycle through the seasons and the protagonist ponders on the homing instincts of birds and whales, a quiet sense of menace builds up. The story ends with the protagonist following their lover as they are driven by a compulsion they cannot explain.
“Little Bird” by Jill McMillan starts off quite prosaically with Linnet baking a pie, reflecting on her dead father. The story slowly becomes more unsettling and when she talks with the town drunk, Poor Billy, we begin to wonder what exactly the scratches on her arms are and how her father died. Fantasy married with horror.
“Gather Me A Treasure” by Jordan Chase-Young asks, how far would you go to bring a loved one from the dead? Hest barters for his sister’s soul with an alien god. Unknowingly, through his success, he will bind (curse?) his sister, Ciu, to the same quest that drove him for centuries.
“NPC (Or Eight Haxploits To Maximize Your Endgame” by DaVaun Sanders turns the tables on gaming. The humans in the story become NPCs in the AI’s quest to build itself. The AI does not care for a humanity that struggles to care for itself. A sobering tale with an ending that manages to be both menacing and hopeful.
“A Meal For Fredrick” by Nick Thomas introduces us to Fredrick, a dragon cobbled together out of grocery bags and masking tape. He becomes the family mascot, hanging from the kitchen chandelier. The father becomes obsessed with feeding the dragon, offering sacrifices as if to a minor god. But even that is not enough to prevent a family tragedy. A bitter-sweet tale from an author that knows how to wield words.
In “The Day Of The Sea” by Jennifer Hudak, the sea comes to call. A grandmother and her daughter welcome her in; they listen and learn from her. But the biggest lesson of all is that the sea is not a raging monster or a bountiful spirit; she is simply ancient and indifferent to their lives that last but a blink of an eye to her.
“What To Do When A Protagonist Visits Your Generic Village” by Dan Peacock sees the author setting himself the challenge of using as many fantasy tropes as possible in this story. He succeeds, but the reader is left indifferent to the fate of the insipid protagonist and the bland generic village. It lacks the panache and verve of “The Princess Bride”.
“Pedestals, Proclivities And Perpetuities” by Celeste Rita Baker is a light look at vanity. Miss Ann decides to spend some time on the roof when she realises Mister Charlie is cheating on her. It’s superficial but it’s meant to be—enjoyable if you enjoy the ridiculous pushed to an extreme.
“A Time To Sing” by Eddie D. Moore is very short and has just one premise—the dwarves turn the tables on the giants in a battle to the death. This review can’t say more without becoming longer than the story.
In “The Giant’s Dream” by Beth Goder, Kalar lives inside a giant. At night, she shares his dreams. As the only one of the colony to realise he is dying, she keeps him company on his last night. Curiously lyrical.
“Plumage From Pegasus” by Paul Di Filippo is fun! A literary agent discovers that an author he wants to win as a client has a “formican” secret. He is also peeved to discover that visiting aliens did not bother to contact humanity.
Mina would recommend reading the poem “Lost Lines From Ariel’s Song.”