Shapers of Worlds Volume IIIEdited
by
Edward Willett
(Shadowpaw Press, October 2022, pb, 486pp.)
“And the Walls Came Tumbling Down” by James Morrow
“Thresholds” by Kristi Charish
“Court Day in Shelocta County” by Robert Penner
“Limbo” by David Ebenbach
“Offshore” by F. Paul Wilson (reprint, not reviewed)
“Car Wars” by Cory Doctorow (reprint, not reviewed)
“Tribes of the Sun” by K.M. Rice (reprint, not reviewed)
“The Metamorphosis of Thomas Darrow” by Gerald Brandt
“The Key” by Griffin Barber
“Choices” by Miles Cameron
“Mister Farnsworth Versus the Alien Demons of Ancient Egypt” by Sebastien de Castell
“Together as One” by Jess E. Owen
“Ghostwind” by Violette Malan
“The Thing in the Play” by Edward Willett
“A Single Breath, Heard Only in My Dreams” by Cat Rambo
“The Desert of the Real” by Mark Everglade and Joseph Hurtgen
“We Love You” by Anna Mocikat
“‘It’s Coming'” by Frank J. Fleming
“Hostile Universe” by K. Eason (reprint, not reviewed)
“Send Them Flowers” by Walter Jon Williams (reprint, not reviewed)
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
As with the previous two volumes in this series of anthologies, all the featured writers have appeared on the editor’s podcast The Worldshapers. In addition to new and reprinted fiction, the book also includes half a dozen short poems by prolific author Jane Yolen.
“And the Walls Came Tumbling Down” by James Morrow, like many other works by the author, is a variation on a Bible story. The main character is the man who blows a holy ram’s horn outside Jericho, destroying its fortifications. He is immediately racked with guilt, because he knows his fellow Israelites will slaughter everyone in the city. In an attempt to assuage his remorse, an angel carries him thousands of years into the future, where he becomes involved in two famous historical events involving walls.
This story is likely to be controversial, not only for its portrait of the Israelites as merciless killers, but for its political stance, shown during the protagonist’s visit to modern times. If one can accept the author’s views, the work can be enjoyed as an imaginative and smoothly written meditation on breaking down walls, literal and metaphoric.
“Thresholds” by Kristi Charish is a grim and violent tale set in a near future United States devastated by deadly plagues. The narrator is an armed agent for the Centers for Disease Control. She attends the funeral of a man killed by a new disease to ensure that his body, wrapped in protective material, is under the control of the CDC and not simply buried locally, as the mourners wish. Both sides in the conflict are ready to use deadly force. The balance of power shifts when a preacher who used to be a CDC agent shows up.
I have not mentioned the fact that the narrator has an android partner, because this is not really relevant to the plot, and seems intended merely to add a futuristic detail to the story. Other advanced technology mentioned in the text is far more plausible than this fully sentient machine. The author creates an effectively dark mood throughout, which may be too intense for some readers.
In “Court Day in Shelocta County” by Robert Penner, people scheduled to be arraigned for minor offenses are taken aboard a van and given recreational drugs. The local authorities cast a blind eye on the situation. Among the passengers in the van are parents, mostly mothers, arrested under laws that blame them for the truancy of their children.
This synopsis makes the story sound like mainstream fiction, but there are indications that it is set in the near future. In particular, the truancy laws mentioned above have grown exponentially, creating a large new group of potential criminals. The work is more of a slice-of-life than a plot-driven piece. I’m not sure of the author’s intent, unless it’s to protest such laws.
The characters in “Limbo” by David Ebenbach are the ghost of a murdered man and the divorced woman who moves into the house where he lived. He tries to haunt her in traditional fashion, but her philosophy of life prevents him.
To some extent, the story is a debate as to whether bad things happen to people for a reason or at random. This quiet little tale features a pair of appealing characters and gives the reader something to ponder.
The narrator of “The Metamorphosis of Thomas Darrow” by Gerald Brandt returns to the ruins of a library he visited as a child. Already abandoned at the time, a small tree grew inside the empty building. The tree, now much larger, transforms the narrator in a strange way.
I was taken aback by this story’s change in mood as it approaches its climax. At first, it seems to be a wistful, nostalgic fantasy, in the manner of Ray Bradbury. Later, it seems more like a horror story. The sudden change in tone is disconcerting in an otherwise well-written, evocative work.
“The Key” by Griffin Barber is narrated by a dragon. The magical beast sets out to attack a human army bent on destroying all the beings of Faery. Complicating matters is the presence of a mysterious entity fighting on the side of the invading humans.
I wasn’t sure who or what the strange enemy was supposed to be; the dragon always calls it “the un-right.” Perhaps it is meant to be a Lovecraftian being. In any case, this is a fairly typical fantasy adventure story, notable mostly for its unusual narrator.
The protagonist of “Choices” by Miles Cameron is a ranger, wandering through a snowy wilderness at night, on the lookout for warriors under the control of an evil force known as Shadow. He tracks one such enemy by backtracking the path of an injured deer, leading to a potentially deadly encounter.
The author creates a vivid sense of cold and darkness, as well as a growing sense of suspense as the ranger and the warrior seek each other in the woods. An afterword reveals that the setting is based on a roleplaying game. This may explain why the background is a fantasy world but the plot does not depend on any supernatural elements. The story might as well be about a Mountie stalking a criminal through the Yukon.
The title of “Mister Farnsworth Versus the Alien Demons of Ancient Egypt” by Sebastian de Castell is a fair summary of the plot, and an indication that the story is a knockabout farce. One need only add that the title character is a cat, and that the hapless narrator and a super-wealthy woman travel back in time with the animal to stop the monsters in the title from destroying the world. This is a very silly story, best appreciated by those with a taste for slapstick mixed with a bit of Rabelaisian humor.
The characters in “Together as One” by Jess E. Owen are griffins, competing with creatures that are something like sharks or whales for fish. The main character is a hot-headed male, too eager to attack the enemy without working with others of his kind. The female he intends for his mate helps him learn to cooperate.
The title and the plot make the story’s theme crystal clear. This is a simple fable, pleasant to read but hardly profound.
In “Ghostwind” by Violette Malan, a pair of mercenaries are hired to rid a temple of the title being, who subsists on human sacrifices. The two warriors discover that the entity is not all that it seems to be, and that the priests of the temple are less than innocent.
Fans of sword-and-sorcery yarns will appreciate this action-packed adventure, although some may find the body count rather excessive. The ghostwind is an interesting character, even if its nature is not completely clear.
“The Thing in the Play” by editor Edward Willett takes the form of a dialogue between a prison chaplain and an inmate of an institution for the criminally insane. The inmate explains why he shot an actor to death, after chasing across the United States after a monster that appears on stage in human form and kills members of the audience in a supernatural fashion.
The setting appears to be the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century, and the author captures the flavor of the time effectively. Few readers will be surprised by the story’s ending.
In “A Single Breath, Heard Only in My Dreams” by Cat Rambo, a young girl who is a refugee from a destroyed space station moves to another. She is very proud of her album, which contains a collection of leaves from her former home. This inspires other children to produce similar items. A misunderstanding of what a boy intends when he creates his own collection of leaves leads to tragedy.
Some parts of the story seem intended for younger readers, while others are much darker in tone and more sophisticated. The children exist in a universe of constant warfare between species and frequent revolutions within space stations. The central event of the plot may appear overly gloomy to some readers.
In “The Desert of the Real” by Mark Everglade and Joseph Hurtgen, a singing star on a devastated Earth is taken aboard a luxurious space station owned by a trillionaire. He intends to make use of her talent to advertise one of his products. Meanwhile, workers throughout the solar system hope to earn enough credit from their labors to enter the trillionaire’s immortality device, enjoying bliss on a paradise planet forever. With the help of allies on Earth and the space station, the singer discovers the truth about the device.
If this synopsis seems disjointed, that may be because the story hops back and forth, possibly due to the fact that it has two authors. The plot depends on instantaneous teleportation as well as the trillionaire’s deep secret, which may be asking too much of the reader to believe. The trillionaire seems like a James Bond supervillain. Those willing to go along for the ride will be able to enjoy the story’s frenzied pace and dramatic climax.
In “We Love You” by Anna Mocikat, a woman gives her widowed sister a robot in the form of a beautiful man. The machine is the perfect lover, so the widow ignores warnings of possible problems from the company that manufactures the devices. The woman teaches the robot about humanity, with unintended consequences.
The conclusion offers a sudden shock. Without giving too much away, it makes the reader wonder how it is possible that the story is narrated in first person. Even if one ignores that difficulty, the ending is melodramatic.
In “‘It’s Coming'” by Frank J. Fleming, an ordinary housewife is swept into another universe, arriving on a world being destroyed by an implacable menace. With the help of a voice in her head, she escapes, only to wind up facing an even stranger situation.
Even though the plot involves the killing of countless people and the annihilation of entire universes, the author appears to have tongue firmly in cheek. The story is a wild roller coaster ride, even if it is nearly impossible to suspend one’s disbelief for a moment.
Victoria Silverwolf would like to point out that the title of the last story reviewed above contains quotation marks, making it necessary to use two sets of them.