Cirsova “The Aromique Paradigm (Part 2 of 3)” by Michael Tierney (serialized novel, not reviewed)
“Lupus One” by Caroline Furlong
“His Amber Eyes, His Pointed Smile” by Tais Teng
“Sky Machine” by J. Comer
“The King’s Game” by Jim Breyfogle
“Badaxe (2 of 3): Godwalking” by Paul O’Connor et al (Illustrated serial, not reviewed)
Reviewed by Geoff Houghton
The opening piece of fiction in Cirsova #7 is the second part of a three-part novel set in the Wild Stars Universe. There is also part two of a Manga-style comic. In line with Tangent Online policy, neither has been reviewed.
The first item to be reviewed is “Lupus One” by Caroline Furlong.
This novelette opens on Earth’s moon about a century or so into the future. The protagonist is one of a group of Lunar Rangers who patrol the surface of the moon in robotic vehicles built in the shape of a thirty foot long wolf. The purpose of their perambulations across the lunar landscape is unclear whilst the text remains in the realm of SF, but the story rapidly shifts into pure fantasy when the hero crosses onto the “dark side of the moon.” Our protagonist is plunged into a war between the minions of two goddesses whose powers are so great that the reviewer has to wonder why they need minions at all!
This reader found the sudden switch from what initially appeared to be SF to High Fantasy to be quite jarring, and that was amplified by the feeling that the sole purpose of the massively over-engineered Lupus technology was to allow fast and furious combat in that fantasy world, although the Lupus designers had no clue that such a world existed.
The second piece reviewed is “His Amber Eyes, His Pointed Smile” by Tais Teng is set in a fantastical version of medieval India. It follows the life of the protagonist, Iskander, from his early youth to his old age.
He is the son of a rich young Indian princess and a powerful philandering wizard who seduced Iskander’s mother, stole the finest pieces of her treasure and abandoned him before he was born. On that lifetime journey, Iskander becomes a powerful wizard in his own right, delivers a splendidly appropriate vengeance on his father and is finally reconciled to his progenitor.
The elegant flowing prose of this story read as if it was a part of a genuine saga from India’s long tradition of oral storytellers. This reader was left with a contented feeling of time well spent on this complex and multi-layered story.
The third offering, “Sky Machine” by J. Comer, is set in an alternative universe very loosely based on the Western Roman Empire and its relationship with the Germanic tribes located to the North. This short tale feels as if it was intended to be part of a longer story that further explores the career of the female medic who accompanies a party of explorers into the Germanic forest.
In this story, the small party of Imperial explorers is captured by the tribal inhabitants of the forest. This reader half-expected that the party would be saved by some arcane use of the medical skills of the female protagonist, but instead an engineer with the party uses his knowledge of astronomy to overawe the natives with an accurate prediction of a convenient, and improbably spectacular, meteor shower.
The final original work for is “The King’s Game” by Jim Breyfogle. This story revolves about an exotic real-time game played with enchanted life-sized pieces in a topographically complex arena. The story protagonists, Mangos and his female companion Kat, appear to be part mercenary, part adventurers. It is clear that the travels of this pair are part of an ongoing series of stories set in a High Fantasy world where magic and mechanistic devices blur, but this story can stand alone with no other background to this universe.
The author lovingly details the battles and stratagems of this sophisticated wargame with all the passion that a lover of games can bring to their subject. Our protagonists outmanoeuvre the opposition with guile and cunning to seize the prize, but those readers who are not deeply into the terminology of fantasy war gaming may find that they become lost in the exquisite attention to detail.
Geoff Houghton lives in a leafy village in rural England. He is a retired Healthcare Professional with a love of SF and a jackdaw-like appetite for gibbets of medical, scientific and historical knowledge.