On Spec #132, Summer 2025“Thinking of You” by Mary Sanche
“His Ninth Pilgrim Soul” by Christine Lucas
“Mabel’s Creek” by M. L. D. Curelas and Rhonda Parrish
“Penny Dreadful” by Lorina Stephens
“Escape From the Urvara” by John M. Campbell
“Katabasis” by Joanna Rifkin
“The Fishwife Who Killed Death” by D. A. Straith
“The Knotted Hand” by Jonathan Olfert
“Children of a Bronze Sun” by Robert Luke Wilkins
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
The narrator of “Thinking of You” by Mary Sanche inherits a small museum from an aunt. Following the aunt’s cat into the basement in an attempt to find out how it gets out every night leads to an extraordinary discovery.
There is not much more to the story than what the narrator learns about the museum. The work makes for enjoyable reading, with a likable narrator, but leaves one wishing for something more substantial.
“His Ninth Pilgrim Soul” by Christine Lucas features a pair of healers with neuronal implants that give them telekinetic powers. While working on a spaceship carrying refugees from a war with aliens, they find a cyborg cat. Returning the cat to its home by following a distress signal broadcast from a crystal in its collar, they run into one of the aliens, dangerous cybernetic animals, and a remarkable person from the past.
This synopsis makes the story sound like pure science fiction, but in fact a major part of the plot involves a mythological figure. The author provides plenty of speculative elements, but they do not always work together gracefully.
The narrator of “Mabel’s Creek” by M. L. D. Curelas and Rhonda Parrish is a writer living in a remote home. He experiences strange phenomena that lead him to the truth about an old tragedy.
This is a ghost story that follows a familiar pattern. Once the haunting begins there are few surprises in the plot. References to the works of Stephen King tend to draw the reader out of the story, as if the authors are openly alluding to some of the inspiration for their work.
“Penny Dreadful” by Lorina Stephens is set in Victorian times. A man is cursed to sell novels forever until someone agrees to have his or her own life story written down. (He met this fate by allowing another man to write his life story in the same way.) He meets a governess forced to leave her position and offers to make the same deal. Instead, they come up with a way to make the situation work out well for both of them.
The fantasy premise is unusual and plays out in an unexpected way. The historical setting is convincing and the characters are appealing. Their conversation is appropriate to the time without being affected.
In “Escape From the Urvara” by John M. Campbell, the protagonist enters a derelict spaceship that was attacked by a rogue artificial intelligence. It turns out that the AI is still in control of the vessel. Fleeing the ship before the AI kills him requires all the protagonist’s skill, as well as help from his own AI; but will it remain loyal to him?
This is a science fiction adventure story, of the kind often found in the pages of Analog. The details of the way the protagonist struggles to solve his problem may be hard to follow for readers who are not technically minded. As in many tales of this kind, the plot is of more importance than the characters. The only one who seems real is the protagonist’s AI.
The title of “Katabasis” by Joanna Rifkin refers to a journey to the underworld, and this describes its plot aptly. A knight descends to the land of the dead in search of her squire. She must obey all the rules required for visitors to the underworld, or fail in her quest.
The author’s portrait of the land of the dead is clearly based on classical mythology. Some of the ways in which these ancient legends are treated may seem bathetic to some readers; for example, taming Cerberus with dog biscuits. On the other hand, this aspect of the story might be intended to foreshadow the story’s conclusion, when we learn the true nature of the knight and squire.
This is the author’s first published work. Although some of it is overly familiar, it certainly shows promise, particularly in the way it depicts the relationship between the characters.
As its title suggests, “The Fishwife Who Killed Death” by D. A. Straith reads like a folktale. The narrator relates how her grandmother and others tricked the incarnation of death after it took away an unfair number of people from their village.
The most interesting part of this story is its portrait of a French-Canadian fishing community of the past. The plot of wise mortals overcoming the Grim Reaper may not be new, but one element of the premise, that death always takes the form of the last person to die, adds something original to a familiar theme.
In “The Knotted Hand” by Jonathan Olfert, the narrator, who has lost one of his hands, joins the many suitors who have failed to perform a task required by the ruler of the village before she will marry one of them. In his case, she mockingly asks him to shake her hand, using the hand he does not have. An artificial hand, created with the help of the man’s aunt, who is a witch, also fails to meet her demands. Although he seems doomed to suffer the same fate as other rejected suitors, the situation ends in an unexpected way for both of them.
This synopsis makes the story sound like a fairy tale, but fails to convey its mood. It could be called a work of grimdark fantasy. For example, when the narrator finds the dead body of the man who cut off his hand, he eats a piece of his flesh.
Both the narrator and the woman he tries to win are very cynical, neither one really wanting to marry but both willing to do so in order to rule over others. Other than the imaginary setting, the only fantasy element is the aunt’s ability to weave living objects, which seems out of place.
The characters in “Children of a Bronze Sun” by Robert Luke Wilkins lead primitive lives in the wilderness outside a city that spews pollution into the air. They travel to the city at certain times to trade and to obtain care for their newborns, who would otherwise perish quickly in the tainted air. When an unplanned pregnancy occurs, outside the time permitted by the group, they must make a dangerous journey to the city during the worst part of the year, facing many dangers along the way.
The story provides little background information for its setting, presumably a futuristic, possibly post-apocalyptic one. The characters have access to some technology, such as firearms and respirators, and one has to assume that they obtain them from the city in exchange for furs and the like. The city is willing to care for the infants brought to them, but apparently they have to leave after a certain amount of time.
Mention is made of animals, from so-called pointers who are a source of meat to so-called growlers who are dangerous, but the reader learns nothing else about them. Perhaps these are something like deer and bears, or maybe they are mutated creatures. It is impossible to tell.
Despite this vagueness, the author provides a vivid description of a grim way of life. The most interesting character is the man who was responsible for the unplanned pregnancy, who matures during the journey from an impetuous youth to a responsible man.
Victoria Silverwolf is not technically minded.