REVIEW: “The Widow” by Emma Torzs

Review of Emma Torzs, “The Widow”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 305 (June 4, 2020): Listen online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

This story of transformation, revenge, and double-crosses takes the form of a confession dictated to a man “in the final hour of his life” by narrator Perrine Mauroy “in the first hour of her own.” As the story opens, Perrine is a battered wife seeking freedom from an abusive husband, but she also yearns for the chance to live a stranger, though—from her point of view—better life. When the blood of a living calf is transfused into her husband, somehow rendering him peaceful, Perrine takes hope, only to have that hope dashed when the transformation wears off. What happens next involves an unusual combination of science, magic, and double-dealing, and ends with an odd, but oddly satisfying, metamorphosis.  

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REVIEW: “Calm Face of the Storm” by Ramona Louise Wheeler

Review of Ramona Louise Wheeler, “Calm Face of the Storm”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact May/June (2020): 119–131 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

In a planet orbiting twin suns, Bret is a flying man that has strayed away from his home while chasing a strange looking lizard. On the way, a violent storm almost kills him, knocking him unconscious. Bret wakes up in one of the lighthouses that populate the edge of his people’s territory. There he finds out that the lighthouses are maintained by a set of “transparent” flying people, not as technologically advanced as his own culture, living a more natural way of life. Bret falls in love with Mornell, the daughter of the lighthouse keeper, and with her help, adopts their way of life. However, he soon realizes that he can’t stay with them forever and must return home.

I always try to not be a stickler about “genre purity,” but I was nevertheless surprised this story was included in Analog. While it has some elements of science fiction (twin suns, spaceports, possibly aliens, etc.) it reads a lot more like a fantasy story — or at the very least, a convoluted hybrid of the two (I could not stop thinking of Avatar). It doesn’t matter so much, since most of the story takes place inside the main character’s head, but it is nevertheless something that stood out to me.

Genre nitpicking aside, I was rather disappointed with the story. The world that the author creates, while rich in detail, is nothing new or original, drawing on many preexisting tropes. At times I was impressed with the author’s prose, but much of it felt padded with one unnecessary description after another, making the story rather painful to read. Similarly, the plot offers little more than a standard coming of age story with the addition of some serious holes in its logic. For example, Bret comes from a somewhat technologically advanced society, yet nobody knows what lies just a few miles outside their city. This sounds highly implausible to say the least.

Overall, I found very little to enjoy in “Calm Face of the Storm.”

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REVIEW: “The Honey of the World and the Queen of Crows” by Dimitra Nikolaidou

Review of Dimitra Nikolaidou, “The Honey of the World and the Queen of Crows”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 304 (May 21, 2020): listen online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

Ever hear the one about the nun and the soldier who enter a bar and can’t see their reflection, or that of the bartender, in the mirror on the opposite wall? Neither had I until I read this wonderful story. Magdalene is the nun and Leandros the soldier. He and a fellow soldier he loves (Yiorgos) have just suffered mortal wounds in battle and now Leandros finds himself on what Magdalene describes as “the border.” While they sit there, drinking honeyed raqi (him) and whiskey (her), Magdalene offers him a chance to live again and escape the war with Yiorgos. Leandros can’t help thinking of the offer as a bargain with the Devil. To convince him otherwise, the nun magically stops time and tells him the very unnunlike story of her life and death and the price she paid for the opportunity to tell it to him. It’s a remarkable story, told in a compelling narrative voice, marred only slightly by the somewhat jarring, though ultimately satisfying, point-of-view shift toward the end.  

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REVIEW: “Clever Jack, Heavy with Stories” by R. K. Duncan

Review of R.K. Duncan, “Clever Jack, Heavy with Stories”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 304 (May 21, 2020): read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

This enjoyable adventure in the land of the fairies is well worth reading, even though the ending is a bit predictable. It primarily centers around the close relationship between two childhood friends. Rowland, the son of Lord Robert, is the stronger of the two, while Jack, the son of Lord Robert’s cook, is smarter and wiser than his friend. Class differences should force the two to part company, but in spite of the difficulties, their companionship continues into their fourteenth year. That’s when a magic spell transports Rowland to Fairyland against his will. Jack is determined to rescue him and—with the help of an old witch, some gifts from his mother, and his own quick wits—he does so, gaining more than he bargained for by story’s end. 

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REVIEW: “Fox Red, Life Red, Teeth Like Snow” By Devin Miller

Review of Devin Miller, “Fox Red, Life Red, Teeth Like Snow”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 303, May 7, 2020: listen online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

In this brief but interesting story, a changetroll named Hryggda is returning home to her wives shortly before dawn with a human baby she secretly “traded” a changeling-babe for. Along the way she meets a wolf hungry for more than animal prey. Somehow, “wolves have been hunting the sun since her autumn waning, but she has escaped, hidden herself in a den to sleep until spring like a bear. And now, it seems, the forest’s hunters aim to eat the moon.” Hryggda is determined to protect the moon, much as the moon protects her during her late night excursions. She is, however, hampered by her even greater need to protect the newborn she carries. 

I won’t tell you what happens, but I will say that the story ends too quickly and too conveniently for my taste. It would have benefited from a deeper examination of the lives of the changetrolls and the world they inhabit.  

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REVIEW: “Lonely Children Lost at Sea” by Wendy Nikel

Review of Wendy Nikel, “Lonely Children Lost at Sea”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 302 (April 23, 2020). Read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

“The sea giveth and the sea taketh away” could well be the theme of this excellent story. It takes place on an island where a small number of children—only children—have been periodically stranded. Over time, the original children have grown up and a rough but functional society has evolved. More recently stranded children are cared for in a communal fashion, since “the miracle of conception, which reads like fairy tale magic in our books” is impossible on the island. Nevertheless, some of the original children, such as Theodore and Gina, have paired off, while at least one other, Loraine, finds herself in an unrequited love triangle. She yearns for something more with Theodore—one of her closest friends in childhood, as was Gina—while Gina yearns for a child of her own. She gets her wish when a new child, given the name Maris (or “of the sea”) is rescued. However, “be careful what you wish for” could be another theme of this story, and Loraine’s sense of foreboding, brought on by the adoption, is borne out. 

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REVIEW: “Who Goes Against a Waste of Waters” by Eleanna Castroianni

Review of Eleanna Castroianni, “Who Goes Against a Waste of Waters”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 302 (April 23, 2020): Listen online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

On the surface, this story portrays the struggle of the titular narrator and her brother to survive while living on their own in a dead giant’s skull in a graveyard located in a war zone. The kids are barely hanging on. Their parents, without explanation, have long ago departed, “headed eastward, to the Deep Night. No one fully alive knows what lies there.” It’s a brief, strange, dream-like story which, toward the end, seems to hint at delusion. Regardless, the story has an ominous, rather nightmarish quality. It’s certainly not a fun piece, but it’s worth reading. 

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REVIEW: “As the Shore to the Tides, So Blood Calls to Blood” by Karlo Yeager Rodriguez

Review of Karlo Yeager Rodriguez, “As the Shore to the Tides, So Blood Calls to Blood”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 301 (April 9, 2020): Read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

Like its companion piece in this issue of BCS, Rodriguez’s tale features two bitterly angry siblings. More than one set of them, in fact. The more interesting of these are portrayed in a genesis myth, related early in the story, of two god-like brothers who “divided the world between the bitter waters and sweet,” only to turn upon each other, like Cain and Abel. The rest of the story involves the more mundane, though still magic-infused, tale of a young boy abandoned by his older brother and forced to live under the tyranny of a cruel religious order.  

I’m of two minds about this story. The opening scenes swept me away and left me eager to discover what would happen next. Unfortunately, the remainder of the story failed to live up to the promise of those early scenes. Still, Rodriguez is clearly a talented writer and I look forward to reading more of his work. 

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REVIEW: “February Moon” by Josh Rountree

Review of Josh Rountree, “February Moon”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 303 (May 7, 2020): Read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

Things are not all they seem in the lead story of BCS’ latest issue. Someone or, as the first word of the story suggests, something is killing the animals at the small farm where the German immigrant narrator and two of her children reside. Her husband and oldest son are missing for reasons that provoke guilt in the narrator but are not initially explained. Rountree’s quietly horrifying story is a striking portrait of a solitary woman seemingly in need of a man’s protection—at least according to the men in the town near her farm—yet strong enough to resist repeated unsought advances. What help she does need comes from an unexpected source and, by story’s end, we learn the reason for her fear and guilt, as well as the source of her strength and despair. It’s an excellent story, wonderfully told. I like the title, too. It may seem understated, but it takes on added significance once you’ve finished the piece. 

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REVIEW: “Net Loss” by James Sallis

Review of James Sallis, “Net Loss”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact May/June (2020): 107–108 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

The protagonist is unfairly sent to jail when a  “smart” TV hears an argument between him and his girlfriend and calls the police. From then on, his life takes a serious turn for the worse. After he gets out of jail, his girlfriend leaves him, his landlord evicts him, and his name ends up on a sex offenders list. As such, he decides to give in and turn into a real criminal.

Except for the “smart” TV that calls the cops, there’s hardly any speculative elements in the story, so its place in Analog may be questionable. That aside, it was a pleasant read. The prose is written in stream-of-consciousness style, which makes the rather sardonic twist at the end (if one may call it that) work surprisingly well. It felt like navigating through an unstable mind, which I imagine is what the author intended. However, I’m not sure what the title “Net Loss” refers to in the story.

Overall, this was an enjoyable piece of flash fiction.

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