Another month, another batch of new short stories for your reading enjoyment. First there’s the usual complement of two stories from the October issue of Curtis Ellett’s Swords and Sorcery Magazine. Then, between Beneath Ceaseless Skies #131 and #132, there are an additional seven stories. I was hoping the Autumn Heroic Fantasy Quarterly would hit the ether before I had to get this done, but no such luck.
Swords and Sorcery Magazine is straightforward. See that title? That’s pretty much what you get and I consider that a good thing. That I’m writing this while listening to Manowar’s Battle Hymns is absolutely appropriate.
Swords and Sorcery opens with James Lecky’s “Forged in Heaven, Tempered in Hell“. The story is told alternately from the perspectives of Halvari, High Priest of Baal-Rethok, and Kharchadour the God-Slayer as they face one another across the battlefield. The priest is the chief servant of the last of the demonic idiot gods and the God-Slayer is the man who’s killed all of Baal-Rethok’s co-deities.
The priest’s narrative consists mostly of begging his master to destroy the approaching warrior, while the God-Slayer’s recounts his origins. There’s nothing strikingly original about the plot, but what makes this story work is the bloody determination of Kharchadour. Also, I’m a big fan of the standalone short story that doesn’t feel like it’s missing a real beginning or ending, of which this is a great example.
Donald Jacob Uitvlugt is the author of S&S’s second story, “Right of Ultissima.” Lady Alina of Marovia is introduced smashing open the door to the Loremaster Tolek’s lab with her sword. For twenty years, she has sought vengeance for her father’s death. Before she can act, Tolek calls for the Rite of Ultissima, the privilege of speaking a last few words before death. What he says forces her to reconsider her entire life. Uitvlugt refers to his writing as haiku fiction: short and impactful. At under 1,800 words, it is pretty short. Its impact, mostly derived from some not surprising psychological insights, and unfortunately not the trappings of magic and swords, is only moderate.
So last month I was excited that Beneath Ceaseless Skies seemed to be back on the heroic fiction train. Well, that train derailed. Issue #131, the double-sized fifth anniversary issue, has five stories — one to commemorate each year of its existence — and not a single one can be even marginally considered heroic fiction. I almost don’t care that two of them are really good.
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