Walls — Gaie Sebold

23 October 202122 August 2024 By 5t4n5

Walls -- Gaie Sebold Available to read in the anthology, X7.

Wow, that was a weird trip. This short story starts really strangely, and gets even stranger, as our protagonist, Chrys, who suffers from agoraphobia and can’t go out, gets worse and worse to the point of having what seems to be a total psychotic melt down.

And then everything comes crashing down, and boom! What an ending.

Ever more wonderful writing and story telling from Gaie, a master of the writing craft. If you haven’t yet read any of Gaie’s writing then i really suggest you get started, it’s real good fantasy for grown ups who love real good fantasy.

Gaie’s Page

#fantasy #gaiesebold

Shattering the Spear — P. Djèlí Clark

18 October 202120 August 2024 By 5t4n5

Shattering the Spear -- P. Djèlí Clark Available in the anthology, The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Vol 1.

Having just read Djèlí’s Dead Djinn books and totally enjoyed them, i had no choice in my good book reading avarice but to go hunting for everything i could find by Djèlí and start reading it all in publication order, and you guessed it, Shattering the Spear is, i think, the first story published.

Shattering the Spear seems to me to be based upon an African tribal warrior, in a land that reminds one of those vast pictures of African grasslands. It’s also full of Animist religious ideas, which, being an Animist myself, is really nice to find in a book these days. There’s also some good fight/action scenes, with the same great writing that you find in the Dead Djinn books. In fact, there’s quite a lot packed into this short story.

Next up on the Djèlí list is Skin Magic, but before i get around to that i’ve got a few other writers and their books to catch up with and read first.