“Slayer of Dreams” by Auston Habershaw [12520 words]
In the city of Avissos, the Onierarch, or Dream Tyrant, taxes the dreams of its citizens whether asleep or awake. By day the city exists solely to witness glorious arena battles between champions and gorgons – monsters of fire and steel. The barbarian witch Katatha returns to the city for revenge, years after escaping enslavement by the Dream Tyrant. She intends to use the city’s greatest champion, Hargeas, as her tool against her enemy in hopes of freeing the people of the city from its grasp.
Habershaw is a sturdy and seasoned SFF author, and this shows in both the elements of his worldbuilding and steadily rising tension of the narrative. Grotesque details like the shape-changing, fire-spitting gorgons; the creepy way the Onierarch puppets its adherents; the bottles of “champion sweat” people hang around their necks or on doorframes as talismans. Ultimately, I couldn’t decide if I wanted the piece to be longer or shorter, to revel in its minutia or tell a tighter, terser story. Perhaps it falls just short of balancing the two. Otherwise, a solid and imaginative tale.
“Through the Corpse Door” by R.I. Sutton [16326 words] ***Recommended***
Wilhelm Strong is a glassblower and member of the þrælar, the lowest caste in the floating city of Himinheim. Everyone living on the bottom level of the city has a “corpse door” for fishing and disposing of corpses (!), which happens all too frequently. One day, a man from the highest caste comes to Wilhelm’s workshop to commission some oddly shaped vials, and sometime after this, þrælar begin disappearing through their corpse doors, with authorities claiming it to be an epidemic of suicides. Wilhelm’s apprentice sees a conspiracy afoot and is able to convince Wilhelm to entertain his suspicions, with tragic results.
The story begins with a lament, indicating the story we are about to read is from a message-in-a-bottle. We know from the start this won’t end well and are reminded of this with each shocking and violent turn of events in the final act. Even with the inevitable dissolution of Wilhelm’s efforts to uncover the truth and save his people, the author constructs a suspenseful and emotionally wrenching narrative. This could have been a little shorter and tighter (yes, I always say that) but it never lost my attention.
Item 202 