Not-a-Review of Mythic Orbits 2

As a general rule, I don’t review anthologies and magazines that I’m in. Kristin and I both have short stories in Mythic Orbits 2, the second volume of Bear Publication’s collection of speculative fiction stories by Christian authors.

My story, “Her Majesty’s Guardian,” was a very short piece originally published by Daily Science Fiction. It asked the question of how a magic society would deal with a royal family with a genetic predisposition toward madness and a ridiculous amount of power.

Kristin’s story, “The Workshop at the End of the World,” is a more whimsical tale involving elves, and to say any more about the premise would be to spoil it. It was also published in Daily Science Fiction.

We’re very proud of both these stories, of course, but like I said, I don’t review books that I’m in, and I especially don’t review my own stories, or Kristin’s. But I would like to talk about some of the other stories in those books, and I thought I’d mention a few that really worked for me.

My favorite was “Mark the Days” by Kat Heckenbach. Denver begins to live his days by the order that he marks them off in his calendar. He takes advantage of this, skipping over days and coming back to them later, when he can take advantage of knowing what the following days bring. But slowly he comes to realize that there is something terrible waiting for him on the one day he skipped at the beginning, and eventually he won’t be able to avoid it any longer. I felt that this story was successful in creating a rising sense of tension, and showing how someone might deal with knowing the future, while fearing to know the past.

Another story I really enjoyed was “They Stood Still,” by William Bontrager. Anyone who uses a computer knows the frustration that happens when the computer freezes, and you’re afraid to do anything, in case that makes you lose all your unsaved work. This story imagines what would happen if the whole world stopped. Samuel, who lost his legs in Iraq, suddenly has to deal with a Las Vegas empty of all motion except himself. I thought this story really dealt with his dawning horror, and the fear that he would never interact with anyone or anything ever again. I didn’t feel like the story quite stuck the landing, however. I would have preferred a deeper meaning to this event than what we received.

Less grim was “Unerella” by Keturah Lamb. This tells the story of the other young woman at Prince Charming’s ball, who has to figure out her own way when Cinderella steals his heart. There’s nothing really twisty about this story, once you figure out that it’s not from Cinderella’s point of view, but I enjoyed the determination of a young woman who had to learn to dream something new.

“The Other Edge” by C.W. Briar was a particularly memorable dark science fiction tale. Astronaut Varik Babel leads his crew to make first contact with a ship from another world. What he finds is not what he’s looking for. I did find the ending somewhat implausible, given what I know of the technologies involved, but it was horrifying even so.

“Dragon Moon” by Linda Burklin was a bittersweet story about Darla, a young woman who slowly covers herself in tattooed scales to entertain and distract her younger brother, who’s dying of cancer. While I can’t imagine someone doing that–I kept thinking that she must be crazy to do so–it brought out the depth of her love for her brother. The fantastical ending to this story was dramatic and appropriate, but I felt that the denouement too easily canceled the price that Darla had paid.

These were the stories that really drew me in and which I found myself thinking about days after reading. But our experience of stories is subjective, and I suspect other readers might find themselves reliving some of the other stories in this anthology, such as that of the mother bear searching for her lost cubs, or a curator explaining Earth culture to his alien overlords, or a failed Mars colony recalled to Earth, or robots replaying forgotten memories. I think most people will find something to enjoy in this anthology. Perhaps even a story about a queen’s guardian, or a workshop at the end of the world.