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Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #260
Issue #260 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Maria Haskins.
19 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 5, 2018
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6 people want to read
About the author
Scott H. Andrews
469 books24 followersScott H. Andrews is a writer of science fiction. He teaches college chemistry. He is Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the fantasy magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
Andrews's short stories have appeared in Weird Tales, Space and Time, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, On Spec, Crossed Genres, and M-Brane SF.
Andrews's short stories have appeared in Weird Tales, Space and Time, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, On Spec, Crossed Genres, and M-Brane SF.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 22, 2018
All my zine reviews for early September 2018 can be found at https://1000yearplan.com/2018/09/22/t...
The bleak, frosty atmospherics of Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s “Ancestor Night” lend its spectral premise extra bite. On the longest night of the year, the villagers trek through the deep snow to Memory Lake, where their departed loved ones will rise to the surface of the ice. Once there, the living relatives sing a prayer asking their ancestors to wake or stay asleep. Paolo and his siblings lost their parents a year ago; after singing the Ancestor Night prayer, his beloved oldest sister Jasna admits she caused their deaths. Their father wakes, and whispers something only Jasna can hear. “Ancestor Night” is a resonant documentation of an imaginary ritual, though a little too crisp and aerial to be more than an effective mood piece.
I love the way Maria Haskins lets images and emotions guide the structure of her stories, building them the way people reflect on the narratives that define them, rather than ordering them in a clean, linear fashion. Ten years of reflection, a journey from age 7 to 17, guide young Susanna in “It’s Easy to Shoot a Dog”, as she treks into the woods with her beloved dog, Brother, to the witch’s cottage to keep an old promise. Haskins’ prose offers a striking balance of harshness and delicacy. As a child, Susanna tells her parents she lost her little brother in the woods: “Even at the age of seven, the lies felt smooth and true upon her tongue. And Mama wailing like she’d ever cared for him, and Papa’s face gone hard as rocks and iron, as if he’d ever once held him close.” The writing is expressive, but taut, like a slow turning lever tightening a vise.
The bleak, frosty atmospherics of Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s “Ancestor Night” lend its spectral premise extra bite. On the longest night of the year, the villagers trek through the deep snow to Memory Lake, where their departed loved ones will rise to the surface of the ice. Once there, the living relatives sing a prayer asking their ancestors to wake or stay asleep. Paolo and his siblings lost their parents a year ago; after singing the Ancestor Night prayer, his beloved oldest sister Jasna admits she caused their deaths. Their father wakes, and whispers something only Jasna can hear. “Ancestor Night” is a resonant documentation of an imaginary ritual, though a little too crisp and aerial to be more than an effective mood piece.
I love the way Maria Haskins lets images and emotions guide the structure of her stories, building them the way people reflect on the narratives that define them, rather than ordering them in a clean, linear fashion. Ten years of reflection, a journey from age 7 to 17, guide young Susanna in “It’s Easy to Shoot a Dog”, as she treks into the woods with her beloved dog, Brother, to the witch’s cottage to keep an old promise. Haskins’ prose offers a striking balance of harshness and delicacy. As a child, Susanna tells her parents she lost her little brother in the woods: “Even at the age of seven, the lies felt smooth and true upon her tongue. And Mama wailing like she’d ever cared for him, and Papa’s face gone hard as rocks and iron, as if he’d ever once held him close.” The writing is expressive, but taut, like a slow turning lever tightening a vise.
September 26, 2018
Issue rating - 4 stars
Ancestor Night by Nina Kiriki Hoffman 4 stars
I really liked this short story, my only complaint was that I think it was just a tiny bit too short. There were things mentioned in it that I think needed a bit more explaining. Overall it was still a very enjoyable story!
It's Easy To Shoot A Dog by Maria Hoskins 4 stars
The suspense built steadily as I read this story, to the point where I was rather tense by the time it reached its finale. I loved the way the author leaves judgement of the sister totally up to the reader. Choosing to write the story that way definitely added to the unease I felt at the end.
Ancestor Night by Nina Kiriki Hoffman 4 stars
I really liked this short story, my only complaint was that I think it was just a tiny bit too short. There were things mentioned in it that I think needed a bit more explaining. Overall it was still a very enjoyable story!
It's Easy To Shoot A Dog by Maria Hoskins 4 stars
The suspense built steadily as I read this story, to the point where I was rather tense by the time it reached its finale. I loved the way the author leaves judgement of the sister totally up to the reader. Choosing to write the story that way definitely added to the unease I felt at the end.
March 16, 2019
Rating and review only for for Maria Haskins's It's Easy to Shoot A Dog.
This is a morose, unpleasant read but that is because I am a dog lover so I am biased. It was tense, though the protagonist was such a selfish brat.
This is a morose, unpleasant read but that is because I am a dog lover so I am biased. It was tense, though the protagonist was such a selfish brat.
June 21, 2022
Two stories of fantasy, mystery and horror
It's hard to describe the stories without giving away the solutions to the mystery in each story. Both stories were set in a fantasy world similar to our own but several hundred years in the past and they both involved a crime and its solution that is slowly revealed through the narrative.
It's hard to describe the stories without giving away the solutions to the mystery in each story. Both stories were set in a fantasy world similar to our own but several hundred years in the past and they both involved a crime and its solution that is slowly revealed through the narrative.
November 11, 2018
A nicely creepy pairing, maybe a bit too creepy for my taste, but strong enough to overcome it.
March 13, 2019
Wonderful stories by Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Maria Haskins. Each of the stories was beautifully written and executed. I highly recommend this issue.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews