Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #270

by Scott H. Andrews (Editor), Natalia Theodoridou, Alix E. Harrow

Issue #270 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Natalia Theodoridou (To Stab with a Rose, to Love with a Knife) and Alix E. Harrow (Do Not Look Back, My Lion).

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Hugo Awards, Queer, War, LGBT

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 31, 2019

About the author

Scott 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.

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for the Hugo-nominated short story Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix Harrow:

It’s a story set in a typical warrior culture, although matriarchical and with traditional gender roles flipped (women are warriors, men are mostly doing domestic duties) and designations of husband/wife referring to domestic duties regardless of gender.

It’s a country devoted to the god of war, glorifying conquest and battles above all.

“Distantly, over the too-loud sound of her own shuddering heartbeat, Eefa imagines she can hear the great white wolf of war padding through the streets, howling its glee.”

Eefa is a cripple, a healer unscarred in battle - nothing that earns her respect in the bloodthirsty war-dominant callous society, while her wife Talaan is the Lion of Xot, a famed ferocious warrior who seems to value the service to god of war and the bloodthirsty Emperor above her family. Their four children are dedicated to war, and the fifth that Talaan carries now - the late baby of this long marriage - seems fated for the same even before birth. Which is too much for Eefa; and when you can’t fight you may choose to run instead.

It’s the eternal motifs of violence versus love, duty versus family, tradition versus rebellion, loss versus hope. Some head to the war in pursuit of elusive glory; others are left behind, waiting and mourning and hoping. Regardless of who does the fighting and who does the waiting, the point is the conflict between these opposing and conflicting demands and the toll they take.

And sometimes you need to walk away. To run. And not look back.

“All of it, all that golden, brimming life, she has given to Ukhel, to war. Now she will give her Death to something else. To life.”

It’s amazing how much vivid worldbuilding Harrow managed to pack into such a short story. How much character development. How much emotion and feeling that was poignant but not overwrought.

4 stars.

———
Alix Harrow is a very talented writer, I have to say. This is her third work I’ve read - and each time I’ve been very impressed. Her wonderful debut novel The Ten Thousand Doors of January is also nominated for Hugos, and she authored one of the best short stories that I’ve ever read (a Hugo-winner, by the way) - ‘A Compendium of Doors’: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Lovely work, Ms. Harrow, lovely work.

———————

My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

***Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow***

A husband’s struggle with her wife’s unwavering sense of duty towards the Emperor and her ceaseless war-making. (no misuse of determiners – they are all women)

Even when Talaan is pregnant with their fifth child, she feels the need to return to the battlefield. It is her duty, for she is a great warrior and "a soldier does not ask for a good Life, only a good Death."

Well, Eefa only wants a life, and a family.

A fantasy-tale of death and birth, of war and love and family, of bloodshed and suffering and duty. A tale of loss, and of hope. Hope for a better life. A different life.

Took quite some time to draw me in. Too long, maybe. But the ending was a bit like catching your first glimpse of sunshine on a long and cloudy day. So I liked that, obviously.

Hugo 2020 nominee for Best Short Story.

Can be read for free here: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.co...

____________________________

2020 Hugo Award Finalists

Best Novel
• The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
• Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Best Novella
• Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang ( Exhalation)
• The Deep by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
• In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Best Novelette
• The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2019)
• Away With the Wolves by Sarah Gailey ( Uncanny Magazine Issue 30: Disabled People Destroy Fanatsy! Special Issue)
• The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye by Sarah Pinsker ( Uncanny Magazine Issue 29: July/August 2019)
• Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin
• For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
• Omphalos by Ted Chiang

Best Short Story
• And Now His Lordship Is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9 September 2019)
• As the Last I May Know by S.L. Huang
• Blood Is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon
• A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 26, January-February 2019)
• Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #270)
• Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, Issue 80)

Best Series
• The Expanse by James S. A. Corey
• InCryptid by Seanan McGuire
• Luna by Ian McDonald
• Planetfall series by Emma Newman
• Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
• The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson

Best Related Work
• Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski
• Joanna Russ by Gwyneth Jones
• The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara
• The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn
• 2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech by Jeannette Ng
• Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, produced and directed by Arwen Curry

Best Graphic Story or Comic
• Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles
• LaGuardia, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin
• Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda
• Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil
• Paper Girls, Volume 6, written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher
• The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: "Okay" by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Clayton Cowles

[rebecca | velvet opus · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Eefa has been a good husband, she knows, but now she is running”

Alix E. Harrow’s short story and finalist for the 2020 Hugo Awards, is a fantasy without gender based roles or naming conventions; a ‘husband’ is one who stays at home, a ‘wife’ is one who goes to war. Strong-willed husband, Eefa, marches to protest the Emperor's ceaseless war-making, trying to save her child from certain death...

”But when enough people tell the same story enough times, it begins to come true”

I’ve admired Alix E. Harrow since reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January (you can see my review on Goodreads here). She has a real gift for writing, constantly re-imagining the world with an emphasis on women’s rights. This story is no different. The concept of function-based roles is fresh, and delightful; the plethora of women similarly bold and standalone with their duality of life-giving and life-taking.

The words carry an immense weight and this story of the lengths we go to for love, and the strength in actions and words, intrigued, gripped and moved me. My only qualm is that I wish it were longer!

”Make it count, my Lion. Do not look back”

Do Not Look Back, My Lion, was published in Issue #270 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies and can be read for free online here.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review for Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #270, January 31, 2019

High fantasy, war, genderfluid characters. Death and blood and endless war. Loss, betrayal, hope.

“Betrayal is a fearsome armor against love.“

The world building was pretty good, but I did not connect with the characters. I liked the ending, although I did not really agree with the choices everyone made. It got me thinking though, so I can see why this is nominated for a Hugo.

Can be read for free here:
http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.co...

————
2020 Hugo Award Finalist

Best Short Story
* “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019) ★★★☆☆
* “As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019), ★★★★½
* “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019), ★★☆☆☆
* “A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019), ★★☆☆☆
* “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019), ★★★☆☆
* “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019)

[Silvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating and review only for Alix E. Harrow's Do Not Look Back, My Lion.

Well, since this is the only Hugo's short story nominee I have yet to read (though I have downloaded it in my Kindle for months), obviously I have to read it asap.

At first, I felt like reading one of Kameron Hurley's stories, really, with all the group marriages and fluid gender roles, but Harrow has her own distinct style that's more subtle and melancholic. She succeeded in weaving a story with a sympathetic character experiencing a heartfelt conflict in a well-built world in fewer than 7,500 words. Funnily enough, I enjoyed this better than her other nominated work, Ten Thousand Doors of January :)

Can be read here: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.co...

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

My review is solely for "Do Not Look Back, My Lion," by Alix E. Harrow, a Hugo nominee for best short story. So far it's unpromising. Bad Emperor, tough mom. Kid going to war: “A soldier does not ask for a good Life, only for a good Death,” Talaan intones. Blah blah blah.

So far, I'm not seeing anything that makes me want to continue. Too bad. I did like her debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, last year, a very fine portal fantasy, that my GR friend Tadiana said is "perched at the top of the mountain of portal fantasies that I’ve read in my life." I liked it too.

"My Lion": DNF. Not for me.

[Brok3n · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stylistically gorgeous, but thin on content.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Rulers send boys to war, where they get killed, and that makes their mothers and fathers angry.

OK, well yeah, of course you've heard it. There are some stories that get told over and over and again -- we've all heard them. And there's nothing wrong with that! The old stories are repeated because they're powerful and true, and there is power in telling the old story in a new way with new words and a new twist. That's what Do Not Look Back, My Lion is. It is a retelling of the story I summarized above, in new words, with a new twist. The new twist involves one of the words in my one-sentence version of the story. It is, honestly, not that new a twist -- it has shown up in many previous tellings of this story.

Now, Alix E. Harrow is a beautiful stylist, and the words of this story will bowl you over. The story itself, not so much. Well, maybe it will bowl *YOU* over, but not me.

I'm honestly sorry. I wanted to like this more than I did.

Do Not Look Back, My Lion is a short story by Alix E. Harrow, free to read here.

Blog review.

Merged review:

Stylistically gorgeous, but thin on content.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Rulers send boys to war, where they get killed, and that makes their mothers and fathers angry.

OK, well yeah, of course you've heard it. There are some stories that get told over and over and again -- we've all heard them. And there's nothing wrong with that! The old stories are repeated because they're powerful and true, and there is power in telling the old story in a new way with new words and a new twist. That's what Do Not Look Back, My Lion is. It is a retelling of the story I summarized above, in new words, with a new twist. The new twist involves one of the words in my one-sentence version of the story. It is, honestly, not that new a twist -- it has shown up in many previous tellings of this story.

Now, Alix E. Harrow is a beautiful stylist, and the words of this story will bowl you over. The story itself, not so much. Well, maybe it will bowl *YOU* over, but not me.

I'm honestly sorry. I wanted to like this more than I did.

Do Not Look Back, My Lion is a short story by Alix E. Harrow, free to read here.

Blog review.

[Hirondelle (not getting notifications) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review only about "Do Not Look Back, My Lion" by Alix E. Harrow available here https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.c...

And my infatuation with Alix Harrow's short stories continues unabated - I am trying not to binge (BTW new one just released, not listed yet, "The Long Way Up" available here https://thedeadlands.com/issue-09/the... ) and reading other short stories by other people in between which maybe is not fair to other people (though Vina Jie-Min Prasad's stories are handling it just fine, I got two ongoing current sf/f short story authors infatuations). This was IMO, not her best short story but the competition is really high for that.

There is a kind of recent-ish trend to have fantasy worlds with gender reversal roles, where women are the warrior caste and this is an example of that and maybe the most convincing and interesting (incidentally there is a nod that hey sufficiently advanced tech is undistinguishable from magic fantasy and maybe this is just sf with a lot of gene engineering which explains the superior muscle strength). The gender-cultural roles for men and women here are unique, and interesting and more convincing in a short story than a lot longer novels. Also as an epic fantasy, it worked as epic WHILE STILL BEING A SHORT STORY. It is about feelings and a relationship. The ending is maybe a bit too something (not sure what to call it. Maybe unlikely or too off stage), but I thought it was a fantastic.

Merged review:

This has its own listing now, so noting it down to copy review later from Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #270

[Kalin]

Alix E. Harrow's "Do Not Look Back, My Lion" is (no pun intended) a harrowing story about war and the stupidities involved. Two representative excerpts:

She lies in bed, tasting bile in her throat, thinking all her tired thoughts about the fucking Emperor and her fucking endless war and the terrible, unpayable cost of it all. And this is only half the price. Their enemies pay the heavier half, and this terrible red equation is called victory.
She knows by Talaan’s stiffness that she is awake, too. How many women and men have you slaughtered, my love? How many killers have I saved? She prays to Idral until dawn, a soft chanting that rolls and crashes in her mind, and imagines the daughter growing in Talaan’s belly: shining, innocent, unbloodied.

(The MC is a healer, hence the reference to "How many killers have I saved?")

Six days later, Talaan goes to war.
Eefa has not berated her or begged her, but neither has she performed any of the duties a husband owes her wife. She did not oil or polish Talaan’s armor, rubbing fat into all the joints and creases until it is as supple as human skin. She did not make a sacrifice at Ukhel’s temple and kneel bloody-handed before her statue and chant Talaan’s name. She didn’t even fuck her properly, that particular battle’s-eve fuck that is wild and aching and mournful, which leaves both of them stunned and quiet like songbirds after a thunderstorm.

Unlike the current grimdark fad, though, this story ends on a hopeful note.

(Read as part of the Hugo 2020 nominations.)

[Lamadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why I felt so much from this short story. I liked it better than her novel even. In such a short space, I felt like I understood so much of this very different world, and it was all presented so skillfully that I didn't notice the exposition. My imagining the thundering advance of large pregnant warriors makes this a different story to other high fantasy stories for me.

[abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

sad lesbians in war will always get me

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for the 2020 Hugos. A really interesting story about war and motherhood. Lovely writing, as you'd expect from Harrow, that plays with gender and gender roles.

[Jessica Haider · Rating 5 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is the 4th Hugo Short Story nominee that I've read this week. This character-driven high fantasy short story is written by the same author as the novel The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which I really enjoyed. I am not a big high fantasy fan so this took a bit of effort for me to get into. This book is focused on 2 primary female characters Eefa and Talaan who are married and have 4 children together. They live in an empire ruled by a female Emperor. Talaan is constantly going to war and Eefa is more on the healing side of things. For me, this story is mostly about the the internal struggle that Eefa has over her wife constantly going to war and the expectation that their children will do the same.


You can read it online here on Beneath Ceaseless Skies: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.co...

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the short story nominees for the 2020 Hugo Awards.

This was my second reading of this story (I first read it but didn't log it on Goodreads, after finishing The Ten Thousand Doors of January and wanting to see what else Harrow had written) and I think the plot made more sense to me on a second reading, which allowed me to get into the heart of it better. I liked it a whole lot on this read.

There's some clever work with gender here, especially by decoupling the ideas of "husband" and "wife" from the ideas of "she" or "he". This being a second read allowed me to grasp that much faster, letting me get to the heart of story, of two women both wanting the best for their child, but both being constrained by their places in life and society to make it near impossible for them to do it together.

[Stephen Damm · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I'm getting back to reviewing this a while after I read it (it wasn't available on Goodreads right away...). So my impressions are a bit fuzzy.

And the theme is war, and loss from war. It's a solid issue, both stories are good. I remember the second one resonating with me more, but looking back at the first one I recall it being good. Although I may have gotten a bit confused about the message. I'm not sure. It didn't stick with me quite as well as the second, but that's a matter of preference.

The second one was a warring society, but all the warriors are women. Mind=blown. Okay, kidding. I could write a lot on war and society and matrifocal societies (and have. Gotta work for those anthropology degrees, after all), but I won't. Suffice it to say it does some interesting stuff and had some nice chord striking for me.

[GONZA · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually like short stories, they're not long enough to give me an idea of the situation, the previous story, let alone the characters. Then there are the exceptions, some S. King stories for example, or some candidates for the Hugo Awards, like this one.

Di solito non amo i racconti brevi, non sono abbastanza lunghi per fornirmi un'idea della situazione, della storia precedente e tanto meno dei personaggi. Poi ci sono le eccezioni, alcuni racconti di S. King per esempio, o alcuni candidati per i premi Hugo, tipo questo.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I... didn't like this short story. Because it's a short story, there isn't a lot of room for exposition, but I felt like this story and the world within really needed it. I did appreciate the gender flipping throughout.

[Titus Fortner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A review of Alix Harrow's delightful "Do Not Look Back, My Lion"

A fun short story that examines gender roles and sexual norms and perceptions of strength and weakness and family tensions and the costs of war and the motivations of people to fight them. Well executed in a so few pages..

[Elaysee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the voice in the Harrow story, so I looked up what else I'd read of hers. Only one more, which also had a great and completely different voice. Another author for me to keep an eye out for!

[Rare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E Harrow 🔥

[Isabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do Not Look Back, My Lion

Felt like the point was more about subverting gender clichés (which, don't misread me, I like a lot) than about plot. It was well-written, but I got somewhat bored.

[Cendaquenta]

(read "Do Not Look Back, My Lion" by Alix E Harrow)

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free link to Story: Do Not Look Back, My Lion
(Read July 2020)
Loved the chaotic gender roles. The author brilliantly took advantage of the initial gender confusion so the reader could accept women being the blood-thirsty warriors of a society. Not generally my kind of thing but it made me want to swoon for some reason.

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is for Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow.
Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Short Fiction category and is, in my opinion, one of the strongest contender to the title.
Eefa is husband to one of her country's greatest, most celebrated warriors: Talaan, also known as the Lion. She performs all the domestic needs a soldier could have. Eefa raises their children, shines Talaan's armor, and keeps house for them. She is a safe haven when Talaan comes home from battle. Talaan, herself, is a fierce warrior. She bears the scars of battle, a mark beneath her eye for each and every victory. She has born many children, all of them vaunted warriors as well. The constant war and bloodshed ultimately becomes too much for Eefa. Her conscience pricks her, she cannot continue to support this endless bloodshed. She cannot support the taking of slaves, the killing of children. She cannot support Talaan bringing yet another child into this war. And so, she runs.
The blog Black Forest Basilisks adroitlydescribes Do Not Look Back, My Lion as a heart-wrenching tale of love and sacrifice. The author uses gender, title, and reader expectation to create a society that's both foreign and familiar. Husband has become a role divorced from gender, even as wife has remained a status limited to women. Women are not only the givers of life, but also the takers. Harrow explores motherhood, matriarchy, and gender through the lens of disability and nonconformity. Quite an incredible achievement. I am looking forward reading more by this author.

[Kristīne Vītola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read: "Do Not Look Back, My Lion," by Alix E. Harrow

[Chi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read Do Not Look Back, My Lion.

I found this a hard story to follow. Alix E Harrow uses gendered terms like "husband" and "emperor" in a gender-neutral manner, so it took me a while to wrap my head around it. Then that it dealt with a warrior society, where a crippled healer is treated less than the more-revered soldiers, broke my heart when she wished for more for her newly born near-daughter.

I felt for the main character, but didn't enjoy this story as much as I had of Harrow's other short stories.

Merged review:

I found this a hard story to follow. Alix E Harrow uses gendered terms like "husband" and "emperor" in a gender-neutral manner, so it took me a while to wrap my head around it. Then that it dealt with a warrior society, where a crippled healer is treated less than the more-revered soldiers, broke my heart when she wished for more for her newly born near-daughter.

I felt for the main character, but didn't enjoy this story as much as I had of Harrow's other short stories.

[A.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for the 2020 Hugos
Story: "Do Not Look Back, My Lion"

I'm not sure how to review this one without spoilers. It's set in a society that doesn't look much like ours, but you'll figure out the important things about it quickly enough. Or maybe, the society just isn't that important to the plot. (Which, I think makes it important for other reasons.)

So, about the plot. Is it good? Yeah. It's a pretty simple idea: a woman doesn't want her child to be tied up in a never-ending war. She also doesn't want her wife, who is a near-legendary warrior, involved in that same war. So what do they do? So they make the right decisions?

In short, yeah, I liked this one. It's a story with moments and images that could stick in your mind for a while. That's a good thing.

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge fan of high fantasy and after a few paragraphs actually considered walking away from this story. However, Harrow did a great job of making it exactly the kind of character-driven, emotionally expressive story that I love. The story is told through the feelings of a healer -- someone whose life's focus is on life and love -- and her response to life in a war-like society. The author created such strong characters and a well defined culture in such a few number of words, which I found quite impressive. I don't think I'd read more than this short story set in this world written in this idiom, but it was definitely worth the read.

[Norman Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read online at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019.
This kind of fantasy is not normally my cup of tea. This story seems fairly straightforward, the conflict coming from one parent trying to protect their children while the other goes out to fight in battle after battle. The ending is certainly poignant. The twist to the story is how Harrow treats gender identities. Both parents are apparently women, but the one who stays home is called husband and the one who goes to war is called wife. The pronoun usage gets a little confusing.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent story, but only just a little interesting, and that interest is around how Harrow mixes and stirs hard and soft traits in men and women, and husbands and wives (any combination seems to be possible, though all the characters are cis-gendered). Rebellion against a society continually at war is very thoroughly done, but also very timely, so am not sorry I read it. It's a Hugo nominee for 2019, and will contend.