#haints&healing

[aplaceinthedark]

UGLY human NATURE

a WITCH story

Word Count: 2.5k+

CW: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, supernatural themes, body horror, depictions of graphic violence, witchcraft, description of digging up a body, owls (listen, don't judge, those things are freaky little fucks)

Nicholas panicked as he tried to assemble the pieces of what had once been his best friend.

Tears streamed down his face as he tried to remember what his Granny taught him about healing, but this seemed to be way beyond the healing point. This was probably at the Resurrecting-The-Dead point, and he knew that there would be nothing in Granny’s vast knowledge or hex books about this. 

“What’s dead should stay dead,” Granny had once taught him, in reference to what went on in the woods behind her house. “Those who die in these Woods don't tend to stay dead.” But Granny didn’t know that his best friend, his brother, had been lost to that curse, and Nicholas was not going to lose Noah again.

But it looked like he was going to anyway.

He hadn’t meant to unleash his magic on Noah, but it had acted as a defense mechanism. And Noah… well… he still couldn’t figure out what had happened.

Nicholas had heard the sound of his name being called by a voice he hadn’t heard in a year. That should’ve been his first warning. You don’t go responding to voices coming from the Woods; that was practically Rule Number One in the Appalachian Mountains. Except he would raise hell and haint if it meant bringing Noah home. So he crawled out the guest room window of his Granny’s house and ran into the Woods.

He didn’t call out for Noah. That was a rule he wouldn’t break. But after several minutes of walking, he didn’t need to. There stood Noah, all six foot three inches of him, probably twenty feet away, looking like death. Noah smiled in relief when his dark eyes met his.

They both had taken a step towards each other when Noah had doubled over, crying out in pain, and then something cracked in him. Cracked multiple times as Noah seemed to grow even taller. His limbs snapped and elongated, like he was a tree growing in fast motion. An old nursery rhyme came to Nicholas’ mind as it tried to comprehend what was happening right before him.

The Towering Man will lure you from your home And into the Woods where deep he roams He’ll snap your bones like brittle sticks After drawing you in with his clever little tricks

If you’re good and listen to your mama You’ll have no worries, you’ll have no drama Best keep your eyes upon the beaten path, Unless you want to taste the tree man’s wrath. 

Nicholas tried running, but he knew that his legs were no match for this abomination’s long appendages. Before he knew it, he was pinned to the ground, fighting for his life to get free. He managed to get a hand behind him, and suddenly his eyes were blinded by a bright light, and he was assaulted by a splitting headache. The pressure on him disappeared, and he scrambled up onto his feet. 

But when he turned around to survey what he had released, he fell back onto his knees. 

The creature was back to being Noah, but everything was wrong. Broken limbs, some twisted and snapped clean off. Instead of bones, there were sticks. But that was undoubtedly Noah’s face, staring up at him with lifeless eyes. Play with fire and you’ll get burned; another of Granny’s lessons.

He didn’t know why he was trying to put Noah back together like some kind of twisted puzzle or broken doll. All he knew was that he had to fix this before anyone found out. Tears dripped from his face and splashed onto the mix of skin and bark of his friend.

“Please, come back. I can’t lose you again,” he said. He tried to summon something, anything, to get his friend back. And the Woods answered.

Something was shining on his face. It wasn’t until it dripped down onto Noah’s body that he realized the light was coming from his tears, and where they landed, they quickly dissolved into Noah’s skin. The tears on Nicholas’ hands started to glow as well, and then his hands began glowing. He scrambled to put them on Noah’s chest. 

The light spread through the veins in Noah’s chest and through his limbs. With cracking and rustling sounds, the skin mended together, but retained the bark texture. Noah’s iris’ glowed gold, and suddenly his head twisted with a snap to look at Nicholas. His arm shot out, grabbing a fistful of Nicholas’ short hair to pull him closer. 

A yelp left Nicholas’ mouth, and for a second he thought that he had made a mistake; that he had let Noah’s quest to kill him continue, but Noah stopped pulling when Nicholas was hovering only a few inches over him. If someone happened to see them, they would probably think that they were about to kiss. Memories of what happened between them a few years ago came unbidden to Nicholas’ mind, and he had to fight the rush of heat to his face.

“You… idiot,” Noah gasped out. 

Nicholas laughed as the golden light left Noah’s eyes, and then he fell over, passed out cold.

And that was how Nicholas Ruffilo became the Witch, the practitioner of the Shenandoah Valley.

Nicholas had only ever set eyes on one haint in his life, and that was Noah. The Black Stag didn’t count because it had been a god. So meeting Nick and Joakim was unnerving.

Especially when one was a large, mangy-looking wolf and the other was a literal naked corpse.

“I… uh… hope I’m not too late,” he said, looking nervously between the two.

A few hours ago, he had been mindlessly sketching some tattoo designs for a client, when he felt like his brain was getting lobotomized. At first, it was just one word:

HELP.

It was easy to ignore at first. Just his mind playing tricks on him, probably from the combination of lack of sleep and the blue light of his tablet. But then he heard the voice again, with less pain and more familiarity:

NICK NICK NICK HELP NICK PLEASE HELP.

And with that, he jumped into action. 

If that really was Noah talking in his head, then the first place he should look was where he last saw him: in the old oak grove.

Nicholas practically sprinted into the woods, then doubled back because he realized that he might need a shovel, and then he was back on the task at hand. He felt reassured when he saw  two figures in the hollow, because why else would two random people meet in this place? Then again, why would these two particular… beings be there at all?

That’s when the dog shifted into a teenage boy, and Nicholas’ heart stopped.

“Nick Folio, at your service,” the boy said, grinning. His teeth were too long and sharp to be normal, but that’s not what unnerved Nicholas. 

Judging from the sudden tilting of his head, Nick must’ve been close to knowing why. “Have we met before?” he asked.

“I… Umm…”

“We have a task at hand,” the walking corpse said, though it looked like he had been perfectly fine to let the wolf do all the work.

“Do you even know why we’re doing this?” Nick asked, turning back towards the man.

“I do,” Nicholas said. The two haints looked at him. “There’s someone you need to meet.”

Between Nick’s claws and Nicholas’ shovel, they made quick work of the dirt. Nicholas didn’t have a clue how deep they would have to dig, but after a few feet, he had his answer when a dirty hand broke through the dark earth.

Nicholas threw aside the shovel as Nick shifted back into human form once again, and the two grabbed ahold of the hand and pulled. Eventually, another body emerged and crawled out. It was completely caked in mud, but Nicholas couldn’t help but gape at its head.

For immense branches were sprouting from it, giving the appearance of antlers.

“W… Water,” the man gasped in a familiar voice.

Nicholas was dreading this meeting.

He was tired of Granny trying to set him up with women. Didn’t matter where they were, she would ask anyone that looked even slightly close to his age if they were single. And at the old age of thirty, it embarrassed him to no end. He was also unfortunately raised to be a gentleman to strangers, so when Granny said that there was a “poor girl living by herself who needed help,” he couldn’t help but internally scream at his nice guy heart. 

But he was more interested in the fact that this girl had moved into Noah’s old house, despite the warning signs that were placed around the property and told throughout the town. Hell, Granny even told her about the offerings, and who wouldn’t run after hearing someone tell you to chuck a few animal bones into a tithing plate?

So either the girl was stupid, or she was brave - which was another word for stupid, in his mind.

As he got out of his car, Nicholas could sense a familiar presence on the edge of the property. To the unknowing or untrained eye, it might feel like a chill going up the spine, or as Nicholas’ family would say, “like someone walking over your grave.” But he was trained and knowing of what crept through this neck of the woods.

He knew in his soul when his eyes met the creature’s, and he leveled a look that said behave. He could hear a chuckle in his mind, one that would unnerve even the bravest hiker.

GOOD LUCK. THEY’RE SOMETHING ELSE.

Noah’s voice was, of course, no comfort. Of course Noah would’ve spied on the newcomer. It used to be his house, after all. But that use of pronouns at least shed some light so Nicholas could be polite.

Nicholas knocked on the door, acknowledging the silver platter that was neatly arranged to the left of the doorway, and waited. And waited.

And then the door opened, and he realized he might need Noah’s warning.

Their dark blonde hair was half up in a bun, the lower half barely reaching their shoulders. It left their angular face on full display, big brown eyes staring up at him. He couldn’t help the thought of how much those eyes reminded him of Noah’s. 

He managed to find his words before he could choke on his tongue. “I’m Nicholas,” he said. He punctuated his words with a small lift of the corners of his mouth.

They looked like they were surprised by his appearance as well. “Taylor.”

Something was off with the Woods, and with Nicholas as well.

His body lurches, causing his eyes to pop open. He gulps down a lungful of air to still his racing heart, though he knows it’s no use. Not this again…

Taylor stirs underneath him. "Nn… Nick? What's wrong?” they ask, their voice clogged with the sleep of the dead. 

Another nightmare, he wants to say as he sits up, but his mouth is dry and his tongue sticks to its roof. He scrubs his face with a tattooed hand and then rips the hair-tie out of his half undone ponytail. He feels like he’s about to jump out of his skin. He wants to scream. “I need a smoke.”

“Nick, wait–” He doesn’t hear the rest of Taylor's protest as he scrambles out of the bed, pulls some joggers on, and all but runs out the door.

It was chillier outside, despite the sweats and hoodie he managed to pull on over his bare skin. Probably should've put on shoes, he thinks as he lights up a cigarette with shaky fingers. 

Normally he would say that the off-ness he was feeling was because of the Woods, but a part of  him says that it’s different. He can feel the pull of the Hollow calling to him if he closes his eyes long enough.

It’s only been a few months since the events with the reformed Cult of the Black Stag. Only been a few months since his grandmother was killed. Only a few months since… since he died as well.

A shiver rolls down his spine. He pinches the bridge of his nose, as if he could rid himself of that thought. He had died, but he came back. He was okay. 

“Those who die in these Woods don't tend to stay dead.”  

He shakes his head vigorously. No, not because of some weird curse like what happened to his friends. Because of his own soul magic, safely stowed away in his partner's own soul by random happenstance. That was different. He was fine. 

Ever since that night that Taylor went into the woods and Nicholas healed them, he felt like something was missing from him. He thought it would've returned when Taylor brought him back to life, but he still felt off-kilter. Like a piece of him was still out there in the Woods. And of course, there wasn't anything in Granny's hex books about why he was having these nightmares.

Nicholas looks down at the tattoo of an owl on his right arm. Owls were considered guardians of his family, and so he had gotten one tattooed on him pretty early on; before he knew about his grandmother’s practice. Granny had tutted about it, mad that he had “made a mockery of their protector”, but eventually she acquiesced.

“Really wish you were here, Gram,” he mutters to the tattoo, as if Granny was really a part of him now. She would probably have known what his problem was, let alone how to help him. 

The sound of a scream from the Woods snaps Nicholas out of his head. His eyes dart to the trees, but his brain soon catches up, recognizing the sound. He sighs in both relief and annoyance. Just another barn owl; something he's heard plenty of times growing up out here. 

But this time, the sound stirs something in him: something akin to familiarity, but unlike the nostalgia of days past. He tilts his head, trying to get a better sense of what direction the call came from, because what if it came from the Watcher's Grove? What if something was going on with Noah while he was���

"NICK!"

He snaps out of his trance, and he quickly realizes he's no longer on the porch. He's standing on the edge of the property, one foot in the woods. And he has no idea how he got there. 

He turns around and looks back at the house. The porch light is on now, and Taylor is standing on the steps, Jerry in their arms. Even from where he is, he can see the panic in their eyes.

He quickly jogs back to the house. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he says, quickly kissing them on the forehead. Except now he's slightly even more shaky than before. Jerry squirms as he’s pressed in between them, and meows angrily. Nicholas pulls away.

They both go inside and Nicholas locks the door behind him. Taylor looks up at him with dark, worried eyes, and he groans internally. 

There was no way he’s going to be able to keep this from them.

[buggywiththefolkmagic]

re: Appalachian Witchcraft for Beginners

^jsyk where my ask stems from.

you said the author is one of few that mentions red clay and i was wondering if you knew of any of the others and if their info or themselves were reliable? i’m sorry if this isn’t worded well.

Hello there!

These are my own opinions mind you, and I can understand if some of these authors aren't everyone's cup of tea.

Personally for written information on Appalachian Folk Magic available to the modern public I do recommend:

Jake Richards -He has some controversy about him, so do with that what you will but a lot of what he talks about I have seen within my own family so I would say a lot of the information is pretty solid. Do take some stuff with some salt as some of what he talks about borders on proper Hoodoo.

New World Witchery- Cory Thomas Hutchenson. This covers a lot of folk practices from around America but the real treasure is the giant pile of resources in the back of the book.

Southern Cunning- Aaron Obreon. This covers more southern based cunningwork/folkloric witchcraft. This book is a breakdown of the far too expensive in my opinion...Silver Bullet, a folklore book from ages gone by. Can still be followed without the other book!

Roger J. Horne- All of his books kind of blend Traditional British style magic with folkloric based Appalachian work. I find the way he describes witch's flight and how he breaks down complicated ideals a great resource. But only if you are interested in both topics.

The Foxfire Series- A great series about Appalachia and things within it, both folkloric and way of life. I personally love the book: Boogers, Witches, and Haints in the series for folklore to dig into and apply to your own practice.

H. Byron Ballard- Another slightly controversial author, I adore the way Ballard describes the mountains and the natural magic and energy that's here. She makes me feel homesick and I live here! Seeing her speak in person really solidified my fondness for her works. The only thing I hate is she calls AFM "Hillfolk Hoodoo" which the term does make me sigh every time I read it.

A NOTE AS OF OCTOBER 3, 2024: I no longer support H. Byron Ballard's works as it has come to my attention that she is a TERF. As a queer from Appalachia I cannot and will not condone anything of the sort.

(This title is laughable but I swear this is a historical remedy book that is fairly good!) Egyptian Secrets of Albertus Magnus- Remedies of the old days, was one of those books like "Long Lost Friend", but this one I have heard of some AFM workers using in the older days.

Southern Folk Medicine: Healing Traditions from the Appalachian Fields and Forests - Now I will always say please go to a doctor for any ills, but herbalism and remedies are an important part of AFM, just use it in conjunction with a doctor's advice and medication. (AND ASK THEM ABOUT IT PLEASE.) This particular book really focuses on some of the older concepts of the "blood types" that did play a somewhat important role in older ideals of illness and injury here.

Power of the Psalms by Anna Riva- Okay look. Having a Psalter, a list of Psalms and their uses is SUPER IMPORTANT TO ME. This one is always by go to, otherwise I do like Gemma Gary's Psalter as well. Great for workings, and also great to help you memorize certain Psalms that can and will spook those really overbearing and ridiculous Christian types that try to insult you in some way.

That's all the ones I can think of at the moment but I might think of some more eventually!

[legendofmorons]

Where in the south I think the boys would be from.

Hello as someone who had to leave the south becuase of life I miss things. Not all things, but some.

Also, I swear if my state dosen’t start to embrace sweet tea and porches, I'm gonna riot. /j

Four

Louisiana

I can't tell you why exactly he's from here but I feel like he is

He lives on the water with his uncle

Best blacksmith in town and makes a lotta horseshoes

Hyrule

Alabama

He's real sweet and grew up away from people raised by his big sister and mom

Hates when people imply he's inbred

Practices folk healing and is better than most doctors

Legend

Texas

He just is man I dunno

His Pegasus boots are his main shoe

Has a cowboy hat but only wears it when he's dragged line dancing

He's got his grandparents' ranch house

Sky

Kentucky

Dunno why specifically I just feel like he is

Has a porch swing and likes to sir in it with Zelda

Plays a lot of solitaire on his porch

Time

East Tennessee right outside the Appalachian mountains

He grew up in the mountains and has seen some real shit

A real follower of the 'no you didn't ' rule

His porch his painted, haint blue

Enters Epona into gorse competitions and she always wins

Twilight

Texas

He's a farm boy from texas

Wears jeans well into the 90s (Fahrenheit)

Keeps sweet tea in his fridge year round

Has a bottle tree

Warriors

Bible belt

More specifically, South Carolina

He knows how to go line dance and square dance, embraces it

He's a southern gentleman and probably escorted a debutante (especially his Zelda)

Wild

Florida.

He's the Florida man

Best headline? 'Florida man annihilates possessed hog with the power of friendship and feral queerness.'

OR he's from somewhere in the Appalachian woods and just does whatever he wants

Wind

Florida

He loves sweet tea but lives fir the ocean

He's from the not really southern area of florida

But it's okay I adopt him as southern

Fierce

The Appalachian mountains, he's the criptid

Crawls outta a hidden cabin and passes out knives to stray kids for protection

First

Georgia

Loves peach cobbler and will fight you if you say your family has a better recipie than his

A proper gentleman who can waltz

Likes to take his dates to a creek to watch fireflies

[rockislandadultreads]

Book Recommendations: LGBTQIA+ Fantasy

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls--Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle--took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.

This is the first volume of the “Her Majesty’s Royal Coven” series. 

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings

Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women keep the order, and where songs walk, talk and keep the spirit of the city alive. To those from Far Away, Nola might seem strange. To failed magician, Perilous Graves, it’s simply home. Then the rhythm stutters.

Nine songs of power have escaped from the magical piano that maintains the city’s beat and without them, Nola will fail. Unexpectedly, Perry and his sister, Brendy, are tasked with saving the city. But a storm is brewing and the Haint of All Haints is awake. Even if they capture the songs, Nola’s time might be coming to an end.

Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

Remy Pendergast is many things: the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne (though his father might wish otherwise), an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she eloped with a vampire, giving rise to the rumors that Remy is half-vampire himself. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost.

When a terrifying new breed of vampire is sighted outside of the city, Remy prepares to investigate alone. But then he encounters the shockingly warmhearted vampire heiress Xiaodan Song and her infuriatingly arrogant fiancé, vampire lord Zidan Malekh, who may hold the key to defeating the creatures—though he knows associating with them won’t do his reputation any favors. When he’s offered a spot alongside them to find the truth about the mutating virus Rot that’s plaguing the kingdom, Remy faces a choice.

It’s one he’s certain he’ll regret.

But as the three face dangerous hardships during their journey, Remy develops fond and complicated feelings for the couple. He begins to question what he holds true about vampires, as well as the story behind his own family legacy. As the Rot continues to spread across the kingdom, Remy must decide where his loyalties lie: with his father and the kingdom he’s been trained all his life to defend or the vampires who might just be the death of him.

This is the first volume in the “Silver Under Nightfall” series. 

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon―like all other book eater women―is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger―not for books, but for human minds.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP POETRY BOOK OF THE DAY: In the Grip of Grace by Marianne Mersereau

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/in-the-grip-of-grace-by-marianne-mersereau/

Marianne Mersereau draws from the rich storytelling “porch culture” of her native Southern Highlands of #Appalachia to create, In the Grip of Grace, a memoir in verse replete with wild ghost tales, mythologies and folklores of the unique characters who populate the pages. Themes of #family, nature, grief, and the long-lasting impacts of war are explored. The #narrative #poems serve as witness to both triumphs and losses and to grace harvested from loss.

Marianne Mersereau grew up in the Southern Highlands of Appalachia and currently resides in the Pacific Northwest. She is the author of the chapbook Timbrel (also from Finishing Line Press).

PRAISE FOR In the Grip of Grace by Marianne Mersereau

“There’s so much love in these poems. Genuine and constant.”

–Erica Wright, author of All the Bayou Stories End with Drowned

Through her elegiac poetry collection, In the Grip of Grace, Marianne Mersereau pays homage to her Appalachian roots and to beloved places and people who now seem forever out of reach except through their vivid stories. The poet patchworks ancestor tales into her own visceral memoir quilt, sometimes relating memory snapshots from personal experience, sometimes bearing witnessing to family history. The effect is a warm cacophony of voices that call as the poet responds and reflects.

While the title refers to recurring themes of faith and family, it also magnifies how close bonds clutch our being in ways we don’t always consciously admit. Mersereau’s poems serve as cords tying her to a time and place where aunts might accidentally sew a snake into an uncle’s pillow, where curious children might find relief from bee stings in their father’s healing tobacco chaw, where a man might find high church in his solitude, and where a couple of religious young girls bash apart evil heavy metal records only to find themselves dancing to the same songs later in life. Ghosts, haints (both animal and human), strange lightning and mountain rituals also enchant the reader.

Some of my favorite poems in the collection are about the poet’s mother, who just happens to be named “Grace.” Mersereau pays tribute to her mother’s hair in a breathtaking poem about grief: “Her hair hangs like a long dark mystery/waist-length, the color of coal.” And in a tender memory about her father bringing in flowers from the farm field: “He kisses her and sets the jar/ on the table—a testimony/at the closing of the day.” In the Grip of Grace, we come to grasp how “the cord still feeds the rose/and pulls us home in frequent dreams.”

–Roberta Schultz, author of Underscore and Asking Price.

The touchstone for the poems in Marianne Mersereau’s superb book In the Grip of Grace can be found in her epigraph from Rilke―the “long gone are in us.” Her words conjure memories of family and the Appalachian ”holler, gap, ridge, and hill” of her childhood, its ground fertile with restless spirits and “seeming impossibilities.” Under the spell of Mersereau’s vivid and compassionate voice, readers will be held in thrall to these poems of her rich-storied life.

–Anna Egan Smucker, author of Rowing Home, No Star Nights, and other books.

Marianne Mersereau’s In the Grip of Grace is compelling poetry, adroit storytelling, and keen memoir. Using direct, immediate language to evoke memory, Mersereau extols the past and the necessity to remember it, as the book’s epigraphs by Rilke and Trethewey establish. The pages teem with ghosts and graveyards, ponies, family members living and dead, bats, Jesus, gardens and fields, miners and teachers, churches, and more, all against a backdrop of Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachia. When the poet turns to the cruel murder of an elephant named Mary and reveals the younger elephants’ memory of their relative 23 years later, she is also honoring the power of human love. She writes, “[the townspeople] buried [Mary] . . ./ thinking she’d be forgotten, forgetting how loud bones speak.” Indeed, the precise set of experiences these poems recall is a testament to remembering; they remind us to listen for the bones of our loved ones speaking to us from this world and the other side.

–Annette Sisson, author of Small Fish in High Branches (Glass Lyre Press, 2022).

From an Appalachian holler to the ghost of a mountaintop long lost to coal mining, the narrative poems in Marianne Mersereau‘s poetry collection, In the Grip of Grace, form a rich mosaic of a life. Through family lore, miraculous cures, and the equally miraculous healing power of nature, Mersereau’s poems reflect the very essence of mystery as the speaker loses her religion yet finds her faith and becomes “a goddess / in the grip of grace.”

–Jill McCabe Johnson, author of Tangled in Vow & Beseech and Revolutions We’d Hoped We’d Outgrown

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems

[truesolobg]

🚂Vagrantsong - A Questionable review

🎶I’ll be going over a short series of questions to answer what this game brings to the table.

🎵What kind of game is this?

A co-op, scenario based, boss battler.

🎼Is the setup fast?

A bit on the longer side: characters have to be chosen, items have to be searched for that character, a scenario has to be chosen and set up, rules for the scenario must be run through, rituals speed up the battle but performing them are a bit of a chore, scenario ending gives you many choices to “level up” or heal, then teardown ensues. A good organization system can help a lot.

🎵Can I solo this?

Absolutely - dual handed

🍎Best player count?

3. 4 scales too hard and takes too long for your turn. The map/haint changes wildly with 4 turns.

🗡️Can I customize my character?

Yes, minor customization. 2 skills and 1 item. Seances are 1 time “power ups” for the next scenario.

🚂How is the gameplay?

The gameplay can go from smooth to fiddly with rules changing as the haint changes it’s mood or a story beat is activated. These are scenario-based.

🎶Is there replayability?

Very much so. You fail forward until

All players die(westbound). Combos can be discovered with items and skills.

🎼Was it difficult to learn?

The game was not hard to learn, very basic movement and action system.

❄️Are the theme and mechanisms paired well? Mechanisms are basic, the theme is very strong through-ought gameplay.

Well that’s it for now, time to catch my train.

[localhollerhaint]

Are yall ready for the dog days, cause they are upon us!

Dog Days Of Summer

(July 3- Aug 11)

So what are the Dog Days of summer and what does that mean? A lot of families were driven by the moon and stars, an example you may recognize is planting by the signs. Contrary to popular belief, Dog Days were so named after the Dog Star, Sirius, the brightest in the night sky; and not after actual dogs. It was believed that the days encompassing the rise of the Dog Star, Sirius, would be dangerous times for people and animal alike. Not only are they beleived to be the hottest days of the year being described historically as "the heat of the sun is so violent that bodies at midnight sweat as at midday". While in the Dog Days, wounds and illness were believed to be less likely to heal, dogs and humans more likely to go mad, snakes more likely to bite, crops more likely to die, meat more likely to spoil, haints more likely to haunt and luck more likely to be overall bad. During the Dog Days it was common for people to avoid dogs and snakes as they were believed to be especially dangerous and aggressive. Kids would many times be prohibited from swimming in the local swimmin holes and creeks and playing on their local wooded trails during dog days to avoid drowning or getting and injury that would not quickly or easily heal. Surgeries were often avoided because of the believed heightened risk for infections and it was even believed that people would be down right hateful during this time, with ancient scientists warning that "men may behave like beasts".

[inquisitorallandra]

Memories and Nightmares

Allandra x Cullen

It was the early hours of the morning, still dark out. Allandra jerked awake, a sudden fear in her heart. The dalish rolled over, expecting to find Cullen next to her.

The bed was otherwise empty. The side he slept on was still somewhat warm, so he had not been gone long.

Sitting up, blue eyes swept the room, finding it just as empty as the bed. The balcony was likewise empty.

The Commanders armor and sword were gone.

Slipping from the covers, Allandra dressed quickly. Where in the hells would he be at this time of night?

At the foot of the bed, Ath'laros stirred from sleep. The wolf yawned, eyeing his mistress curiously.

"Go back to sleep," Allandra told her hunting companion.

In these strange hours between night and dawn, Skyhold was silent and still, seemingly empty of life. The throne room stones echoed with every step the Inquisitor took, no matter how softly she tried.

The dalish woman made her way out of the keep proper, looking over the courtyard. With a deep breath of the frigid air, she let her feet choose the direction.

Where WAS Cullen?

As she walked, her mind took her back to what had frightened her so.

Nightmares of battles - Adamant, most recently - the arrow and poison that could have very well killed her human lover. Allandra shivered, and not necessarily from the cold.

Her feet took her past the training yard, and likewise, the tower Cullen used as his office.

No luck there, either.

One more place, then.

The dalish spun, changing direction. She reached her destination soon enough and was rewarded.

Relief washed over Allandra - there Cullen was, knelt on the stone floor of the room before the statue of Andraste. If he was saying anything, she could not hear.

She did not want to interrupt, so she stayed in the doorway.

Cullen head tilted in her direction; golden honey eyes spying the Inquisitor. He stood, turning fully to her.

Allandra's icy blue eyes searched his face - she could see he was tired. There was something hainting him behind that exhaustion, though he tried to hide both.

So she moved from the door and into the small sanctuary towards him.

"Vhenan, my love," she paused as she reached him, hands settling on his arms. "What troubles you so? I woke and found you missing..."

Cullen ducked his head, resting his forehead against her vallaslin covered one. "I did not mean to trouble you. I..." he paused in turn - being vulnerable, even in private, still proved difficult at times.

"Was it the nightmares again?" Allandra prodded softly. She lifted a hand to his face, running delicate, calluses fingers along his chin and jawline.

At his nod, she hummed in understanding.

"Allandra. You should still be in bed."

"So should you."

Cullen stepped away, gently tugging her arm to follow. Together, they sat on one of the rough benches.

"I know. I just - I awoke and could not settle again. I didn't want to disturb you, so I came here."

Allandra scooted in, as close as she could, running her fingers now across the back of his neck.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Worry knit her brows together, pulled her lips down to a concerned frown.

Cullen shifted himself, leaning forward, resting elbows on knees. He leaned forward, resting his head in his hands.

Allandra thought maybe he would not answer as the silence dragged on. Her mind raced - she knew a few details of his past, much of it was vague about, wanting to relive the horrors of Kinloch or Kirkwall as little as possible.

"I was back in Kinloch. Trapped in that room under a magical barrier." His voice, not much above a whisper, finally broke the silence. "Bodies of Templar, mages, and demons all around me. For days, they laid there, rotting into the stone, the demons that still lived tearing into the flesh, gorging on it the dead."

Allandra felt an ache in her heart- he'd never spoken about the Hold. As much as she wished and wanted to ease his pain, take it away...she knew this was a wound she could not heal.

"Demons, they love to make playthings of mortals. Especially when they cannot escape." There was something bitter in his tone of voice.

"Cullen--"

He didn't pause, wouldn't look up. "So many times, I felt near to breaking. Maybe I did, in a way. I can still hear the screams from those the blood mages used -tortured, killed - in the Harrowing Chamber. Wondering when they would come for me. When they were done, they tossed the bodies down the stairs."

Allandra continued caressing his neck, sometimes playing with his hair. A shudder from the former templar made her fingers still.

"Some nights... some nights, I can still feel the eyes from those bodies staring at me. Blaming me. People I knew - dead, because they would not turn to blood magic. People I was sworn to protect."

Leaning forward, Allandra wrapped her arms around Cullen as best she could, pulling him to her.

"It felt like an eternity, trapped in that room."

Cullen let out a deep, bone-weary sigh, shifting into the elfs embrace. Letting his eyes drift shut, the Commander took a deep breath, letting his lovers touch ground him back into the present.

"Sometimes, now, I see your face among the dead. And I fear that your death will be my fault, because I cannot protect you." Cullen reached up, grasping at Allandra's arm, if only to reassure himself she was really there.

"Cullen, look at me." Allandra tilted his head up by the chin. "My death, no matter what, will not be your fault or of your doing. Believe me in that, if nothing else."

The former templar looked long and hard into his lovers eyes, but could find nothing but love and conviction there.

After some moments, he nodded - still doubtful, if only of himself.

"Thank you."

Cullen looked confused, lifting a brow and tilting his head. "For...?"

"For trusting me. Loving me, protecting me. For being you." Allandra offered him a soft smile, which was easily returned.

"Shall we go back to bed, now, vhenan? It is early yet."

With a nod, he stood first, then offered Allandra a hand up.

[forkadelphia]

Byron! Look what came in the mail today! Thank you for signing my copy! I can’t wait to dive in.

Byron! Look what came in the mail today! Thank you for signing my copy! I can’t wait to dive in.

Source: Byron! Look what came in the mail today! Thank you for signing my copy! I can’t wait to dive in. Order from: https://www.malaprops.com/book/9780738764535

[wiccadelphia]

Byron! Look what came in the mail today! Thank you for signing my copy! I can’t wait to dive in.

New Post has been published on https://wiccadelphia.com/?p=1608

Byron! Look what came in the mail today! Thank you for signing my copy! I can’t wait to dive in.

Source: Byron! Look what came in the mail today! Thank you for signing my copy! I can’t wait to dive in.

Order from: https://www.malaprops.com/book/9780738764535

[tet-asw]

Byron! Look what came in the mail today! Thank you for signing my copy! I can’t wait to dive in.

Source: Byron! Look what came in the mail today! Thank you for signing my copy! I can’t wait to dive in.

Order from: https://www.malaprops.com/book/9780738764535

https://tet-asw.org/2021/02/12/byron-look-what-came-in-the-mail-today-thank-you-for-signing-my-copy-i-cant-wait-to-dive-in/

[buggywiththefolkmagic]

how do you feel about people who aren't from the appalachian mountains trying to practice appalachian folk magic?

A tricky question to start off with, I like it! This answer may be a bit ramble-y, and I apologize! Some aspects of AFM are perfectly okay to be practiced anywhere! The concepts, the bible verses, the odd methods of protection and healing...some of the spirits. The only thing I can think of to stop some people is that some ingredients, some items, some spirits or haints to protect from are hard to find outside of Appalachia! Otherwise, as long as you have your heart in the right place, you study up on the region and the history? I say go for it, we need more practioners. Because the old folk? They won't be around forever. But in saying this: I know my opinion isn't everyone's. I know some people who would rage at me, hell, I've been banned from certain groups for saying that I am okay with people learning. If someone refuses to teach you? Honor that, anger-inducing it may feel. The reason some people fight so hard to keep AFM within the mountains is because well...look at us historically. Historically speaking...when outsiders came in? Hell followed. Years of near slave-labor to mining companies, the drug epidemic, crushing our old ways of life and making a good chunk of them illegal? Destroying our land for profit, kicking people off of their land to "preserve" it? Purposefully making us a butt of a joke into some...stupid, inbred, ruthless, drunkard of a people just because we paid less tax on whiskey when we made it ourselves? I could go on and on.

[generationexorcist]

Haint Blue Porch Ceilings: The Lowcountry Color With The Power To Stop Evil From Entering A Home

PORCH CEILINGS THROUGHOUT THE MARSHY, coastal Lowcountry—stretching from northern Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina—are drenched in “haint blue,” a centuries-old Gullah Geechee spiritual tradition meant to stop evil spirits from entering a home and wreaking havoc.

Descendents of enslaved people brought from Central and West Africa in the 18th century, the Gullah were forced to work the Lowcountry’s rice and indigo plantations. In their isolation, the enslaved were able to maintain a number of spiritual practices from their homelands. Rituals revolved around minkisi (animating everyday objects with the power to heal or harm), conjuring spells, and confronting malevolent spirits.

Full Article on Atlas Obscura

[whilereadingandwalking]

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora is without a doubt one of my favorite reads of 2020. At the heart of this stunning debut are two healing women, Miss May Belle and her daughter Rue. Before the war, we see Rue learn from her mother, we see May Belle deal with the horrors of slavery, we see Rue grow close to the master's daughter, Varina. After the war, a strange boy is born and an illness spreads, and the town suspects Rue of conjuring: haints are in the woods and a man comes spreading faith. Atakora's prose drips with vivid surrealism, with the visceral feel of cooling water and herbs in the hands. The story is an emotional intergenerational tale and full of intriguing twists and growth. The novel felt real, and I couldn't put it down, devouring its 416 pages in a day. I was entirely drawn in, by the stitched dolls and the beaded belts, by the gripping turns of the twisting timeline, by the rich protagonists and their fierce grip on survival. A must-read of 2020. Content warnings for sexual assault and vivid, racist violence.

[a-mayan-pilot]

How Long Till Black Future Month - N. K. Jemisin

Synopses of each story in the anthology:

The Ones Who Stay and Fight: A response to LeGuin’s The Ones who Walk Away From Omelas.  How destructive ideologies get perpetuated, and the necessity of rooting them out.

The City Born Great: The birth of the avatar of New York.  Also, H.P. Lovecraft can suck it.

Red Dirt Witch: Magic, generational trauma, and hope in the deep south.

L’Alchimista: Cooking as art, immortality, Italy.

The Effluent Engine: The Haitian Revolution, espionage, lesbian romance, steampunk New Orleans.

Cloud Dragon Skies: A fuck you to Eurocentric paternalism, blending fantasy and sci fi.

The Trojan Girl: Cyberpunk, sentient AI.

Valedictorian: A society is judged based on how it treats those who deviate from the expected norm.

The Storyteller’s Replacement:  Imperialism, genocide, dragons.

The Brides of Heaven: Alien parasites, religion, motherhood, ambiguous ending.

The Evaluators: Aliens, survival, adaptation.

Walking Awake: Alien invasion, the start of a rebellion.

The Elevator Dancer: Surveillance state; vignette with an ambiguous ending.

Cuisine des Mémoires: An uncanny restaurant, a new start.  

Stone Hunger: Set in the Broken Earth world, possibly post-series.  Survival, justice, healing.

On the Banks of the River Lex: What survives when humans are gone.

The Narcomancer: Set in the Dreamblood world.  Oaths, agency, understanding.

Henosis: A meditation on artistic legacy.  

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows: Timeloops and the strange intimacy of the internet.

The You Train: Adulthood and the surrealism of the New York subway.  

Non-Zero Probabilities: A one-in-a-million chance means it’s a sure thing.  Rationality, superstition, statistics.

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath Still Waters: Hurricane Katrina, magical realism, Home.  

anthology breakdown 1/?

[terramythos]

TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 27 of 26

Title: How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (2018)

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Genre/Tags: Short Story Collection, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Dystopia, Magical Realism, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic, Female Protagonist(s), LGBT Protagonist(s).

Rating: 8/10 (Note: This is an average of all the stories -- see below the cut for individual story blurbs/ratings).

Date Began: 9/27/2020

Date Finished: 10/4/2020

I really liked this collection! Jemisin wrote my favorite fanstasy/scifi series ever with The Broken Earth trilogy, and I really enjoyed her recent novel The City We Became. I was in the mindset for shorter fiction so decided to read this collection of short stories. Of these 22 stories, my absolute favorites (9/10 or higher) were:

The City Born Great - 10/10

The Effluent Engine - 9/10

Cloud Dragon Skies - 9/10

The Trojan Girl -10/10

Valedictorian - 9/10

The Evaluators - 10/10

Stone Hunger - 9/10

The Narcomancer - 9/10

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows - 9/10

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters - 9/10

A more detailed summary/reaction to each story under the cut. WARNING: IT’S LONG.

1. Those Who Stay and Fight - 8/10  

Describes a utopia called Um-Helat that exists solely because no one is seen as superior or inferior to anyone else. Over time we learn it's a future, or potential future, of America. But America today is pure anathema to it due to rampant structural inequality. In order to achieve its utopian ideal, Um-Helatians have to root out and destroy people corrupted by the past.

This story was apparently written as a tribute/response to the Ursula K. Le Guin story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. I first read this without context, then went and read the Le Guin story. I definitely see the parallels. Both feature a narrator describing a wonderful utopia in the midst of festival, trying to convince the reader of the place's existence, before introducing something dark that is the price of the utopia. In the Le Guin story, the utopia exists at the price of the horrible misery and suffering of one child, and everyone is aware of it. Most live with it, but a few leave for the unknown rather than continue to live there (hence the title). In Jemisin's story, the price is instead the annihilation of those tainted by exposure to the evils of the past. The choice, instead of leaving, is for those tainted yet capable to become protectors of the new world, or die.

The thesis is pretty clear: that only by abandoning horrible ideologies and refusing to give them any ground or quarter can a utopian society truly exist. I will say that rings clear, especially when one considers Naziism and fascism. Not all ideologies deserve the light of day or debate, and even entertaining them as valid allows it to take hold. I liked this story, though it comes off as a social justice essay more than a story in and of itself.

2. The City Born Great - 10/10

This one is told from the perspective of a homeless young black man who feels a strange resonance with New York City. He meets a mysterious figure named Paulo, who tells him the city is about to be born as a full-fledged entity, and the man has been chosen to assist with its birth. However, there’s an eldritch force known simply as The Enemy that seeks to prevent this from happening.

I've read this one before since it's the prologue to The City We Became. And honestly it was one of my favorite parts of that book. New York City is a phenomenal character. I love that the proto-avatar of NYC is a young homeless black man, one of the most denigrated groups out there. Cops being the harbingers of eldritch destruction is... yeah. It was fun to reread this. The ending is a little different, because in the novel, something goes terribly wrong that doesn't happen in this short story. There is also a flash forward where he is, apparently, about to awaken the avatar of Los Angeles. Makes me wonder if that is ultimately the endgame of the series. But otherwise it's the same thing with absolutely phenomenal character voice and creativity regarding cities as living creatures. I'm glad Jemisin expanded this idea into a full series.

3. Red Dirt Witch - 7/10

Takes place before the (1960s) Civil Rights Movement in Pratt City, AL. The main character is Emmaline, a witch with three kids. A creepy figure called The White Lady comes to visit and steal one of her children.

I love the little twist that The White Lady is a faerie. And the different take on rowan/ash/thorn instead being rosemary/sage/sycamore fig. There is a lot of touching bits about the horrible trials and human rights abuses during the Civil Rights marches (which are unfortunately all too relevant still), but ultimately a hopeful glimpse of the future of black people in America, though hard-won.

4. L'Alchimista - 6/10

Stars a Milanese master chef named Franca, who fell from glory for Reasons, who now works as head chef at a run-down inn. She feeds a mysterious stranger, who then challenges her to fix a seemingly impossible recipe.

This one was fun and charming. I thought the food (and magical food) descriptions were very vibrant and interesting, especially the last meal. I can tell this is an earlier story and it's pretty light hearted, but I enjoyed it. It felt like it needed a little more of.. something.  

5. The Effluent Engine - 9/10

In an interesting steampunk take, Haitian spy Jessaline comes to the city of New Orleans to meet one of its foremost scientists. Her goal is to find a viable, unique energy source to strengthen Haiti in a world that wants to see her nation dead.

I really liked this; it's one of the longer stories so there's more time for character development and worldbuilding. And it's gay. I'm not hugely into pure steampunk because a lot of it comes off as very... samey (hyper Eurocentric/Victorian, etc) but I thought this take was fresh.

Like much of Jemisin's work, there is a lot of racial under and overtones; this one specifically goes into the terrible atrocities committed against the Haitians during their Revolution, and the varied social classes of black/Creole people in New Orleans at the time. A lot of this is stuff I was unaware of or knew very little about. I thought it was interesting to bring all of these to the forefront in a steampunk story in addition to the dirigibles, clockwork, action, and subterfuge. Also, everything tries together in a very satisfying way by the end (the rum bottle!), which I love in short fiction.

6. Cloud Dragon Skies - 9/10

Takes place in a post-apoc future where some humans evacuated to space while others stayed behind and took on more indigenous traditions to heal the Earth. The sky has suddenly turned red on Earth, and some representatives from the "sky-people" come to study it and figure out why.

I really enjoyed this little story; fantasy/scifi fusions are my jam, but science fiction specifically told through a fantasy lens is just so cool to me. The cloud dragons were very interesting and imaginative. Also, I love how the opening statement's meaning isn't particularly clear until you read the whole thing.

7. The Trojan Girl - 10/10

This one is about sentient computer programs/viruses that struggle to survive in something called the Amorph, which is basically a more advanced, omnipresent version of the Internet.

Holy fucking shit was this a cool story. Probably the coolest take on cyberpunk I've ever read. The main character Moroe has formed a messed up little family of creatures like him who live and hunt in Amorph's code, but can upload to "the Static" (real life) if needed by hijacking human hosts. The way this is described is so damn creepy and unsettling. I love that while they're anthropomorphized, the characters are mostly feral and compared to a pack of wolves. Soooo much wolf pack imagery. And the ending is so fucking good and imaginative.

This was apparently a proof of concept story that Jemisin decided not to adapt to a longer series, which I'm kind of sad about, but it was REALLY cool nevertheless. The next story is apparently in the same universe and serves as the "conclusion".

8. Valedictorian - 9/10

This one is about a girl who is, well, top of her class in high school, and the stresses that mount as graduation approaches. But while it seems like a familiar setup, there is something decidedly Off about everything, which is revealed gradually over the course of the story.

I originally gave this an 8, but honestly I couldn't stop thinking about it so I boosted it to a 9. It doesn’t become clear how this connects to the previous story until the midpoint. I liked this one because it functions as a nice dystopian science fiction story but also biting social commentary on the modern American education system. I'm not going go say more on it because spoilers. While I personally like the first story more I think this is an interesting followup/conclusion with a more cerebral approach.  

9. The Storyteller's Replacement - 6/10

This one's presented as a traditional "once upon a time" fable told by a storyteller narrator, about a shitty despotic king named Paramenter. Desperate to prove his virility, he eats the heart of a dragon, which is said to be a cure-all for impotence. It's successful, but the six strange daughters that result seem to have plans of their own.

Not really my cup of tea-- it's pretty fucked up. But it's definitely cathartic by the end, which I appreciate, and I do like how creepy the daughters are.

10. The Brides of Heaven - 5/10

Framed as an interrogation in an offworld colony called Illiyin, in which a terrible accident occurred on the way that left all the adult men dead. Dihya, who lost her only son to an alien parasite, is caught trying to sabotage the colony's water supply for reasons unknown.

I like some things in this story. I love the trope of alien biology affecting human biology in unexpected ways. I'm not terribly familiar with Islam but thought it added an interesting faith vs practicality vs tradition element to the science fiction. However I found the sexual body horror REALLY squicky which turned me off the story as a whole.

11. The Evaluators - 10/10

Stylized as a collection of logs and excerpts from a First Contact team of humans visiting and studying a sapient alien species to potentially set up trade relations. There's a focus on one team member named Aihua and her conversations with one of the aliens, but there's miscellaneous important hints/excerpts from the survey that hint Something Creepy Is Going On.

This one was BIZARRE and took me two reads to fully appreciate, but it’s a great work of nontraditional science fiction horror. Just... the epitome of "*nervous laughter* 'what the fuck'". I can't say more without spoiling but dear lord. That whole Jesus bit hits different on a second read. Fucking hell.

12. Walking Awake - 7/10

Takes place in a dystopian society in which parasitic creatures known as Masters keep a small number of humans alive to be flesh suits for them, which they take over and trade around at will. The main character Sadie is a human "caretaker" responsible for propagandizing and raising well-bred human children that eventually become the Masters' hosts. She starts to have disturbing dreams when one takes over the body of a teenage boy she was particularly attached to.

This is apparently a response to Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters, which I have never read. It's a full damn novel so I probably won't. Google tells me it's about parasitic aliens, but was obviously also Red Scare paranoia about communist Russia. The argument in the Jemisin story is that the parasites are a result of human folly in an attempt to punish/control people their creators didn't like. This went poorly and resulted in the whole world being taken over.

The story itself is disturbing since the victims are innocent children, but it's ultimately about standing up and taking the first step toward revolution. I felt pretty neutral about the story itself; perhaps I would have liked it more if it was longer and I had more time with the world and protagonist. I wanted to connect to Sadie and her maternal relationship the boy who got killed more. Or maybe it's more impactful if you're familiar with the Heinlein novel and can see the nods/digs.

13. The Elevator Dancer - 7/10

A very short story that takes place in a Christian fundamentalist surveillance state. The protagonist is an unnamed security guard who occasionally sees a woman dancing alone in the elevator and obsesses over her.

I like this one but I'm not sure if I really get it. It's heavily implied the dancer is a hallucination, and the narrator gets "re-educated" but it's all a little ambiguous. I think it's about the struggle to find meaning and inspiration in an oppressive world.  

14. Cuisine des Mémoires - 8/10

This one's about a man named Harold who visits a strange restaurant that claims it can replicate any meal from any point in history. He orders a meal which his ex-wife, whom he still loves very much, fixed for him years ago.

This one was certainly different, but I really like the idea of food-as-memory, especially because that's an actual thing. This story just takes it to an extra level. Honestly this story made me feel things... the longing of memory and missed connections/opportunities. Jemisin did a great job with emotion on this one.

15. Stone Hunger - 9/10

Stars a girl in with the ability to manipulate the earth who's tracking down a man she senses in an unfamiliar city. It's heavily implied the world is in a perpetual post-apocalyptic state. When she's caught damaging the outer wall of the city to break in and injured/imprisoned, she's aided by a mysterious, humanoid statue creature with motives of its own.

I have to say it's really interesting to see an early beta concept of The Broken Earth. Orogeny is a little different (and not named)-- there's some kind of taste component to it? Though that's possibly unique to the main character? While hatred of orogenes exists I don't think it's a structural exploitation allegory at this point. Ykka + proto-Castrima existing this early is pretty funny to me. People also use metal, which is VERY funny if you’ve read the series. But I was thrilled to see stone eaters were Very Much A Thing this early and almost exactly how they appear in the series (a little more sinister I guess. At least the one in this story is. I think he basically gets integrated into the Steel/Gray character in the final version).

Anyway as a huge fan of The Broken Earth it's inspiring to see these early ideas and just how much got changed. It's hard for me to look at this as an independent story without the context of the series. I think I'd like it due to the creative setting and strange concepts, but I appreciate the final changes to narrative style and worldbuilding, which really made the series for me.

16. On The Banks of the River Lex - 8/10

Death explores a decaying, post-human version of New York City. He and various deities/ideas created by humans are all that survives in the future and they struggle to exist in the crumbling infrastructure of the city. But Death gradually observes new and different creatures developing amid the wreckage.

I liked this! Despite a typically bleak premise the story is very optimistic and hopeful for the future of the world post-humanity. I like anthropomorphized concepts/deities/etc in general. I thought the imagery of decay and life was gorgeous. Also octopuses are cool.

17. The Narcomancer - 9/10

Told from the perspective of Cet, a priest known as a Gatherer, who can take the life of someone through their dreams in order to bring them peace. When a village petitions his order to investigate a series of raids conducted by brigands using forbidden magic, Cet joins the party. However, he is troubled by his growing attraction to a strong-willed woman of the village.

This apparently takes place in the Dreamblood universe, which I have not read and know nothing about. However, I really enjoyed this story. It's the longest in the collection so I felt I really got to know the characters. The dream-based religion and fantasy was captivating to learn about. It was also romantic as hell, but not in the typical way you’d expect. I thought the central conflict of a priest struggling between an oath of celibacy and his duty to do the right thing (bring peace to someone who needs it) was fascinating.

18. Henosis - 4/10

A short piece, told anachronistically, about a lauded, award winning author on the way to an award ceremony. He gets kidnapped, but there's Something Else going on.

Honestly I get the sense this one is personal, lol. I will say I like the disturbing play on expectations, but I didn't connect much with it otherwise.  

19. Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows - 9/10

Follows a group of bloggers who have found themselves caught in isolated quantum loops. Their only human contact is through tenuous online conversations with each other. Styled as various chat logs and emails interspersed with the thoughts and perspectives of Helen, a young black woman who before the loop was teaching English in Japan.

This one is real depressing and definitely Social Commentary (TM). The central thesis about loneliness and disconnect at the end made me pretty dang sad. Good stuff in an ouch kind of way and made me think.

20. The You Train - 6/10

Told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator talking (presumably on the phone) to a friend about her struggles adjusting to life in New York City. She regularly mentions seeing train lines that either don't exist or retired a long time ago.

This is the kind of story I'd normally really like. I think trains are interesting and like vaguely supernatural, inexplicable shit. The one-sided phone call is also an interesting narrative device. But I'm not sure I really got this one. It comes off as vaguely horror-y but also optimistic? I couldn't really figure this one out, and it was too short to feel much investment on top of that.

21. Non-Zero Probabilities - 7/10

Luck has gone completely out of whack in New York City. Highly improbable events suddenly become way more likely, both good and bad. This story follows a woman named Adele and coming to grips with the new ways of life this brings.

I liked this one well enough but I don't have a lot to say about it. I liked how the story looks at how people would adapt to a life where probability doesn't mean anything anymore.  

22. Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters - 9/10

A magical realism story about a man named Tookie struggling to survive in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He meets a talking, winged lizard and the two help each other out. But it soon becomes clear there is something sinister lurking in the flooded ruins of the city.

This story was very imaginative and a great cap to the collection. I thought it was an intriguing time period to set a magical realism story in. I love the little details, especially those of omission -- the "lizard" is never called a dragon, for example. I can see echoes of this story in The City We Became, especially the themes of cities as powerful entities, vague eldritch fuckery centered around hatred, and certain people being guardians of the city.