Behn is a young Wyrd. His abilities are essential. Wyrdwork is the only cure for thred. Without it, the parasite will spread to finish what it started generations ago.
In the new world, Lords carve Holdings from the dead cities of the old civilizations, gathering those who remain to salvage what they need. Wyrds are kept as slaves to ensure the cure for thred is not lost. Resistance is brutally punished, and Wyrds in the same kennel suffer together. Now, Behn has escaped a culling and fled for his life, and his Lord wants him back.
Shaenne is a young wailan. Before the Fall, her species shared the world with humans. When thred migrated and began to infect their sister species, humans hunted wailan nearly to extinction. Shaenne’s family survived for generations by concealing their heritage. They protected other wailan who remained, but they have been discovered, and their House has fallen. Now, Shaenne is alone, and she is being hunted.
Both of them are running, looking for a place where they can live in peace. Alone, there is little hope. Together, they might have a chance.
Qiang is a tetrachromat—a young woman born with a rare genetic mutation that gives her color vision a hundred times more nuanced than ordinary eyesight—and she is being hunted. Living on her own for the first time, Qiang was eager to begin her college career and develop herself as an artist. Then, she began noticing people with subtle markings that no one else could see. At first, she was curious, but when the strange people learned she could see them for what they were, Qiang had no choice but to leave her life behind and run.
The truth is shapeshifters live among us. They wear our faces and make use of our lives as it suits them. Sometimes, that means doing away with the few who can see through their lies. Trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Qiang must learn how to survive the reason why her gift is so rare.
Gen’s waking life is desperately ordinary, a mask of adolescent blandness concealing a secret no sane person could believe. When she sleeps, Gen becomes the dream walker, the demigod hero of another world. Every night, she fights to protect her home, the isolated mountain kingdom of Gilead, from being consumed by the brutal, imperialist techno-theocracy of Shail.
Now, despite everything Gen has sacrificed in her struggle, her two lives are coming apart. Gilead is on the brink of starvation and through nightmarish experimentation, the empire has stolen the secret of dream walking and has begun sending assassins for Gen on earth, where she is powerless and vulnerable. Alone, crippled by the side effects of her medication, and betrayed by her closest friends in both worlds, Gen must now fight for survival at every turn…
And she is losing.
Alice never belonged anywhere. All her life, from dealing drugs to hiding in college to going through the motions of a hollow engagement, she's only been waiting for something to happen. Now her fiance is dead, magic is real, and she's being attacked by monsters in her hospital room. Altair, an uncannily familiar stranger, tells her that she is a sage. Since antiquity, eight sages have been guardians of the earth, passing on their power through the ages over many lifetimes. Through music, they shape the world with their magic. He tells Alice the monsters hunt her because the impossible has happened. The other sages have disappeared, taken by a mysterious being rumored to be capable of destroying all of creation. Now, Alice is the last of the sages and she must realize her potential to save the heart of reality itself, but there's another problem. Even if her hands were whole, Alice can't sing a note.
“I used to ask an elderly friend, “How are you?” He’d respond, “I’m almost practically perfect.” That phrase could be used to describe The Last Sage by Chris Rathburn. If you’re a fan of The Lord of the Rings, do not miss this book! I don’t give many rave reviews, but The Last Sage gets one.
“The writing is fantastic, the plot edge-of-your-seat, and the world-building beyond great. It begins like The Reincarnationist; The Last Sage’s protagonist, Alice, feels uncomfortable in her life, struggles to fit in, and finds out she has lived multiple lives. From there, the plot goes in a completely different direction from the other book. All hell breaks loose. I’m deliberately vague because I don’t want to diminish your pleasure in each page as you follow the intricate plot. I will, however, be kind enough to give you the author’s elevator pitch: “Alice is in a race against time to use the magic of her music to save all of reality, but her hands are ruined and she can’t sing a note.”
“…Oh, I really mean it when I say don’t miss this one. (Though it’s definitely not for kids)…”
McCullagh, Caroline. “Reincarnation Again: The Multiple Paths to Past Lives.” Mensa Bulletin, Issue 642, February 2021, pp. 22-23
Tanka have been compiled into sequences ever since they were first invented more than a thousand years ago. It is only natural to continue this tradition today. In the pages of this anthology you will find the first comprehensive treatment of short tanka sequences composed in English. Over 100 contributors, working as solo poets or collaborating in teams, have produced short sequences (2-13 tanka) and tanka prose covering a wide range of human experience and emotion. Some of the finest tanka poets working in English have joined together to create an anthology that is a 'sequence of sequences,' serving as an exemplar of the synergy of using tanka as building blocks in larger, more complex works.
This anthology features my collection of tanka, titled Crucible.
My science fiction short story Progress was published in the Spring 2019 - Issue 163 of MENSA’s Calliope.
“Teleportation felt like reincarnation. The procedure was familiar, but each time Patrick opened his eyes afterward it was as though he’d been reborn, sprung fully formed from his progenitor, the way it was in old Greek stories. Smoothly mechanized attendants attended him, bringing scented robes to cover his nudity.” (Read Progress…)