Matthew Kressel

12/15/21 (Amazon and GR)

Don't Worry, Gentile Readers: King of Shards: Book One of the Worldmender Trilogy, by Matthew Kressel, is a Cosmic Waterpark Ride

The opening act of the King of Shards, is a master class in world-building and character introduction, skillfully utilizing: neutral (for the most part, a few snide adjectives notwithstanding) omniscient narration, deeply grounded characterization—both in our world and the other, and wonderful prose. And what I like best is that Kressel show more isn't coy with the action, forcibly pulling the reader through the plot when it is called for. The opening chapter ends with our hero, Daniel, the husband-to-be and protagonist (and, frankly, another “chosen one”, if you'll pardon the trope) beying kidnapped by a demon-creature just in time to apparently save him from a bride who was also going to somehow destroy him...

And you thought your wedding day was bad?

The action sequences are balanced with wonderful quiet moments, too. From a flashback in Chapter Nine:

~snip~
So he rose from that dead place and biked back to his great uncle’s house, and he asked his great uncle to take him to the hospital. And when he got to Gram’s intensive care room, he took her hand. She opened her eyes and gazed at him, her eyes were drugged and far away.

“When you were a baby,” she whispered—he leaned in to hear—“we put you in a crib by the window on erev shabbes. The sun was going down. It turned the room a brilliant orange. It cast a shadow of your crib onto the wall. It looked like a menorah, Danny, with seven dancing flames.” She squeezed his hand. “From then on I knew what you were.”

She closed her eyes, whimpered, and the nurses came to give her more morphine. Then she slept. She never mentioned this story again, and later he wasn’t sure if she remembered telling it.
~end snip~

The middle act concerns itself with further fleshing out the protagonist's allies: main characters of various degrees of personal animosity, emotional baggage, and cosmic importance. Plus, the contours of the external stakes are outlined. I'll avoid spoilers, but let's just say it's not called the Worldmender Trilogy for nothing.

As for the ending: I won't lie, the author gets a little ahead of himself, here. Events start to outpace the plot and it devolves a bit into a helter skelter third act that Kressel has trouble keeping up with.

Overall, it is a lot of slipstream fun. Is it Religious Fiction? Sort of. Is it about vampires? Well, maybe a little (what it does show is about the best version of them I've ever seen). Portal Fantasy? Yes, it turns out. But, I thought it was contemporary urban? Yes, yes. Daniel is a normal guy from our world, bless his heart. By the end, the characters do what must be done and the Daniel is ready for whatever is to come. Whatever “ready” means.

One thing that is worth expanding upon. As a white, male author who writes fantasy that incorporates many characters of diverse races and backgrounds, I am certainly mindful of the possibility that I could always somehow be accused of 'cultural appropriation' (CA) in my works. Hopefully I wouldn't have done anything to earn that. But, as part of trying not to, I've made myself aware of most of the CA tropes. One of the most popular is the 'my religion isn't your magic system'. Now, I don't want to litigate that debate here. And I don't believe this story has ever been accused of CA.

Which is my point. This book *explicitly* portrays modern Judaism as part and parcel of a magic system in this urban fantasy. I mean, point for point. Jewish texts are mystical tomes. Spells are cast in Hebrew, etc.

I am assuming Mr. Kressel is, in fact, a member of the Jewish faith, and that's why he doesn't get dinged for it. But, I would ask theoreticians and those interested in Social Justice to ask themselves—Why that would make a difference?

Don't get me wrong. I don't think Kressel has done anything wrong, here. But, truthfully, I wouldn't think he had done anything wrong if he was Muslim or a fundamentalist Christian, either. Fiction is fiction. Plus, what is modern religion if it isn't, in fact, a 'magic system' for all of us in the real world...for our usage when our science and facts can't quite satisfy us?

Anyway, just my opinion.

But, seriously, by writing such a wonderful modern fantasy, Kressel has shared a real gift. And while I normally don't let myself get sucked into book serieses anymore—at least not until an author has proven to me they can deliver resolution in a standalone story (GRRM has scarred me forever, in that regard)—this is an exception. I can't wait to see what Mr. Kressel has in store for us next. This wasn't just a great “Book One”, it was a mitzvah. show less

Sybil's Garage, a slim 8 1/2" by 7 1/4" magazine published by Senses Five Press, New Jersey, is dedicated to "Speculative Fiction, Poetry & Art". I received issue #4, normally priced at $5, as a review copy

Layout and Design: The magazine has a glossy, full-color cover and is printed on fine white paper with decent margins and text sized for ease of reading without being obnoxiously large. The illustrations - mostly public domain line-drawings from the 1800s - are cIean and given generous show more white-space. In other words, this is a decidedly more handsome effort than your typical SF periodical. Advertising is confined to a single, topical page at both front and back.

Content: When I first added up and averaged my rankings for the individual pieces, I was surprised to see the outcome: 3 stars (which should translate to, 'Overall, the collection is of average quality; nothing to write home about, either in anger or praise.') My gut impression was really more positive. Ah, but then I must note that I consistently rank poems lower than prose and it's hardly fair to knock a magazine that mentions poetry in the masthead for actually including a healthy sampling of on-theme poems. It's probably more significant that I, a poetry-disdaining philistine, quite liked J.C. Runolfson's "define your terms" love poem, The Answer Compounded and JoSelle Vanderhooft's Flesh Into Sand in which a sly, obsessive (female) landscape considers the sexy climber she has claimed as her own.

As for the stories, Sybil's Garage #4 had two offerings that really struck me. Pairings by John Bowker is the history of a marriage written in socks told in just over a page. I wanted to hear more from Catherine, a woman whose identity seems entirely tied up in being a wife until the day she finally finds a reason to act. I do wish the catalyst was something not quite so trite, but it's a small criticism. Means of Communication by Barbara Krasnoff is the only prose science fiction piece in an issue dominated by dark fantasy. The unnamed narrator is the sole human menial on a first-contact station otherwise staffed by "hero"-scientists and their robot assistants. As rehabilitation for an unspecified crime, her memory and personality have been altered, a change that only the condescending doctors seem to regard as an improvement. I want this story to continue. I want to see more of the "alien" lizards, understand more about the station's culture, one that values learning but seems to punish emotion, and I was absolutely ready to hear more from the narrator. In short, I loved this story and will be looking for more from Krasnoff. (A novel, perhaps?)

Other standouts include
- Seas of the World by Ekaterina Sedia, an icy vignette of two people whose only remaining connection is an absence.
- After the War by Leah Bobet: the boy goes willingly off to war; the man is forever haunted by it.
- Devin Poore's interview with Stephen H. Segal (He's the creative director for Wildside Press, not an action film star.) and
- Strangeness by Steve Rasnic Tem: What initially seems to be an ordinary lifeless marriage turns out to be an infestation of succubi, head-swallowing grins and other signs of a warped reality. Or maybe it's all in the mind of a housewife driven crazy by tedium.

My final rating? A solid four stars. (Recommended.) show less

Diego is an addict hooked on a drug called jisthmus on the remote planet Gilder Nefan. His former partner in drug dealing crime, Mikal, makes the long journey to help Diego kick his habit, in order to assuage his guilt over leaving his friend in the lurch during a police raid years before. Diego has a mysterious minder called Saa and local mythology connect the Numens, a godlike race. to jisthmus. The story moves to a (somewhat predictable) neat conclusion