In the Midst of a River
Tales from the Lemurverse Anthology One
Clayton Barnett (Editor)
3-AR Studios
ISBN 9798308332312
eISBN 9798230022954
ASIN B0DXVYD55C
I stumbled upon the second anthology in the Lemurverse, Amelia Counterrevolution, and absolutely loved it. I had picked up this one before even finishing that offering. One of the things I love about anthologies is being introduced to new authors, only one of the authors in this volume does not make an appearance in the second. Another thing I love is short form fiction is a very different art form than writing novels. And this work has a few different styles of short fiction in a few genres. To be honest I enjoyed each and every one of them, some more than others but overall a great collection. But I am getting ahead of myself, back to the volume at hand.
The description of the anthology states:
“A talented team of writers have come together to produce ten short stories of speculative fiction for your enjoyment. Interstellar war, devious politics, espionage, crime, and even some bucolic peace, with a little romance on the side.
**
All of these united by the theme of In the Midst of a River. It could be a river on Earth or another planet; perhaps a river of stars. Or even a river of tears. These stories will touch your spirit, head, and heart. And make you stop and think, the next time you find yourself in the midst of a river.”
The contributors are:
Page Zaplendam
Joseph Isenberg
S. Donovan Croft
Clayton Barnett
Grathew
And each contributor penned two pieces in the collection.
The stories are:
The Stillness in the River
The Intellectual Choice
A Bad Day for the Company
Gang, Gang, the Hail’s All Here!
The Oligarchs: A Weapons of Legend Tale
Circulus Interiorem: A Weapons of Legend Tale
Irrational Pai
Columbia River Diplomacy
Saturday Night
Chasing a letter
As mentioned two each in sequence in order based on the contributors list. At the beginning of the volume is QR codes to take you to the contributors. And the end of the collection are brief biographies. Quite well written and entertaining. I would have preferred if the QR codes on the digital edition were just links. But for those using mobile or physical copy it will work well. Before the text begins is a quote:
““No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”
- Heraclitus
And then the editor’s forward states:
“Once upon a time, there was the Science Fiction and Fantasy Group on a social media site called Gab.com. There, various oddballs could gather and exchange outlandish ideas. Over time, it was agreed that face-to-face was needed, and the Imaginarium Convention in Louisville, Kentucky was chosen.
Two the first year, three the next, five the third, unofficially, the name Lemurs, from Mister Isenberg, was chosen for our writing circle.
At the end of that third year, I suggested we make an anthology of our very disparate works, highlighting our own styles. To not have things off in five different directions, I proposed a common theme, which is the title of this collection.
This has been one of the most difficult projects I have worked on; goading writers makes herding cats look simple. Missing one deadline after another, finally, all stories were in. Edited first by me and copyedited by Stephen Zimmer, I finally stuck a fork in this project.
Still wildly divergent, the theme knits these works together. I hope you, the reader, will meet us In the Midst of a River.
Deus vult.”
There are some great stories in this collection and a two I absolutely loved. I admit I laughed out loud at Gang, Gang, the Hail’s All Here!. And the story Irrational Pai has some serious humour. I also really enjoyed Chasing A Letter. I can easily state each story was worth the read.
I also really appreciated the +JMJ+ dedication by the editor and the Deus Vult in the forward. I did have 2 of the authors in my ‘to be read’ pile, after reading book two in this series and this collection only reinforced bumping those authors up. I would not hesitate to pick up a third Lemurverse collection and it would definitely jump to the top of my ‘to be read pile’! This is a good anthology that I can easily recommend.
Book in the Tales from the Lemurverse Series:
In the Midst of a River
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