This is a collection of six short stories set in the ancient past of the Storm Dancer world, mixing both fantasy and horror themes into a delicious concoction that never fails to surprise, disturb and entertain.

“Kin” begins the collection in fine morality play fashion. Here Leha has three daughters; the first two she is proud of, and the third she has disowned. After a terrible natural disaster lays low the land, Leha journeys to the city to take succor from the two daughters whom she loves. Her journey and what she discovers there teaches her much about kindness, selfishness, true love, and forgiveness.

“Greywalker” is a zombie-like tale that is morbidly delightful. From the beginning, it is clear what is going to inevitably happen, but the main character has such noble intentions you find yourself hoping that he will escape his fate. My favorite story of the collection.

“The Water of Truth” is another morality play; this time based around the folly of greed. Here a young man becomes educated before returning home to monetize the well of truth that his family controls. While he glorifies in the riches that begin to pour in, his uneducated sister sees the folly in his actions and their inevitable consequences.

“Each Stone” centers on a princess’ desperate internal struggle to master a game of chance and save her loyal supporters before they are executed. Naturally, though, there is a catch to the game.

“The Colour of Dishonour” is a very clever fantasy take on Edgar Allan Poe’s classic horror short story “The Tell-Tale Heart.” I really enjoyed it, but if I told you more, I’d ruin the surprises in store for you.

“A Horse for a Hero” ends this collection on a high note with the tale of a winged horse who dreams of finding “a knight in shining armor” to become his rider. Things don’t go exactly as he plans though, and his life leads him to places he never dreamed possible. The ending is especially ironic.

In scope and depth, The Colour of Dishonour collection reminded me of reading Greek myths, where those too foolish, too proud, or too hasty get themselves into circumstances they never intended to be in. And if you — like me — enjoy those type of entertaining but weighty morality tales, then these stories by Rayne Hall will not disappoint.

Reflections of Eternity is a fantasy short story that I stumbled upon a few weeks ago. Since I’m generally turned off by photographic fantasy covers, it was the story description which persuaded me to download it – specifically the sword-in-the-stone fantasy trope.

I know lots of people are tired of standard fantasy tropes. The farm-boy-finds-magic-sword-saves-world and all the other familiar tropes are not only boring but an insult to the reading I.Q. of most people. However, whenever my mind is tired of complex stories, I like to take a break by returning to the comfortable fantasy tropes of my youth. And nothing gets me closer to that innocent and joyous time than a good sword-in-the-stone story.

In this particular tale, the world is hurtling toward its end. The soothing lullaby of the goddess Heljina having stopped, and the dark god Zarketh rousing toward wakefulness and destruction. All is in chaos. Civilization is crumbling. The naive and stupid people of the world are lining up to draw the magic blade dubbed Bedko from the holy stone. And all Rehman can do is laugh at the absurdity of it all, desperately trying to get so drunk he doesn’t care anymore.

But then something amazing happens: Rehman is forced to draws forth Bedko’s Blade. Immediately, he is anointed the savior of his people. Only problem being that our young, drunk hero doesn’t want anything to do with what his new destiny entails.

For, you see, the legends say that once there were two swords within the holy stone, but the last time Zarketh began to awake (five centuries in the past) a warrior-woman named Zella pulled forth the other blade, marched down into Zarketh’s tomb to fight the god, and triumphed. (Well, everyone assumes she triumphed because the world didn’t end.) Only problem being that no one ever saw Zella again!

Now Rehman finds himself forced toward the caves where Zella supposedly disappeared, and while all he really wants to do is run for his life, he tries to find bravery in knowing that Zella walked this same path years before. But soon, all his courage begins to fade, as he finds that in the dark depths time itself does not matter anymore!

Having read more than a few fantasy stories that used the sword-in-the-stone trope I can tell you honestly most authors really don’t add much to the classic Arthurian legend. Oh, they might package it differently, change the “why” or “how”, but ultimately, it is the same rehashed fantasy trope that we are all accustom to. But J.M.D. Reid has not done that with Reflections on Eternity. Instead, he has crafted an interesting and entertaining story that twists the sword-in-the-stone mythos around until it has become something new. A feat that I personally never saw coming until the last sentence.

J.M.D. Reid is another fantasy author I was not familiar with until reading a fantasy short story. But unlike other shorts, this tale actually sold me on Mr. Reid’s story crafting skill, so I will definitely be checking out his novel The Assassin’s Remorse sometime in the future. And I would encourage you to as well.

Amazon         Goodreads

Why do people who actually have good, original ideas don’t take their time to write them properly? I felt like reading something short, so I picked up “Lost in the Seven Worlds” for two reasons: it has good reviews, and it’s written by a Romanian author. I was very curious to see how Petronela Ungureanu imagined her seven worlds and the creatures that inhabit them, because, yes, I was expecting to read about seven parallel worlds and different races for each of them. Well… I got the races, that’s for sure.

The main character is a 19 year old girl who finds herself in a strange world, a prisoner of the beautiful Daevas, a race that resembles Tolkien’s elves. She doesn’t know why she is here, she doesn’t know if she is of any importance to them, and she misses her home dearly. When she meets Lord Idris, a fallen Daeva, she finally hopes for love and happiness, but things don’t go as planned. The story is very short, and the revelation at the end is quite rushed and it doesn’t give any explanations. I don’t know if the author intends to write another piece to continue this story, or if she might turn it into a series. What I do know is that it has a lot of potential. Like, A LOT.

We have a very interesting race – the Daevas – and some good world-building. While the world ruled by the Daevas has two red suns, it seems that the other ones are covered in darkness. I would have loved for all these seven worlds to be described in more detail. The writing style is smooth and descriptive, and it was easy for me to imagine everything the author described.

Unfortunately, this short story feels more like a sketch for a longer, more complex piece. Maybe it could have been turned into a novel, because there are lots of elements that are worth developing. I like the author’s writing style (you really can’t tell that she’s not a native English speaker), so I’m going to read her other short story – “I Met a Demon”. It seems that it is based on actual events, so it sounds more than promising.