Fiction Analysis - 'Silence and Starsong' (Spring 2023)
A debut of wonder and awe
Author’s note: Fiction Analysis is back, though it’ll be a little different since we’ll be looking at a magazine anthology rather than a single story.
Warning: Actually, I’ll be really scrupulous with spoilers since I’m dealing with a new series. And one that was recently released, to boot.
Get the magazine issue on Amazon.
Introduction
There’s quite a bit of indie short story anthologies coming out this year. In all honesty, I’m still rather new to the “short story” scene. Right now, I’m reading The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany. Of course, I’ve also been reading short stories and flash fiction pieces here on Substack. They, of course, include the ones written by Joseph W. Knowles.
This brings me to the subject of this analysis, Silence and Starsong. This magazine is Mr. Knowles’ brainchild, and I’ll let the man speak for himself: (Para. 1)
Silence and Starsong is an online and print magazine inspiring wonder and awe through stories of high strangeness and other modern fairy-tales for grown-ups.
That was their vision statement. Did the debut issue, released just last week as of the writing of this analysis, live up to it? We shall see.
Personally, I was looking forward to this. I’ve been following the magazine’s Twitter for quite some time. Also, they published one of my flash fiction pieces in their web site. And no good deed should go unrewarded.
I also would like to consider the human element. Mr. Knowles is an unapologetic Christian. The magazine wouldn’t even accept stories that attack Christianity. That’s a green flag for me since I like Christian fiction as I said in my analysis of Noah. Also, the personal life of the creator matters; it really matters, fiction or nonfiction.
Since this is an anthology, I’ll be taking a different tack with this particular analysis. Instead of doing my usual thing of analyzing the story’s setting, characters, and story, I’ll be taking a quick look at each individual story. Afterwards, I will give my top three. Finally, I’ll conclude by looking at the stories as a whole and how they fit together as an anthology.
This bears repeating: I’ll be really scrupulous with spoilers.
The Stories
There are ten stories in this anthology:
1. A Matter of Honor by Jason McCuiston
2. A Wanderer of Ur by Gaston Nerval
3. Archangel by Frederick Gero Heimbach
4. Two Godly Fishmongers: A Tale of Strange Providences by Kevin White
5. Free Lunch by S. Kirk Pierzchala
6. Have Ye Offered Unto Me by Zachary Grafman
7. The Gamer by Nathan Karnes
8. The Secret of Phelim Darke by S. Kirk Pierzchala
9. The Shadow of the Stain by Patrick Lauser
10. Hidden Empire by T.R. Alexander
Story Number One
The first in line was A Matter of Honor. Mr. McCuiston’s story was a mix of action and horror. Taking place around the bloody Thirty Years’ War, our cast was made up of six hardened soldiers from both sides of that war of religion. And like a bunch of Renaissance frat boys that they are, they got themselves into some preternatural horror.
This was the most action-packed story of the anthology, and I can see why it’s given top billing. I like the characters. I don’t want to assume Mr. McCuiston’s religion, but as a Catholic I was impressed by how fair the Catholics were portrayed given that the narrator character is Protestant.
Story Number Two
Moving on, we’ll look at A Wanderer of Ur. Mr. Nerval’s story took place in a distant past not too long after Noah’s Flood. The story centered on Thark, a Conan the Barbarian-esque character. This is an old-fashioned adventure story taking place in a Young Earth Creationist Hyborian Age.
Awesome!
As you can tell, I really love this story. I’m just a sucker for ‘extra-biblical fiction’ (I’m coining that term lol). Thark is an interesting character, and I’m looking forward to reading other works by Mr. Nerval.
Story Number Three
Next, it’s Mr. Heimbach’s Archangel. The story took place in an alternate history where Tsarist Russia is in a Cold War with the United States. It’s Russia vs the US, except that the Russians are the good guys (no political jokes from me). The US have nukes, but Russians have something much more demonic.
Wait? How are they the good guys again? Read the story.
This story is very intense. It’s a mix of horror and theology, a ‘theological horror’ if you may. Also, the worldbuilding is both detailed and succinct, somehow.
Story Number Four
Now we go to Two Godly Fishmongers by Mr. White. This one took place in “Merrie Olde England”. Two former friends turned enemies found themselves in a literal UFO. Yeah, crazy. This was the first primarily science fiction story.
Personally, it’s weird to call any time period of post-Henry VIII England as “merrie olde’, but that’s on me. Anyways, Mr. White did a good job in making the characters likable even if they’re very much flawed. And this story definitely inspired wonder.
Story Number Five
Next up, Free Lunch by Mrs. Pierzchala. This story is what I would call a ‘mundane fantasy’ story. The setup was ordinary, but you know stuff was about to hit the fan. For some reason, the story also reminded me of Doraemon. If I have to guess, it’s probably because the main character Sally feels like a ‘gender swapped’ Nobita (I’m sorry for using that term).
Actually, I first dreaded reading this story after I read the blurb. I’m at a point where I just don’t want to bother with female protagonists. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I ended up liking the story and its protagonist. The setup is not exactly my cup of tea, but I still enjoyed it.
Story Number Six
Now we go to Have Ye Offered Unto Me. Mr. Grafman’s story is a little hard to pin down in terms of genre; it’s not quite horror, it’s not fantasy, and it’s not adventure either. Anyways, it centered around a bunch of academics discussing a Bronze Age religious cult. Trust me, it’s more exciting than it sounds.
As someone who has gone through graduate school myself, I can somewhat relate to the characters in the book. At first, I didn’t really care for the main character Thomas who seems like a proto-Redditor. But by the end of the story, I ended up liking him. Fun read by Mr. Grafman.
Story Number Seven
Moving on, we go to The Gamer by Mr. Karnes. Readers might notice there hasn’t been a “futuristic” story in this anthology yet. At first, this might be such a story. From the title, it sounded like it could be a Dot Hack-esque setting. But it turned out to be neither of those. Anyways, The main character is the titular Gamer. He’s not a particularly admirable character, but it makes sense for the story.
This is actually one of my favorite stories in the anthology. I want to write more on it so I can do the story justice, but I don’t want to spoil it. Just read the story.
Story Number Eight
The next story is another one by Mrs. Pierzchala: The Secret of Phelim Darke. This one is a romance story (in the conventional sense of the word). But ladies, when your man’s name is Phelim Darke, you know something’s off with him.
Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of pure romance stories. Don’t get me wrong, I love romance subplots (otherwise, I wouldn’t write Inquisitor’s Promise). But I see romance in a story as a spice or sauce in the story meal: it’s a good part of the whole, but it doesn’t really stand on its own.
Or maybe it’s because I’m a guy. In any case, it’s well written even if it’s not my style.
Story Number Nine
Next up, we have Shadow of the Stain by Mr. Lauser. This is a horror story taking part at an Eastern European forest (or maybe it’s Irish, just guessing from the character names). There’s someone or something lurking in the woods, and it’s hard to tell if that creature is evil or not.
Like a lot of horror stories, there’s a twist. Jokes aside, I like how Mr. Lauser handled the twist. On the other hand, I can’t help but get a little confused as the story seemed to jump around like Pulp Fiction. There was also a significant ‘time skip’ at some point during the story. I only brought this up to say that I was somewhat confused chronologically when I read the story for the first time.
But regardless, I enjoyed Mr. Lauser’s story. The characters are interesting, the heroes are likable, and the villains are despicable.
Good.
Story Number Ten
Finally, we get to the final story: Hidden Empire. A horror story by Mr. Alexander, the intro is reminiscent of an H.P. Lovecraft short story. The short story centered on Joseph Cartwright, personal representative of the US President, as he audited the CIA. And he was in for quite the ride.
Readers will feel for Joseph and all the stuff he went through in Langley. But the way the CIA was handled was easily the best part of the short story. Since they were clearly the villains, Mr. Alexander had to make them interesting.
How did he make the clichéd ‘villainous CIA’ trope interesting? Spoilers, mate. Just read the story, it’s a good one.
My Favorites
I like all of the stories, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this analysis. But here’s my top three stories in the anthology:
1. A Wanderer of Ur by Gaston Nerval
2. The Gamer by Nathan Karnes
3. Archangel by Frederick Gero Heimbach
I considered putting The Gamer as number one, but it doesn’t feel right doing so given that I have said very little about Mr. Karnes’ short story. As I have said earlier, I really love extra-biblical fiction and Mr. Nerval really scratched that itch. And Archangel was epic, for lack of a better word.
Conclusion
Now we return to the vision statement of Silence and Starsong: to “[inspire] wonder and awe through stories of high strangeness and other modern fairy-tales for grown-ups”. Did Mr. Knowles et al. accomplish their mission?
I think they did. The stories are all interesting and made me think. And I don’t mean that in a pretentious sort of way. They all inspired wonder in one way or another.
One strange aspect of the anthology is how much horror is in it. I count about five, maybe six horror stories out of ten. Not a criticism per se, just an observation.
Anyways, I think it’s a shame that the anthology doesn’t have a proper futuristic fiction, but I’m willing to overlook this. Maybe next time.
-Michael P. Marpaung