7 Short Fantasy Stories I Read This Week
This week I was after sword and sorcery or mythology-based stories
This week I read 7 short fantasy stories.
I was specifically looking for sword and sorcery or mythology-based fantasy, not urban fantasy. I’ll deal with urban fantasy another week. So, magic, wizards, swords, medieval settings.
In this type of story, I want a fantastical world that feels real. If there’s magic, it needs to be logical and fit into the physical laws of that world. I want believable imaginary races and creatures. I want a world that makes sense.
Unlike a novel, a short story hasn’t got room to build a complete world, but there needs to be enough to make sense. Basing it on known mythology can mean you can get away with less detail.
I had no idea how hard it would be to find short sword and sorcery and mythology stories. Many of the ones suggested by my search engine were urban fantasy or science fiction branded as fantasy. I had to dig deep.
These are the stories I read this week and what I thought.
**Please be aware that I’m not here to criticise any writer. The fact that these writers have put themselves out there and made these stories available for me to read for free is amazing and I thank you.**
Sunday: The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains
The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman. Published on the Fifty-Two Stories website.
What it’s about: A dwarf hires a guide to take him to the Misty Isle to a rumoured cave full of gold.
“I had searched for nearly ten years, although the trail was cold. I would say that I found him by accident, but I do not believe in accidents. If you walk the path, eventually you must arrive at the cave.”
This is a story about deception, greed, revenge, and karma, and what we will do for family.
Based on Celtic mythology, this story feels like a myth or fairy tale itself in the style and language and the way the journey proceeds. As with all good mythology-based stories, it’s made up of things that are not what they appear to be.
The ‘small’ man is not just a dwarf. The guide is not just someone who’s been to the cave. The reason for the journey is not what we’re led to believe. The cave is not just a hole in a mountain on an island that’s sometimes there and sometimes not. The gold is not passively sitting there waiting to be taken by intrepid adventurers.
This is a relatively long short story but it’s an easy read. There was some predictability but that almost made it feel comfortable.
If you like myths, you’ll enjoy this story, as I did.
Monday: Lines of Growth, Lines of Passage
Lines of Growth, Lines of Passage by Marissa Lingen. Published in Uncanny Magazine Issue 20.
What it’s about: A sorcerer is trying to solve a problem and has to overcome a betrayal.
“I did not remember how I had gotten encased in a cherry tree. Though fragrant, this was inconvenient.”
This is a story of using your brain and thinking things through. It’s about not relying on external tools, like magic. It’s about adapting to situations and recognising you can control your own reactions. There’s also some karma thrown in.
The tone of this story is light, but not over-the-top comedic. The main character is a nice alternative to the usual serious bearded old man wizard. She doesn’t take herself too seriously and she doesn’t get flustered at the situations she finds herself in. As we follow her thoughts through the story, we learn she has more depth than initially appears.
The betrayal is really just a minor part of the story. The big through-line is the need to come up with a novel solution to a problem. Several nations want to smash a passage through the world’s northern icebergs so they can trade with other nations, but some iron giants won’t let anyone pass.
She’s more than competent with magic, but her ability to think outside the box is her real skill. As the story goes on, she accepts and deals with situations, rather than complaining about them.
Again, another longish short story, but well worth the read. This one’s my pick of the week if you only want to read one.
Tuesday: A Light in Troy
A Light in Troy by Sarah Monette. Published in Clarkesworld magazine, Issue 1, October 2006.
What it’s about: A woman is a slave to the people who conquered her land. She goes to the beach every day and mourns her lost family. One day she sees a child.
“Every morning she teased herself with wondering if this would be the day she left her grief behind her on the rocky beach and walked out into the sea to rejoin her husband, her sisters, her child. And every morning she turned away and climbed the steep and narrow stairs back to the fortress.”
This is a story of loss, loneliness, trust, and the things we do to survive.
The woman works in the library run by her homeland’s conquerors. She’s quiet and unassuming. One day at the beach she sees a child that reminds her of her dead son. She knows that if anyone learns about him, they’ll kill him, so she tries to learn more about him while trying to build trust between herself and the boy and herself and her librarian master.
This was an interesting, but sad, story albeit with a nice ending.
Wednesday: A Boy and His Goblin
A Boy and His Goblin by Ryan Griffith. Published on the Short-Story.me website.
What it’s about: A boy tells the story of how he came by his goblin travelling companion.
“I have a companion. He is a foul-smelling, foul-tempered, foul-mouthed creature. He lives in a sack that I carry by my side.”
This is a story of compassion and the recklessness of youth.
The boy is a wanderer. A stranger in a strange land, he’s full of curiosity about the world around him. He’s not naïve but he’s strong-minded and not afraid of standing up for what’s right.
While I appreciate the story, some aspects felt a bit off to me.
The story is told in a light, jokey tone, some of which didn’t really work for me. Although the main character is supposed to be a boy, the voice of the story sounds more like an adult. His actions seem to contradict the voice in that his actions are more like those of a teenage boy than a man.
He grabs ‘Thorn’ near the start of the story, but it’s not clear at this point what Thorn is. It doesn’t come up until nearer the end that ‘she’ is a weapon. Thorn is referred to as if she is sentient but it’s not completely clear.
There were also some obvious (to me) grammar, spelling, and typographical errors, near the end, but the story was fun and still worth a read.
Thursday: The Mirror Merchant’s Tales
The Mirror Merchant’s Tales by Daniel Ausema. Published on the Daily Science Fiction website.
What it’s about: Enjo is a merchant who sells mirrors outside a city in which all visitors have to carry a mirror.
“By law and tradition, everyone in the city of Malshennes carried a mirror at all times.”
This is a story about the ability of stories to take over your mind and affect your reality.
No one knows why the mirror law exists, so Enjo makes up stories about it for his customers. After a while, he starts to see shadows and hear whispers coming from his mirrors. He becomes sick, believing his tales are being reflected back at him.
This was a good quick read and the ending is ambiguous. Did he stop something evil? Was there anything there at all? You tell me.
Friday: The Dark Scourge
The Dark Scourge by Rodrigo Juatco. Submitted to Reedsy as an entry into a prompt competition.
What it’s about: A warrior is selected to light a warning beacon while his comrades engage the enemy.
“The commander nods to Dirk’s hand. “If you do hold the blood stone, it is good the Fates have chosen you. You are after all the fastest, and slyest of us all.”
This is a story of camaraderie, bravery, and sacrifice.
Dirk is a soldier. A band of monsters is heading for a major city. Someone needs to light the beacon to warn the city while the rest of the regiment hold off the monsters for as long as they can. Dirk is chosen, but he’s not happy about it.
The pacing of this story worked well, starting off slow, steadily building up to the fight, then heightening again as Dirk tries to do his job. Like Wednesday’s story, a few typos and spelling mistakes close to the end jolted me out but not enough for me to have any real problems with this story.
Good reading for the most part.
Saturday: The King and His Three Daughters
The King and His Three Daughters by Horace Walpole. This is the second tale from the book Hieroglyphic Tales.
What it’s about: A king needs to marry his daughters off before he dies.
“There was formerly a king, who had three daughters — that is, he would have had three, if he had had one more, but some how or other the eldest never was born.”
What did I just read? This was confusing but hilarious.
A three-legged dead prince decides he’ll marry the non-existent eldest daughter of the king until a religious argument erupts. The third daughter, she of only one leg, becomes besotted with the dead prince, while the second daughter outwits them all.
For a story written in the 1700s, I’m impressed. People in the 1700s seem so stuffy and serious. But, maybe that’s the impression I have by how they’re depicted in modern movies and television (except for Horrible Histories).
I would have liked to have met Horace Walpole. He sounds like such fun. I’ll be going back to read the other 5 tales in his Hieroglyphic Tales.
TL;DR
This week’s short fantasy fiction stories, in the order that I enjoyed them.
- Lines of Growth, Lines of Passage by Marissa Lingen
- The King and His Three Daughters by Horace Walpole
- The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman
- A Light in Troy by Sarah Monette
- The Mirror Merchant’s Tales by Daniel Ausema
- The Dark Scourge by Rodrigo Juatco
- A Boy and His Goblin by Ryan Griffith
What’s all this about?
I’m fascinated by short fiction. I write it and I read it.
As well as reading longer-form fiction, I try to read at least one short story every day. I select out-of-the-way stories and authors I’ve never read and sometimes never heard of.
Sometimes I pick competition entries, often ones that didn’t win. Sometimes I find random personal websites where someone has published their own stories. Sometimes I seek out professionally published stories from hardcopy books or online magazines. Sometimes I look for really old stories that are out of copyright and available online.
I’m open to suggestions for genres for me to read each week.
