It's always a challenge to finalize each issue of Mythaxis. I try to present a table of contents with a deliberate structure, to place stories in relation to each other in a way that satisfies my editorial OCD (even if our readers remain blissfully oblivious to any such efforts going on behind the scenes). Usually picking a lead story is easy, though, since that's a different problem. The first one has to stand alone, it's the first thing the reader sees, after all – but this time that's not exactly the case. For while Sean MacKendrick's timely and sinister duologue absolutely works on the page, wait until you get a load of the audio play…
The Sauútiverse is a science-fantasy shared world project set in a binary star system whose civilisation is rooted deeply in the mythologies, languages, and cultures of Africa and features an intricate magic system based on sound, oral traditions, and music. I'm delighted to present Cheryl Ntumy's latest, and most emblematic contribution to that cannon – you see, the name Sauúti is taken from the Swahili word for 'voice', and if there's one thing this story is about… well, if there's maybe two things…
One of my all-time editorial bugbears is writers writing stories about someone being a writer – sets my teeth right on edge, I'd sooner chew a mouthful of tin foil than read such a thing. However, for no reason that I can consciously explain, I absolutely adore speculative fiction about employment… I guess being a writer just can't be a proper job. Anyway, while the short genre fiction community sharpens its pitchfork collection, let's celebrate the fact that Anna Ziegelhof delivered the right kind of story.
Before you read on, a quick shout out to SFFWorld.com, within whose supportive community forum your editor cut his teeth as a short fiction writer, sharing work and gaining feedback. I didn't mention it in our last issue, but I encountered Helen French's flash fiction Safe in the Dark right there, and enjoyed it so much I asked to take it for Mythaxis more or less on the spot – and so too this great piece of possibly prescient sci-fi by Travis Ezell, who really brings it all bittersweet home in the closing words.
You'll have to bear with me here, and forgive me for the confusion, but one of my all-time favourite films is John Carpenter's THE THING. And if you told me Charlie Winter's gentle, warm-hearted yarn is surely as far removed as anything could be from that, so too the strange beasts that come to populate it, I'd largely agree. Yet both look at men living in isolation, their world devoid of women, which is interesting. And, in this case, also lovely.
Mythaxis is a home to all the speculative genres, though I feel that horror is the hardest sell, despite for many years being my first choice in recreational reading. And I mention this because what Josh Pearce is giving you here, it's very definitely sci-fi. But, as is proven by more than one story in our archives, sci-fi isn't always for the faint at heart. Fair warning, this story has edges.
And speaking of that darkest of genres, possibly, let us turn now to Japan's latest contribution to horror— well, or perhaps it's the uncanny… the unsettling? The absurd? I'm not sure I can say. Come to that, I'm not even sure how confident horror reviewer extraordinaire Bill Ryan is with regard to the case at hand, and that alone should be enough to send a shiver up your spine.
On with the downward spiral of the world – and Mythaxis can't be expected to distract you from it alone, coddling you into a desperately clung-to moment of 'Oh how interesting, no need to look around and witness the collapse of all Humanity touches.' For indeed, there are other places online you can read well at the click of a button. At least until the power goes out for the final time…
