The November issue of the American Quaker magazine Friends Journal is dedicated to speculative fiction and sci-fi. If you’re a fan of The Dazzle of Day, read on!
Here’s the introductory essay by Quaker SFF writers Annalee Flower Horne and Hilary B. Bisenieks, who guest-edited the issue: When you are a nerd about speculative fiction and about Quakerism, as we are, it seems natural to use one to examine the other: if we are in this world but not of this world, then who are we when we are not in this world but a world that has been reimagined in some way? What remains true no matter what shifts around us?
Here’s the list of stories:
- “The Silent Confirmation of a Notable Thing” by Eileen Gunnell Lee: The starling was a ball of broken feathers rolled into an overflowing gutter.
- “Pistachios and Cats” by Lynn Gazis: Shoes line the walls of the Grand Bazaar. Yellow shoes. Blue shoes. Black shoes. Red shoes.
- “Transience Mode” by Lincoln Alpern: The ship was the Benjamin Lay, a Takahata-class bulk cargo transport hailing from the human world of Jajavrin.
- “What A Minute Could Do” by Rhiannon Grant: The first minute to take effect was minute 2023.12.1b of the Lower Sittingbourne Local Meeting Hospitality Committee: Arrangements for social lunch.
- “Honey and Time” by Joseph Engelhardt: The Spirit hadn’t moved in Amy Hudson for over 200 years.
- “Peculiar People” by Inez Schaechterle: The last two men leaving the theater after a midnight showing of Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter zipped jackets against the cold and crossed the street.
- “In Silence Doorways Open” by Michelle Goddard: We sat in silence while the stars shone around us.
- “There Is No ‘I’ in Heavenly Host” by Dawn Vogel: “What in the name of God is this?”
- “Something Odd about the Dyers” by Mel Stephen Sharpe: Mr. Erick Dyer, a Quaker man from an old Quaker family, found the pod in his farm’s back forest on Saturday, July the fifth.
- “The Conscientious Objector” by Robert Dawson: It was a Friday afternoon demo outside Neotec Labs.
- “That of Dog” by Jacqueline Houtman: Mia sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her laptop. She inhaled and opened her eyes.
- “The Last Friend On Earth” by Joy Weimer: There must be other people still alive somewhere. I don’t know where. I don’t know how to find them even if I wanted to.
- “Future Visions” by Trace Yulie: Javier settled into silence, hoping that on this First Day, he would not become unmoored in time and space.