A fantastic collection of short stories by Jonathan Fesmire. Once more he displays his uncanny talent for creating characters ranging from the bizarre to the grotesque. This compilation contains twenty-two tales, including
Her Likeness
A gripping story of otherworldly criminal who have been locked into the form of stone statues. A naive young man and his friend release them from their prison only to have them wreak havoc and almost lose their own innocent lives.
Brotherly Curse
A mistrusting brother accuses his sibling of cursing a protective amulet and threatening the life of its owner. Only later does he realize that the cause of the curse is even closer to home than he thought.
L’Autre Margot
An imaginative tale of a wife and mother who drawn from herself a doppelganger, and uses her to help with child minding and chores. Reluctantly she is forced to realize that her double has a mind of her own and wants to be free.
Natalie Takes a Trip
This story tells of bizarre happenings in an old family home where a young woman is on vacation with her boyfriend. Some years before her twin sister’s boyfriend had a fatal accident in the house while using LSD. Now she finds he is in the house with them but is it his ghost or has she mistakenly taken a hallucinogen?
Inside Cards
An apprentice wizard finds he has a unique gift for divining cards. Gradually he realizes his deck is trying to tell him something; that his friend is about to do something rash that will put him into grave danger. The wizard uses the cards to help.
Mud Puppies
A wildly imaginative tale about a boy who has a unique gift. He is able to bring dead creatures back to life in miniature, made from mud. He embarks on a dog-killing rampage and keeps his miniatures in his bedroom where he intends to bait them with his stepfather. But his plans to kill the other man end up with a very unfortunate result.
The Legend of Merach
Merach has a wizard make him a pair of claws that imbue him with the life of those he kills. But the claws have an unfortunate side effect. They also trap the souls of his victims in his mind where they taunt him and torture him constantly. He returns to the wizard once more to beg for help, but what he does not realize is that there is only one way to quell his raging mind.
Some of the characters in this collection may already be familiar to readers who have already read Fesmire’s novel Children of Rhatlan. Fesmire’s stories are a refreshing change to the growing monotony of current fantasy fiction.