Here’s another short story that I enjoyed. Endless by Ted S. Bushman is about a magical blacksmith who works to forge a transdimensional sword. It was a really cool idea, and the story was done really well, especially the ending. Really enjoyed it.
I’m subscribed to just about every science fiction short story podcast out there, but I find that I end up skipping most of the stories that they put out. Sometimes, it’s because of poor audio quality. Other times, it’s because I’m just too distracted and the story doesn’t grab me. One of the stories this week was a post-apocalyptic piece that was just too depressing (though it did give me an interesting idea: what if the old atheist chestnut “a loving God would never allow this” was turned on its head as evidence of God’s love, because our society has become too pathological and self-destructive to let it continue?).
But far too often, the stories read like the editors were more interested in checking as many boxes as possible on an intersectional checklist than in finding and publishing a good story. Which is not to say that there aren’t some good stories from diverse, minority authors. But frankly, there’s also a lot of crap, and a lot of it is getting through in the name of capital “D” Diversity.
A lot of minority readers complain that there’s a dearth of stories about people that look like them, or think like them, or identify with their particular culture. That’s a legitimate complaint, and I think it’s a good thing that the science fiction community is striving to better meet that need. But what about me? As a religious, conservative reader, I feel that there’s a very real dearth of stories about people like me—and yet, if I were to be more vocal about expressing this complaint, I’m sure that these people would decry me as being “privileged” or “racist” or a “white supremacist.” It sounds ridiculous, but it’s happened to me before. Many times.
Sometimes, I really do wonder why I bother when so many of the writers and editors in this genre are ideologically possessed. But then I come across a good story like this one, which has nothing to do with all of this nonsense, and I remember.