The Rede of the Rook

Here are stories that range far from our world, or cut disturbingly close to it: * A boy and an old man try to outface destiny at the foot of a towering waterfall. * A princess betrothed must decide if she dare provoke the curse laid on her. * A hired sword confronts the secret king of a city swathed in darkness. * A youth in a world of marionettes explores the dangerous science of divinity. * A servant must carry the message that will bring his own death upon him. These tales and more will bear you on strange journeys to an unfamiliar home. Reader review of an early print (titled 'Grasping at Prose'): [A] seriously great collection (...) And I was hoping it would at least be interesting but BLOODY HELL! [This is tagged] under fantasy and/or science fiction, and excepting one tale they mostly steer towards the former, or at least have the feel of the former, through a fairly timeless narrative style that could belong to either past, present or future - reminds me a little of Ursula Le Guin or even Daniel O'Mahoney's Newtons Sleep. There are infrequent touches of the magical (the arms race of curses in The Merchant and the Dancer), the surreal (string puppets argue theology in A Light, Inelastic String), and the dreamlike (The House of Many Norths which reminded me of the Mexican Nahua perception of the underworld as a physical place visited in sleep). The prose is incredibly and effortlessly rich (...) as befitting the parable-like quality of many of these stories - no cliche is committed, and just enough is held back to keep the reader busily fitting pieces together. My favourite authors tend to be those who expect their readers to do at least a little work, and Jason Mills gets the balance exactly right between fiction wherein everything is spelled out or alternately far too esoteric for its own good. Possibly the only exception to this is the lengthy The King Dwells in Darkness - an intriguing drama of device men (androids I presume), bondguards, closeguards, and the Dark (an environment occurring beneath pitch coated canvas - I couldn't work out if it was some sort of virtual reality deal couched in pseudo-mediaeval terms). This one story (tellingly one of the oldest) I found a little too short on explanation for its own good, although it is the one story which almost screams for expansion into novella form. A terrific collection which leaves one mystified as to why this guy doesn't have a much wider audience. (http: //factionparadox.yuku.com/sreply/7370/Crappy-70s-paperbacks-airbrushed-spaceships-cover-review)