I Read Stories: A Voyage To Queensthroat by Anya Johann DeNiro

A Voyage To Queensthroat by Anya Johann Denaro in Strange Horizons

The narrator used to serve the Empress Seax-of-Marigold. She will serve the Empress Seax-of-Peony; this story is about how she met her. In between, on an unremarkable moon, a gang of youths kill her dog, then Lamb Villanelle and his army of the Pure arrive and lay waste.

This story is rich in asides and world-building, how the empire of the Known Moons was and how it fell, and how it rose again, and the story of one plum farming witch on one day caught at the focal point in the middle.

Read This: To learn what the science fantasy world of the Known Moons is about, in sketch form at least
Don’t Read This: You want the other scenes, not just that one day