I think the story was great overall. The dichotomy between duty and family is touching. I enjoyed the time travel element, which reminded me of Interstellar and other sf stories.

Some minor detail bothered me: If nobody alive have seen a skywitch, then how do you know "You lose a lot of time in a skywitch embrace..."? Maybe I'm misreading it.

I'd like to see more about this world in other stories, maybe even a longer one.

#sffshortsclub #Witchbreaker

@standback I liked the fact it managed an epic, broad brush feel in a small space - the fight scenes were done very well. The ending was good and powerful, but felt a little rushed. I feel the relationship between the protagonist could have done with a little more space. But... I guess that was kind of the point, lols. #sffshortsclub #Witchbreaker

@standback Yes, and it also struck me as being about the limits of love. A lot of the witch breakers found their family members and partners couldn't endure the absences and the anxiety.
So there was an added piquancy to the use of 'embrace' for a witch's area of power and control. Love can feel stifling as well as all-encompassing.

#sffshortsclub #Witchbreaker

@Jsuttonmorse Hmmm, that's really interesting, because I felt that was actually a strong element of the piece:

I think we saw this society keeps preferring to leave the witches "to someone else."

There's that bit,

> “Your breakers only chased that firewitch off,” I say, “and she’s terrorizing some other village, and then she’ll come back anyway, and that’s all right because no one wants to lose a year.” <

/+

#Witchbreaker #sffshortsclub

@standback also, the witches are intelligent, and monstrous, and you could do the whole story without things that can talk and historically fraught gender-laden terms for monstrosity, and you wouldn’t lose anything (no one ever tries to reason with them nor are they obviously tuned into classic genre tropes) #witchbreaker #sffshortsclub

@standback and it’s not really fair of me to say “I don’t like that this story is what it is”, but actually I don’t like that this story is what it is, and I think we should tell fewer stories like that, where the terrible choice revolves around something outside both the society and the protagonist #Witchbreaker #sffshortsclub

@standback #sffshortsclub #witchbreaker it’s intense, which is good. And I kinda but that horrible tension of “somebody’s gotta do this, but the relationship cost is so high”

BUT

I don’t like it. The choice/tension feels artificial. Why is this a world that’s just randomly haunted by intelligent forces of nature that warp time and burn villages, and why do most people just accept that?

It's funny, but the place I think I *have* seen this kind of horrible price of leaving family behind,

is SF stories with time dilation.
Some of them play on the same themes and the same awful choices.

This feels different to me, though. Maybe because it's so close to home, inescapable. Maybe because it's so unpredictable.

Do you think these feel similar? Different? Both?

#sffshortsclub #Witchbreaker

As a general statement, I think a lot of what this story does is give us the awful tension between being with your loved ones, and doing Important Stuff — those critical things that, ultimately, keep your loved ones well and safe.

It's horrible to be torn between the two; and very familiar.

Is that the theme you got from the story?
What do you think it's saying? /+

#sffshortsclub #Witchbreaker

First off: General impressions!

What did you think of the story?
What stood out to you?
What worked well, and what didn't? /+

#sffshortsclub #Witchbreaker

Welcome to our first week of #sffshortsclub !
Today we're reading "Witchbreaker," by #LeahNing, published in #BeneathCeaselessSkies .

> “When’s Ma coming back?”

“Um...” I make the mistake of glancing back at Jer, who won’t look at me anymore. “Might be a while this time, kiddo.” <

Story here: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/witchbreaker/

Some convo openers downthread.
PLEASE READ our quick guidelines before posting: /+

@shortsff @bookstodon #witches #Witchbreaker #bookclub