Short Fiction Tuesday

For a while now I've been seeing reviews, interviews, discussions of Apex Publishing's Dark Faith, and I've been quite curious about it. As the blurb puts it, "an anthology that explores, questions, and shatters the boundaries of faith."

So this week I found that Apex Online had published a story by one of the co-editors of the anthology, Jerry Gordon's "City of Refuge," as a sort of tie-in to the anthology's release. (There were several other stories in that issue that tied in to the theme, included Paul Jessup's story, which I believe I linked to already a month or two ago.) "City of Refuge" is a post-zombie-apocalypse story, but the focus (thankfully!) isn't on the zombies themselves but on the world that is developing in its wake. The church somehow managed to establish itself as a shield against the zombies, and it now exerts powerful influence over the remaining pockets of humans. There are some glimmers of Walter Miller's excellent SF mock-up A Canticle of Leibowitz here, though the focus is different. There are also hints of Joan of Arc. It's an original world Gordon imagines, though, and some of the comments there show that others have suggested he explore it in more depth. I'm perfectly happy with where it left off and find that satisfying, but if Gordon did decide to extend it into a novel, I would certainly check it out.