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| What People
Have Been Saying....
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| Burning
Stones is a
rare kind of book, and Steven Mills is a rare kind of author.
In this, his first published book, Mills has taken a scientific
question of imminent concern -- how much punishment from a rampant
virus can modern society take and still keep on functioning? -- and
done something with it few other authors would dare to do: he
has turned it, not into a science fiction thriller, but into a raw
and compelling story about flawed people trying desperately to keep
themselves, and their communities, alive and functioning against the
odds. Which is not to say there is a shortage of action and
suspense. A forest fire and a gang of would-be slavers
threaten a small rural community already driven to the verge of
collapse by the ongoing depredations of a transformative
disease. But in the end the novel's greatest intensity comes
from the pressure placed on characters suffering from intolerable
moral dilemmas. There are times in Burning Stones when
it seems that there are simply no good choices left to make.
Yet Mills's characters do choose, they make, as all humans do, the
best choices they can when there are no clear moral paths to take;
and while it is obvious that there can be no happy ending (and Mills
wisely avoids any attempt to tack one on) we are given something
even more precious: a glimpse of hope from the heart of the
story's darkness. Burning stones is a brave first novel, a
harrowing, absorbing read, and a promise of better things to
come. I'll be watching with great interest to see what Steven
Mills does next.
Holly Phillips,
author of In
the Palace of Repose,
winner of the 2006 Sunburst Award.
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| The
longest and strongest story in the issue. It covers some big issues
through the viewpoints of three flawed generations of a family. The
big issues are Canada's global position as a supplier of what in a
near future in which global warming which was made water the new
oil. That position is under military threat from those countries
which don't have water, and in the face of imminent military action,
some drastic steps are taken to ensure that Mother Earth is treated
with more respect in the future. The matriarch of the family is the
elderly ex-PM of Canada, who has retired from her globe-trotting
pressing-the-flesh role. Her somewhat dynamic son, and his daughter,
are brought together at a remote hideaway when the full extent of
her plan is finally revealed. She has in fact been passing on a nano-virus,
with a view of infecting a significant proportion of the world's
population with a fatal virus, which will be triggered when she
decides the time is right. For
a newish writer the story bodes well for the future, with strong
characterisation, and a no-easy-answers ending.
Mark Watson,
http://www.bestsf.net/reviews/interzone205.html
'Blue
Glass Pebbles' by
Steven Mills is a story reflecting the issues of the age. In the
future, climate change has made water scarce and you know what
happens when a commodity becomes hard to get. Conflict and war.
Water shortages in fiction have been around for a long time, Ballard
coming to mind immediately, but Mills has made a good job of his
story by presenting it in a unique way. In charge of water is a
woman with apparent good intentions who makes decisions that will
drastically affect humanity in the future. Other leaders of our own
time have taken a similar course, not necessarily for the better.
This is good writing.
Rod
MacDonald, SFCrowsnest.com
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| "Jubilee"
by Steven Mills has all the things that makes
speculative fiction great: people rising from the dead, lambs
transforming into slime monsters, people who can fly away just by
flapping their hands. A surreal tale that follows a reverend
handling his flock during the transmogrification of the universe
when barriers between the dimensions of normal and weird come
tumbling down. Told in a tongue-in-cheek voice, this story will have
you smirking.
Eric Joel Bresin, Tangent
Online, review of Sky Songs II, edited by Steve Stanton.
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| "Steven
Mills' story,
"No Life Like It,"
is a disturbing
page-turner about soldiers preparing for future combat through
realistic and fantastic battle simulations. The thin line
between simulation and reality becomes even more frightening when
you don't know who controls the images."
Gina Kokes,
Literary Magazine Stand, NewPages.com.
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| "The words 'absolutely wonderful' were tossed about quite a bit when we
discussed this story. The emotions in it are so honest and powerful."
Diane Walton, General Editor, On Spec, on
the acceptance of "Chasing Goodbye."
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| "I've
been meaning to write to say what a terrific story I thought
"House of
Feasting"
was. I feel like I know it intimately because I got
it 'by heart' to tell at an informal gathering of story tellers I sometimes
attend. It's emotionally searing, but also brilliantly structured, the way
the whole resurrection/communion motif is carried not only symbolically but in
the form of the story which begins with the wife's death and then provides a
series of narrative 'resurrections' (scenes from the couple's earlier
life together). I told it around the Easter season; I hope I did it
justice."
Kim Jernigan, Fiction Editor, The New Quarterly.
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| "Chasing
the Dragon on the Sea of Tranquility" |
| "A
first publication by Steven Mills, an ambulance paramedic, proves the old
adage, 'write what you know.' Mills transfers his
experience to the Moon, with a harrowing account of life with a team of Lunar
paramedics. His "Chasing the Dragon on the Sea of Tranquility" marks a promising debut. "
Interzone
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