"A Heretic by Degrees"
The king was dying, and nothing in the world could save him.
The Councilor Paramount said, "Then we must look outside the world for help."
Driftwood: where worlds go to die.
It's a setting I thought up a few years ago, and I suspect it will continue to spit out stories at odd and unpredictable intervals for years to come. If I write and sell enough of them, this page will move off to its own little directory, just for Driftwood. But in the meantime, it lives here, among the miscellaneous stories.
Imagine the apocalypse coming, tearing your world apart and killing almost everyone in it. Then imagine a fragment surviving . . . floating through the space between worlds . . . until at last it fetches up against a mass of other fragments, all with the same tragedy in their past. Seasons, laws of magic, even time itself can change as you cross from one into the other, in a shifting city composed almost entirely of borders. And bit by bit, no matter what you do, that fragment will fade, until nothing at all is left of you or your world.
Depressing to live in, but fun as hell to play in.
"A Heretic by Degrees" appeared in the tenth issue of the Intergalactic Medicine Show. I also wrote a companion essay for Sideshow Freaks, the editor's blog, discussing the origin of Driftwood. An audio podcast of the story appeared in Podcastle on September 2nd, 2009.
Reviews
Rich Horton, Locus/The Elephant Forgets -- A very strange and original piece set in a constricted world among numerous different very small worlds. (recommended story, Intergalactic Medicine Show 2008)
Scott M. Sandridge, The Fix -- In "A Heretic by Degrees" by Marie Brennan, the only way to save his dying king is if Councillor Paramount commits an act that had been banned by the king as an act of heresy he must leave his world and go into another. Brennan takes the quest formula and uses it in ways that gives the tale its own brand of uniqueness and combines it with a plot twist that, in a manner of speaking, brings the end back to the beginning. He crafts a complex universe of converging realities and does so in a way where it's actually easy to follow along without getting lost. While there was enough characterization to make the story progress, I would've enjoyed a little more depth to the characters. But overall, it is an adventurous and entertaining story well worth reading.
Tom L Waters, Off the Page -- This story is set on Driftwood, a kind of Black-Hole-like mini-cosmos where worlds go to die. It's an extraordinarily creative premise, and the story she tells against this backdrop is engaging and well-crafted. Driftwood deserves a novel or two; I hope Brennan agrees.
Diabolical Plots -- Worldbuilding at its best. The strange world of Driftwood is revealed to the reader bit by bit. I know from experience that this is a tough balance to strike. Too much at once and it gets boring. Not enough and it.s confusing. Parallel worlds have always been one of my favorite fantasy elements. (podcast review)