Lorinda J. Taylor

I just received an awesome review of my whole Ki'shto'ba series! Check it out here! audreydriscoll.com/2026/08/02/a... I'll probably post excerpts here as time goes by.

It was also reputed that in the past it had been possible for living people to enter those places – even ska’akh’mi| itself [underworld, lit., under-the-ground place] – and to return alive and whole, but for an age of time no one who set out to #travel there had ever come back. #vss365

“In our #travels we have become familiar with some of your people’s tales. The fortress is named for the root of the giant tree that produces magical fungus!” “The centerpost of the world!” cried Wei’tu. “Protected by a coiling monster!” interjected Za’dut with relish. #vss365

“We cannot help being curious how such a diverse lot came to be #traveling together! But all who desire to take part in the festival are welcome, as long as they do not come intending to cause trouble! And if you mean to compete against Thel’tav’a, why, we wish you luck!” #vss365

#SciFiSat [A conversation between Capt. Nikalishin and the psychologist Dr. Winehandle. Do you think Robbie should keep Ian as his Chief Engineer?]

#SciFiSat [1/5] “Ian said you told him he had a problem with authority figures – let’s see, how’d he put it? That both the big, bad monster in the engine & his father are, uh – primal forces to be conquered.” Robbie couldn’t help laughing. “And what did you say to that, Captain?”

#SciFiSat [2/5] “Well, first I said, ‘Pish-tush – head-peelers.’ But I’ve rather come to see what he meant. The human mind is certainly complex, and each one of ’em is unique, too, isn’t it?” “That’s what keeps my work fascinating. …

#SciFiSat [3/5] Robbie, I’m pleased Ian has started talking to you about some of these things. Keep encouraging him, will you? But at the same time, don’t start playing psychoanalyst with him. You’re not trained for that.” Robbie chuckled. “Don’t worry, doc. I know my limitations.”

#SciFiSat [4/5] “I want reassurance that if you feel Cmdr. Glencrosse is performing his duties in an inadequate manner, you would have no compunction about pulling him off the line.” “Oh, I understand a Captain’s responsibilities, doctor,” said Robbie.

#SciFiSat [5/5]“ “Every minute I’m in command out there, I’m aware a Captain’s first duty is to ensure the safety of his crew and his ship. But I’d bloody well hate to have to relieve Ian of duty, because I think it would devastate him. It would signal for sure that he had been defeated.”

Somebody bought ten of my print books today! Weird, but most welcome!😃

#SciFiFri Zhánwagel received his visitors in the outer chamber, beneath the archaic smoke-hazed paintings of antelope, #hunters, and leering Troil. The High Elder was a singularly ugly and forbidding figure, with a head like a boulder ...

#SciFiFri He raised his arms, and a wind seemed to roar through the Cave, guttering the torches, setting their flames dancing with multicolored lights. Grotesque shadows leaped, making the #hunters on the walls wave their spears and the horol flee in panic across the painted crags.

#SciFiFri “I was always a man of frugal appetites, and unskilled as a #hunter, and during these ten years I have lived on whatever came to hand – berries, bark, raw pine nuts – fungus – snails – an occasional fish caught with the hands, or a trapped marmot.”

#SciFiFri Few humans came to the roots of Zhinthá except to #hunt roe and dorod’l, and even those handsome blue-barred waterfowl displayed no sign of alarm as Halrab shouldered his pack and turned to regard the abruptly rising terrain before him.

#1linewed [1/6] So once again it fell to my lot to become a counselor of mourning. … After considering what I had to say, the zan’zei| devised their own version of a memorial for Vai’zei’a’parn. They decided to place his body in a small cave and wall it up there.

#1linewed [2/6] The mourning ritual was lengthy. They sacrificed little birds in the manner we had witnessed earlier, and they pounded the symbolic horns of Vai’zei’a’parn into dust and scattered them over his body before they sealed the burial.

#1linewed [3/6] Thel’tav’a asked them to lay some of her little skull-chains and feathers next to Vai’zei’a’parn in the burial chamber, and they did so. Bu’gan’zei put in a morsel of food as a gift for the crotchety Raft-Poler, and then he recited his praise-speaking following the burial.

#1linewed [4/6] Then a mourning dance was held that encompassed the entire fortress & lasted a whole night. People came from all the neighboring fortresses to participate… At last the rites ended & the body of the Leader of the People was left to return to the Ground-Mother.

#1linewed [5/6] And Is’a’pai’a said, “It is time for us to return to the path.” So once more we exchanged goodbyes w/ many friends. For us newcomers this farewell differed little from others we had spoken during our journey, but for Krai’zei and Da’sask’ni’a it was excruciating,

#1linewed [6/6] … for they had no way of knowing if they would ever return to their beloved home. And most likely those goodbyes did prove to be final, for I have no knowledge that any of us who left that day ever passed that way again.

#SciFiSat [1/7] “What do you really believe, Ki’shto’ba? About life after death, I mean, and the proper way to pay homage to the Nameless. Your people and mine tell the tale of Creation in slightly different ways, but they are really not that far apart. …

#SciFiSat [2/7] “And yet now you always speak of Mik Na’wei’tei’zi [the World Beneath] as if it were the only possible manifestation of the World Beyond. Are you really so very sure that your experiences were real?”

#SciFiSat [3/7] “I cannot say that I am very sure about much of anything. But they seemed real to me, and I think they delivered a great truth – but are truth and reality always the same? Vai’zei’a’parn did not believe they are, I recall. …

#SciFiSat [4/7] “What I experienced may not have happened anywhere, or it could as well have taken place in the sky as under the ground. I only know I expect to be with A’zhu’lo again.” Ki’shto’ba drew its twin’s mandible toward its palps and stroked it tenderly.

#SciFiSat [5/7] I looked up at the deep, dark sky with its sparkling stars – at the moons, one full, one a thin sliver just peeping above the horizon, the whole shrouded in a shadowy bank of clouds that could well be the body of the Highest Mother whom the One Between saw in the sky.

#SciFiSat [6/7] “In spite of everything that has happened to me, I still see my truth in the sky, Ki’shto’ba. I wish you could see the sky. It is a wondrous sight.” “I can feel it – the senses of my soul still live. Sometimes I secretly hope …

#SciFiSat [7/7] “that the World Beyond really is a World Above, and solace will be found resting upon the Mother’s belly among the stars, as Lug’tei’a so passionately believed.” I drifted for a while, dreaming what it would be like to sail among those stars.

[1/3] “I realized I was surrounded by ghosts – yes, ghosts! – souls of those who had died. They were flitting through the darkness around me – Warriors, Alates, Workers … I could see them as one sees the threads of web-weavers, with the palest glimmer coming through them. … #vss365

[2/3] “Even the Alates seemed to see nothing and they were all speaking a monotonous gibber of sendings that made no sense. I was overwhelmed with sorrow and so I began another word-crafting. And they all ceased their restlessness … #vss365

[3/3] “… and turned their witless heads toward me and knew some moments of joy as I passed by.” [So Bu’gan’zei (Orpheus) interacts with the lost #dead in the World Beneath.] #vss365

#1linewed [1/3] “And ‘One of the Twelve will bring about the death of the Champion…’ ” But Da’sask’ni’a interrupted me sharply. “Why are you so obsessed with stripping the shadows from Ki’shto’ba’s death? …

#1linewed [2/3] “I will no longer receive these words, I tell you! Go away, Di’fa’kro’mi! Make yourself ready to move on toward your fate!” And that left me feeling very shaky – as if it might be I who was destined …

#1linewed [3/3] … to bring about the death of my beloved friend Ki’shto’ba Huge-Head. Or did Da’sask’ni’a see himself in that role, in the distorted visions within his spirit-#haunted mind?

#SciFiSat [Robbie engages in a metaphysical discussion with Banyat Thaksin …]

#SciFiSat [1/6] “May I ask you a question? You remember how it was on the Darter, when that asteroid face intruded … Did you sense there was something malevolent out there? That the pod was a kind of evil entity that was trying to destroy us for a reason nobody can fathom?”

#SciFiSat [2/6] Banny cocked his head a bit quizzically. “Did you?” “No, but that’s what Ian Glencrosse brought out of the experience … ” And Robbie proceeded to share some of Ian’s problems. “No, no, Robbie. All that has no validity. …

#SciFiSat [3/6] “You tell Ian that the only malevolence that exists is – in here.” And he tapped himself on the head and on the heart. Robbie sat silent, frowning fiercely. “I know I said I agreed with you, but in fact I’m not so sure god is totally a work-up of the human mind…

#SciFiSat [4/6] “I think there might be something out there – it’s just that we can’t know.” “Isn’t that saying the same thing? We create an image – a metaphor – of the unknowable to satisfy our need to know. And that image shrinks over time …

#SciFiSat [5/6] as science’s ability to explain factual reality increases.” “Yeah, but I think there are things that happen, both inside and outside of us – times when we – we intersect with something. That may have happened with Ian – how can we say for sure it didn’t? …

#SciFiSat [6/6 ] “I’ve had dreams that point me in that direction, & you can argue that dreams are just a weird product of the subconscious, but if all these ways of thinking came out of the human soul, anyway, why not regard our dreams and visions as a quantum intersection with the unknowable?”

#SciFiFri When the Captain’s announcement came, Kaya squealed and knocked over her nearly full bottle of cherry fizz. The bubbly liquid cascaded off the #edge of the table and into Mark’s lap. He jumped up, swearing.

#SciFiFri Pete Peat emerged from one of the hatches and saw Robbie. With one leg slung over the #edge of the hatch and braced on the top step of the ladder, he twitched erect, yelled, “Captain on deck!” and saluted. Then he almost fell off the ladder.

#SciFiFri Robbie groaned and levered himself onto the #edge of the bunk. Why had he been so eager to leave MedBay anyway? Not only did it have room service and an almost private shower and head – he was allowed to sleep as much as he wanted there!

#SciFiFri “Well, Ian! You’re back in bed! Why is your leg up on a pillow?” “Oh, I had a bit of surgery on the biggest burn – just a local anesthetic,” the Engineer replied. “Maddie wanted to excise some necrotic tissue from the #edges –says it will make it heal faster.”

#SciFiFri [1/2] “Now to speak of planet c, which lies here on the inner #edge of the cometary disk. This body is composed almost entirely of hydrogen, ammonia, and methane around a core of metallic hydrogen.

#SciFiFri [2/2] “It is surrounded by an amorphous clump of gas and dust that seems in process of coalescing into an atmosphere. It is still drawing material into itself from the disk #edge; equipment has already registered two flashes of comets or asteroids slamming into the planet.”

#1linewed “Oh, Za’dut, you make the World Beneath sound so humdrum and #meaningless,” said Ra’fa’kat’wei. “You take away the magic,” said Is’a’pai’a. “Are we not allowed to have magic sometimes?”