A stag, its eyes pleading, haunts a woman’s dreams. An antique market find reveals a hidden truth. A man, looking from his bedroom window, wonders exactly where it is his neighbour has gone.

Fourteen short stories and eight poems from the author of the award-winning Empire’s Legacy historical fantasy series.

Fresh off the presses, published on October 14th, is a collection of short stories and poems by one of my favorite authors Marian L. Thorpe. I have read every single published book to Marian’s name and of course I wasn’t going to miss this one! Clocking in at 77 pages only, it packs in so much of everything I feel as if I have read a whole novel. In a good way, of course.

Short stories, not to mention poems!, are difficult to write. I know, because I struggle daily with trying to keep my self expression succinct in everything, and it’s because of my struggles that I can truly appreciate how Marian (and other authors who have delighted me in the past with short stories) has said so much with the minimum amount of words required for any of the stories and verse in this collection. A good choice of words makes a world of difference.

Beyond the Wall is at the same time different to what we’ve come to know from Marian, as well as same.

Same in the way that the writing is exquisite, as always. There’s a steady and quiet reflection to these stories and verse. The themes of being connected to the land and nature are prevalent, as well as the people we meet in the stories – they, too, are the usual type of … down to Earth, salt of the Earth… but… sometimes with a twist. I have to say I just love reading about nature and land through Marian’s eyes – there’s a true love and respect that shines through, an admiration. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Every time.

Beyond the Wall feels different because we’re now in the current times as opposed to historical fantasy. And, perhaps, without spoiling the experience for others, I can also hint back at those twists I mentioned just a few lines back. For some reason, some of those endings a few of the stories had took me by surprise! I feel like Marian has never been the sort to shock through words, but this time there was at times more darkness flowing under the surface and it was exciting.

Beyond the Wall plays with the symbolism of “a wall” – a sort of a border in between physical and incorporeal things, a line which we usually do not cross or are physically are unable to do. An emotional wall which we have put in place, for ourselves or for others. There are events of being pushed to the limits of dimensional and time(less) kind, and of the magical kind.

About the author:

Marian L ThorpeMy books are historical fiction of an imagined world, one that is close to Britain, Northern Europe, and Rome, but isn’t any of them. A world where a society evolved differently after the Eastern Empire left, where one young fisherwoman answers her leader’s call to defend her country, beginning a journey into uncharted territory, in an Empire on the edge of history.

After two careers as a research scientist and an educator, I decided it was time to do what I’d always really wanted, and be a writer. As well as my novels, I’ve published short stories and poetry. My life-long interest in Roman and post-Roman European history provided the inspiration for my books, while my other interests in landscape archaeology and birding provide background.

Goodreads