Red Dreams, by R.Z. Held

[BCS]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Post-Apocalypse) Tarnish knows that her dreams mean that in a day or two, she’ll start trying to kill people to let their blood out. Her partner on the mail route thinks this is nonsense, and they need to support each other against the other dangers out there. (6,794 words; Time: 22m)

"Red Dreams," by R.Z. Held (edited by Scott H. Andrews), appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue 245, published on February 8, 2018.

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Pro: We learn the explanation for the red dreams, and Tarnish (whose name is very cute once you realize she’ll spend the rest of her life polishing things to expose the steel) finds a way to live with it.
It’s touching that Tarnish and Sol are a real team from here on out.

It was amusing that the bandits were so hard up that they couldn’t afford to load most of their guns. They really were “shitty bandits.”

Con: It’s not clear why the old technology caused people to become obsessed with iron. For the purposes of the story, it might as well have been a magic curse.

Although this story is complete, it feels like the prologue to a longer story that might explore this setting more thoroughly.

Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 245)
R.Z. Held Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.