Clever Jack, Heavy with Stories, by R.K. Duncan

[BCS]

★★★★★ An unexpected adventure in a beautiful, dangerous place.

(Portal Fairy Tale) Teenage Jack, the cook’s boy, and Roderick, Lord Robert’s son, are unlikely but unshakable friends, even when Roderick has to marry a grown woman. Even when Jack has to venture to elf-land to rescue them. (6,002 words; Time: 20m)

Recommended By: 👍GTognetti+1 (Q&A)

The Sweetest Fruit of Summer, by R.K. Duncan

[BCS]

★★★★☆ Memorable and Surprising

(High Fantasy) To keep the peace, Corra’s family surrenders her to the bandit king who terrorizes all the countries around the desert. He wants more from her than sex—much more. But she has plans too. (6,542 words; Time: 21m)

The Thirty-Eight-Hundred Bone Coat, by R.K. Duncan

[BCS]

★★★★☆ Tense, Exciting, and a Little Disturbing.

(High Fantasy) A nobleman offers Navid’s family a vast fortune if they’ll make him a magic coat more powerful than anything they’ve ever made, and in the span of a single month. It will change their lives, one way or the other. (8,408 words; Time: 28m)

The Boy Who Loved Drowning, by R.K. Duncan

[BCS]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Fantasy Horror) A child apprenticed to a master diviner learns how to find answers at the bottom of a holy lake. (4,230 words; Time: 14m)

A Circle of Steel and Bone, by R.K. Duncan

[BCS]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Historical Fantasy) In 13th-Century Prussia, a commander of the Order of the Teutonic Knights hunts for a brutal murderer, who mutilates his victims and seems to target Christian knights. (7,626 words; Time: 25m)