Short Fiction
Akhila, Divided
"Akhila, Divided." Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness. Winnetka: Norilana, 2008. 226-45. Print.
Received Honorable Mention in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois.
During a far-future Yuletide celebration on a distant moon, a colony of Organic monastics encounters an Augment constructed of nanomachines. But though this Augment bears the power to blight the monastery in the name of the ongoing war between her people and theirs, she comes seeking atonement instead in the short story "Akhila, Divided." Available in Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness from Norilana Books.
C.S. MacCath’s “Akhila, Divided” has an unusual protagonist: a sentient bomb that can take on a humanoid form. When the bomb crash-lands among human beings and befriends a peaceful monk, Vegar, her attachment toward the people directly conflicts with the murderous purpose she was designed for. MacCath’s blazing prose illuminates all characters sympathetically and crystallizes arguments for and against war in one achingly divided heroine. Brutal and electrifying execution make this old story of internal conflict new and wrenching.
- The Fix
"Akhila, Divided," by C.S. MacCath, is another fascinating story set in a world I'd love to see more thoroughly explored. A sentient nanobomb, capable of shapeshifting and massive destruction, comes to a small community. Perhaps to inflict damage, perhaps to seek refuge. But what manner of reception will she receive here, and how will it determine the course of her actions? Mixing themes of religion, faith, redemption, revenge and sacrifice, this is a thought-provoking tale that tackles some complex subjects to admirable results.
- SF Site
"Akhila, Divided" by C.S. MacCath is an interesting character study. A woman created to fight a war comes to realize there ought to be something more to her life, and she seeks salvation among those who would be her enemies.
- SFScope
“Akhila, Divided” by C.S. MacCath: Can a living bomb have a soul? You be the judge. Highly recommended.
- Will's Asylum of In(S)anity
Ammonite Baby
"Ammonite Baby." NewWitch May 2006: 57-61. Print.
Published under the name C.S. McCath.
Casting Sin
"Casting Sin." Murky Depths May 2008: 64-67. Print.
A woman scapegoated by her community runs a magical gauntlet which ends in either freedom or death in the vignette "Casting Sin." Available in Issue #4 of the British magazine Murky Depths. Ed Norden's illustration for the story can be viewed here.
C.S. MacCarth’s “Casting Sin” is cast in the same vein as Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” Hedea’s town has turned against her, using her age as the reason to make her the target in a classic scapegoat ritual. If she can survive a walk through the length of the town while the people, who have taken everything from her—from her loom to her home—pelt her with objects that symbolize and mystically transfer their sins to her, they’ll let her live as an exile. But if she falls beneath their vicious attack, they will kill her, exterminating their own sins along with her body. A human tale depicting the worst side of humanity, it captures both the horror of superstition and the possible truth in it.
- The Fix
Published under the name C.S. MacCarth.
From Our Minds to Yours
"From Our Minds to Yours." The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction: 13 Prize Winning Tales. Woodbury: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2008. 87-104. Print.
Finalist for the Pagan Fiction Award.
When two sisters and a teenage boy develop the same strange longing for products that can only be purchased in nearby gated villages, their parents and their Pagan community come together to solve the puzzle and offer support in the short story "From Our Minds to Yours." Available in The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction: 13 Prize Winning Tales from Llewellyn Worldwide.
From Our Kinds [sic] to Yours is a futuristic tale, featuring people becoming addicted to buying products from corporate-run towns. There isn't a solution to it, exactly, but it ends on a note of hope. (And there's a concept likely to happen in real life someday...)
- Speed Reading Book Review Nerds
Ink for the Dead
"Ink for the Dead." NewWitch Dec. 2004: 59-62. Print.
Published under the name C.S. McCath-Moran.