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Ether Ore
At the edge of the Butterfly Nebula, beyond the last portal, lies Periphery Station. Last haven, recovery hospice, tourist mecca, and cathedral in space. All sorts of people come to Periphery armalcolite prospectors, star rangers, survivors, and renegades.
The portal brings word of other galaxies—and other realities. Time, distance, and motive have different meanings here.
Marcher Lord Press produces science fiction and fantasy novels with a spiritual edge. Here, six Marcher Lord Press authors—plus the publisher himself—show their skills with short fiction. If you like the short stories, you’ll love the award-winning novels. Marcher Lord Press is the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction.
Come for the adventure. Come for the discovery. Ether Ore.
The portal brings word of other galaxies—and other realities. Time, distance, and motive have different meanings here.
Marcher Lord Press produces science fiction and fantasy novels with a spiritual edge. Here, six Marcher Lord Press authors—plus the publisher himself—show their skills with short fiction. If you like the short stories, you’ll love the award-winning novels. Marcher Lord Press is the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction.
Come for the adventure. Come for the discovery. Ether Ore.
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First published June 4, 2011
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78 people want to read
About the author
Jill Williamson
67 books1,621 followersJill Williamson is a multi-passionate creative who loves the arts. She’s written over thirty books for readers of all ages and is best known for her Blood of Kings fantasy series, two of which won Christy Awards and made VOYA magazine’s Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror list. She produces films with her husband and teaches about writing at conferences. Visit her at www.jillwilliamson.com.
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Jill's author website.
Jill's Amazon Author page.
Jill's Instagram.
Click here for a FULL LIST OF Jill's BOOKS.
Newest Series:
Thirst Duology
Fan favorites:
Writing books:
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 29, 2013
A fun anthology of Christian world view short stories. The tone is like that of the classic stories of the middle Twentieth Century. A unique feature is a framing story that semi-connects all the others.
Nice cover art.
A good read.
Nice cover art.
A good read.
February 25, 2017
This story collection contains great contributions from a number of Enclave Publishing's authors. I especially enjoyed the stories from Steve Rzasa and Kirk Outerbridge. I was excited a few years ago to find out about Enclave (then Marcher Lord) Publishing, a publishing house dedicated to Christian speculative fiction. Morgan L. Busse’s books are published through them (Daughter of Light, etc). Unfortunately, few of their books are available at the local library or even through inter-library loan. So I was very happy to run across this collection of stories, Ether Ore!
“Armed” – Jeff Gerke
This SF novella is a parable for men. A miner strikes it rich, but when he brings his find in to be assayed, he meets a young boy who will cause him to question the reasons for his actions. As long as you are okay with robot allegories, you’ll enjoy it.
The first part of the story is strong… but the middle is used as the frame story for the rest of the tales in this collection. It’s not a strong frame; there’s really no reason for most of the framing material to exist. The fact that this is partly a frame story also means that you need to read this whole colelction in fairly short order, or you will have forgotten what happened by the time you get to the end. The final section of the story is also the final element of the book; I would have liked the ending to be more developed, in order to balance the buildup given to the character and plot in “Armed.”
“The Drop” – Steve Rzasa
This is my favorite short in this collection—a tone-perfect military SF story. It’s clear that there’s a lot more to this story world and these characters than we get here. Ben Longstep and his men are as merry a band of soldiers as I’ve ever come across. If you are a fan of David Weber and Elizabeth Moon, this story is for you.
“The Merak Galaxy” - Jill Williamson
Short, cute, and utterly without any scientific basis.
“Graxin” – Kerry Nietz
Part WALL-E and part I Robot, this is an intriguing story about a mineral-surveying robot that decides to go exploring and finds a strange cavern under the surface of one of Neptune’s moons. What he finds there causes him to go against his programming in search of a greater meaning for his existence. Look out for the dark Clarke-like twist at the end!
“Close” – Marc Schooley
Once again, we find valuable minerals, greedy humans, a robot looking for meaning, and a dark ending.
“Tableau” – Adam Palmer
I enjoyed this one. The author’s voice, the character’s creative response to his predicament… the happy ending. I look forward to reading more stories by this author!
“Nether Ore” – Kirk Outerbridge
This story was scary but rewarding. I really liked the main character, John, who is stuck among cloned miners by day but at night dreams of his family. Allegorical themes and very creepy villains make this a compelling story.
“Armed” – Jeff Gerke
This SF novella is a parable for men. A miner strikes it rich, but when he brings his find in to be assayed, he meets a young boy who will cause him to question the reasons for his actions. As long as you are okay with robot allegories, you’ll enjoy it.
The first part of the story is strong… but the middle is used as the frame story for the rest of the tales in this collection. It’s not a strong frame; there’s really no reason for most of the framing material to exist. The fact that this is partly a frame story also means that you need to read this whole colelction in fairly short order, or you will have forgotten what happened by the time you get to the end. The final section of the story is also the final element of the book; I would have liked the ending to be more developed, in order to balance the buildup given to the character and plot in “Armed.”
“The Drop” – Steve Rzasa
This is my favorite short in this collection—a tone-perfect military SF story. It’s clear that there’s a lot more to this story world and these characters than we get here. Ben Longstep and his men are as merry a band of soldiers as I’ve ever come across. If you are a fan of David Weber and Elizabeth Moon, this story is for you.
“The Merak Galaxy” - Jill Williamson
Short, cute, and utterly without any scientific basis.
“Graxin” – Kerry Nietz
Part WALL-E and part I Robot, this is an intriguing story about a mineral-surveying robot that decides to go exploring and finds a strange cavern under the surface of one of Neptune’s moons. What he finds there causes him to go against his programming in search of a greater meaning for his existence. Look out for the dark Clarke-like twist at the end!
“Close” – Marc Schooley
Once again, we find valuable minerals, greedy humans, a robot looking for meaning, and a dark ending.
“Tableau” – Adam Palmer
I enjoyed this one. The author’s voice, the character’s creative response to his predicament… the happy ending. I look forward to reading more stories by this author!
“Nether Ore” – Kirk Outerbridge
This story was scary but rewarding. I really liked the main character, John, who is stuck among cloned miners by day but at night dreams of his family. Allegorical themes and very creepy villains make this a compelling story.
August 5, 2013
This is a short story collection put out by the Christian science fiction/fantasy oriented Marcher Lord Press. It is a collection of short stories from a group of authors published through that press, with Jeff Gerke (owner and writer) authoring the frame story which introduces each of the short stories in the collection.
As science fiction goes, these stories were well-crafted. As Christian science fiction goes, many of these were very, very hopeless and depressing. It started out good and got increasingly hopeless with each story, for the most part. I felt pretty down when I finished reading.
I understand that God doesn't have to be mentioned in every story to make it Christian, but I feel I need Him to be present in spirit, somehow, in the content or outcome of the story. Is there any hope? Is there any love? Does good win? Is mercy the virtue that is glorified? Is the Bible or God a caricature or a model in this story? These are things I was looking for, and sadly, they were not things I could find in every story in the book.
It left me feeling very sad and cold.
As science fiction goes, these stories were well-crafted. As Christian science fiction goes, many of these were very, very hopeless and depressing. It started out good and got increasingly hopeless with each story, for the most part. I felt pretty down when I finished reading.
I understand that God doesn't have to be mentioned in every story to make it Christian, but I feel I need Him to be present in spirit, somehow, in the content or outcome of the story. Is there any hope? Is there any love? Does good win? Is mercy the virtue that is glorified? Is the Bible or God a caricature or a model in this story? These are things I was looking for, and sadly, they were not things I could find in every story in the book.
It left me feeling very sad and cold.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews