Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories

by Bradley P. Beaulieu

With The Winds of Khalakovo, Bradley P. Beaulieu established himself as a talented new voice in epic fantasy.

With his premiere short story collection, Beaulieu demonstrates his ability to weave tales that explore other worlds in ways that are at once bold, imaginative, and touching.

Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories contains 17 stories that range from the epic to the heroic, some in print for the first time.

- 'To the Towers of Tulandan'. A Lays of Anuskaya story, written exclusively for the collection.
- 'Prima'. A Lays of Anuskaya story, written exclusively for the collection.
- 'Unearthed'. A story set in Bradley P. Beaulieu’s new Bryndlholt world, written exclusively for the collection.
- 'In the Eyes of the Empress’s Cat'. First printed in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.
- 'Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten'. First printed in Realms of Fantasy Magazine.
- 'Sweet as Honey'. First printed in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.
- 'Shadows in the Mirrors'. First printed in Dimensions Next Door by DAW Books.
- 'Parting the Clouds'. First printed in Time-Traveled Tales.
- 'Flotsam'. First printed in Writers of the Future XX.
- 'A Trade of Shades'. First printed in Alien Skin Magazine.
- 'Good Morning Heartache'. First printed in Spells in the City by DAW Books.
- 'Cirque Du Lumière'. First printed in Fellowship Fantastic by DAW Books.
- 'How Peacefully the Desert Sleeps'. First printed in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.
- 'Foretold'. First printed in Steampunk’d by DAW Books.
- 'From the Spices of Sanandira'. First printed in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
- 'An Instrument of War'. First printing.
- 'Prey to the Gods'/ First printing.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 29, 2013

About the author

Bradley P. Beaulieu began writing his first fantasy novel in college, but life eventually intervened. As time went on, though, Brad realized that his love of writing and telling tales wasn't going to just slink quietly into the night. The drive to write came back full force in the early 2000s, at which point Brad dedicated himself to the craft, writing and learning under the guidance of writers like Nancy Kress, Joe Haldeman, Tim Powers, Holly Black, and many more.

Brad and his novels have garnered many accolades including two Hotties—the Debut of the Year and Best New Voice—on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, a Gemmell Morningstar Award nomination for The Winds of Khalakovo and more:

* Top Ten Book and Debut of the Year for 2011 on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist for The Winds of Khalakovo
* Best New Voice of 2011 on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
* 2011 Gemmell Morningstar Award Nomination for The Winds of Khalakovo
* Top Ten Debut for The Winds of Khalakovo on Ranting Dragon's Best of 2011
* Top Ten Debut for The Winds of Khalakovo on Mad Hatter's Best of 2011
* Top Five Book for 2012 on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist for The Straits of Galahesh
* 2012 Most Anticipated for The Straits of Galahesh on Staffer's Book Review
* 2012 Most Anticipated for The Straits of Galahesh on The Ranting Dragon
* 2013 Most Anticipated for The Flames of Shadam Khoreh on The Ranting Dragon

Brad continues to work on his next projects, including an Arabian Nights epic fantasy and a Norse-inspired middle grade series. He also runs the highly successful science fiction & fantasy podcast, Speculate, which can be found at speculatesf.com.

Novels

THE LAYS OF ANUSKAYA
* The Winds of Khalakovo
* The Straits of Galahesh
* The Flames of Shadam Khoreh

Short Story Collections
* Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories

Novellas
* Strata (with Stephen Gaskell)

Contact Information
Website: www.quillings.com
Twitter: @bbeaulieu
Facebook: facebook.com/bradley.p.beaulieu

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this 4.5 stars.

Why not 5 stars? Because this is based on my tastes, and I am more an epic fantasy reader, than a short story reader. I like long stories so that I can spend a lot of time in the story.

With short stories, things are over too quickly so I rarely read them.

But I found much to like in this collection, and I enjoyed it a lot. If you liked Beaulieu's Lays of Anuskaya trilogy, I think you will like this book.

First, the collection contains a prequel and sequel story to the series so you can learn more about that world, and spend more time there.

But, primarily, the collection contains a number of very entertaining and enthralling fantasy stories. With the exception of "A trade of Shades" (interesting, but very short for my tastes), I found each story excellent. The title story in particular was fantastic; highly original, magical, with several story threads going on making it truly a wonderful and complex short story. At 28 pages, not tiny. I found that the majority of the stories had a good size, with plenty of room to develop the characters and the story.

Another great thing about the collection is the variety of the tales. Each one is quite different from the others, so you won't get bored. We have everything from what seemed like an Egyptian inspired setting, to an American desert, to an Arabian desert, to nautical, to Russian, urban fantasies, to a futuristic feel, to a norse inspired world. Even an Asian setting.

And as I have come to expect from the Lays of Anuskaya trilogy, the stories were each highly original, and they had twists that kept you guessing. Typically, the story turns out to be quiet different than what you expect from the beginning.

If you haven't read Beaulieu's work before and would like to dip your toe to see if you would like it, I think this collection is an excellent way to do so. It gives you a good feel for his writing and what makes his Lays of Anuskaya trilogy such a wonderful read.

In closing, I recommend this collection highly.

Aug 26, 2013 addition: The limited edition hardcovers just arrived, and it's gorgeous. Each story comes with its own illustration, and it really adds a lot to the collection. There are only 100 of the hardcovers in existence, and the author might still have a few for sale, so if you don't have one, my advice is to grab one as they look great.

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

Bradley P. Beaulieu's Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories is an excellent and fantastic short story collection. In my opinion this collection deserves all the praise it gets, because it's been a while since I've read a fantasy short story collection that can rival this one in terms of quality, versatility and originality.

Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories contains the following 17 stories:

- In the Eyes of the Empress's Cat
- Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten
- Prima (a Lays of Anuskaya story, original to this collection)
- Sweet as Honey
- Shadows in the Mirrors
- Parting the Clouds
- An Instrument of War (original to this collection)
- Unearthed (original to this collection)
- Flotsam
- Prey to the Gods (original to this collection)
- A Trade of Shades
- Good Morning Heartache
- Cirque Du Lumière
- How Peacefully the Desert Sleeps
- Foretold
- To the Towers of Tulandan (a Lays of Anuskaya story, original to this collection)
- From the Spices of Sanandira

These stories appear as author's preferred texts in this collection. They were originally published in a slightly different form in various magazines and anthologies.

I think that readers will be interested in knowing what they can expect from this short story collection. To be short, they can expect 100% quality and first-rate fantasy stories.

With these stories Bradley P. Beaulieu shows that he's able to write both heroic and epic fantasy stories. He fluently shifts his focus from heroic fantasy to epic fantasy and even combines both. He's also able to write different kind of fantasy stories that differ quite a lot from each other in several ways.

Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories has an amazing amount of different kind of stories. The author has written all kinds of stories and some of these stories have plenty of Eastern and Russian elements in them. It's great that the author has collected all these stories into this collection, because this collection gives readers a chance to see how versatile an author he is and what kind of fantasy he can write.

What amazed me most when I read this collection was how easily the author developed the happenings and how fluently he wrote about the characters (it's great that he's able to create stories that come alive when you read them). I also admired his ability to write touching and imaginative stories. This is a talent that only a few fantasy authors have and it separates mainstream fantasy authors from quality fantasy authors.

Some of the stories in Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories are almost like fairy tales for adults while others are more epic in nature. This is nice, because it creates diversity. In my honest opinion each of these stories is a small gem. All of these stories can be read over and over again, because they're fine examples of quality short stories that can withstand the test of time.

The two Lays of Anuskaya stories (Prima and To the Towers of Tulandan) will be of interest to readers who have read The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy and have enjoyed it. I was very satisfied with these stories, because after I had finished reading the trilogy (which by the way is one of the best and most ambitious epic fantasy trilogies ever written), I wanted to read more stories about the same world. I'm glad that the author has written these stories, because they were excellent.

Bradley P. Beaulieu's Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories is one of the best fantasy short story collections ever published, because the author writes about exotic locales, the characters are interesting and the happenings are fascinating. I'm sure that everybody who has read lots of fantasy will agree with me when I say that Bradley P. Beaulieu is one of the best new fantasy authors, because he knows how to write original and intriguing stories.

It's difficult for me to choose the best stories, because I enjoyed reading all of them, but if I had to choose them, I'd probably say that the best stories are Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten, In the Eyes of the Empress's Cat, Prima, To the Towers of Tulandan, Unearthed, Prey to the Gods and An Instrument of War. I also liked A Trade of Shades, because it's a good example of perfectly written flash fiction. I remember reading that Unearthed is a short story, which is set in Bradley P. Beaulieu's new Bryndlholt world (hopefully the author will continue to write more Bryndlholt stories, because this story is good).

Before I finish writing this review I have to mention that the cover art by Sang Han looks amazingly beautiful. I also liked the interior art by Evgeni Maloshenkov, because the drawings were fantastic.

I can highly recommend this short story collection to everybody who has read Bradley P. Beaulieu's The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy. I can also recommend this collection to all readers who enjoy reading good fantasy stories (if you've never read Bradley P. Beaulieu before, this collection is a good starting point). If you want quality and originality from your fantasy stories, this is the collection to read.

Highly recommended!

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a backer of Beaulieu's Kickstarter for this collection and proud to have done so. It's a beautiful collection with several stories that are just perfect, including "Prima" about a dancer set in his Lays of Anuskaya world.

[Malaraa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any other collection of short stories, especially by one author, best read in small doses interspersed with other reading.

My favorites: Lest We Be Forgotten (title story), Sweet As Honey, Unearthed.

Just below favorite: In the Eyes of the Emperess's Cat, Shadows in the Mirrors, Flotsam.

Also interesting: From the Spices of Sanandira, Parting the Clouds.

One of the many tricky things about short stories always seems to be getting the balance right between limiting your scope to what can be covered in a short time versus having enough else happening that the story isn't so focused as to feel like a one note song. There are a few places where the balance wobbles a bit in this collection, but on the other hand it doesn't have anything I strongly disliked.

Least favorites were probably Cirque De Lumiere, Prey to the Gods, and How Peacefully the Desert Sleeps, but even those were more disinterest than anything.

Overall, definitely worth the read.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remain impressed by Brad's range.