Arcana: A Tarot Anthology

by Madison Scott-Clary, J.S. Hawthorne (Contributor), George Squares (Contributor)

"The first card is your past," the vixen said, turning over a tattered card. She spoke as she traced the stroke of lightning along the top. "The tower. Difficult times, sudden change. An upheaval in your life? A new revelation?" The darkness of the room stifled your voice; you could only nod. "The hanged man," she murmured as she turned over the second card. "Being true to yourself, A resolution of difficulties. This is your present, the work you have to do right now." "The third card," a smile traced her features, "is your future..." Included in this anthology are twenty-two works of furry fiction by authors within the fandom, including Kyell Gold, Mary Lowd, Chris Williams, and many others. Come with us and divine the meaning of all things from within Arcana.

436 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2017

About the author

Madison Rye Progress, also writing under the name Madison Scott-Clary, is an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry living in the Pacific Northwest. Her interests lie in the realms of furry fiction and non-fiction, collaborative fiction, and hypertextual writing. She is a member of the Furry Writers' Guild, and editor for several projects, fiction and non-fiction. She holds an MFA from Cornell College where she studied the lyric essay and teaching creative writing in fandom- and subculture-specific spaces.

Reviews

[Michael Miele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know next to nothing about Tarot, but that didn't stop me from really enjoying all of the stories in this short story collection. Just wanted to get that out at the front if a potential reader was worried that it would not make sense without that background. Tarot is used as a way to organize the anthology and comes up as an element in some of the stories. A lot of the stories focus on both interpretations of the Tarot cards, which I thought was a nice touch. And while I understand that anthologies don't always have the money in the budget to have illustrations to go along with their stories, it really added something to them for me. Having them laid out next to the starting title of the story primes the reader for the story to come. I was just as excited to see the next Tarot card as I was the story that would accompany it. This anthology also had a lot of dragon and/or lizard based content in it, which is a plus for me specifically! I loved a lot of the stories but "Remembering Sisyphus" had me close to tears at work from how heart-wrenching it was.

[Mary Lowd · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Disclaimer: I have a story in this collection.]

There are a lot of emotionally powerful stories in this collection. My personal favorites were "Chasing the Dragon" by Baxil, "The Dragon of Volcano Island" by Madison Keller, "Unbound" by Chris 'Sparf' Williams, "St. John's Bridge" by Rose LaCroix, and "Remembering Sisyphus" by George Squares. Overall though, I was engaged all the way through. So if you're interested in reading a collection of strongly character-driven furry stories, this is a good way to go.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I'm dating the editor of this, so I am almost certainly not the most objective person here. Having said that:

It's a really solid short-story collection! Some of them are better than others, unsurprisingly! Some are very very good! (I'm very partial to Death and The Hierophant.) Some are kinda weird! (The Devil is just kinda strange, and The Tower is neat but feels like it needs to be about five times longer.) There's a lot of Very Trans Content™!

Overall really solid, if you're into a short story collection that's mostly populated by queer furries. (Spoilers: most of the authors would fit the same description. :3)

[Jamie CULPON · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful collection of fiction based on Trumps/Tarot. I think it is one of the better in my personal library, but I prefer to consult Trumps/Tarot anthologies in français ou italien ou 日本語.

Full disclosure: my original copy was provided by M(s/rs/x) Scott-Cleary via an online raffle.

As a writer, I think that is beautiful, too, but as a French speaker? I still am not sure if I won a major or a minor hand of Whyst or Bridge.