Aetheria

by Nerine Dorman

An accident unlocks the key to Aetheria, a secret world of dreams that enthrals Jon Cole. In Aetheria, he is everything he is not in the waking world, a hero beloved of a beautiful woman, who can right great wrongs. So unlike the daylight hours where he is a slave to deadlines and has no lofty aspirations until Aetheria unfolds for him. But what is more real in the end? Jon Cole or Aetheria? What happens when one world bleeds into another?

34 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 24, 2020

About the author

Nerine Dorman is a South African author and editor of science fiction and fantasy currently living in Cape Town, with short fiction published in numerous anthologies. She is a contributor to the Locus Award-winning Afro-Centered Futurism in Our Speculative Fiction edited by Eugen Bacon (Bloomsbury, 2024). Her novel Sing down the Stars won Gold for the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature in 2019 and The Percy Fitzpatrick Award for Children's and Youth Literature in 2021. Her YA fantasy novella, Dragon Forged, was a finalist in the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature in 2017, and she is the curator of the South African Horrorfest Bloody Parchment event and short story competition. Her short story “On the Other Side of the Sea” (Omenana, 2017) was shortlisted for a 2018 Nommo award. Her novella The Firebird won a Nommo for “Best Novella” in 2019. In addition, she is a founding member of the SFF authors’ co-operative Skolion.

Reviews

[Nerine Dorman]

Can't rate or review 'cos well, the obvious. A little background, though. This one was sitting on my hard drive for years. It was initially a finalist in a short story competition for a now defunct small press here in South Africa, so I decided to do the honours and unleash it into the world.

[Aleksandr Voinov]

It's beautiful.

[Jonathan Pongratz · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an exciting journey between fantasy and reality!

This short story is about Jon Cole, your average guy. When he gets jumped in his neighborhood and is rescued by a kind older woman, he soon discovers that the accident did something to him. When he dreams, he can now enter the beautiful dreamworld of Aetheria, where anything seems possible.

I really loved this short story. The concept drew me in, and the execution didn't let me down either. Dorman has a way with words that keep you reading. I was flipping these pages quickly!

As your average Joe, Jon Cole was easy to follow along. He was rational given his background, and I enjoyed his journey. If you were to discover that a form of magic was real, would you be able to handle having to deal with the real world? His struggle reminded me of what some of Grossman's characters from The Magicians go through, and it is certainly understandable. Once you know magic exists, does anything else really compare?

I may have liked this story a bit more drawn out to really highlight the magnificent sights of Aetheria in greater detail, but this was fast-paced and that kept me happy throughout. This is definitely a gem of a short story. If you have a love for fantasy and love a brief escape from reality, I highly recommend you try this out!

[Cassey · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a quick read, it's definitely not an easy one because you just want to reach inside the book and smack Jon upside the head. Here for the hints of fantasy and whimsy in the every day - worlds in the moss. Not here for the dumb that is Jon :p

[Frieda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful

Oof! So many things I heard about brought into this intoxicating brew of craziness. So well brought together and yet such sadness too.

[Reads_Must · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aetheria
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Nerine Dorman
⭐️⭐️.5

This book had a lot of potential but it was disappointing for me.

The pacing was good and I really liked the idea of finding refuge in a dream world but I needed more world building and character development.

A certain plot twist/character reveal was obvious to me so it didn't have the impact it should've done.

I wasn't keen on the ending. It seemed rushed and abrupt and I wasn't satisfied. It felt like there should be more chapters to tie things up nicely.