Havok’s third anthology is based on themes that have been proven to make the world binge read story after story. With themes like “Strange New World” and “Super Duper,” numerous authors have constructed forty-six tales of one thousand words or less. A majority of the entries fall into the genres of science fiction or fantasy.
My son and I read these together, and we discussed a score, from one to ten, for each after we finished. We often had the same rating but we differed on a few. The range of tales satisfied both his need for more action-oriented stories and my preference for more introspective plots. Nonetheless, we often arrived at one score for most, but not all, of the offerings.
The quality of writing is high for this book, but the themes are hidden. I had to look them up on the website in order to understand the categories. I appreciated the prior collection because they sectioned the book into the six themes so I had a sense of what I was about to read. This is missing in Bingeworthy, and I hope Havok brings this back in the future.
We had a long list of high scoring entries. We liked the action and the premise of “Seven Canisters of Dark” (Tracey Dyck). I was struck with the creativity of “Tower of 1000 Doors” (J. L. Ender) and enjoyed its playful ending. The poignant “The Light Smuggler” (Zachary Holbrook) will be remembered for quite some time. The setting of “The Last Gateway” (Cassandra Hamm) made that story a winner. We both enjoyed the pulse-pounding narrative of “What Comes Next” (Andrew Winch) as well as its not-so-tidy ending. Whoever said great fairy tales were all written in the past never read “Flowers” (Hannah Robinson). And “Raiders of Magic” (Krysta Tawlks) is a skillful demonstration in speculative fiction. Finally, “Unexpected Encounters of a Draconic Kind” (Beka Gremikova) exemplified the best of how fantasy connects to the human condition.
At the very top of the scale, my son loved the hijinx of both “Why God Made Beer” (A. C. Williams) and “Santa’s Little Foes” (Michael Erasmus). It takes a lot to make my teenager smile, but both stories achieved that very reaction. “The Incendiary” (Abigail Falanga) had a clever premise, and we didn’t see the end coming. Finally, we were both moved by “A Healing Touch” (R. F. Gammon)—very insightful fiction in so few words.
I made my son choose his favorite. His favorite story was “The Fountain” by Teddi Deppner. He said he liked how it made him both think and feel. For me, I chose “Flew” (Pamela Love) which felt like poetry in prose form. Both entries packed a lot of emotion into flash fiction.
Bingeworthy is a great collection with a wide variety of tales. This father and son team look forward to the next anthology by Havok. I’m sure it will be Sense-sational.
Full disclosure: I am an author and have been published in Havok, however, I did not submit during the Bingeworthy run.