What happens when you’re face-to-face with a truth that shakes you?
Do you accept it, or pretend it was never there?
Award-winning author Mark A. Rayner smudges the lines between realist and fabulist, literary and speculative in this collection of stories that examines this question—what Homer called passing through The Gates of Polished Horn.
We discover the cruelty of creating synthetic consciousness. A woman is worried that her husband is having an affair but discovers it’s much, much worse. A time traveler uncovers a reality-bending fact while observing the death of Socrates. Waldo, of Where’s Waldo fame, has an existential crisis. A traveling salesperson is killed on the highway, and this is just the start of his journey through the gates.
Infused with comic insight and tragic vision, this collection invites readers into new realities that touch on our shared humanity.
“Mark A. Rayner’s formidable storytelling is on full display in this thoughtful and diverse collection. He’s a fine and creative writer whose characters and storylines are quirky, inventive, and often very funny. Bravo!”
~Terry Fallis, author of The Best Laid Plans &
two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
Get The Gates of Polished Horn Now!
Details:
- Full title: The Gates of Polished Horn
- Author name: Mark A. Rayner
- Publisher/Imprint: Donovan Street Press Inc.
- Pub date: March 1, 2025
- Page count: 203
- Amazon link
- Categories: Short Story | Science Fiction | Speculative Fiction
- Not illustrated
- Softcover Price: 14.99 USD
- ebook price: 3.99 USD
- ISBN 9781999431174 (softcover) | ISBN 9781999431181 (EPUB)
More About The Gates of Polished Horn
If you’re interested in the story behind some of these stories, you can check out some of the things I’ve written about them:
