"Last Farewell of the Emperatrix" in Adventitious!

 

This story is in the new issue of Adventitious! It's the story of a former leader of a multi-dimensional university, her legacy evoked through the changing of art styles and commemorations, with a backdrop of uncanny Provosts and Regents, student rebels and an authoritarian, usurping president.

Its inspirations range from Evita (the musical) to Cordwainer Smith’s “The Dead Lady of Clown Town,” Jeff VanderMeer’s “The Transformation of Martin Lake,” and especially to Sarah Monette’s “Draco Campestris.”

The story has already been reviewed (positively) in Tar Valon: 

Issue Five of Adventitious had a couple stories catch my attention, including one told via analyses of a series of paintings inspired by a single iconic scene. Last Farewell of the Emperatrix by Daniel Ausema obliquely tells of civil war within a university that seems to be the dominant power in the narrator’s universe, with significant outposts in other worlds. It’s a story that never makes much pretense at having answers–unlike some others stylized in similar ways, there isn’t some obvious fact that the reader knows and the narrator doesn’t that ties everything together–but that doesn’t mean there’s no meaning that can be gleaned.

I'll take that! Give it--and the rest of the excellent issue--a read!