Review of The Sealed Casket
Huh. That felt very underwhelming. I was hoping this Mythos tale would feel a little more, Mythos-ish, you know? The Shards are only mentioned in the preface, and nothing suggests the Mythos or its feel in the short story. The fact that
was broadcast from the very beginning, and not that surprising.
It’s salvation is that it’s a short work. Just for fun, I cut and pasted it into a Word doc. It’s just 2600 words. My average weekly Magic article is longer! Even in the era of hand writing and typewriting, it would take roughly a day to write and edit it. I’m not surprised it has been anthologized about…seven or eight times. Editors often look for these stories to bulk up the number of stories in their book.
Anyway, the plot is pencil thin, due to length, and virtually nothing happens. It’s interesting as a bit of flash fiction and of historical note as the first Eltdown Shards story. It’s nothing more than that, however. I do like the more interesting evil main character and would have loved to have seen a story maybe double this length fully fleshed out from the beginning with him at the helm.
2 out of 5 stars