Consequence: Volume 14.2

Dear Readers,

For most anthologies assembled from unsolicited subs, the selection process is relatively straightforward: pick the strongest work that fits your genres. An interesting thing happened on the way to compiling this volume, though: many of the pieces we'd chosen had a darker-than-usual tone to them, as if each lived with a little cartoon storm cloud hovering over it. For sure, a sense of foreboding is somewhat inevitable when you're collecting works oriented to the consequences of war and geopolitical violence, but the stern feel of this volume is visceral.

Why this happened isn't a surprise. The war in Ukraine is now entering its ninth month, so we've had a steady dose of its mounting repercussions, a continuous feed of increased death and demolition that has made it easier for darker tones to register with us.

What the somber tone of this issue highlights for us, however, is that this volume-and indeed all of our volumes-allow a person to engage with these challenging subject matters in a more controlled way. After all, our goal remains to encourage a more careful consideration of war's consequences. Within the confines of our 6" x 9" publication, the oversized realities of war and geopolitical violence become just personal enough that insights can be gleaned, that an understanding can become tangible enough for one to gain purchase and climb out into some light.

With nuclear weapons on the horizon, these are dark times indeed. Our hope here at Consequence is that this compendium can in some way help us to avoid them in the future.

Sincerely,

The Editors