Cover art for “Over Still Waters” (2022)

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What am I supposed to say about Ben Serna-Grey’s very short book Over Still Waters? It was an impulse buy which I discovered when going over the recent publications of Starry Eyed Press (which has published a number of my short stories and novelettes).

Although I have it on my Kindle Fire, a paper version would contain only 48 pages, so I breezed through it last night before bed.

It tells the tale of Jaine, a music composer living in the Puget Sound area (interestingly enough, my daughter graduated from the University of Puget Sound). The story is set in the 22nd century and a century before, an event written in her family history occurred, one which involved the appearance of massive alien structures in the nearby waters. The aliens came, stayed for a while, and left.

Jaine was pregnant when she and her husband got into a car accident. Her husband was killed and she lost her unborn child. Events pick up sometime later as she has fallen into inactivity and apathy, no longer caring for the world or even her music.

Each chapter is named by the date and contains (fictional) quotes about grief and loss especially regarding a stillbirth or miscarriage.

As a side note, one of Jaine’s friends asks why the miscarriage is so devastating when, much earlier in her life, Jaine chose to have an abortion. The character replied with the only explanation for her feelings and for abortion. An aborted child is unwanted so the mother chooses not to grieve for who their baby might have been. A miscarried child was already loved and wanted and planned for and therefore grieved.

The only difference between a “choice” and a loss is whether or not the child is wanted. Either way, the unborn baby is still a child.

Jaine starts to have dreams in which her husband Tom figures prominently. It also plays a musical note. This inspires Jaine to return to her own music and it is through that connection that her life is rekindled.

Others up and down the coast where the aliens appear also have dreams but their lives seem to have no common thread.

The book takes the reader into a dream state like the protagonist herself. As you may know, a dream is rather nonsensical. The only reason we believe dreams tell a story is that after waking up, we recall the dream and in our conscious mind, create the fiction of lucidity so that we can remember it (most people don’t remember their dreams most of the time).

I’m not a musician. I listen to music I like, but I can no more tell you the technical details of a piece of music than I could explain how to perform brain surgery. It’s like the old joke, “I may not know art, but I know what I like.”

There’s nothing wrong with that, but when I explain to the universe of “true” science fiction fans that I’ve never heard of such-and-thus author or never read this-or-that story, I’m generally discarded as some sort of fandom luddite or philistine.

The book ends with a literal abortive pregnancy (a gift from the aliens she does not want) and her waking up miles from home being “captured” by the military. All she can say is that the aliens mean no harm but who can say why they appeared, from whence they came, or even what they want.

Photo of Ben Serna-Grey found at Subito Music Distribution

I wish I could get more out of this story. There are all kinds of science fiction stories. I guess you could call this one “experimental.”

The author is a musician and does live in the Pacific Northwest so he is definitely drawing from his strengths. He has also been published in Apex Magazine which has rejected several of my short stories, so I guess I have no reason to complain about his writing technique.

Interestingly enough, he earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I attended UNLV in the early to mid-1970s, ultimately dropping out in a fit of existential angst before moving to California. Small world.

I don’t know what to say about Over Still Waters. It’s a quick read but in the end, I’m not sure what happened. Did Jaine’s life become better after the encounter? I suppose it mobilized her back into life, but I’m unclear what becomes of that life thereafter.

I guess I’ll never understand musicians.