All Roads Lead to Winter
by Mark Fuller Dillon
ISBN: 9780991861200
Copyright 2013 Mark Fuller Dillon
Personally, I found All Roads Lead to Winter to be a bit odd. As I understood this novella, it is about a race of cat-like creatures from a parallel Earth who have been transported into the Earth of the story
to save man-kind from themselves. Allegedly, these creatures have evolved concurrently with man in
their parallel world and have no bad habits.
Thomas Bridge, an ideological misfit, has been imprisoned for reasons that remain obscure and
despite the fact that he has been freed, is incapable of moving forward; perhaps for the same reason
that he clings to the memory of a wife who left him after a year of marriage twenty-years before and
committed suicide.
Avdryana is one of the cat-like creatures, Thomas’ former captor, who for totally undefined reasons
has developed sensual feelings for Thomas. She is like a third-party interloper in the closed pity-
party happening between Thomas and his dead wife’s memory.
The story line is weak at best and focuses around discussions concerning the origin of the cats, the
nature of parallel universes and whether interveners have the right to intervene in the lives and
destiny of other races no matter how doomed they may be. What the story lacks in substance, it
makes for in sex with a long pointless sexual encounter initiated by Avdryana designed to get
Thomas to forget about his wife.
Thomas is a one-dimensional character incapable of accepting change. Avdryana is never really
defined except in light of her over all racial differences in values and physical characteristics.
All Roads Lead to Winter would be expected to appeal to readers who are looking for a short sci-fi-
fantasy read, or perhaps those who feel the world’s environment is doomed. For the latter, there are
no solutions, just heavy handed interventions.
3-Stars,
Clabe Polk
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