My first published work, Sorrow's Shroud, was reviewed by Jason Fischer, at Tangent Online.
"Sorrow’s Shroud, by Rachel A. Marks rolls off to a great start, with a great protagonist and an elaborate setting. A slave escapes a life in the salt mines and runs where his guards won’t follow, into a cursed place where a remote village has formed a covenant with a powerful force. Safety and bounty are theirs, but once every three years they must make a terrific sacrifice for this protection to continue…
The most obvious context to be drawn is a SFnal parallel to the story of Isaac sacrificing his first-born, though this has been jazzed up and given a fantastical setting. This is a great example of when Christian SF works. Marks has attained the right amount of subtlety to convey the moral message, but 'Sorrow’s Shroud' is a decent story in its own right, with a competent maintenance of narrative tension. Still a little on the fannish side in terms of overall quality, but easily the best story this reviewer has read on the Dragons, Knights, & Angels website."
"Absolution" by Maria William
Absolution is the first "Flash" piece I've had published. Here is the review by Nicole McClain at Tangent Online.
"'Absolution' by Rachel A. Marks focuses on Marcus, an assassin trapped in a way of life that haunts his dreams, without any hope of escape. As Marcus stalks his latest victim through the marketplace, we get glimpses of what might make the Lady Riannah special, as well as bits and pieces of Marcus’s past. The events that shaped our protagonist, who his current target might truly be, and whether or not Marcus is beyond salvation, are the questions addressed in Marks’s tightly-written tale. Every aspect of the story is seen through Marcus’s eyes. 'Absolution' is a fitting companion to David Bareford’s 'I've Heard This Before.' Though definitely a work of fiction, it tells a tale that is also inspirational. The only criticism I have with the story is the title. I usually love simplicity, and a one-word title is simplicity itself, but this particular word makes the path Marcus ends up on seem like a given."
"Gwyndowr" by R.A. Marks
"In 'The Waters Stir' by Rachel A. Marks—an Honorable Mention of the 2006 Fiction Contest—Sareck finds the dead body of a young woman washed ashore. Not knowing what to do with it, he takes her into his home for the night. In the morning, he discovers that she's not exactly dead and gone, and maybe not even a woman. After learning that a dragon holds power over her, Sareck sets out to slay the foul beast, for a foul beast it must be to do such a thing. The main theme of 'The Waters Stir' is sacrifice, a crux pertinent to its plot and Sareck's history. Still, the story suffers from flowery prose and archaic dialogue that comes off stiffly. I'll grant Marks credit for writing an engaging fight sequence toward the end, but that alone is not enough to hold 'The Waters Stir' above the surface. "