Strange Horizons, April 2008
“In Ashes” by Helen Keeble, one of the April, 2008, Strange Horizons fiction offerings, is set in the same world as her previous Strange Horizons story, “In Stone,” a world of elemental magic that comes at a high price. Jessa and her brother, Jennet, live with their mother in a small house where Jennet is […]
Continue ReadingStrange Horizons, March 2008
“All Talk” by Will Ludwigsen, the first story for March in Strange Horizons, is a brief scene between two people who possess mind-control powers. Sitting in a café, Valerie and Colin amuse themselves by making strangers around them say inappropriate things, such as the girl who tells her mother, “Elmo strangles hookers!” After a little […]
Continue ReadingIdeomancer, March 2008, Vol 7, Issue 1
The first story in Ideomancer’s March 2008 issue is “Seer of Cities” by Nicole Kornher-Stace. The eponymous boy is climbing a tree in his back garden, only to fall from a rotten branch and seriously injure himself. Paralysed in his legs, he begins dreaming of a city that he sees from his tree. In his […]
Continue ReadingStrange Horizons, February 2008
A theme of loss seems to run through the February, 2008, stories at Strange Horizons. The first, “Tokyo Rising” by Lynne Hawkinson, matches loss with whimsy. Tokyo has been destroyed multiple times by Godzilla, Mothra, natural disasters, and more, which eventually results in the city planners considering the site cursed and moving the population […]
Continue ReadingStrange Horizons, January 2008
Strange Horizons began 2008 with a short piece, “Still Living” by J. J. Irwin. Alice’s husband, Carlos, recently died, but the murals he painted throughout their house—their happy moments on picnic blankets under a warm sun, feeding each other—are still animated, each set of Alice and Carlos still together. The real Alice cannot bear their […]
Continue ReadingStrange Horizons, November 2007
As seems to be the trend for me, November was another month in which I very much enjoyed most of Strange Horizon’s fiction and didn’t dislike any. The first story of the month is “Bears” by Leah Bobet, and it’s about, well, bears. “Ninety-eight percent of all fictional deaths are directly attributable to being eaten […]
Continue ReadingStrange Horizons, October 2007
Strange Horizons brought five stories in October, 2007. The opening one, “Catherine and the Satyr” by Theodora Goss, is a tragedy about being trapped. The titular woman—the wife of Byron—is trapped in a marriage with a man who has become distracted by other women. There are ways for her to find a kind of freedom; […]
Continue ReadingIdeomancer, December 2007
The December issue of Ideomancer opens with “How to Draw the Dark Lord” by Jon Hansen, which takes the style of a children’s colouring book and offers a ten-step set of instructions on how to draw the archetypal Dark Lord of fantasy worlds. Hansen’s observations are spot-on for the archetype, and a sprinkling of humour […]
Continue ReadingStrange Horizons, September 2007
In September, Strange Horizons offered four quite different stories.
I expect that some people will find the first, “All Kinds of Reasons” by Katherine Maclaine, a difficult read. Set in a near future where it is possible to predict the genetic deformities an embryo will possess, it focuses on two hopeful parents, Tony and Rhia. The […]
Strange Horizons, August 2007
“Artifice and Intelligence” by Tim Pratt in Strange Horizons is a quirky approach to the artificial intelligence motif. “The vast network of Indian tech support call centers and their deep data banks” have awakened, announcing their sentience and their name: Saraswati. The story follows three people who have been affected by this: Pramesh, who must […]
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