Asimov’s, September 2008
This month, Asimov’s serves up eight stories whose pleasantly varied characters find hope or beauty in the midst of adversity. Whether the strange triumphs of September’s protagonists are due to luck, strength of will, animal cunning, desperation, or the assistance of a kindred spirit, they’re never saccharine, and sometimes surprising, whether they’re set in interstellar […]
Continue ReadingAsimov’s, August 2008
Asimov’s is full of struggles for survival this August. On the literal side, an alcoholic scientist tries to stave off suicide; a preacher shields his flock in a post-apocalyptic landscape; two siblings live day-to-day in a near-future Nigeria; and an injured alien wrestles with the fabric of causality. The issue’s other denizens—young roboticists guiding their […]
Continue ReadingAsimov’s, July 2008
Do you hear that sound? That, folks, is a year’s subscription to Asimov’s draining out of my bank account. Yeah, I’ve bought single issues, I’ve subscribed to other SF mags, but July’s cornucopia has sold me, and sold me well. There are future award winners in this issue, or what should be future award winners, […]
Continue ReadingFantasy Magazine, April 2008
This is the richest month I’ve seen from Fantasy Magazine so far. All four stories are strong, or at least interesting, and much more smoothly written than some of the pieces that appeared in the past.
What would you do if Tony the Tiger appeared at your door and asked you to marry him? Can you […]
Fantasy Magazine, March 2008
Hans Christian Andersen, A.S. Byatt, Angela Carter, and Tim Burton seem to have been whispering in the ears of Fantasy Magazine’s March contributors. An assortment of folk and fantasy elements bubble through the mix; there’s humor, insight, and even romance here, with an undercurrent of darkness. The wobblier stories can be hard to follow, their […]
Continue ReadingFantasy Magazine Online, February 2008
Three of Fantasy Magazine’s four February, 2008 stories are romances, and all of them involve a certain amount of wandering about in invented histories or surreal environments, some better researched or more convincing than others.
Tomi Two-Hearts and Cinnamon Bear definitely didn’t experience love at first sight in Trent Walters’s “The Fable of Cinnamon and Bitter.” […]
Fantasy Magazine Online, January 2008
The January 2008 offerings from Fantasy Magazine are on the darker side: a mix of two parts magic and one part horror, with a dash of surrealism. This is one of the strongest (and the shortest) assortment they’ve served up since I started following the site.
Kelly Barnhill’s “Notes on the Untimely Death of Ronia Drake” […]
Fantasy Magazine Online, December 2007
This month’s Fantasy Magazine yields up horror, romance, a re-imagined fairy tale, a prose poem, and a bedtime story. It’s an uneven crop but an interesting one nonetheless. Overall, where December’s offerings are weakest is coherency. Two stories feel like sections of novels (a phenomenon I’ve encountered from this publication’s offerings before), and the plotline […]
Continue ReadingBlack Static #2, December 2007
Black Static serves up an intriguing blend of fiction and essays this month, wrapped up in a dark design whose aesthetic is caught between eras, a wobbly-legged lovechild of a ‘zine and a website. Its pages are replete with Photoshop art, rusty backgrounds, and the simulacra of whiteout, creases, underexposed patches, scratches, sharpie annotations, Polaroids, […]
Continue ReadingFantasy Magazine Online, November 12-26, 2007
I hadn’t satisfied my fantasy cravings on the web much before I read “Keeping Lilly” by Michael Obilade in Prime Books’ free online periodical, Fantasy Magazine. Stella and Jack are orphans who live in a cabin next to a lake. Their parents, Jon and Huda, died in a car accident near an unnamed ocean; Stella’s […]
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