ChiZine #36, April-June 2008
ChiZine offers us another helping of dark, intimate speculative fiction in issue #36. As with the previous issue, I’m very glad for ChiZine’s apparent preference for straightforward plot- and character-oriented fiction, but often its stories do not achieve the spark they’re reaching for.
In “The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft,” a collaboration between Nick Mamatas and Tim […]
Ugly Stories for Beautiful People by James Burr
The most interesting thing about James Burr’s stories, in my mind, is the use he makes of urban fantasy. Fantasy can sometimes be seen to represent ideas and concepts that are entirely relevant to real life; other times, fantasy allows the author to set up plots and situations which would be impossible in a mundane […]
Continue ReadingEclipse One: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Jonathan Strahan
Eclipse One: New Science Fiction and Fantasy is the inaugural volume in Jonathan Strahan’s new annual original speculative fiction anthology. Strahan’s introduction is enthusiastic and even inspiring; he tells us of how the SF/F short story is flourishing and describes the huge quantity of wonderful, imaginative work coming from writers new and old. Eclipse One […]
Continue ReadingLone Star Stories #25, February 2008 (Fiction)
First up in issue #25 of Lone Star Stories is Ekaterina Sedia’s “The Disemboweler,” which begins by describing a series of cruel “murders” of cars in Glenn’s neighborhood. When Glenn’s Peugeot is disemboweled, he is determined to catch the culprit—and to understand the senseless crime.
If only the story were as simple as the recap. “The […]
Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, January 2008
In issue #7 of InterGalactic Medicine Show, “Silent As Dust” by James Maxey explores the curious case of a house haunted by a living man. As you might imagine, such a situation requires a unique character in a unique setting, and Steven Cooper, hiding in the cupboards and crawlspaces of Seven Chimneys, certainly provides both […]
Continue ReadingChiZine #35, January-March
After reviewing issue #34 of ChiZine, I didn’t find issue #35 nearly as impressive. Still, ChiZine certainly seems aimed in a direction I’m very fond of: intelligent, interesting substance delivered with down-to-earth storytelling and more than a hint of darkness. Whether or not each individual story lives up to that is a different […]
Continue ReadingChiZine #34, October-December 2007
I’ve found I especially enjoy writing reviews for e-zines, for the simple reason that if a review catches a reader’s attention, she can click right over and read the story for herself. Happily, issue #34 of ChiZine provides a couple of stories I’m more than happy to link folks to.
First up, “Longtime Gone” by Kurt […]
Fantasy Magazine #7
Ari Goelman opens issue #7 of Fantasy Magazine with an interesting concept: retelling the story of Annie Oakley, the pretty, young sharpshooting maverick, and her debut - beating showman Frank Butler at a bet and entering show business herself. The twist: in Goelman’s “The Annie Oakley Show,” Annie is haunted by the ghost of the […]
Continue Readingi am this meat, edited by Adicus Garton, James Maddox, and Rev. Brian Worley
i am this meat is an anthology with a creative premise: stories that focus on different aspects of the human body. The idea has both novelty and scope going for it; there’s certainly no lack of interesting directions to take the theme (most stories are speculative to some degree or another, but there are […]
Continue ReadingTattered Souls, edited by Frank J. Hutton
The first offering in anthology Tattered Souls, edited by Frank J. Hutton, is Jeff Crook’s “The Monkey Skin Cloak,” a battle against primal frenzy in the African jungle. Theo, his wife, Stanci, and guide, Doc Palmer, are on safari when their jeep runs over a native girl. It soon becomes clear that Stanci has somehow […]
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