The March issue of Dog Versus Sandwich kicks off with an off-beat modern tale by Jason Jordan entitled “Cloud.” A man discovers a small cloud in his bathroom raining in his toilet and strikes up a casual friendship with it. They take a walk, and at the 2nd Street Bridge, discuss suicide jumpers […]
Continue ReadingFlashing Swords, #9, Winter 2008, serves up a generous helping of sword and sorcery fiction and verse. This issue, 133 pages long, contains illustrations by a variety of artists and 19 written pieces. Alas, the table of contents does not distinguish between stories, essays, and poems, although interviews are always titled as “interview […]
Continue ReadingI had the pleasure of reading Written Word again this month and wasn’t disappointed by issue #9. In the cover story, “The Last of A Million Wishes” by Joanne Hall, Zinnia and Lettanie are fairy friends warned by their elders not to explore “the boy’s bedroom.” And, as predicted, when disaster strikes, Lettanie tries […]
Continue ReadingAtomjack Magazine is a small press e-zine published by Editor Adicus Ryan Garton, specializing in science fiction of all stripes. Assuming Issue #9 (February, 2008) is representative of the fiction published by Atomjack generally, I would have to say more work needs to be done. The tales in this issue range from good […]
Continue ReadingIssue #13 of Aeon is the third issue of this now pro-zine that I’ve reviewed. Call it this reviewer’s perception, editorial preference, luck of the submissions for this quarter, or triskaidekaphobia, but I didn’t find this issue nearly as strong as the last two. Still, three of the stories in here are noteworthy […]
Continue ReadingIn “The Importance of Portents” in the March, 2008, issue of The Town Drunk, Zoltan doesn’t have much magical ability but hasn’t had much competition. Until now. One by one, his demon and assistant abandon him and go to work for the machine.
“You focus on your question, gaze through the window, and up from […]
I don’t know anything about football and never understood the whole Super Bowl frenzy. But I still loved Christopher Hivner’s “One For the Thumb” in the February, 2008, issue of Written Word. The voice, grammar, and diction of a high school senior on the 0-30 Wilcox Dairymen are spot on. No angels descend from on […]
Continue ReadingThe February issue of Lone Star Stories contains three poems. The first of these, “Up North” by Elizabeth Hand, is a rather long piece of prose poetry. “Up North” uses rich language and surreal imagery to describe what is either a world only slightly different than our own, or our own world going […]
Continue ReadingThis issue of Baen’s universe has the usual mix of science fiction and fantasy stories, plus one story in the Introducing section: “End of the Line” by Holly Messinger.
“The Smartest Mob…(a parable about times soon to come)” by David Brin is set in the future after dirty bombs hit Washington and part of […]
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 […]
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