Reviews
Realms of Fantasy, August 2008
In the August, 2008, issue of Realms of Fantasy, Carrie Vaughn weaves a moving tale about hope and wounded veterans in “A Letter to Nancy.” Set in a Belgian hospital during WWII, Private Sergeant Andrews has a scarred face and is missing one eye. Molly, his nurse, offers to write a letter to his loved […]
Continue ReadingClarkesworld Magazine, #20, May 2008
“A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antartica” by Catherynne M. Valente was a very difficult read. I had a hard time figuring out what the story was even about until after I was halfway through, and the temptation to skip whole paragraphs accumulated as I read. If anything, read this to see why it’s so […]
Continue ReadingNot One of Us #39
Not One of Us is an appropriate name for a zine that features the kind of fantasy stories that resist categorisation and seem to exist in an uneasy twilight between genre and literary fiction. Though editor John Benson notes in his editorial in issue #39 that animals—real and imagined—crop up in all the stories, the […]
Continue ReadingThe Luminous Depths by David Herter
When a paper covered with incomprehensible musical staves is unfolded, some of Czechoslovakia’s finest artists find themselves flung from the thriving, creative era of 1931 to the war torn nightmare of 1942. This is the premise of David Herter’s The Luminous Depths, which stirs together historical fiction, time travel, robots, Jewish mysticism, and the power […]
Continue ReadingWithersin, Death 1.3
Withersin Magazine wraps up its first year of publication with Death 1.3, completing a thematic series that began with Birth 1.1 and continued with Life 1.2. If their tagline is any indication, their next season of Flesh, Bone, and Dust will be just as “dark, different,” and “pleasantly sinister.” And strange. This is one weird […]
Continue ReadingFlashing Swords #10
Flashing Swords is a magazine of Heroic Adventure Fantasy. Fans of the genre should find a great deal to enjoy within the pages of issue #10. Certainly you get value for money with thirteen short stories, plus poems, art, and nonfiction. On the whole, I thought the stories were fine pulp adventures, either dark-and-grim or […]
Continue ReadingParadox, #12, Spring 2008
There are fewer stories in issue #12 of Paradox due to the presence of the longest piece the ‘zine has published yet, a novelette by David Erik Nelson. All these stories have to do with war, either between cultures or nations. Though there are a couple of settings that have become very […]
Continue ReadingDistillations: Breaking the Line
Once upon a time, it was easy for both poets and readers to know where to expect a line break. The rhythm of the meter shows it and by the rhyme you would know it. However, the previous example is an example of why this approach is less common today. It takes a great amount […]
Continue ReadingTalebones, #36, Spring 2008
In issue #36 of Talebones, “The Cankerman Shower” by Paul Melko whimsically captures the campy Bat Durston drama (and many of the sexist stereotypes) of the ’50s space westerns that we’ve grown to love. Mr. Cankerman, however, as his name implies, is rotten to the core, and yet lovable in a Han Solo sort of […]
Continue ReadingSybil’s Garage, #5, February 2008
Issue #5 of Sybil’s Garage, edited by Matthew Kressel, is an eclectic mix of multimedia works, fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, from bist-girls to phantasmagoric supermarkets. With carefully rendered black and whites, the artwork highlights themes and characters, gracing each text with well-appointed visuals. To further the artistic experience, each work suggests a “To the […]
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