Reviews
A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects by Catherynne M. Valente
Catherynne M. Valente’s A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects from Norilana Books collects about two dozen poems, most of them previously published in various print and online venues. The poems largely draw from mythology and fairy tales. Interspersed among them are very short prose pieces, each labeled as being a particular tale […]
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 ReadingFrom the Podosphere: April 2008
The highlight of April’s podcast short fiction must be the long-awaited launch of PodCastle, the latest offering from Escape Artists, bringing their output up to three podcasts and completing the main genres of speculative fiction: SF, horror, and now fantasy. I was privileged to narrate PodCastle’s inaugural story myself, Peter S. Beagle’s “Come Lady Death” […]
Continue ReadingAberrant Dreams, April 2008
Four new stories and four new poems are offered in the current online issue of Aberrant Dreams, updated mid-April. Additional new material includes a review by Ernest G. Saylor of The Prefect, a novel by Alastair Reynolds, and a “Myles Cabot Presents” interview with Michael Swanwick, author of the Nebula award-winning novel, Stations of the […]
Continue ReadingThe Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories by John Kessel
Invest. Invest now. As John Kessel reveals through the multiplicity of hard satirical gifts borne in his latest collection, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, odds are that you will become a hapless down-and-outer if you don’t—or perhaps, even if you do. Tomorrow may be a bitter pill to swallow—a descent into […]
Continue ReadingStrange 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 ReadingThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2008
P.E.Cunningham’s “Monkey See” in the June, 2008, Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a lighthearted heroic fantasy tale, complete with wizards, magic, and of course, a talking sword. Ji is a Zhindi warrior. Whilst investigating a potential threat to the Emperor, she arrives at an apparently abandoned village, only to find […]
Continue ReadingWords Written Backwards by Gemma Files
Gemma Files writes dirty, which in her deft hands is a good thing. She’s the author of two collections, Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, which saw her charting a similar gothic, transgendered, human/monster terrain as that explored in the work of writers like Caitlin R. Kiernan and Poppy Z. Brite. Which is […]
Continue ReadingWarrior Wisewoman, edited by Roby James
In the introduction to Warrior Wisewoman, editor Roby James explains that the anthology is meant to offer stories with strong female protagonists—not characters that could as easily be male as female, but strong women, whose gender informs their actions but does not define them. It seeks to show women protagonists who are both strong and […]
Continue ReadingAndromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #34
With its determinedly pulpy focus on humorous science fiction, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine isn’t going to be mistaken for Granta very often. But that’s okay—sometimes one prefers a beer to a Bordeaux.
There are always a few stories in ASIM that are serious in tone, so each issue has more in the way of […]
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