Reviews
Psychological Methods to Sell Should Be Destroyed: Stories by Robert Freeman Wexler
“They are genuine artistic gems,” Zoran Živković comments in his introduction to Psychological Methods to Sell Should Be Destroyed: Stories by Robert Freeman Wexler. With a wink and nod for Wexler’s anti-conglomerate marketing themes, Methods’ innovative fiction pushes physical boundaries, speaks to bread, belays jungle walls, listens to disembodied sages, and escapes anti-utopias. If this […]
Continue ReadingDark Distortions: Volume 1, edited by Molly Feese and C.D. Allen
An impressively heavy volume, Dark Distortions, edited by Molly Feese and C.D. Allen, is the premiere title from Scotopia Press, designed to be a compendium of dark creative work from poetry to novellas.
First up is “Last Word” by Daniel L. Naden, an “Interview with a Ghost” tale about a reporter who finds a bit […]
Audiobook Fix: The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft is an author that I didn’t read when I was young. I’m not sure why, because I treasured a Poe collection I owned, and I liked Stephen King quite a bit. I was no stranger to horror. Whatever the reason, I didn’t pick up a Lovecraft collection until I was out […]
Continue ReadingThe Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Sixteen Original Works by Speculative Fiction’s Finest Voices indeed contains some fine stories by some of the finest voices in speculative fiction. Before discussing the content, however, allow me to air a concern about the title, which in no way reflects upon my opinion of the […]
Continue ReadingRealms 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 […]
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