Farrago’s Wainscot, Part 7: Echoes

Farrago’s Wainscot offers six loosely themed stories, told in a variety of literary styles, of which two are very weird and left me with questions.
“An Apotheosis” by Forrest Aguirre gives voice to Laurence, a grief-stricken warrior disciple of Rocco Bonetti. Laurence recounts the murder of his maestro during an unfair duel with the two […]

Clarkesworld Magazine, #22, July 2008

The first story in issue #22 of Clarkesworld Magazine, “When the Gentlemen Go By” by Margaret Ronald, is rooted in the classic tradition of dark fairy tales before the Disneyfication that occurred in the 20th century. It has all the time-tested elements: deep, personal, dark, and disturbing, while providing a small ray of hope […]

Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad, edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail et al.

Just Plain Bad is the second installment of the Bad Ass Fairies collection edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Lee Hillman, and Jeff Lyman and published by Marrietta Publishing. The theme of the Bad Ass Fairies anthologies is nothing but fairies, in all forms and walks of life. I understand that the editors plan […]

Challenging Destiny #25

Our first story in issue #25 of Challenging Destiny is Suzette Haden Elgin’s “Death and Taxes.” Bill loves his StarSpangly motor home. It is the perfect confluence of convenience and freedom, and it sure beats the alternative: a cramped and dingy room in an orbiting retirement home. The problem is, the StarSpangly isn’t his. The […]

Electric Velocipede #14

Electric Velocipede #14, in acknowledgement of WisCon, the leading feminist-oriented SF/F convention, is a special issue featuring all women writers.
The first offering is “Hermit Crabs” by Elissa Malcohn. Fifteen-year-old Mandy is a bright student yet unpopular. Mandy is a cutter, finding relief from her pain with a razor blade. She meets up with Noah, […]

Celebration, edited by Ian Whates

Ian Whates is rapidly becoming one of the major British anthologists, having made his debut barely two years ago, and this year he has two new collections of original stories coming out. One of them, Celebration is published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the British Science Fiction Association. Seventeen stories by many of […]

PS Showcase #3: Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal by Robert T. Jeschonek

In his introduction, Mike Resnick sets the tone for PS Showcase #3: Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal by comparing author Robert T. Jaschonek to R. A. Lafferty, “possessor of the most unique and idiosyncratic voice of his era.” For Resnick, Lafferty and Jeschonek are much alike “because nobody sees the world quite the way Robert […]

From the Podosphere: June 2008

Recently this column has dealt mostly with podcasts from Escape Artists, Inc (and is likely to continue to do so), but it’s useful to see what’s happening elsewhere in the field of podcast short fiction.

Rick Stringer’s Variant Frequencies releases a story once a month, and this month’s is “Grounders” by Jonathan McGoran, read by Thomas […]

Distillations: Repeating Forms

The act of repetition is one of the paradoxes of poetry. In the confined world of a poem, what is the use of redundancy? However wasteful it may seem, there are many poetry forms built around obligatory patterns of repetition. In this column, we will explore two rather different forms, the villanelle and the triolet, […]

Aeon #14

The fourteenth issue of Aeon kicks off with “The March Wind” by Davin Ireland. In this story, the Earth is at war with nameless, hostile aliens who have forced the human population into a continuous curfew. In the destroyed shambles of the modern world, suicide has become a fact of everyday life. Vic lives […]