City Slab #12

The twelfth issue of City Slab opens with “Woman in the Dark” by Tom Piccirilli, a visceral piece of dark urban fiction that skirts a supernatural edge while handing out a well-told tale of redemption. Collie ends up saving a prostitute from a very bad beating. Upon reaching safety, he discovers he knows her, or knew her, that they went to high school prom together and once were very serious. Having no one now, he’ll do anything to protect her, not knowing why, not caring what it might cost him.

This moody short story is an indispensable example of urban fantasy that fits the bill of City Slab’s “tales of the grotesque.” It’s action-heavy, intelligent, engaging, and darker than the cover girl’s naughty getup. Now, while one might call many of the stories printed within this magazine’s pages, hmm, bleak, they are not without their glimpses of humor, such as Collie battling off his girl’s pimp in the nude with nothing but his fists. A good piece, even if the ending is a little unclear. It hints at the possibly of reincarnation, questions the pros and cons, and lets the reader make their own guesses.

“Dirty Money” by S.E. Ward is the sort of story that many publications almost explicitly ask not to receive from aspiring writers. It is crude, unnecessarily violent, brimming with events that seem to only exist for pure shock value, and led by an unlikable, depressing protagonist. In this story’s world, a boy named Byron is given the task of finding a young girl to give to a man named Andy who, in return, will give our meek friend a girl of his own. They cut them, they punch them, they call them bitches, and so on. You know, gentlemen worth working for.

Ward’s prose is short and stunted, very stream of conscious, which left the piece feeling ungrounded. It’s one thing to follow an antihero around with hopes of reaching that one shining moment where they become lovable, but Byron is not such a character. His fate doesn’t make him a better person; in fact, he just trades places with an equivalent. So, if this is edgy fiction meant to grab and entertain for a few minutes, it has succeeded somewhat. Otherwise, “Dirty Money” is not recommended unless you have a history of enjoying being berated.

“Seen Through Flame” by Gary McMahon is all about insanity. Rather, it is the journey of one man, mildly named Jones, into a world of madness. While out cruising in his “road-weary Volkswagen,” Jones finds himself drawn to an old footbridge and the graffiti on the walls. Stick figures, crude and alien, hypnotically dancing like beasts over a kill, and the image never leaves his mind. Jones really begins to worry when he starts seeing the figures elsewhere.

There’s some lovely images here. The story manages to give off a folklore vibe without succumbing to the cultural clichés. For a short story featuring no dialogue, the pace never slows down. McMahon gives City Slab readers a fine, genuine fantasy world filled with haunting and disturbing details, both small and not. The ending is nothing surprising but detracts little from the overall experience.

Ito’s life is falling apart in “Obake” by Nicole Nance. It’s been doing so for twenty-one years, as our leading man ponders fretfully as he’s called into the morgue to identify the dead body of his last child:

“Every four years death visited. Four is shi. Shi is death. Am I next?”

To find answers, he must seek out a powerful shaman, the azusa miko. Nance’s story, at first, appears to be a run-of-the-mill take on the Man Who’s Lost Everything plot. It’s the sort of convention that allows characters to be pushed to their limits because, really, there is nothing left for them to lose. Such is Ito—and yet, he is so much more. His interactions with the spirits are quite imaginative, and the piece on whole is flavorful and entertaining.

This issue has a strong theme of redemption, and despite one short story missing the mark, it succeeds. It also has a brief interview with horror luminary Peter Straub that is worth checking out.