Hub #8–12

In a world so polluted that the ocean and sky have turned colors you don’t usually see outside of a sixty-four count crayon box, Matthew is…

“One in a Million,” which happens to also be the title of the story in Hub #8.

He’s also special.

And, he’s different from everyone else.

The problem is, when author Kate Kelly spends so much ink (okay, electrons) building up the mystery of Matthew’s uniqueness, I’m not left with much of a story when I figure out the mystery before the first section break. Instead of a mystery, it’s now just a couple of conversations taken from a life. Granted, the life is very different from mine (I have dreams that resemble it, but we won’t go there), but it’s still just moments from a life. They’re well written moments, but it’s just not my cup o’ chai.

And now, excuse us for a moment while this reviewer channels the undead.

Hi. I’m a creepy ghost. You can tell because I’m a child, and because my author, Barry J. House, does a very good job of describing how creepy I am. He even picked a great title for my story in issue #9: “The Boy at the Gate.” Isn’t that great? It’s just chock full of the kind of dark foreboding that you want in a good ghost story title. He does such a good job of setting everything up and laying on the atmosphere that, really, I only have one tiny complaint:

Can I do something?

Please?

Anything?

I’m not picky. I mean, sure, I get to glare from the foot of the protagonist’s bed, but that’s not really doing something. When do I get to fling books or candelabras around? How about I open portals and suck people into them? Possession could be fun. I could possess people. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the fact that my author gets across the message of “Lord of the Flies” in a short is great, but he did such a great job setting up the ghost story, setting up me, that, well…I just want to matter.

Your reviewer is now back with the story from issue #10, Mur Lafferty’s “I Look Forward to Remembering You.” It’s a well thought out demonstration of the butterfly effect with a time whore. Yes, you read that right:

Time whore.

As the kids with their newfangled text/phone contraptions might get charged five cents a letter for sending while being rude to their teachers and trampling my front lawn, “O M G!!!!!1!” What’s not to love?

If you aren’t familiar with the butterfly effect, it’s the idea that small changes in one time or place—say a butterfly flapping its wings in Japan—can cause big changes somewhere/when else—say creating a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. A time escort, as the name suggests, is someone paid to go back in time and give you a… really good time. So, when Mrs. Susan Apple hires Kevin to go back in time to make certain she doesn’t die without having had a… good time, the effects are a bit more than she bargained for. It’s well written, well thought out, touching, amusing, and….

Wait, what are you still reading this for? Go. Run. Get it. Read it. Now. The rest of the review can wait.

[Editor’s note: This story was also produced as an audio podcast in Escape Pod, 6 July 2006.]

In a world shattered by wild magic, Cole must risk loosing everything he holds dear to save Taine, a friend with whom he shares a magical connection. Jessica Reisman’s “The Blue Parallel” in issue #11 contains one of the better fantasy settings that I have read of late. That she is able to get that much depth out of the setting in a short, and do so without bogging the story down, is impressive. I’m not as wild about Cole, our protagonist, but only because I always find it hard to sympathize with characters who love the boring familiarity of home over the exciting mysteries of the wider world. The rest of the characters serve the story admirably, and I even warmed up to Cole after a while. All in all, it’s worth checking out, and I know I’m going to be keeping an eye open for future works in this world.

Cats are fuzzy and cute. Yup. They are also insane killing machines. It’s contradictions like this that keep the world fun.

So, what does that have to do with issue #12’s “Man for a Moment” by Jeff Crook? Well, the story is about a cat, a leopard named Thomas. Well, he’s sort of a leopard, but saying any more would be telling. Let’s just say that not all is as it appears at the lion taming act where Thomas bides his time, and since Thomas seems to be ignoring the “cats are cute” angle in favor of “insane killing machine,” things are going to get messy. “Man for a Moment” is an ugly, visceral little story, and as such, it works very well. It’s probably not what I’d pick for a little light reading in the bubble bath (were I ever to take one), but for a bit of vicarious release after a rough day at the office, it should hit the spot.

As an aside, I do admit to wondering whether lion acts have someone on staff whose job it is to… groom…the un-neutered male cats, as they do in the story. A quick Google search was… enlightening… but unproductive. While the idea of calling around to various lion taming acts to ask seems amusing right now, I probably have more important things I should be doing.