New Reviews

Apex Magazine, August 2009

Eugie Foster’s stunning novelette, “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” [originally published in Interzone] is the highlight of Apex Magazine’s August 2009 issue. Each day, the nameless narrator dons a different, exquisitely crafted mask and takes on a persona tied to that mask, complete with unique life circumstances. All of the [...]

Abyss & Apex: Second Quarter 2009, Issue 30

In “Dancing for the Monsoon” by Aliette de Bodard, the chosen women perform to entice the gods to bring rain, then suffer paralysis. Nampeng couldn’t go through with it and has redeemed herself by training Khean to take her place and save the suffering people from drought. It didn’t make sense to me that the [...]

Analog, May 2009

Adam-Troy Casto opens this issue of Analog with “Among The Tchi”. It’s not as successful as his “Gunfight on Farside” in the previous issue, but not many stories are. It’s still an intruiging novelette that will remind many readers of the type of archly decadent tales that Mathew Hughes excels at writing. Castro’s human characters [...]

Warrior Wisewoman 2

This is the second volume of the Warrior Wisewoman anthologies, billed as “stories about powerful and remarkable women.” Not all the woman here are powerful, not all of them are even truly remarkable – but the anthology certainly delivers a variety of solid, clear stories revolving around women, and that’s pretty interesting on its own. In [...]

Jupiter XXIV: Iocaste, April 2009

Issue 24 of Ian Redman’s science fiction magazine Jupiter begins with “Black Water” by David Conyers. In a future Africa starved of water, Joseph Nuwangi bluffs his way into a wealthy corporation with the intention of stealing some of the pure Grade A stuff. The corporation has dire punishments in store for anyone found to [...]

Strange Horizons, March 2009

Earlier this year I immersed myself in online fiction through the annual storySouth Million Writers Award, which it’s my joy to run. The great thing about the award is it’s a fun way to keep up with online fiction trends—and the biggest trend this year was how the number of quality online short fiction venues [...]

The Yellow Room #2

Edited by Joe Derrick (formerly Jo Good of ‘QWF’ fame – good to see you back in action, Jo!), The Yellow Room comes in A5 format and comprises a generous 11 short stories, guidelines for the autumn short story competition (£4 entry fee for a story less than 2,500 words or £10 for [...]

Supernatural Tales #14, Winter 2008/09

Always the source of excellent fiction, issue #14 of Supernatural Tales, David Longhorn’s brainchild, is more captivating than ever, thanks also to the inclusion of a couple of stories which will last long in the readers’ memory as outstanding examples of what the genre, at its best, can produce. First of all let me give inconditionate [...]

Clarkesworld Magazine, #32, May 2009

Clarkesworld Magazine has delivered its most dream-like issue with its May offering. Its two stories eschew conventional narrative strategies in favor of world-building, setting and poetic experimentation. Neither completely succeeds in my view, but they’re both rewarding and challenging reads, and more memorable than many other stories out there. The fact that Clarkesworld continues to find [...]

New Articles

• From the Podosphere: April 2009

  After a year of reviewing all the Escape Artists stories for The Fix Online, this month From the Podosphere will ring the changes and not cover anything from Escape Pod, Pseudopod or PodCastle. I've nothing against the undoubted leader in podcast short fiction, but editorial suggestions have been made about casting the net wider, which I'm happy to do. (more...) #

• Rocket Science: 1966 – 1967

  1966: Tricon, Cleveland, Ohio Short Fiction: "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison Next time you find yourself running late, consider yourself lucky to be living anywhere but in the society Harlan Ellison imagines here. The society is so obsessed with keeping it all running that, to prevent anyone from slowing things down, the government keeps track of all the time a person is late in life, and they'll subtract that time from the end of your life. If that sounds at all familiar to you... well, that's the point. (more...) #

• Flickers on the Wall: The Roots of the Next SF Animated Features

  Big stars, big talent, and even more important for Hollywood, big money are transforming independent shorts into wham-bam features.  Nothing too surprising there.  Many filmmakers construct their short films as calling calls, pitches for paying gigs, and structure those shorts to be the best bits of bigger works, or small segments of them.  But that's mainly live action shorts, which serve little other purpose, only seeing the light of day-or the gloom of a theater-in under-attended fest screenings and within the ignobility of YouTube.  Animated shorts, however, are accepted as works on their own, not just a way to bigger things. (more...) #