Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: February 2007
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: February 2007
I kind of intentionally put this issue off, cause I wasn't too sure about a single piece dominating an issue, especially by a writer who doesn't get my "geek on," so to speak. But this was a very good issue, with some very strong writing behind all the stories. In fact, my biggest complaint was that no women writers were represented in this issue. Oh well.
"Brain Raid"
by Alexander Jablokov
This is a fun piece. While I got a little confused with how the AI worked and why it was being hunted (okay, maybe not the why, actually, because they don’t want AI from getting too powerful and taking over, right?), but overall, this is a fun story with some nice bits of humor.
"Stone and the Librarian"
by William Browning Spencer
This story perplexes me. The writing is really good, and the ideas are sharp as knives and demand my attention. Spencer is saying a lot in this story. Yet, I trip up once the first veil is lifted from the story, and then the sudden age jump where Ed is a college student also throws me, because he goes back to the same Nurse for his meds. Yet, if he’s in college, wouldn’t he be in charge of his own meds? I couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t switching them out after all, that he just thought he was. And the end, he finally weaned himself off with whole starvation thing and not going to class, and well, we’re back at the beginning’s reality.
I don’t trust this story. I think the multiple veils are intentional, that maybe Spencer is trying to imitate the manipulation of literature (which would make sense), but yet the logic doesn’t quite follow from scene to scene, and I think the story is trying to deliberately confuse reality.
"The Helper and His Hero, Part I"
by Matthew Hughes
No, this introduction wasn’t talking directly to me AT ALL, was it? Ha! Maybe not intentionally, but the intro addresses some of the many problems I’ve had with Hughes’ short stories, and that was kind of nice to notice.
Part 1 is well done. As always, Hughes has a clean writing style, but this story seemed to stand on its own two feet. I’m not sure if that’s TRULY the case (someone who’s read this but not Hughes’ previous work is better equipped to answer that for me) or if it’s because I’m familiar with Bandar’s past adventures. Either way, the tale is taking a direction I didn’t expect, so I’m enjoying it quite a bit, and finding myself wrapped up in the action. Yay for references to Beowulf! But to be picky, I’ve never been fond of Hughes’ choice of names, and this story in particular seems to have some confusing ones, especially when two characters are revealed to be undercover. Oh well. Looking forward to the final installment of this, because I’m really curious to see where Harkless’ and Bandar’s destiny lies…
"Red Card"
by S.L. Gilbow
Oooh, this is a great story (Gilbow's first published too!). I suspected there’d be some kind of double-cross at the end, and I was partially right. I love this premise where murder is legal as long as you have a red card to do it, and how some people save them up. Powerful ending, and a very powerful beginning. There’s just a little bit of ambiguity there with who she’ll shoot next, but really, I think I know who her target is. And it’s a kind of poetic justice too.
"Fool"
by John Morressy
Interesting piece. I don’t think I’ve read a Morressy work in the first person, and he handles the voice well. I suppose the irony of the piece is that this man who is a fool is truly a monster as his appearance suggests, yet he’s smart enough to never let it show. The story is haunting, definitely, though for my tastes, a little incomplete. I didn’t necessarily want to see the fool punished or discovered, but I wanted to see what would drive him to use his third and final malediction. I also felt like a climax was averted in this piece, though overall, I really enjoyed it.
While the writing was excellent in all these stories, I give this issue a 4/5, which surprises me, cause it was Hughes' story I expected to bother me, but that wasn't the case. I think the major star of this issue is Gilbow's debut, "Red Card." It's an excellent little story, and one I'll be happy to read again.
Next up: Inventing Memory by Anne Harris