Farthing Magazine #5

Review By Gareth D. Jones

Farthing - Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror is a shiny, digest size magazine that is published quarterly, and has already made an impact after the cover to issue 2 was nominated for a BSFA award. I spoke briefly to the editor Wendy Bradley at Eastercon several hours before the awards were announced. Sadly I left before that happened so as yet I don’t know whether they won.

I have to say that I enjoyed every story in issue 5. The first on offer is Christopher East’s Divining Rod and the Countess, which initially gave the impression that the two title characters were going to be some kind of super-cool superheroes. They both have special gifts – one can find anything, one can count anything. The story is much more interesting than that though. The pair basically make a living by charging money for answers, until they come across a particularly eccentric rich man who tries to make them think what else they could be doing with their talents. It’s a somewhat ironic story, with a nice touch of humour.

Transition is a dark tale by Steve Vance, dealing with a widow’s attempt to cope with her grief by literally loosing herself in her music. The awkward relationship with the friend who tries to help makes for a slightly uncomfortable but effective read.

Passing the Test by Anna Feruglio Dal Dan remained with me for a long time after I finished it. I have to say it’s the best story I’ve read this year; admittedly it’s still early in the year, but a story that powerful is going to be hard to beat. It deals with a refugee’s attempts to return to Earth from one of the colonies, a very topical subject in the UK, and the test of humanity that he is obliged to take. The man’s desperation to bring himself and his daughter to safety really involve you in the story and his struggle against the seemingly indifferent authorities grips the emotions to the end.

A.H.Jennings gives us Maggie Doll a kind of creepy adult version of Noddy Comes to Toyland. A bean toy arrives in a village populated by dolls and teddies after escaping from the liquorice men. He is tended by a giant doll, the only one able to sew and repair the other toys. It’s all a bit surreal, but the vague background that is sketched makes it a disturbing and engaging concept.

Loose Drawers is an amusing little tale by Charlie Allery, whom I think I saw in passing at Eastercon. It’s a first-person account by a tool box about what life is like in a garage and is surprisingly good at putting across a very unusual viewpoint.

Craig Wolf’s story Seeing Is expounds the moral that sometimes it’s best not to know. A young boy is offered an insight into everyone’s sordid little secrets by a mysterious eyeball. The temptation to capitalise on this for blackmail purposes is weighed against the loss of respect for everyone he knows. It’s a good ending.

David Taub provides a fun piece of space opera in The Secret of the Squick, the sorry tale of a tax collector banished to a world of jellyfish-like aliens to collect lumps of goo as their tribute. The poor man’s plight is endlessly entertaining and kept me smiling to the end.

Helen Keeble has created one of the most unusual concept I’ve come across for a long time in After the Reformation. The fact that it’s subtitled Selected Extracts probably explains why the reason behind it is a bit unclear. The story consists of interviews with various people who have, somehow, been turned into words in a book, then transformed back into people. They now live their lives as part of a sentence, bound by an innate sense to the other people that make up their book. It’s a mind-bending idea and one that I’d really like to see expanded in further works.

So, a varied selection, all entertaining in their various ways and another fine addition to the UK magazine market.