Contents:

• The Art Of War / David Ryan
• Duchess Street / Kurt Kirchmeier / Frankie Wallington
• With A Whimper With A Bang / D.M. Moehrle / Paul O’Connell
• Super-size Security / A.R. Yngve
• The Dark Gospel, Part One, Tin-Man / Luke Cooper
• Yellow Warbler / Jason Sizemore / Michael Lomon
• Bernadette And The Sirens / Hannah Davey / Martin Deep
• The Litter / Katherine Patterson / James Fletcher
• Death And The Maiden, Part Two / Richard Calder
• Venus And The Birth Of Zephyrus / Sarah Wagner / Mark Bell
• The Last Flight / Silvanus Moxley
• SPOIL, Part One / Stan Nicholls / Edward R. Norden
• Hair Of The Dog / Edward Morris / Timothy Shepherd
• Firewallburn / Dave Ryan / Dennis Hopeless
• Phantom Payment / Willie Meikle / Ricky Martin
• Poppets / Mike Driver / Mark Bell
• Church Of Saturn / Alex Wilson

Lavishly packaged and sexily shiny, issue two of Murky Depths bleeds production quality. A splendid front and back cover image of a female figure in a flowing red dress, accompanied by a tripe-headed hound, in a fog enshrouded forest, leaps off the page and bites your head off (in a good way). The cover artwork is drawn in a style which is semi realistic, as opposed to a ‘cartoon’ style, and fits in well with Murky Depths‘ imagery. As well as concentrating on prose and artwork, the outward image of the magazine is being well thought about. A definite eye-grabber.

The Art Of War, written and drawn by David Ryan is a short graphic strip which shows a drawing artist initiating a ‘giving the soul away’ scenario. The artwork is great, suitably dark, portraying a gloomy room, setting the scene perfectly. The reason this doesn’t quite work is that the end plate shows a surprise ending, and should have preferably been on a new ‘turn of the page’, so the finale is seen straight away. As it is, it appears at the bottom of the last page of the two page strip - which spoils the effect somewhat.

Even so, it’s a nice little piece which still retains the suprise factor, even if dumbed down.

Duchess Street, written by Kurt Kirchmeier and arted by Frankie Wallington has a dead prostitute (a recurring theme in Murky Depths) release her inner demons. There are two possible targets for her released demons, and the resultant target makes it a nice revenge story. She also reflects on her life, which makes the story all the more interesting; she makes a decision on what she is to do next. The associated artwork is a bit vague, but for some reason, I kept going back to it; simple, yet lookable.

With A Whimper, With A Bang, written by D.M. Moehrle, with associated art by Paul O’Connell is about politicians getting the upper hand against each (what’s new, eh?), instead this time, it’s set off-Earth. It didn’t particularly grab me in any way and seemed out of place in Murky Depths. The focus of the story wasn’t interesting, but it would be nice to see what was happening at a wide-angle, as it hinted of a much larger story.

The artwork is a busy collage, the centre of which is a Chinese leader, while surrounded by Chinese people smiling and applauding. Inset there’s a picture of a toddler in a space helmet, and an older girl in a space helmet, with a cat and dog also in a space helmet. Nicely drawn, and shows a side of the story which isn’t mentioned in the prose itself. Really great.

Super-size Security, written and drawn by A.R. Yngve is set in an unsual prison. A new inmate enters the prison, and worries about being ‘new meat’. It’s a plausable story which, to be honest, is another example of a story which could be true in the future. Laws and laws aren’t they? And laws can be changed.

The artwork is simple and looks uncannily like a slightly altered picture of Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman in Heroes). Anyway, it’s quite striking, and sets the scene nicely.

The Dark Gospel, Part One, Tin-Man, written and drawn by Luke Cooper. This is a full on graphic strip, nine pages long, and drawn in Luke’s effective layered style. With a great opening, it’s almost like the opening to a film. A quick shock, or hook, to grab the reader’s attention, then into the intro credits. As this is part one, it will be a serial of an unknown number of episodes. It’s nine pages long, so is the longest piece in this issue of Murky Depths, and this gives it breathing space. Danny Goulding is a hard ass detective who pefers to take on ’strange’ cases - hence his nickname down the precinct, Ghoul. He’s on the trail of a book which was stolen from the scene of a priest’s murder. He has a couple of unusual friends to help him find clues and leads. For instance, Holly a psychic girl with…. wings.

There’s a couple of nice twists during the episode and along with the dirty, dark art and character dialogue, makes for a powerful viewing.

Yellow Warbler, written by Jason Sizemore, with complementary artwork by Michael Lomon. The pencil, cross hatched artwork shows a figure on a cross, outside a church, with people (seems to be mainly children) watching from a distance (and pointing etc). Sitting behind a tree, is an older figure of a man. Beautifully drawn, it evokes a sense of people not quite sure what’s going on, and kind of being half interested. Seeing the artwork and the name of the story made me wonder what on earth the story could be about.

The story is set in a post-apocalyptic, yet idyllic town. Trouble starts when a ‘Shadow’ enters town. The minister encounters a crisis of faith, both from himself and from the towns people. The yellow warbler is cleverly introduced into the story, and because it’s not a main part, makes it all the more memorable. The ending itself is grotesque, which makes it all the more effective because the rest of the story is quite peaceful.

Bernadette And The Sirens, written by Hannah Davey, with artwork by Martin Deep is one of my favourites in this issue of Murky Depths. It’s set in a rural lanscape, rather similar to the previous story, only this time, they are surrounded by howling winds brought on by (apparently) the dieing of the sun. The pencil sketched artwork shows a ballet dancer twirling ribbons while in the thoes of a dance, and visualises the story well. The prose shows the immediate setting of the story well, and to me it conjoured up images of a fairy tale, which, on the face of it, seems simple, but when looked at deeper, has a moral, or at least an apparent proverbial meaning.

Back to straight, in your face, horror with The Litter. Written by Katherine Patterson A family arrives at a farm to adopt some animals after seeing a local advert. This is the kind of story which works so well because of what isn’t said in the prose. Although, after reading, it leaves some questions. Why doesn’t anyone notice people going missing? to name but one. Still, a great read, with a neat twist at the end. James Fletcher does the story justice with his dark artwork, which reminded me of Tales From The Crypt even if it does give the story away too soon.

Death And The Maiden, Part Two written and drawn by Richard Calder. OK, Calder’s work isn’t my favourite, he’s not even in my top five hundred of either artists or writers, nevertheless I always look at Calder’s work with no prejudice.

So - a boring walkthrough by a scantily clad female. Some dialogue which doesn’t make sense. Too much empty space in some of the panels. Some panels seem to not even have a real meaning and could have been chopped out without losing the continuity. The background of the interior seems to be in a different style compared to the character graphics. Having said that, Calder does well in the artwork with moving vehicles and the naked girl (particularly her breasts).

It needs to speed-up or at least get to the point. Next.

Venus And The Birth Of Zephyrus, written by Sarah Wagner with artwork by Mark Bell. A story of a security unit, which is part of a security system, covering an area of a city. It seems to show this unit gaining consciousness (or at least artificial intelligence) and self awareness. The catalyst for this is something or someone called Venus. Very vague as to be infuriating. I liked the way the unit knows it exists, and yet it carrys on, in part, as it did before it gained consciousness, thereby hiding from the powers that be. The artwork is a simple picture of the top half of a woman, with ‘computer’ writing below, which seems to indicate that this is the security unit… a bit obscure, but a nice piece of art in a stand alone context.

The first bit of poetry is The Last Flight composed by Silvanus Moxley. A readable bit of poetry about pirates and vampires, set in space. A nice read, which had me half laughing when I’d finished.

SPOIL, Part One written by Stan Nicholls with artwork by Edward R. Norden. The first part of a serial, it sets the scene well. There’s a virus going around, and it infects people who are religious, which ultimately kills. The scientific community are struggling to find a cure, or indeed, a method to how it infects. The religious community are worried about it, yet on the flipside, they are taking advantage of it.

It was originally written in 1993 and makes reference to AIDS. At the time there was crap in the news about it being a punishment from God; SPOIL is the opposite. Nicely written, with many viewpoints and characters. The associated artwork is sketchily drawn, and shows one of the main scenes of the story. Looking forward to the second installent.

Hair Of The Dog, written by Edward Morris, drawn by Timothy Shepherd, is an atmospheric story of life on the street. Morris manages to bring alive the sights, sounds and smells at ground level. Not a nice picture, especially as this is set around Christmas. A story with a lonely feeling, which has a supernatural twist at the end. The ending was neither here nor there (though it manages to change the whole context of the story), but the descriptive qualities of the text are second to none. The artwork is a great addition to the story, again evoking images of urchins on the street.

Firewallburn, written by Dave Ryan and arted by Dennis Hopeless is a strange and confusing story. I really couldn’t make out what was going on. Some kind of ‘person’ makes a journey back to see his dad, talking about Promethius and ‘FIRE!’ and such incomprehensive jibberings. As for the title of the story - no idea. Normally I wouldn’t want to second guess a story, but I’m guessing this has to do with some ancient story, set in a modern environment.

The artwork is great, a kind of dotted and mottled effect, with the use of shading giving it a shiny aspect. The last panel is an unexpected image on its own, and due to the haphazard story, makes it a totally hilarious ending, in so much as someone getting machine gunned apart is funny.

Phantom Payment, written by Willie Meikle, with artwork by Ricky Martin is one of the most readable stories in issue 2. A poor bank worker finds himself trapped in a bank’s ATM network, communicating through the audit logs. The entity inadvertently causes problems (core dumps - oh you love ‘em if you’re a ‘nix administrator) and therefore an engineer is brought in to fix the problems.

A tale of lost love in the extreme, which is made all the more dark by the way it ends - it’s a love story which ends on a high note. Loved the thick lined, scribbly, artwork.

Poppets, written by Mike Driver, with art by Mark Bell was, along with the previous story, one of the best and most memorable of this issue. A tale of someone who is constantly scared, who tries to find a meaning in things which have happened to him and to people in his life. What made this story readable was that much of the scene setting is probably real, and happening right now. Pause for thought.

Towards the end it delves into black magic, which seems almost like a cop out, but then it resurrects itself with an unexpected finale.

The clean artwork didn’t really seem to be based on the story so much. But was nice all the same.

Church Of Saturn composed by Alex Wilson is a small piece of poetry (or maybe it’s flash fiction?) which was brilliantly written, and had such a spot on ending, it makes me nearly puke in disgust at attributes which are built into the human race.

So - Issue 2. Again, it looks lovely and shiny. Some of the artwork was a bit redundant, in that either it didn’t go with the story, or it was an eye sore. Most of it through is well drawn and thus very effective. Again, a mish mash stories which range from excellent, to a bit… confused. But seeing as this is issue 2, it is still a fetus of a magazine, barely out of the starting gate, and it is not bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Overall, it shows that Murky Depths are still gunning for the top place in the prose/artwork magazine market place.

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Murky Depths: Issue Three / Review
“The Quarterly Anthology Of Graphically Dark Speculative Fiction”

Contents: Title / Author / Artist

• What’s Yours Is Mine / Pike Stephenson / Dylan Williams
• Evention / Mike Webster / Lucas Hinchley
• The Suicide Bar / Montilee Stormer /Jag Lall & Denis Pacher
• Nine-tenths Of The Law / Edward Morris / Wayne Blackhurst
• In This the Era of the Great Wilting / Jeffrey Archer-Burton / Jason Beam
• Death and the Maiden 3 / Richard Calder / Richard Calder
• Shit New World / Martin Hayes / James Cameron
• Maimed / Hazel Marcus Ong / Glen James
• SPOIL / Stan Nicholls / Johnny Lee
• The Dark Gospel 2 / Luke Cooper / Luke Cooper
• Speak Ill Of The Dead / Ian Faulkner / Mark Bell
• Zombie Diva / Glynn Barrass / Lucas Hinchley
• The Love Ship Guide to Seduction in Zero Gravity / Steve Pirie / Denis Pacher

Non Fiction:

• Sprawl and Brawl: Five Reasons Why Cyberpunk Sustains (Article) / Matt Wallace
• An Interview with Stan Nicholls

Half the fun of reading magazines from their beginning is seeing them evolve as the publisher gets feedback and ideas from people who have read it. Murky Depths is no exception.

It has kept its half size, glossy style, is a whopping 84 pages, and contains no less than nine stories, three graphic strips, three non-fiction articles and one passage of poetry. It continues its ‘Mature Content’, so lets hope it’s scary enough to warrant a trip to the underwear draw.

The front cover is drawn by Richard Calder for his graphic strip Death And The Maiden. Comprising of an image of a woman/girl, under a street lamp, on a street corner, in a pose which shows her knickers, you’ll either love it or hate it. Guess what - I hate it. Maybe it was done to be controversial - or to be an eye grabber. But how many comic stores (or books shops, news outlets etc) would put a publication with that kind of front cover on view? (I’m asking the question, I really don’t know, would they?). The artwork didn’t grab me, and it didn’t make me want to go back and look again. I actually liked the colour change of the MD logo, red and yellow made it stand out.

The first story up is actually a QA interview with Stan Nicholls, who is the author of one of the stories, SPOIL. It’s an interesting and honest interview, which I wasn’t one bit interested in, as I haven’t heard of him before. It will, nevertheless, make me keep an eye out for his work in future.

What’s Yours Is Mine, written by Pike Stephenson with art by Dylan Williams. The latter is ‘ok’, has depth, but lacks clarity and detail. Maybe the original looked more distinct, but on paper, it looks muddy.

The story is about a generic bad guy who has recently finished off some people in a most bloody way during a game of cards, and has legged it with the money, hoping to reach the border without being caught. Low and behold, he and his bike crash in a forest, in the middle of nowhere. Queue weird noises, flashlights and a bit of swearing. He’s pursued by the weird noises, which turn out to be a grotesque creature. The prose builds the anxiety quite well, but as this guy is a bad guy anyway, I wasn’t bothered if he escaped or not. The creature is described well, but it’s not explained what the creature is or where it came from. I read into it that it was a pet, rather like someone’s dog, which had gotten loose. Pretty atmospheric, and the ending has a neat twist which is, to be honest, sick.

The first graphic strip of this issue is Evention, written by Mike Webster and arted by Lucas Hinchley. This seems to fit perfectly into the ‘meaning’ of Murky Depths. Dark, unnerving, slightly chaotic, has some bare breasts, bare behind, bare bits, gun fighting and a girl who is scared.

The poem compliments the artwork and visa versa, which made me jump back and forth between the writing and the artwork. The artwork, even though quite physically dark, emphasises parts of the female, and increases the hit of the accompanying poem. It’s almost like what the artwork doesn’t show, the text does, and what the text doesn’t tell, the artwork does. A great example of the two working in harmony.

The Suicide Bar written by Montilee Stormer, and drawn by Jag Lall & Denis Pacher is another story which could have had a slightly different name so as not to give too much away prior to reading. The artwork suffices and sets the scene somewhat too much upfront. The artwork style, along with the story, reminded me a bit of 2000AD’s Future Shocks. Short, sharp and to the point.

A guy turns up in a bar, orders a nice mix of poison, and then, well, you guess. Its immediacy means it sets itself up nicely - showing a world where certain things can not only be bought, but signed and contractually sealed. It’s part horror, part SF. It’s depressing, dark and very believable.

Nine-tenths Of The Law written by Edward Morris and drawn by Wayne Blackhurst. This is a really strong piece of prose. Even though possession has been done to death, the way this tale flows is second to none, and the ideas are great, and I loved the characters. A great world build of a dangerous place, populated by believable characters. Sometimes it’s difficult to put your finger on exactly what makes a good read, but this certainly has it.

The accompanying artwork is ok. Although I’m not sure I like the style, the focus and perspective made me want to yank the ‘camera’ away from the subject and see what else was going on.

In This the Era of the Great Wilting written by Jeffrey Archer-Burton with artwork by Jason Beam is my favourite in this issue. The two page spread into artwork is amazing. Rather than being ‘comic strip’ quality, this kind of photo quality. A real woman with real emotions, gazing up into nowhere. Viewed through a smashed window, we see her holding a rose, the petals aflow in a breeeze, her hair caught in the upbreeze, with her arm resting on something. She looks at peace, but you can tell something devastating has happened. Utterly evocative and atmospheric.

The story is a post-apocalyptic narrative centering on a lonely woman. The human race has mysteriously died out. Mummified bodies are all over the place. She is lonely. Until she meets another living human being. The story is atmospheric and even though a lot if explained, there is no info dump, all explanations being done in memories, until the very end. Loved it.

I’m glad Death and the Maiden 3 written and arted by Richard Calder is, from episode 4, moving to its own self contained comic, released through The House Of Murky Depths. I still haven’t been hooked onto it and personally, I think it’s a waste of space in Murky Depths. Again, this episode suffers from not being able to grow enough due to lack of space. A nice touch was the hyper skirt - which I won’t explain so I don’t spoil it, but.. they’re interesting.

The artwork is still pretty much the same; it looks indistinct, probably suffering from being shrunk down from its original size. I did like the way he drew the females in it, and some of the ‘action’ artwork is great - a flying kick for example. Haphazard story line, not really any character building. The trouble with the strip is that I know just about the same as I did when I started reading it. Zero. And it’s not dark, it’s not gloomy, it’s not scary, it’s not even sensual and it’s not SF, it’s just.. there.

Shit New World written by Martin Hayes with artwork from James Cameron, is a short piece of prose which is a long rant on the state of the world in 2096. It’s really a comparison between the future possibilities as we argueably see it now - sex-bots, aliens, alien prostitues - to what it really is like in the future. The Paris Hilton Legacy Channel (all her best performances shown back to back), Horse Steaks, Shit Loads Of Vodka, working in a cubicle.

A satirical, funny piece which has ideas it could have expanded upon. And the artwork is quite simple, but suitably funny too.

Maimed written by Hazel Marcus Ong and drawn by Glen James is a surprise departure from the normal dark horror of Murky Depths. It is well and truly bedded in the fantasy genre. It seems to be a take on the Pied Piper Of Hamlet. A guy can play a flute pipe and lure pretty much anything with his tunes. A weird ending which left me wanting more. I also liked the artwork, which reminded me of (I believe) the old Fighting Fantasy book series.

SPOIL (part two of two) written by Stan Nicholls with artwork by Johnny Lee. Imagine a disease affects only true christian believers.. a story which shows this from different character perspectives. Medium paced, a neat idea, readable, but ultimately, not my kind of story. The artwork is ok and does its best to illustrate some of the tale.

The Dark Gospel (Part 2) arted and lettered by Luke Cooper. Interestingly, this has a text backstory to cover part one, which is a great idea for all stories/artwork spread over more than one issue (think LOST or Battlestar Galactica - ‘Previously on …’).

OK, so there’s a book called The Gospel According To Satan, and our detective has found it. It isn’t the nicest of reads and could cause the destruction of pretty much everything good, everything evil and the bits inbetween. Unfortunately, our detective reads from the book and finds a personal message from Mr. Evil himself, looking forward to a meeting.

The artwork is what makes the whole story so cool - it’s black and white, but manages to show so much. It’s drawn in Luke’s ‘trademark’ way of having ‘only’ two levels of depth. The foreground is sharp, focusing on the characters and action. The background is slightly blurry, which means the main focus is where it should be, on the characters. His use of motion blur (for expelled bullet cases for example) is spot on, and even the use of slight blurring for objects which are nearer to the viewer adds an subtle amount of depth. This is definately my kind of art.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the characters in The Dark Gospel are expanded upon in later installments - there will be more episodes.

Speak Ill Of The Dead is written by Ian Faulkner and drawn by Mark Bell is a zombie tale, set in the future, which involves sentient zombie terrorists. Eyecatching artwork which doesn’t spoil the story at all, and even the copied artwork from the first page is used as a background, rather than using space up on the story. A great read which isn’t your common or garden zombie fest.

Zombie Diva written by Glynn Barrass with artwork by Lucas Hinchley. This is the only prose in the issue which can be read as a poem. I’m not normally into poems so much (although, after reading Murky Depths for a few issue, it is growing on me), but this is a blinder: strong words create horrific visions. ‘Back to the roots’ Murky Depths. The artwork is on a par with the poem, dark and horrific, and just a little bit (a lot?) sick. It’s probably why they have the normal lights so low, and the flourescent lighting turned up in those strip clubs (so I’ve been told). Gruesome and horrific.

The Love Ship Guide to Seduction in Zero Gravity written by Steve Pirie with artwork by Denis Pacher is a light, easy, not scary or dark story, which is in contrast to the rest of this issue. A man in a mid-life crisis takes ‘not his wife’ to a orbital hotel hoping to make the earth move. Alas, all is not as it seems be. This is pure SF and as such I was more intune with it. The ending is unexpected, and with the prose being partly a ‘guide’, it makes for a nice read. The artwork is stylish, remeniscent of 60s Dan Dare, and isn’t half as X-rated (believe it or not) as Calder’s work, making it more enticing.

So, overall, Murky Depths is still on an even keel, there’s some artwork and prose which didn’t grab my attention, some is a waste of space, but some is exceptional. Looking forward to keeping up with its progress - bearing in mind that Murky Depths is still in its infancy, and that its aiming its sights higher than most publications of this kind would dare.

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Murky Depths: Issue One / Review
“The Quarterly Anthology Of Graphically Dark Speculative Fiction”

Contents:

• Death and the Maiden / Richard Calder
• Looking In, Looking Out / Gareth D. Jones
• Come To My Arms My Beamish Boy / Douglas Warrick
• Paston, Kentucky / Jonathan C. Gillespie
• The Other Woman / Chris Lynch
• 67442 / Paul Abbamondi
• Supply Ship / Kate Kelly
• State Your Name / Jon Courtenay Grimwood
• Empathy / Luke Cooper
• Snowblind / Marcie Lynn
• Cyberevenge Inc. / Eugie Foster
• Today Is Not / Michael Sellars
• I Bleed Light / Edward R. Norden
• The Quality of Mercy / Ron Shiflet
• Naught But Ash / Anne Stringer
• The Pattern Makers of Zanzibar / Lavie Tidhar

Although this is issue one of Murky Depths, it isn’t the first to be released; there is an issue zero promo, which we previously reviewed here.


Death and the Maiden written and drawn by Richard Calder is part one of a series. Because of this and the fact that space is limited, due to the nature of the publication, it simply doesn’t come across as anything special.


The black and white computer created artwork is predictably dark and the panels range from good (vehicular movement and weapons usage) to average (character representation and emotion) to crap (indistinct scenes, no atmosphere). The latter, I presume, is because the artwork was drawn larger and shrunk to fit on the page.


Even though the artwork is dark, Calder has failed to make it gritty enough. There’s too much blurring and simple blends, obscuring and damaging the original artwork, which go part way to make it a beginners Photoshop frenzy of effects.


This female ‘cat girl’ (prostitute? maiden?) is picked up by a punter, and then a zombie appears and kills said punter (with an impressive gun, I must say). The dialogue is boring at worst, but does have its humourous moments. And come on, isn’t a scantily clad sexy female in high heels, short skirt and thigh high leather boots just a bit cliched?


It remains to be seen if this art strip will improve - the vagueness of the story made the whole thing fail to capture my imagination.


Looking In, Looking Out written by Gareth D. Jones is an unorthodox piece, set across a double-page spread, read anti-clockwise in chunks of days. In centre there is a neat bit of art of a baby in front of a planet which reminded me in part of the film 2001.


Each day text is in the form of a report from an alien on his attempted communcation with humans on Earth. An easy read, which packs a not so obvious sad ending when it’s realised just what the alien is communicating with, and why communication ends.


The layout and presentation, and the diary form of the story makes it a compelling read; a truly memorable story.


Come To My Arms My Beamish Boy by Douglas Warrick is a strange, haphazard story of man named Cotton in the throes of Alzheimer’s. It reflects on his life while trying just a little too hard to show him believing his memories are being stolen. It has its moving moments, where Cotton can remember certain things, but not the most important - the face of Audrey. Towards the end, and quite predictably, more memories disappear in ‘real-time’, Cotton becomes more desperate, until he finally sees an image of Audrey ‘looking like an exclamation point’. Huh?


In tune with the magazine, it is dark, but doesn’t really seem to pull itself off - which could be a relection on the type of story I prefer.


Paston, Kentucky by Jonathan C. Gillespie is set in a world where metal stealing nanobots have been let loose on the world. They hoard metal into large structures, or hives, which tower high into the sky. It has some great imagery of these towers, great imagery of the nanobots taking metal from anywhere - fillings, bullets embedded in flesh.


A band of survivors, including one of the original designers, set out to shutdown the hives and nanobots for good. The story is quite short, but packs a lot into itself, and builds slowly to a tight, atmospheric, fast-paced ending.


Post-apocalyptic near its near best.


The second full graphic story is The Other Woman written and drawn by Chris Lynch. A guy buys flowers and some chocolates for his wife as it’s their anniversary. He goes to the cinema, buys two tickets, but he is alone while watching the film (which incidentally appears to be Metropolis, judging by the poster on the wall as he walks out).


He is then intercepted by someone who appears to be a doctor. The doctor explains to the man about his wife. I can’t really say more, or else it will spoil the story.


The artwork is what I would term old fashioned spare artwork; minimal line drawing, and it works beautifully. It goes to show that you don’t need effects upon effects to convey visual atmosphere. The story seems to be set (roughly) in the 40s or 50s, and this kind of artwork fits in just right. The timing of the panels for the unexpected twist in the final few panels is spot on.


The only issue I had with this is that there is no character build (again, because of the limited space), which means empathy for the characters might not be as high as it could have been.


It’s creepy, and something which might not be too far from the truth in a few years time (normal disclaimers apply).


With the shortest name, 67442 by Paul Abbamondi is also the shortest story in this issue. An apparent artificial man, identification number 67442, is stripped of exterior and personality. He gets a new identification as a teacher, ready to be inserted into society. It’s not clear why this is happening, or if this being is always 67442, or whether he’s improved with each birth. It’s clear he momentarily remembers his ‘previous life’ which, with new memories of being a teacher, he realises was wicked.


It’s quite good descriptively, but lacks a beginning - it really only contains a middle and partial end.


Supply Ship by Kate Kelly is a well written piece with a totally unexpected ending.


Set on a bleak, barren world, the inhabitants build a beacon from scrap so they can get a supply ship to pass and drop badly needed supplies. Kept to a tight budget of words, it is succinct while not being too short. Mainly though, it’s the twist-ending which makes the story. The associated artwork suffices and compliments the story.


State Your Name written by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. The world is falling apart, and the UN are evacuating people ‘with enough points’ using freighter ships. Those who don’t have enough points have to queue up at an ‘exit gate’ which sends them far into the future, past the next ice-age. It isn’t made clear whether people who have passage on the freighter ships will also end up in the same place as the people who go through the ‘exit gate’.


Two threads of story come together at the end with another unexpected ending, but because of the lack of knowledge of each parties destination, the story doesn’t quite work.


Again, the design dictates duplicate cropped artwork. The images are superficial, don’t add anything to the prose, and in this instance would have been better to have been smaller, and not reproduced throughout the story.


Empathy written and drawn by Luke Cooper is the third full graphical story. A father holds a gun to his daughters head, saying that she’s not his daughter. Three policemen hostage negotiators are on the scene. One of them, goes to talk to the father.


The artwork in this story is brilliant. Grey scale, atmospheric. It’s drawn in two layers, with the focus on the front layer, and the background blurred out to add emphasis to the focused layer. Great dialogue, hardcore swearing in just about each speech bubble, gun fire (but not over the top blood results) lends itself to Tarantino. Very moody.


Another great twist at the end. A twist in that it tells you everything up front, but only when read in the end scenes does its context change to something else. Stunning.


Snowblind / Marcie Lynn is three verses of poetry, with some effective, yet simple artwork. It seems to be an evocative piece on true love, with a splattering of weirdness. Though I’m no expert on poetry it did linger in my mind after I’d read it.


Cyberevenge Inc. by Eugie Foster has a self explanatory title. It possibly have been better with a more ambiguous name, maybe ‘Customer Service’, so as not to give too much away prior to the first read.


Anyway, it’s a head-on cyber blood-fest revenge story of a woman who, through pseudo-virtual reality and some hi-tech gadgets, takes revenge on her stalker in a physical way. Written so as not to give away that it’s done for real until the end, makes it easier to show the dismembering in more graphic detail. It is quite a powerful story.


Personally, I’m not into this kind of story, it’s been done too many times, and seems like violence for violence’s sake, and we’re not even privvy to the thinking behind the stalker. The pain, torture and death metered out by the woman is somewhat overblown based on the actions of the stalker (he doesn’t physically abuse her, he does it using superimposed pictures and swear words against her, and black marking her with her publishers). But then, what constitues physical vs psychological damage: they’re possibly the same.


A thought provoking read, with the kind of ending I like.


Today Is Not by Michael Sellars is about a mentally disturbed woman who has lost her family, and believes that she needs to find a saviour in bits of broken glass (for example a car window). She then tests the bits of broken glass on her shrink, whom she has locked down in her cellar. If they cut him, then they’re fake. If they don’t cut him, then they’re part of the magic she’s looking for.


Well written, but my attention wavered during the middle, only making up for it at the end. The complimentary artwork is atmospheric, and done in one of my favourite drawing medium. A charcoal / wet paint effect with a grainyness scratched into it.


I Bleed Light written and drawn by Edward R. Norden is the second installment of poetry, this time with a more emphasis on the art. Drawn in a ’scrappy’ way, it works well. The text is also written white on black, in what looks like a pen, in ‘real handwriting’, which comes across as suitable to the purpose. I’m no expert on poetry, but this is a nice read - again dark.


The Quality of Mercy by Ron Shiflet is smart story of someone who thinks they know better than everyone else. The artwork in this piece is very vague, and makes it redundant really.


A guy is born with a second sight. He is able to see how people will (graphically) die. Not pretty. Slow prose, but builds to a particular ending which I can’t work out is great (for the twist value), or just plain stupid. You decide.


Naught But Ash by Anne Stringer is a straight forward story of an old doctor who looks after people in a small town and remembers a time before the human race was split up, and large cities destroyed by ‘lights in the sky’. A whole family has been wiped out by a loner. It is investigated and the culprit found and hanged. No twist ending, but it is a macabre piece about doubting what one sees, what drives people to perform sick acts, and being unable to answer bigger questions. Quite haunting, but more of a mainstream murder story, with interesting artwork adding to the story.


The Pattern Makers of Zanzibar by Lavie Tidhar is written in a one sided correspondance between a reporter and his publisher. The reporter is investigating the slave trade in Zanzibar, and finds some unusual activity.


I found the characters a bit bland and the one sided ‘conversation’ seems slow and doesn’t fill in all the blanks. The ending was ok, but the ending shouldn’t justify the means. The artwork is nothing special, although the style of the artwork I liked (drawn in just black and white and quite bold).


So, overall? If you’ve managed to read this quite long review to the end, then you’ll already know there is a lot of substance to this issue. The design irks somewhat, because the two-page spread of art is reproduced in a cropped fashion on subsequent pages of the same story. It seems lazy. This is done on a few of the stories and is a waste of space, which could be used for more artwork or more prose.


The smaller size of the publication means it can easily be read without the pages flopping about. The quality of the paper is excellent, as is the front page artwork (though, maybe just a bit too much blue).


The main thing to remember is that Murky Depths issue 0 was pretty amazing, so it has set the bar high, and in comparing issue 0 with issue 1, issue 1 as a whole doesn’t come across as strong.


This is definitely an experimental publication, experimenting with a mixture of graphical stories, short stories and poetry. Even though some of the stories didn’t quite do it for me, I will be keeping an eye out to see how Murky Depths develops.

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Black Static’s Dark Place
(Number 3 Out Feb 2007).

Matthew Holness AKA Gareth Marenghi of the eponymous cult TV show has a story in Black Static 3, which has just gone to the printer and will be out, early, in February.

The Toad and I” by Matthew Holness. The author is a “A real life TV star, most famous for his Gareth Marenghi character (absolutely brilliant — hope you’ve seen it)” and he won the 2001 Perrier Comedy Award, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s top prize.

Also two debut stories, The Morning After, is Carole Johnstone’s first author credit anywhere. Carole is a Scot now living in Essex.

Seth Skorkowsky’s The Mist of Lichthafen is his first story sale but he’s since sold other stories and they saw the light of publication before there was space for him in BS 3.

16th in Interzone’s all time list of fiction contributors (13 stories) is Alexander Glass and here he is in BS 3 with The Pit. He’s back with a story about depression, and it’s good. Stylistically different from his earlier stories let’s hope it’s the first of many.

Ian Faulkner was first published in Crimewave and has another story coming up in CW 10. The Difference Between is Ian R. Faulkner’s first for any of TTA’s Horror, SF and fantasy genre publications.

The Sentinels by rising star Tony Richards.

Another rising star is Will McIntosh who closes the BS 3 fiction list with The Fantasy Jumper. Will is no stranger to Interzone, he appeared in IZ 200 with Soft Apocalypse and has featured twice more since that issue.

And, the editor says, all seven story titles begin with the definite article and that’s enough to make BS 3 a themed issue, according to him.

David Gentry is again responsible for the art.

NOTE Interzone and Crimewave are now available as downloads for all types of E reader devices from Fictionwise. Keep an eye out for Black Static on the same link.

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Interzone : Now Available From Fictionwise.

Creative writing is not immune to information technology. The literary equivalent to music’s Ipod is the ebook reader and there are many portable devices into readers can download an electronic version of a novel or magazine. Alternatives to specific ebooks are PDAs, laptops and some mobile phones.

Fictionwise (http://www.fictionwise.com/) is a US website which formats books and magazines for web distribution to e book readers such as the ‘Amazon Kindle’ or ‘Sony Reader’. They take a file from the publisher and convert it to the multitude of formats needed to ensure all E book readers and many ‘mobile’ devices can display the text.

Fictionwise sell the files through their website though publishers can also do it themselves via their own, or retailer, sites.

‘MultiFormat’ ebooks are not encrypted and paying for one type of download format allows free access to other formats of that ebook. So customers who update to a new e reader or mobile device do not lose access to their library.

TTA Press’s (http://ttapress.com/) short fiction publications are Interzone, Black Static and Crimewave. The first two are magazines with original short fiction and non-fiction articles and the latter is a regular collection of short crime fiction. Crimewave 9 Transgressions has been on sale at Fictionwise since October 2007 and now Interzone magazine is available as an ebook.

Readers can purchase the magazine in single issues or as a one-year subscription here The e publication of the magazine began with the three most recent issues of Interzone: 211, 212, & 213. Future issues will appear alongside the publication of the print edition. At this time, there are no plans to offer any issues before IZ 211.

At present the e edition is not available direct from the TTA or T3A site.

If you’re not familiar with Interzone (shame on you!) then read past reviews and articles on Interzone.

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Short Fiction Review Magazine, The Fix, Relaunches Online

TTA Press, publisher of renowned short fiction showcases Interzone, Black Static, and Crimewave, also published The Fix. The latter in its print incarnation, provided critical analyses and reviews of an extensive range of short fiction.

Now, The Fix has relaunched in a new, online format, once again providing a venue for critical coverage of speculative short fiction across the full spectrum of magazines, webzines, anthologies, and single-author collections.

Publisher Andy Cox predicts that The Fix will grow into the hub for aficionados and practitioners of short fiction to visit for news and commentary relevant to the community.

Managing Editor Eugie Foster, arriving to helm The Fix fresh from a distinguished career as managing editor of Tangent Online, plans to spotlight short fiction in all its myriad mediums: print, online, audio, and film.

In addition to its core content of short fiction reviews, The Fix will publish feature articles, exclusive interviews, and regular columns on writing, speculative poetry, audiobooks, podcasts, and short film.

Editors and publishers interested in sending material for review consideration in The Fix should go to: http://thefix-online.com/contact/

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

Another large helping of dark and disturbing fiction arrives in the form of Dark Tales #11. The whole issue is entertaining and varied in contents, and looks and feels quite smart too.

The opening story this issue is A. Reader’s Half Life, which is the name of a drug that reduces the patient’s age by half. Sounds like miracle, but as is usually the case there are unforeseen and rather unsettling side effects. The story is well written, and does a good job of outlining the true horror of the situation, with a profoundly thoughtful ending. At least, I thought it was the end, only to find another few paragraphs over the page that I thought rather blunted the impact. So, choose for yourself which end you think best.

Niall McMahon recounts A Dream of Faces, the touching tale of a young boy’s encounter with a terribly scarred burns victim who touches his life for a while. His initial reactions, the subsequent development of their relationship and her ultimately profound effect on his life really are engagingly told. The feelings of both come across well and ensure that the story will stay with you.

Debt is a story of lycanthropy by Andrew J Oliver. It’s only short, so there’s no real development of the characters or motivations beyond a brief setting of the scene. It’s also written in the second person, which I always find a little odd, but that’s just a matter of taste. The confusion and disorientation are conveyed well, but no real explanation is given. The success of the story then depends on whether you like reasons for the strange goings-on, or whether you’re happier with the unexplained.

A man attempting to retrieve his lost wallet from an eccentric old woman is the setting for Davin Ireland’s Growing Season. There’s some good descriptive work of the decrepit house and the overgrown garden, with the old lady becoming more and more creepy. The tale develops well as bewilderment and frustration set in, slowly giving way to horror as the old lady’s true purpose becomes clear. I’m giving up gardening after reading this.

Seeing Red is a vampiric tale by Mel Wright, in which a young boy develops a taste for blood through a series of seemingly innocent incidents. The story becomes more and more disturbing, with a horrifying finale in an allotment that doubles my resolve to give up gardening!

An unsettling guest in a B&B provides the chills in Reception by Peter Hynes. He seems to be watching particularly gory horror films in the privacy of his room. When the proprietor finally learns the truth he quickly wishes he hadn’t. The creepy guest is developed well as the owner becomes more and more fixated on discovering the truth, but like Debt I was left slightly nonplussed at the conclusion.

In Prize Pelt Valentine Roberts describes a suitably creepy artist with a fur fetish. The man’s unusual tastes are revealed slowly and build up the expectation to round the story off nicely.

Tall Flowers by Mark Reece is similar in concept to Growing Season, but I wasn’t really sure whether to take it seriously or not. The main character, who becomes fixated with gardening, doesn’t act with any kind of logic, and neither does the librarian whom she meets. Admittedly she’s a bit eccentric, but the plot seemed to be rushing to its conclusion without much thought to how to get there.

The final story is also the strongest. David Robertson’s The Blackford Folly is set in a Scottish stately home in Victorian times, where two men investigate the disappearance of the Laird who lives there. There’s plenty of atmospheric description – the servants, the study, the folly itself, strange goings-on in the night. The Arthur Conan-Doyle style also adds to the flavour. A very enjoyable and engrossing tale to round out the issue.

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

Since issue #3, Fiction magazine has moved to PDF format, with the possibility of moving back to print in the future. I don’t find on-line magazines as exciting as having an actual printed magazine in your hand, but the editors are maintaining the standard of fiction established in their first two print editions.

The first and longest story is An Act of Mercy by Sarah Hughes. It’s a multi-stranded story that initially left me confused due to the similarity of character’s names in different threads (Ryan, Rayne, Reuben). This meant that I had to keep checking back , breaking the flow of the story. Several typos didn’t help too. Getting past these problems, it was an interesting story of viruses, nanobots, androids and a sprinkling of very diverse characters to add to the interest. I’m tempted to say it was almost too ambitious, introducing enough characters to sustain a much longer piece. The complex plot was entertaining though and the android characters were particularly well developed.

Gareth L Powell’s contribution is A Necklace of Ivy, a realistically rendered tale set against the backdrop of a mysterious alien plague sweeping through Cornwall. A young couple are making their way out of the county in advance of an army curfew, but make the mistake of stopping for one last break. The realistic dialogue and briefly sketched description make it a compelling little tale.

Andrew Knighton’s The Secret in the Sewers is great fun, a cross between Alan Quartermain and The Wild, Wild West in which two intrepid, presumably Victorian, explorers discover something unusual beneath the city of Venice. It’s written with flair and charisma and is very entertaining.

The old question of Artificial Intelligence and self awareness is given an intelligent outing in Bob Lock’s Do We Not Bleed?. A hung-over scientist is excited at the prospect of solving the aforementioned problem, but discovers something rather startling. Again the characterisation and dialogue are realistically portrayed and result in an intriguing story.

I still like my magazines to arrive in the post though.

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

Unlike most of the other magazines I’ve read recently, Midnight Street contains a varied mixture of interviews, reviews, and articles, as well as a sprinkling of poems interspersed among the fiction. It’s an A4 magazine with coloured illustrations on the cover and black and white within.

We start with The Ice Horse, an intriguing story by Mark Howard Jones in which an unfortunate captive is imprisoned inside a giant sculpture of a horse. Why he’s there isn’t entirely clear, partly due to his half-frozen state. The background character of the artistic genius who created the sculpture adds an interesting dimension too as the freezing captive tries to figure out an escape.

An unstable man who suffers from gaps in his memory, among other things, goes Shoplifting in Chris Ward’s story that alternates between humour and pity. As his character becomes more paranoid and desperate, unsure whether he stole the clothes he’s wearing, his situation becomes more and more pitiable. It’s a story well told, aside from the use of profanity that I thought over the top, being used in the narration as well as by the shoplifter. Sorry, alleged shoplifter.

The something in Ken Goldman’s story There’s Something in Autumn Palms Lake quickly turns out to be an alligator. I’m not spoiling the story by telling you that. The reason it’s there, told in flashback, and the final scene, make what seems to be a fairly predictable story into something much more interesting.

I like to experiment with unusual story formats, and Peter Straub’s Lapland, or Film Noir certainly is unusual. It’s written as though part of an essay on the film noir genre, with bits of story strung together and interesting observations thrown in. At first the style was a bit off-putting, but in the end I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Allen Ashley’s contribution And I, The Footman is a nostalgic reunion for three old college friends. Their weekend in an old country house is haunted by memories of the suicide that took place last time they were there and the mixed feelings of guilt they have harboured ever since. The mystery is maintained through the story as reality and imagination are dreams are blurred and the truth finally comes out at the well-crafted end.

Bliss is a futuristic story by Peter Loftus in which the world has been struck by a deadly virus and only the ‘lucky seven’ percent are immune. The desperation of the situation comes through as one man looks for a high-tech way to end it all. It’s a well-written story, but unfortunately I’d read a very similar tale in Forgotten Worlds #5 last year so it lacked a certain impact this time.

Sharon Bidwell’s Degrees of Sickness suffered from a similar lack of impact and left me feeling that perhaps I’d missed some deeper meaning. A sick woman lies in bed, suffering from delirium and not sure what’s happening to her. I wasn’t sure either, so maybe that was the point. It also suffered from following on from Bliss where a sick man lay dying in bed. I can only take so much depression.

A trip to Tokyo is next in store in John Paul Catton’s Flowers of Edo. The story is told in two different time frames: WWII, when Tokyo is set aflame by bombing raids, and the present day where mysterious fires continue to break out. The war scenes are particularly moving, and the interweaving of Japanese culture adds an extra dimension to this intriguing tale.

My favourite story of the issue is Roz Southey’s Spin-Off Merchandise, a story set in a future that reminded me of Blade Runner. It’s a society where celebrity and conformity have both gained such importance that almost everyone has gone under cosmetic surgery in order to imitate their favourite star. The few who don’t conform are fiercely persecuted and the mission of one woman to make her way unnoticed through the city streets was both entertaining and thought-provoking.

The final story is the nauseating Dreams of Elvis by Donna Taylor Burgess, in which a massively obese woman finds herself stuck on the bathroom floor after a fall. As she succumbs to hunger and thirst she begins to hallucinate, and have nasty thoughts about her kittens. It’s definitely an attention grabbing tale, but inconveniently placed after two other stories of ill people lying about helplessly, so I wasn’t really in the mood for it by then.

So it’s a magazine with a wide variety of both stories, articles and other items to keep you entertained, and the only magazine I’ve come across so far to be published three times a year. I’m a couple of months late with this one, so issue #10 should be out soon, and I’m looking forward to receiving it.

Read to the end for a subscription offer.

Cover Art: Science fiction imagery from a South American perspective by Argentine artist Osvaldo Gonzalez who now works from Florida.

Fiction:
Feelings of the Flesh Douglas Cohen’s novelette is this issue’s debut story. Its theme is the conflicts between desire and instinct for individuals, and society, when change is necessary. Douglas is single, almost 30, and has a BA in English from Hofstra University, Long Island. His day job in New York City involves organizing medical conferences for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc. He lives an approximate 40 minute rail commute away in Valley Stream, NY. This is his first published story. Illustrated by Warwick Fraser-Coombe

Ack-Ack Macaque is Gareth Lyn Powell’s second Interzone story and he has sold a novel and a collection on the strength of his first appearance last year. Illustrated by SMS.
On the strength of his original publication in Interzone Gareth has progressed to two book deals; one for a novel (Silversands - Pendragon Press due 2009) and the other for a collection of short stories (Distant Galaxies Colliding - Elastic Press due August 2008). This second story features a one-eyed, cigar-smoking monkey wreaking havoc in Gareth’s home city, Bristol. There’s an interview with Gareth here.

A Handful of Pearls by Beth Bernobich. Beth is new to Interzone but she is making a name in the US magazines. Illustrated by Jesse Speak.
Beth is an author, software engineer and mother of a teenage boy. She studied in Heidelberg and Virginia and now lives in Connecticut, PS will publish her novelette Ars Memoriae as a limited-edition chapbook in 2009 and she has featured in Asimovs Magazine and Strange Horizons.

Dada Jihad by Will McIntosh, author of Soft Apocalypse in IZ 200. Chris Nurse illustrates.

The Algorithm by Tim Akers. After Toke in IZ 210 comes Tim’s fourth Interzone story. Illustrated by Warwick Fraser-Coombe

Non Fiction:
Ansible Link David Langford’s news and gossip

Editorial by our new book reviews editor Paul Raven (that’s Mr Velcro-City to you and me)

25 IZ: celeberating the 25th anniversary of Interzone with contributions from James Lovegrove, Mike Ashley, Sean McMullen, Chris Roberson, Karen Fishler, Daniel Kaysen, Peter Crowther Andy Mills, Andy Sawyer, and from Interzone’s original editorial team Alan Dorey.

Mutant Popcorn: Nick Lowe’s film reviews.

Laser Fodder@ 500 RPM: Tony Lee reviews DVDs

Scores by John Clute’s book reviews.
Bookzone: lots more book reviews

Charles Stross interviewed.

Podzone: Paul S. Jenkins British SF in podcast form.

25th Anniversary OFFER FOR SCIFI UK REVIEW Readers!

Running through the whole of 2007 SCIFI UK REVIEW readers can obtain 25% extra issues on a 12-issue subscription (that’s six months worth) from the Interzone Subscription Site. (That’s three whole issues, free!)

Remember to include ’scifi.uk’ as your Shopper’s Reference so they know to include your extra free issues!

The Official Interzone Site.

The INTERACTION Interzone / TTA Press Forum.

Read past reviews and articles on Interzone, it will give you an idea of the content and how it has transformed into the sensewunda it is today.

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

This is my first experience of Dark Tales, a glossy A5 magazine that’s filled, predictably, with stories of a dark slant. It advertises itself as a magazine of fantasy, horror and SF, but disappointingly for me contained little in the way of SF. Still, reviewers can’t be choosers, as the old saying goes.

Merlins Pool is a story about fishing by Trevor Hicks. That makes it sound dull. It’s actually very atmospheric and with a sense of the mysterious that makes it quite a satisfying read.

John Morgan’s Still Life is a very short piece that shows what lengths some people will go to for art. Like all good flash fiction it gets to the point quickly, and that point is nice and sharp.

Sophie Duffy’s heroine in Hot and Cold is a lonely woman haunted by memories of her twin sister who went missing on the way to school over 20 years earlier. Now an estate agent, she feels strangely drawn to a creepy old house. There’s a nice balance of suspense being built, then shaken off as the woman dismisses her fears, that build to an over all emotive tale.

In The Model Colin Leonard gives us another troubled artist. this one blind and under the seemingly beneficent influence of a mysterious woman who has served as his muse. The story is told from the artist’s viewpoint, rather cleverly considering his blindness, and you really come to appreciate his dark world. I may have missed something at the end though. Although it built to a dramatic climax, I didn’t quite see what it was. Ironically enough.

Caroline Bates’ traveller from another village brings Another Cautionary Tale to his eager listener’s crowded into the local tavern. He weaves a dreadful tale of death and destruction, sketching the background characters and audience with just enough detail to bring them to life and get you involved. It’s a story very well told, both by the man in the bar and by the author.

Dennis Michael Skeet provides another piece of flash fiction in Escape. Being so short I can’t say much more than it’s an alternate history tale about Hitler. Or is it?

The Binding is a somewhat gruesome tale from Paul Neads in which an actor has discovered some ethereal way of binding a group of other worldly creatures to himself. It’s divided up into scenes like a screenplay, to tie in with the main character’s occupation, a character who comes across as convincingly disturbed.

A property developer recounts his terrifying ordeal at an old mansion in The Blue Room by A.J.Humphrey. I didn’t find it particularly terrifying though as it was told in the first person, thus ensuring the narrator’s survival. There were a couple of nice little twists, but not the drama of some of the other stories.

The Lady, Eve presents Priya Sharma’s tale of another tortured artist, this one a man who seemingly binds up his models’ very essence in the sculptures he creates. The dialogue and relationship between his wife and his latest model / mistress are very well written, and although we never actually meet the artist, his sorrowful tale is very involving.

A Winter’s Tale by Alison Theaker is the story of a betrayed woman’s revenge and her plan to do away with the evidence. Although it’s competently written, I didn’t get a sense of emotion or tenseness to really draw me in.

So it really is a volume of dark tales, with a mixture of mystery, humour, and chills. But no science fiction.

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

As the months passed and no further issues of Forgotten Worlds appeared I began to fear the worst. Then all of a sudden issue #9 arrived in the post, bringing another varied selection of stories that fill this 56 page A5 magazine to capacity.

We start the magazine with the entertaining Flotsam Jewel by Fraser Ronald, a story of mysterious jewels, wizards and guilds. What’s particularly interesting about this story is the setting in the floating suburb known as Flotsam – a shanty town of old boats and shacks built on rafts that constantly moves with the swell of the tide. The setting is an integral part of the story rather than just a gimmick and along with the well-developed central character it gives the whole story a solid basis.

The Box is a truly unnerving tale by Neil Davies, in which a desperate man with a secret decides his new neighbour’s large wooden box could be very useful. It’s very well written, building the suspense while also surprising you with unexpected developments.

There are some excellent concepts in Graeme S Huston’s The Unregistered Daydreamer: Bold technological concepts, a humorous relationship with an alien, nightmares breaking out into reality. It’s all tied together well, until the pacing picks up towards the end. I got the impression that had the piece been longer the ideas would have developed better, rather than the rushed impression that I was left with. The character of the unregistered daydreamer himself is a great idea though.

Another Day on the Job: Meet Lucious is the third of Chris Silva’s very short pieces about an enigmatic thief. The previous two stories left everything rather unclear, but put together they start to build an interesting concept. Whether it will be rounded further in future issues remains to be seen.

V Anne Arden gives us a coming-of-age story in Hunter, the tale of a young girl’s journey into the desert on her first hunt and her struggle to find her place among her tribe. The interplay between the various characters comes across well and the fabulous creatures encountered are described with realism rather than coming across as fantastical. It makes for a well-paced and pleasant story.

Ian Brazee-Cannon seems to share my wry sense of humour as an heroine in leather armour heads off on her first mission to fight the forces of evil. Renee and the Sacred Order of Our Lady of Bloody Vengeance is set in a modern English town, just to throw you off balance, and manages the humour well, dealing with ridiculous situations without descending into farce. The conclusion particularly made me smile. There are an unfortunate number of typos, which is a shame as I didn’t notice any in the rest of the magazine, but you just have to ignore those to enjoy the story.

Rounding off the issue is G D Penman’s satirical A Party Political Broadcast, in which none other than Mothra makes a fairly convincing plea for our votes in the next general election. The worrying thing is he sounds as plausible as any other politician!

So as with previous issues an interesting and varied selection, maintaining a decent standard of fiction with something to appeal to everyone.

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

Darker Matter is a UK based webzine that promises to be ‘the high quality online science fiction magazine so many worlds have been waiting for’. It provides artwork with each story and also has a continuously-updated list of the top-ten ranked stories so far. The font on the main page is not the easiest on the eye, but the stories are laid out nicely.

True History is Jason Stoddard’s far future tale of humanity who’s minds are connected by the Grid. It’s the kind of story that Greg Egan might have written, a clever concept of how man could develop technology too far and change what it is to be human. A thought provoking piece that makes you wonder.

A much lighter tale is provided by Sue Lange with Peroxide Head, a story about a hairdo rather than the end of civilisation. Thinking about it, to a woman both issues are equally serious. :~D There are some interesting ideas on alien civilisations and clever comparisons with our own to make it an enjoyable little piece.

From Hank Quesne we have Sponsored by… , a satirical story of corporate sponsorship, war games and innovative ways to get rid of unwanted social groups. The thing that makes it special is the principled central character, and his idealistic thinking, right up to the ironic conclusion.

You wouldn’t normally expect an alien invasion to consist of deer, but in Jerry Oltion’s Starlings the forests are being taken over by a mysterious new species that has everyone puzzled. It’s an enjoyable story that explores different attitudes and weaves a satisfactory tale.

My favourite story of the issue is Young Love on the Drowned Side of the City by William D McIntosh. It’s a post-apocalyptic tale of youngsters left to fend for themselves in a ruined city while the adults struggle to cope with their own trauma. The society is well realised and the relationships between the characters make it a troubling but heart warming tale.

To round of the issue I.E.Lester provides an article about generation ships. It doesn’t go into vast technical detail, but is a nice introduction and summary of the subject. Read the stories; add your votes. It’s a strong selection and fulfils the editors aim of high quality.

Update: It appears, sadly, that Darker Matter has tanked. You can read the full story on Darker Matter’s Blog.

It seems to be a very unusual ‘zine that makes it into double figures…

On and impluse, I did a search for old Interzone covers on google images, and came back with this site which holds most (if not all) the covers of Interzone from Issue 1 to Issue 199, which strangely enough is exactly where I started subscribing to it.

I particularly liked the way the cover changed slightly from Issue 1 to Issue 2, the total eclipse of the sun moving off centre and the colour changing. Very effective, if simplistic.

You can see how the artwork progressed, and the way in which ’sf’ is being portrayed through art is changing.

It’s also amusing to see how the Interzone logos change over the years, of which I prefer the newest. Although that’s not to say the older ones weren’t ‘cool’ in their day - they just look kind of dated now, which isn’t really true of the artwork itself, it’s stood the test of time.

My favourite is Issue 16 as it reflects the kind of stories I rate high on my list - a world which is similar to our own on the surface, but strange when examined closely.

Looking at the covers, quite a few names jump out. Most notably, J.G Ballard, Christopher Priest, Jonathan Carroll (which I never realised had written for Interzone), Ian Watson, Kim Newman, Greg Bear, Bruce Sterling,, Greg Egan, Eric Brown and William Gibson, to name but a few. Which goes to make an impressive lineup.

A great archive, which covers the covers of the world’s best, British and longest running, sf magazine, although, sadly, the names of the artists are missing.

This isn’t really scifi, but when I saw The Bourne Identity (and The Bourne Supremacy to some extent) it reminded me of Philip K Dick (probably Paycheck) - a person struggling with his environment, not knowing who he really was, or is, and venturing to find out by learning about what’s locked in is mind.

Let’s hope it keeps the same vein as the earlier movies (and ok, I admit I’ve only read the first book, couldn’t quite get into the others).

Matt Damon returns as the trained assassin Jason Bourne for the latest showdown in The Bourne Ultimatum. In the follow-up to 2002’s The Bourne Identity and 2004’s The Bourne Supremacy—the smash hits that have earned over $500 million at the global box office—acclaimed director Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Supremacy) joins returning cast members Julia Stiles and Joan Allen and new additions David Strathairn, Paddy Considine and Edgar Ramirez.

All he wanted was to disappear. Instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was.

Now, in the new chapter of this espionage series, Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris, Madrid and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne—all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.

The Bourne Ultimatum was shot in Morocco, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Bourne Ultimatum Teaser Trailer:

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Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

Fiction returns with its 2nd issue, this time with a glossy cover to improve its air of professionalism, and the same informal, enthusiastic mix of reviews and comments. The fiction this time maintains or even improves the high standard set by issue #1.

The Gate is a fabulous story by Rhian Chapman. It’s the emotive story of a star ship pilot who uses wormhole-type gates to transport cargo across the galaxy. The transit is beautifully described and the emotional highs and lows of the life of a pilot are truly involving.

Noah Chin’s Last Wave on the Shore is an excellent piece of ironic story telling. In the far future composers struggle to write any music that hasn’t been heard before, and it’s left to two disillusioned men to give the bad news after analysing each submission. There are hints of well developed backdrop to the story that give it a nice perspective.

I don’t really read horror, so I’m not a good judge of Steven Deighan’s Feels Like Stephen King. It starts in familiar territory though – an aspiring writer receiving his manuscript back in the post. In this case the publisher is more creepy than the manuscript; perhaps a salutary lesson for us all!

Unusually there are two stories by the same author in this issue. Noah Chin’s second offering is Echoes, a futuristic war story where the jaded soldiers discover what life could be like. Again the irony comes through, and like his first story the prose is excellent.

Finally, the longest and most riveting story of the issue: Russ Jackson’s City of Flesh. It’s told in the first person, which confused me when the viewpoint shifted in the 2nd section. It’s a classic ‘aliens walk among us’ conspiracy, and the various protagonists offer different slices of insight into what’s happening. The Day of the Triffids came to mind among other things, and I was gripped to the end.

Fiction is now promising to be bimonthly, but still with plans to go monthly at some point. If the fiction maintains the same high standard it will certainly be a magazine to look out for.

Reviewed By Gareth D Jones

Since switching from print to on-line publication, Hub has presented a new story, along with reviews and articles, every Friday. June also saw the first ‘Special Issue’, so along with issues 9 to 13 there were six stories to read during the month.

First off The Boy at the Gate by Barry J House is the creepy tale of a man plagued by the dream of a boy who wants to be followed somewhere. It’s a mystery that goes back to the traumatic events of childhood, and the unsettling air is maintained throughout to make a compelling story.

Mur Lafferty does an excellent job of avoiding paradoxes and the confusion that is all to common when writing a time-travel story. In Looking Forward to Remembering You a time travelling escort agency guarantees to provide just the experience you missed out on when you were younger. It’s written with great feeling and is convincing enough that there’s no need to worry about the mechanics of time travel. Very enjoyable.

The Blue Parallel is a cleverly inventive story by Jessica Reissman that explores a world where reality is not solid and precautions are necessary against the chaotic work of ‘patterners’. It’s one of those stories that could be SF or fantasy, but it doesn’t actually matter as you are caught up in her marvellously crafted world.

I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy Jeff Cook’s Man for a Moment. Not that it wasn’t competently written, but the subject matter was rather too brutal to make it enjoyable. Evisceration, bestiality, babies being killed – all the things submission guidelines usually tell you to avoid are there if you like that kind of thing.

Special issue 1 is a reprint of Alasdair Stuart’s Connected to mark it’s nomination for a BFS award. It’s a creepy tale of how modern technology can be more trouble than it’s worth. It’s very short, but very effective.

Finally January Mortimer gives us More than a Butterfly. It’s a story of genetic manipulation, fashion, butterflies and one woman’s passion for her work. There are some nice touches that help to flesh out the main character, showing her to be a complex person while hinting at the complexity of the subject without getting bogged down in technicalities. It came across with great feeling.

Altogether the magazine is maintaining a high standard of fiction and a consistency of publication that is every magazine’s dream. With news that it is now receiving Arts Council funding (and that one of my stories will be appearing in November!) it looks to have a secure future.

* ‘The Story Shall Be Changed’: Tales and Re-tellings in the Short Story
* Saturday 21st July 2007, Edge Hill University

The short story is a protean form, encompassing myth, fable, anecdote, tall tales, yarns and literary experimentation. Rooted in oral tradition, storytelling has a special affinity with popular genres such as science fiction and tales of the supernatural.

In this second one-day conference on the short story at Edge Hill, we focus on this multiplicity of forms and genres. We also consider the re-imagining of familiar narratives, themes and imagery; and the invention of new ones. How is the short story being transformed in the twenty-first century?

The conference is linked with the inaugural presentation of the Edge Hill Prize, for a published single author collection from the British Isles. The winner will be announced on the eve of the conference, and it is hoped that writers from the shortlist (announced May 2007) will take part in the conference reading.

Confirmed speakers include:

* Professor Alan Wall (Richard Dadd in Bedlam and Other Stories)
* Andy Sawyer (Science Fiction Foundation, University of Liverpool)
* Cecilia Morreau (Leaf Books)

Call for Papers

Proposals for 20 minute papers are invited from all those writing and researching the short story, whether as practitioners or literary scholars (or both). Practice-based presentations are welcome. Suggested topics:

* Genre and sub-genre – crime – horror – the ghost story – fantasy – science fiction – gothic – erotica – autobiography – online writing – multi-media – hybrid genres.
* Intertextuality – myth and symbolism – image-based fiction – the epiphany – adaptation - oral storytelling - modernism and postmodernism.
* Individual authors – re-readings and reworkings – writing in translation - postcolonial fiction – experiment and innovation – novellas – story sequences – flash fiction – anthologies.

This is the second an