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Fantasy & Science Fiction - August 2006Jul 25 '06 (Updated Jul 31 '06) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Not a great issue. Two out of the last three have been iffy, so hopefully the magazine will rebound next time.
Fantasy & Science Fiction - August 2006 The Stories "Penultima Thule" - by Chris Willrich (novelet) 29 pages "Another Word for Map is Faith" - by Christopher Rowe (short story) 14 pages "Pleased to Meetcha" - by Ken Altabef (short story) 5 pages "Immortal Forms" - by Albert E. Cowdrey (short story) 20 pages "Jack B. Goode and the Neo-Modern Prometheus" - by Robert Loy (short story) 15 pages "Misjudgment Day" - by Robert Reed (short story) 14 pages "Billy & the Spacemen" - by Terry Bisson (short story) 4 pages "Okanoggan Falls" - by Carolyn Ives Gilman (novelet) 26 pages The August issue is an extremely hit or miss one. There is some wonderful work in there (Cowdrey's story is great, Gilman's is outstanding, and Loy's makes me laugh just thinking about it), but I think there were more stories that I didn't care for than are usual. It's an issue of beginnings and returns, with Ken Altabef writing a very good story for his first professional sale, as well as Willrich, Gilman and Loy returning after long absences (and Reed as well, after a long absence of two months). Unfortunately, it's the weakest issue of this magazine for quite a while, and I hope September's is a lot better. The stories "Penultima Thule" - by Chris Willrich This is another "Bone & Gaunt" story (none of which I have read, as the last one was published before I started reading the magazine). Bone & Gaunt are lovers, Bone a thief and Gaunt a poet. Bone has stolen a book so horrible, it can taint anybody's aura so that bad things start happening to them. At the beginning, Gaunt uses it on a guard who then ends up getting accidentally skewered by his compatriot. But the book is thoroughly evil, and must be dropped off the edge of the world. But Bone's been captured by a group of people whose instincts have been taken over by "Hunger Stones," and Bone is infected. He must constantly fight the urge to kill Gaunt and eat her during their frigid trek to the top of the world. Will he be able to hold off long enough for them to succeed? Or will their pursuers catch them first? And what is the true power behind the book? This was an interesting story, though I didn't find myself overly attracted to the characters. There's nothing really wrong with them, but they didn't grab me very hard. Thus, the story lost some of its impact. Bone & Gaunt (along with the two beings at the end of the story) are the only characters, so they make or break it. I don't think I'd say that they broke it, but it was close. "Another Word for Map is Faith" - by Christopher Rowe A bunch of biblical geographers are on a field trip to "correct" the way the land lies in an area of the southwest. Apparently, some of the local geography is slightly different than the way it "should", and they have to correct it. Sandy is the instructor, and she leads her students up to the ridge line that's "off." When they get to the top, however, they discover a man-made lake and small town that shouldn't be there. Convinced that this "blasphemy" should not stand, they decide that they have to fix it too, despite the fact that the job may be too big for them. I found this story a rather simplistic "religion vs science" story, and it really didn't do anything for me. It takes the religious fundamentalism just a little too far for my taste, resulting in characters that I cared nothing about and a situation that I actually found repulsive. Yes, I know there are extreme fundamentalists out there that believe the Earth is only a few thousand years old because that's how long ago Genesis was, but Rowe creates more caricatures than anything else. He tries to provide them with some humanity as well, but it just didn't work for me. "Pleased to Meetcha" - by Ken Altabef This is Altabef's first professional sale, and it's a cute little story. The narrator has dreams of being a writer, and when a bestselling author comes to town for a signing, he figures he can get in on the action. The narrator is a fantasist, and is convinced that there's something mystical about the author's success. If he can just shake the author's hand, it will rub off on him (and maybe he'll even be able to steal it). While this isn't an outstanding story, it fits its length perfectly. This being a fantasy story, who knows whether the narrator is right or not? I found it a bit intriguing, and as an aspiring writer (unpublished, actually, since I actually have submitted a story and been rejected), I completely understand where the narrator is coming from. Maybe Altabef does too. "Immortal Forms" - by Albert E. Cowdrey Nobody does New Orleans like Cowdrey, and this one's yet another keeper. Tommy Salvati is a young lawyer who is called by some of his old neighbours to investigate strange occurrences at Hannah Loewe's house. Hannah was his caretaker when he was growing up, and he's now her lawyer, so he feels obligated. When he finds her dead, he's determined to find out what happened to her. After fixing up the house to sell it, he decides he wants to live there instead, creating his own special home. But the library (which used to be the bedroom where she died) seems to be haunted in a strange way. Is Hannah walking around trying to avenge herself on her killer? This story is very atmospheric, just like most of Cowdrey's New Orleans stories. The imagery is vivid and the prose is quite good. Salvati's descent into madness and his recovery, as well as the various plot points regarding Hannah and what happened to her, are masterfully done. I greatly enjoyed this story. "Jack B. Goode and the Neo-Modern Prometheus" - by Robert Loy I haven't read any of the other Jack B. Goode stories, but if this is any indication, I'm going to have to dig them up somewhere. I just have to say that Loy is quite twisted. Jack B. Goode is a down on his luck PI who's drinking his problems (and lack of female companionship) away in a local bar when a beautiful (though heavily scarred) woman walks in and sits down next to him. It seems her husband has disappeared, a tall, green man with bolts in his neck, and she wants Jack to find him. When he gets to the castle where he's supposedly the janitor, Jack finds a rather brain-twisting situation instead. Hoodwinked again, he may just be losing his body completely. And given his current life, would that be so bad? If you don't like puns, avoid this story. It's full of them. Some atrocious, some clever, and some that I love but I realize are quite bad. I loved the image of a certain Transylvanian, a man nobody can see, and a man who has to go off and howl at the moon occasionally, as well as a sinister aquatic man-like creature, all playing poker in the mad doctor's laboratory, a hilarious image, and Loy treats it all with an excellent comic touch. "Misjudgment Day" - by Robert Reed Jake was an adventurer. By that, I mean that any ill-brained scheme that might be exciting, he had to do. Get a vest of Kevlar armour? He has to test it out. When he was a kid, he tried to sled off a roof into a huge snow drift. Now, he's older, and something weird is going on. Some sort of plague is causing people the world over to make stupid decisions, irrational choices that could cost lives in the wrong place (say, an airline pilot). Jake grew up like this, however, so he's used to it. He's determined to find out what's going on, and so goes on a journey to find his brother, who was always the intelligent one and is working for a pharmaceutical company. Just what is going on in the world today? This story is quite sub-par for Reed, who I normally rave about. There's just not much substance to the story at all. There's no real explanation for the plague (unless his brother is lying) and it basically ends with an acknowledgement that Jake is going to have an easier time in this world than anybody else is. What's the point? I'm not sure. Some of the ideas are interesting, but that's about it. "Billy & the Spacemen" - by Terry Bisson Last month, I applauded another Terry Bisson "Billy" story, but this month I have to officially say it: I'm getting really tired of him. I don't know if it's the story that's lacking or if it's just "Billy-fatigue," but whatever it is, I didn't care for this one at all. Billy's father finds a small rocket in the driveway and brings it in. Little does he know that the spacemen are already in Billy's dresser. They want to meet Earth's leader so they can kill him. But Billy gets the last laugh. This story is even shorter than the other Billy stories, I believe, and I think I know what's missing in it. In the previous ones, his parents were always skeptical of everything he says, and they treat it as a child's imagination. This time, they seem to buy it. Yes, I'm sure they're just humoring him, but it just gives the story a different feel. The other problem is that it's missing the little twists and turns that Bisson manages to get out of just a few pages. Instead, this one is very straightforward, and I think it suffers for it. I also think I'm a little tired of Billy, so I hope he doesn't return for a little while. "Okanoggan Falls" - by Carolyn Ives Gilman In the southeastern Wisconsin town of Okanoggan Falls, time seems to have passed by. The alien Wattesoons have taken over the Earth, but it hasn't really affected this area much. That's until a unit of soldiers shows up and states that Okanoggan Falls and some neighbouring towns are to be leveled for mining purposes. Everybody's given three months to move out. Susan, the wife of the town's mayor, is determined that what is happening doesn't mean that the captain of the aliens shouldn't be treated with courtesy. The relationship that develops between the two is rather sweet in a "it will never happen" way, especially when Captain Groton begins transforming into a human. The secret behind why he transforms takes the story in an almost completely new direction, and it adds a bit of emotion to the whole thing (besides the anger of the townspeople, that is). This is a quiet story that looks at the beginning to be about alien invasion, but instead is about two people of different species forming a relationship that goes beyond anything Susan could have imagined. And it's not about alien sex or romance, either. Instead, it's quite touching, especially the ending. Definitely the best story in the issue. The Articles: "Books to Look For" - by Charles de Lint Creepers - by David Morrell River Rats - by Carolyn Stevermer "Films" - by Lucius Shepard V for Vendetta "Plumes From Pegasus" - by Paul Di Filippo "Changing Teams" Di Filippo makes up for my complaints in the last issue this appeared in (where he took a lot of easy shots at Intelligent Design) by adding a hilarious sports analogy to the whole "heaven and hell" thing. What does Anne Rice have to do with the strange behaviour of Father Anders McGreavey? Why has he renounced his position in the church and gone to live with the drug dealers and prostitutes? He agrees to talk to only one reporter, and off the record. This reporter is an old friend of his. The reasons for the switch? That would be telling. But I have to admit that I burst out laughing when they were finally revealed. The concept is beautiful, and I'm not sure why I've never seen it done before. Bravo, Mr. Di Filippo. “Curiosities” – by Thomas Marcinko The Master by T. H. White (1957)  |
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