AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007): Annotated table of contents & review
10 tiny stories. See opening remarks of #116 for any non-obvious conventions in the listing below. Full issue #112 is available here.
Story list (best first).
- Augusto Corvalan's "Space Drinks Are Really Cheap" (A); download; science fiction, humor: A first contact story. Humans know aliens are arriving. There is a welcome committee & crowd when their ship touches down, & the first alien statement is so human...
- Wes Parish's "An Unexpected Solution To An Unexpected Problem" (B); download; science fiction: An English time traveler to past lands in Paris at a time where he tells locals "that the citizens of Paris killed their King and Queen before his time — and after ours." Local church authorities imprison him, in spite of believing his story, because what he says is dangerous. The names of characters - D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Morloques, Eloi, Oui-na, & Cardinal Mazarin - may mean something to those familiar with French history of relevant period; to me they didn't mean anything.
- David McVeigh's "Susan" (C); download; science fiction: Beautifully written, but I cannot really figure out the punch line. A woman's conversations with a ghost, AI, or something that is supposed to lead to her self-discovery...
- Miles Hurt's "The Colossal War" (C); download; non-genre: It didn't quite work for me, but appears to be a rip off one of the novels (I think "The Autumn of the Patriarch", but am not sure) of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. An insane king is being humored by the 3 lovers of his queen.
- Shaun A Saunders' "Scarcity" (C); download; non-genre: Teachers of this business school are so badly paid they have to fight in faculty lunch room over a single biscuit!! Hey - even Indian business schools pay far better than that.
- Mark Tremble's "Access" (C); download; science fiction: Equivalent of a Roman gladiator, in a society so insecure it requires (electronic) proof of identity everywhere & lives in a closed habitat, has reached the day that will likely be the last of his life - only doors that will open to his id are the ones that lead to arena with the crowds waiting in the stalls.
- Adrian Gibb's "The Blood Choice" (C); download; fantasy: A vampire who has long since given up his instinctive love of human blood & has been living an ordinary human life is rediscovering his inherited instincts.
- Marcelo Rinesi's "Love Story" (C); download; non-genre: A woman kills her husband who's trying to fix their marriage that is falling apart.
- Neil Cladingboel's "Deathmask" (C); download; fantasy: A ghost story. A high school boy wanting to win the "Best Halloween Mask" competition decides to physically remove the actual decaying face of a recently buried man by digging up his grave - who can beat the realism? But...
- Steve Duffy's "Waiting For The Silence" (C); download; religion: Incomprehensible religious mumbo-jumbo. The "greater" half-brother of Jesus Christ is awaiting the powerful locals to come & crucify him for knowledge he possess. We are not told what knowledge he possess, but it has something to do with the "world to come crashing down".
2 comments:
Hey Tinkoo,
Several of these stories look really good - I'll give them a go.
Just a quick note about "An Unexpected Solution To An Unexpected Problem" - D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis are the names of The Three Musketeers and their friend - from the famous French novel by Alexandre Dumas. The other names you mentioned may have something to do with that novel as well, but I'm not sure.
Thanks Rusty.
I'd heard of Three Musketeers, of course. Never got down to reading it. Is is worth the time?
I once posted on a story titled "Waiting on Alexandre Dumas". I just could not connect with it & had never heard Dumas' name before, but may be you can see something there. Either he or his ghost visits a restaurant with his girlfriend.
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