Friday, April 6, 2012

Stories from Playboy magazine, 2012 issues

Note that while they sometimes publish very good genre stories, most of their fiction is non-genre.

My rating (ABC: A = time well spent; C = don't bother) is in brackets. Unless mentioned otherwise, stories are from US edition of the magazine.

5 Apr 2012: Of the 3 stories so far, 1 is a book excerpt & another probably is even if not so acknowledged. All 3 are non-genre, none particularly impressive, none crappy either.
  1. January/February double issue: [ss] Elmore Leonard's "Raylan" (B): A police officer, investigating a gang that steals kidneys of unsuspecting men, almost loses his own kidneys ... but has a happy ending for himself. Title is the name of the cop - Raylan Givens.

    Note: There seem to be a novel of the same title by the author, with somewhat similar content. I wonder if this too is a book excerpt?
  2. March: [book excerpt] Adam Johnson's "The Orphan Master's Son" (B): "Horrors" of North Korean boys' life, when seen with a US(?) lens. This excerpt describes life of the boy soldiers, & 3 incidents of them sneaking into Japan, & kidnapping a Japanese - one person kidnapped each trip. One of the kidnappings is of a woman that a Korean minister wants as a sex slave.

    Excerpted from author's novel of the same title.
  3. April: [ss] Zakhar Prilepin's "A Russian Picnic" (B); translated by Peter Golub from Russian; no idea when or where original Russian was published: In a small underfed town in Russia, 3 men short on cash have a plan for a night out with 3 college girls - by offering them a feast of kebabs made from the meat of a stray dog they'll catch.

    From the tone of the story, it appears there is some sort of social taboo in Russia on eating dog meat.
  4. May: ?
  5. June: ?
  6. July: ?
  7. August: ?
  8. September: ?
  9. October: ?
  10. November: ?
  11. December: ?
Related: All Playboy stories. Or only from 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 or 2007 issues.

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