Robot Story
“I couldn’t imagine Jane hurting me, but I felt a knot of fear growing in my gut anyway. Humans are always afraid of something.”
Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 2, edited by Kathe Koja & Michael Kelly
Weird Gets Noir
This is the second in an annual series that’s fast becoming, on the strength of this showing, a gold standard in contemporary weird fiction. No surprise, given the pedigree of Undertow Publications and series editor Michael Kelly. Each volume is collated by a different guest editor, and this time it’s Kathe Koja. “Part of the excitement comes from comparing and contrasting each year’s volume,” says Kelly in his Foreword. I don’t know what I expected from a volume curated by Kathe Koja, but what we get is notably raw and jolting. Often right from the opening line. “He didn’t even know he was dead. I had just shot this guy in the head and he’s still standing there giving me shit,” begins Nathan Ballingrud’s blistering N’awlins occult noir, “The Atlas of Hell,” which opens and pretty much sets the tone for the whole volume.
Cabinet of Wonders: Aliens, Ghosts & Skypeople
short fiction reviews by Lauren Colie
Aliens, ghosts and skypeople — all the otherworldy beings are coming out to play in this Cabinet. We’ve got reminders about how love hurts, how your past will never leave you alone and, well, how the way to anyone’s heart truly is their stomach. Digest some delightful strange in this week’s shorter fare.
A Review of Lacrimosa, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Nightmare Magazine
Cabinet of Wonders: Bayou Werewolves, Alien Frogs & Dorian Gray
Let the familiar tickle your fancy. Deals with the devil, alien beings, Facebook, Twitter and even Dorian Gray make an appearance in this Cabinet. Reimagine and reinvigorate these classic tropes with a contemporary twist. Mind your feet — there’s some…things…it’d be best not to step on. The Fiddler of Bayou Teche, by Delia Sherman […]
Another Country Doctor
“His shoulders sprouted stalks that bloomed azure honeycomb shapes whose openings sang like river reeds. The blond color of his hair replaced itself with a mosslike green, whose strands often swayed as though in a passing current.”
Up the Fire Road (part two)
“Was I on some kind of strange drug? Was I in the woods at all? Was I at my mom’s house, and having some kind of a psychotic episode?”
Cabinet of Wonders: Letters from the Dead
Disappearing Dads, Time Traveling Doctors, and Letters from the Dead It seems a little abnormal to find a Lauren and a Loren writing fabulous fiction this week (with reviews written by a Lauren). What is normal, anyway? Is it polos and boat shoes? Is it the desire to fix mistakes? Is it the humble town […]
They End Up In Space
What happens when you mix a masochistic homophobe, hipsters, a Nova with a souped up alien engine, and a penis shaped art gallery? Read this first place winner in our New Voices Contest to find out. Primo Halifax Primo steps out of the Nova’s passenger seat onto the asphalt, pausing to hunch and kiss […]
Cabinet of Wonders, 4.18.15
April is showering talent down upon us. With the dreary weather comes a flood of memories, emotion and even a circus tent. In this cabinet collection you’ll find heart-wrenching lost love, chest-tightening found love and deep-breath-before-the-plunge decisions about the future. Let these stories wash over you with innovative ideas and carefully-crafted emotional content. […]
Without a Rope
“He chose her to live over Maggy. That’s the kind of grace that won’t surrender, that arrives on the tiniest, unwanted wheels.”