From Weirdbook No. 34:
J. Michael Major gives readers a peek inside the art scene, with “In the Gallery.” It’s all quite inspirational as we follow an accomplished painter, who shares his life’s canvas with his new protégé—including some enjoyable asides on the ups and downs of the creative vocation—but don’t ignore the setting. This is Weirdbook, where the final sentence can shatter one’s naive illusions.
Worlds of StrangeneSS No. 2 review part 8 of 8:
In a sort-of mini version of Parallel Lives, called “It’s a Strange, Strange, Strange, Strange World,” “Mister Gogue” correlates C.S. Lewis with Doctor Who from “the good old, black and white, Patrick Troughton era.”
“Strange Mails” includes letters from Andy Boot, Graham Andrews, and Steve Rock.
Worlds of StrangeSS No. 2 looks good and reads even better. The production values are excellent, the design and artwork good, but the stories and content exceed the expectations set by its first impression.
From International Science Fiction No. 1, the opening paragraph of “The Disposal Man” by Australia’s Damien Broderick packs a wallop:
“Every Saturday night,” said Aunt Tansy, her eyes wide and blue and honest, “there’s a corpse in my bath.”
An outré beginning that requires a careful hand to expand, without unraveling into giddy self-indulgence. Fortunately, Broderick ably juggles curiosity and humor with the fantastic, and pulls off an amusing SF mystery.
The author of nearly two dozen novels, even more short stories, a few radio and movie scripts, and several nonfiction books, Damien Broderick (b. 1944) a noted Australian critic, editor, and scholar now resides in San Antonio, Texas.
Worlds of StrangeneSS No. 2 review part 7 of 8:
Not much longer than the magazine’s Micronicles, at two-and-a-half pages, is the issue’s final story, “The Lights in the Sky Aren’t Stars,” by Graham Andrews. It’s stocked with alien factions like Klarts and Emetians, and charismatic characters like Hardball Hannigan and Anna Liffey, but sadly, I wasn’t able to connect the dots of its abrupt ending. My bad.
This review concludes on June 13 . . .
Worlds of StrangeneSS No. 2 review part 6 of 8:
What has become commonly known as Flash Fiction, has also been called twitterature, minisaga, sudden fiction—and in Worlds of StrangeneSS: Micronicles. There are three entries in WOS2, continuing the sequence that began in the first issue—so here we have The Stranger’s No. 4 “Mr. Hide,” No. 5 “Palm,” and on the back cover, Jojo Lapin X’s No. 6 “Spaceman.” All three spend the majority of their precious words to briefly, but quite satisfactorily, set things up for the delivery of their sharp, twisted “punchlines.”
This review continues on June 9 . . .
From Weirdbook No. 34:
A dark tale of swords and sorcery, Sean Patrick Hazlett’s “Mukden” follows Captain Tanaka Hideki through a tenuous partnership with the bandit Fu Shih and encounters with the ghostly shikome, fell servants of the underworld, on his way to reclaim his honor and reach Mukden. Hazlett captures the bleak, brutal pall of war as the Japanese and Chinese battle their Russian invaders.
From International Science Fiction No. 1, from France, Damon Knight translates Michel Ehrwein’s story, “Uranus” from Fiction #88 (March 1961), which also happened to include Knight’s own “The Enemy” (“L’Ennemi” in French).
Michel Ehrwein (b. 1934) wrote numerous stories for the publications Satellite and Fiction from 1958 to 1964, and after reading “Uranus” I wish more of his work had been translated for digests across the pond. It’s a terrific story, told primarily in narrative, perhaps to grant readers some distance from its characters’ heart-breaking story.
A pair of deep space astronauts are orbiting Uranus from the safety of an hermetically sealed station. They lose themselves in their work and countless hours of tuning the radio for scraps of transmissions from other research stations around Saturn and Jupiter, Mars, and on occasion even Earth, Venus and Mercury.
Then came a long series of personal messages. Belzard wanted to hear from Fairbanks. Oths was trying to get in touch again with Mercanson, on Io. Su-Chang’s mother had just died. Weeks, taken ill, had had to be brought to Mars from Delmos on a special flight; then he had died on the trip.
The loneliness and isolation of the furthest outpost is made cold and clear. Then, catastrophe strikes.
The sun had entered a phase of intense activity. The Mercury observatory, which specialized in solar research, had tried to measure it, to encompass it in numbers. At the end of two days, their apparatus lost its usefulness. It was not calibrated high enough. Other observatories hastily took an interest in the phenomenon, equipped themselves, installed new instruments. All the observatories led to the same conclusion: a gigantic solar flare, on a scale previously unknown, with monstrous prominences.
Radiation sweeps out across the system, devastating all civilization in its path. Rial and Greff hear the fall and wonder if its reach will extend nineteen times farther from the sun than Earth.
Worlds of StrangeneSS No. 2 review part 5 of 8:
The Stranger (Nigel Taylor) presents “The Cold Light of Stars,” in which a publishing agent must regrettably pass on the final manuscript of the legendary author of sprawling space epics and notable science fiction. The problem is, despite the author’s prestigious name, The Oviraptors, is unreadable. The agent commiserates at the home of his longtime friend, Bob Butler, who submitted the thing after everyone else in the business had rejected it. For the better part of the evening they reminisce over whiskies, until a plan for what to do with the tome emerges.
The discussion of the author’s career and the two friend’s fond memories of his work is warm and engaging. When Bob snatches a old science fiction digest from a shelf it triggers a memory of a fascinating story, recounted in satisfying detail, and brings the anguish of their dilemma home.
This review continues on June 5 . . .
International Science Fiction No. 1 features two stories from Germany, both by the writing team of Helmuth W. Mommers and Ernest Vleck. The first, “The Epsilon Problem” is translated by Harry Warner, Jr.
The Morph-children are the turning point in the long and costly war between mankind and the Spoot. But when their work is done what is to become of them?
Captain Lokart travels to Epsilon base with the daunting task of convincing the unstable Father Epsilon to stand down and begin the process of recuperation.
Helmuth W. Mommers (b. 1943) contributed to German science fiction as a writer, illustrator, editor, and literary agent. After a successful career as a retailer in Sweden, he took an early retirement in Mailorca, Spain, where he co-founded the magazine Nova and edited the annual Visionen (Visions) anthologies. He published a novel, Galacticum, as well as more than fifty short stories. His work has been nominated for the German Science Fiction Award and the Kurd Lasswitz-Award.
Worlds of StrangeneSS No. 2 review part 4 of 8:
Among Greek biographer and author Plutarch’s most famous works is Bioi parallëloi (Parallel Lives). Beyond biography, the work compares the lives of renown Roman and Greek leaders to inspire morality and foster respect between cultures. The Stranger (Nigel Taylor) employs the technique in “Parallel Lives: Magritte and Hergé;” René Francois-Ghislain Magritte, the famed surrealist painter and George Prosper Remi, aka Hergé, the famed cartoonist of Tintin.
Taylor explores their lives as artists, elements of the fantastic in their work, their shared nationality (Belgian), and on a more personal level, his own keen interest in the works of both, that began in his youth. The comparison makes a fascinating and edifying read.
In the US, The Adventures of Tintin were serialized in Children’s Digest from 1966 to 1979.
This review continues on June 1 . . .
Image from Galactic Central.
