Talebones #33

Most fiction magazines are hit and miss with the story selection as far as I'm concerned, but the summer issue of Talebones was pretty good all around.  The magazine is the perfect size, good paper, and very good illustrations, especially on the front cover.  It's almost all fiction, and that's something else I appreciate.

The authors:

James Van Pelt - Tiny Voices - an interesting story about technology and consciousness that turns out to be more of a vignette than a story. 

Nina Kiriki Hoffman - When You Can't Go Back - about furniture and appliances turned into people.  Short and surprisingly good.

Don D'Ammassa - Diplomatic Relations - this was a first-contact story of sorts, but predictable and soft.

Jennifer Rachel Baumer - Scare Tactics - my least favorite story in the magazine, not because it wasn't a good premise for a ghost story, but because she used a narrative voice which used incomplete sentences and she chose to shift scene, both time and place, so quickly as to make you never engage in the story properly.

James Michael White - Bliss - this was probably the best short story I've read this year.  White delves into the psychosis of a self-mutilator and creates a disturbing murder story out of it.  The detail, emotion, and clarity are chilling.  Great job.

Stephen Couch - The Dandelion Clock - This is one of those stories that doesn't have anything wrong with it, but I just couldn't stay in it.  My mind kept wandering and any distraction pulled me out.  I had to reread sections that I'd already read and find out that I'd retained nothing.  Maybe it's just me (as I've said to several old girlfriends).

Donald Lucio Hurd - The Feather - a nice story about a future time when flight disappears.  I didn't like the ending, but I liked the story.

Katherine Woodbury - Untainted - a spy school where the punishment for failing is memory wiping.  Good characters and an interesting problem.  It read like a young adult story, and that's not bad, but I'd have preferred that same story with a little more grit and consequence.

Overall, a good collection.

- CV Rick

Comments

[James Michael White]

Glad you enjoyed the story. :)
-JM White

[James Michael White]

Glad you enjoyed the story. :)
-JM White

[James Michael White]

Glad you enjoyed the story. :)
-JM White