Black Static Issue 6 by TTA Press
The August-September Copy of Britain's Premier Dark Fantasy Magazine
Aug 25, 2008
In the August 2008 issue of Black Static, Britain's premier magazine of dark fantasy and horror, columnist Christopher Fowler writes about what inspires him -- secret London.
Stephen Volk contrasts mainstream Hollywood with an independent film, both featuring Robert Downey, Jr.
In writing about his other commentators, Mike O’Driscoll risks Black Static becoming a little incestuous, but on this occasion just about gets away with it.
Tony Lee lambasts the DVD releases, while Peter Tennant reviews Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May novels -- among others.
Fiction
Most Black Static stories seem reluctant to make their speculative element too blatant, but Simon Avery opens the issue with 'The Better Part of You,' and dumps the speculative element squarely in front of the reader from the moment that Chelsea (an unstable young woman) and James (the narrator) make love. Chelsea feels real in a way the most writers long to achieve; she's one of many women who are a little too out-going, a little too fragile, and end up bruised by life, damaged or even self-destructing. In creating such a memorably believable character, Avery pulls off a tour-de-force.
After such a luminous opening, anti-climax could be expected, but Melanie Fazi returns with a high tempo with 'Back on The Road,' the story of a young girl's awakening at a motorway service station. That the plot is telegraphed is almost irrelevant, for instead of the girl's fate being the conclusion, as would happen with a lesser story, Fazi takes the reader a stage further.
Pete Tennant
Sex features heavily in this issue, first with the Avery, then with Pete Tennant's fiction debut with 'Special Needs.' A grieving widower visits a prostitute for relief without complications -- or so he believes. What happens instead is that as the prostitute warns him, he is to pay a price of a wholly unexpected nature. Tennant jolts the reader by seeming to career off a hairpin with his storyline, and with his treatment of disability, both of which he is to be commended for.
It's a shame that after three such excellent stories, Nina Allen's 'En Saga' so stubbornly refuses to give up any meaning. Two fragments, linked by overlapping characters, one about a translator meeting a fleeing fugitive, the second about her friend's daughter, whose father and fiancée have both vanished, the latter perhaps touched by the angel of death. Individually competent, collectively the fragments bemuse.
Paul Meloy
British Fantasy Award winner Paul Meloy wrote 'Black Static' and the award-winning 'Dying in the Arms of Jean Harlow' for Black Static's precursor, The Third Alternative. With 'All Mouth,' he is the second notable to make a long overdue debut, with a powerful piece that makes literal a British figure of speech. It's dark and so claustrophobic that the sensitive reader may feel the walls pressing in on them as they read. Though this story doesn't appear in Meloy's first collection, it's a useful sampler for those unfamiliar with his work.
Ray Cluley's debut sale (from his very first submission) 'Viva Las Vegas is proof that no trope is too tired to have life injected from a vigorous plot line and strong characterization. Double-crossing gangsters and freshly dug graves provide a strong clue to a plot that's telegraphed but still enjoyable. A writer to watch.
So that's the end of Black Static's first year; an issue with two good and three outstanding stories. TTA Press set the bar remarkably high with their first issue, but generally speaking have --astonishingly-- managed to raise it higher each time.
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