Black Static Issue 7 by TTA Press
The November-December Copy of the UK's Premier Dark Fantasy Magazine
Nov 30, 2008
Issue 7 of of what is doubtless Britain's finest magazine of Dark Fantasy (TTA Press, 64pp) is it's 1st Anniversary issue in it's current incarnation, since rising from the ashes of The Third Aleternative.
Bruce Holland Rogers
Given that it's the Halloween issue, it's appropriate that Nebula and World Fantasy Award winner Bruce Holland Rogers --making his TTA debut-- leads with a short, subtle piece about the corrosive and viral nature of teenage despair. It may be the shortest piece that Black Static has ever run, but it's certainly not the least effective.
Trent Hergenrader takes te reader to rural 1930s Wisconsin and a fine piece of crypto-folklore with 'The Hodag.' Something nasty in the woods is killing local animals, and graduates to people. The atmosphere is excellently creepy, and the final image lingers long after the story's end. Recommended.
Love and need are often intertwined, and never more so than in Eric Gregory's 'Blood God Blood,' an eerie and unsettling tale of a tiny cult, and the young woman who runs it, scattered with foot notes of the gospels of the cult. Highly recommended.
Daniel Kaysen
One of two stories from returning regulars, Daniel Kaysen's 'The Talent Girl' is potentially the most interesting story in the magazine, and therefore the greatest disappointment when it doesn't quite deliver. A girl able to read the minds of the recently dead is used by the police to catch their killers. It's a short story that deserves a greater length than it's allowed, and therefore feels rushed with scenes crammed into repeated infodumps. A shame.
Peter Tennant's Case Notes
At the core of every issue is Peter Tennant's 'Case Notes' which this issue provides an overview of Leisure Books, an excellent horror publisher. Tony Lee also provides his usual overview of horror DVDs with his 'Blood Spectrum.'
Seperating the two extended sections is 'Pages From A Broken Book' by Tony Richards, another of the author's stories to be a set in a small English town, this time a seaside resort. Newly separated Rob resorts to internet dating, and discovers that his dream-date Lara isn't --as he suspected at first-- the sort of woman she first seems. But what she is is unexpected, and while all of the elements may have been used before, they've rarely been used so effectively. One of the best BS stories of the year, and worthy of wider exposure.
The magazine ends with David Sakmyster's 'Bait,' a slightly overwrought (even if its tongue is frmly in its cheek) story of fish food and literary quotes.
But before that comes Alison J. Littlewood's beautiful and haunting 'The Deep Walker.' The reader can almost feel the heat of Cuba's beaches rising from the beach, and for the second story in the issue, the culmination is with the stars:
And I waited. For everything to start:for time to begin.(p.59)
Seven stories, five of them good to great, one not so good, one disappointing. An excellent issue, with perhaps the best artwork yet from David Gentry.
