F & SF June 2008 reviewed
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction #673 from Spilogale, Inc.
May 7, 2008
The fiction in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction comes this month from regulars Robert Reed and Al Michaud, veteran Rand B. Lee, and new contributors P. E. Cunningham, Mary Patterson Thornburg and Ted Kosmatka.
Fiction
Ted Kosmatka's 'The Art of Alchemy' opens the issue. It's an atmospheric near-future thriller about using nano-technology to revitalize steel-marking, with well-defined characters and a strong sense of place. Kosmatka is already making a name for himself, and this powerful novellette will add to his reputation, and should deservedly be picked for at least one of the 'Year's Best' selections.
'Fergus' by Mary Patterson Thornburg is at first read an ordinary, almost mundane story that tells of a lost child, and the effect of that disappearance on the rest of his family. But reading it on the first anniversary of the disappearance of Madeline McCann, it's eerie, unsettling and only barely hovers on the edges of speculative fiction. Highly recommended.
Clem Crowder
Al Michaud's 'The Salting and Canning of Benevolence D' marks the third appearance of Clem Crowder and the other colourful characters of Clapboard Island, Maine. In the tradition of Avram Davidson and Ron Goulart, Michaud tells tall tales laced with appallingly tasteless puns (on the entrance of Madame Zorla, Medium, who is no taller than waist-high: "Gosh all hemlock, Buck," Dunky said. "We asked fer a medium, an' they sent over an extry-small.") .
Robert Reed
Robert Reed's 'Character Flu' is barely a thousand words long, but its scope is epic; it tells of a plague of imaginary characters. It's short, thought-provoking and effective, but there's a feeling that there's a lot more that could be done with it, if Reed had chosen to.
'Monkey See' by P.E. Cunningham is the story of a warrior and her semi-sentient sword. There's much to admire in the wit and originality, but the ending reads like one long exposition of the original mystery, which Cunningham ignores throughout the main story. The author would have been better served integrating the two threads.
Rand B. Lee
Rand B. Lee has been writing for at least a quarter of a century since his wonderful 'Knight of Shallows' was picked by Donald A. Wollheim for The World's Best SF. With 'Litany,' Lee takes the reader to the New Mexico spa town of La Llorona for a quite literally wonderful story. It features an epic battle notable for its detail at the beginning -- not one of it's fourteen and a half thousand words is wasted -- and which gradually unfolds in scope like a flower, opening.
Four excellent, and one halfway excellent stories out of six, and all of them competent -- this is an issue of the highest order.
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