F & SF May 2008 Reviewed
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction #672 from Spilogale, Inc.
The May 2008 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Spilogale Press, 162pp, ISSN 71486 58370) contains the usual book and film reviews by Elizabeth Hand, Charles de Lint and Kathy Maio, as well as the 'Curiosities' Department in which a selected author re-examines a neglected work of SF (this month it's Hugo-Award winning writer David Langford) and Paul di Filippo's quirky 'Plumage from Pegasus,' which is perhaps best decribed as a 'spoof column' with a science-fictional twist.
Robert Reed
The fiction pages begin --as they often do-- with a Robert Reed story. This time 'Reunion' tells of The Golden Twelve, a part of a High School class blessed with almost unimaginable good fortune, and of a long-ago Physics experiment one sunny Friday afternoon. Despite the fact that it's couched in Reed's usual chilly prose, there is an emotional resolution that adds another -welcome- dimension to it.
By contrast. S.L. Gilbow's 'Rebecca's Locket' is an amiable piece of fluff that really only seems to be there to fill the pages. It's a nice enough variation on the near-ubiqitous theme of downloading consciousness, but says nothing new, and humour is entirely subjective -- this one (sadly) doesn't really work.
Rachel Pollack
The cover this issue is for Rachel Pollack's 'Immortal Snake,' a fine piece of mythology about a near-divine ruler and the religion and beliefs that legitimize him. At times Pollack seems to blend Tibetan with South American with Greek influences with many other sources in a way that gives it a fresh feeling. It's one of many stories in the fantastic that touches on the power of narrative itself. Never easily categorized, nor predictable, it's one of the stand-out stories of the year so far. The afterword shines yet new light on it and makes it still more memorable.
'Firooz and His Brother' by Alex Jeffers tells of a mysterious encounter on the road from Baghdad to Samarkand. At first it reads like fantasy, but by the end the tone has changed to SF as viewed from a mediaeval perspective. Jeffers has clearly also tried to understand the traditional Mesopotamian viewpoint on sex, which is a nice touch, and the story lingers in the mind, which is all one can ask.
Albert E. Cowdrey
New Orleans resident Albert Cowdrey has been mining and polishing the tropes of sci-fi, fantasy and horror for nearly a decade now. A solidly old-fashioned writer who yet does not flinch from updating genre cliches, he's surpassed himself by blending 1940s Ray Bradbury with Peter Straub in a fine piece of horror about alienation in 'Thrilling Wonder Stories.'
M. Rickert'Traitor' by M. Rickert is an elliptical piece. Pauline is foster-mother to Alika, a disturbed (possibly educationally sub-normal) nine-year-old, who Pauline uses as a pawn in her own private war with a near-future America. While it's emotionally powerful, it's also frustrating, so unwilling is Rickert to actually make any expository statements; subtle writing is to be commended, but there are times when Rickert doesn't quite get the balance right.
George Tucker's 'Circle' is a much more direct story. Billy Black (aka William Blackfeathers) seminole shaman and discharged Navy medic, tries to earn enough as a construction worker to buy the plot of land where his grandfather's buried. It's a workmanlike story that F&SF excels at, and a nice way to round off the issue.
