Strange Horizons March 2008
The Weekly Web-Based Magazine Reviewed
Strange Horizons is according to it's masthead, "a weekly web-based magazine of and about speculative fiction. The term "speculative fiction" refers to what is more commonly known as "sci-fi," but which properly embraces science fiction, fantasy, magic realism, slipstream, and a host of sub-genres."
The webzine is an unusual one in that it's free-to-read, but whereas most webzines that don't charge don't pay their contributors, Strange Horizons is -like Jim Baen's Universe and Orson Scot Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show-- recognized as a professional level market by the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) which enables it to attract superior contributions. This is financed by annual charity drives, giving the magazine an idiosyncratic feel.
On-line Fiction
March 2008's fiction postings opened with Will Ludwigsen's 'All Talk,' an enchanting albeit (at first reading) slight story of a pair of unlikely 'superpeople.' In fact there's a lot more going on than at first sight. The worthy -if grandiose- world-saving of supermen such as in Heroes is beautifully mocked, even as free-will is examined with a killer last line.
'Kip Running' by Genevieve Willams tells of a foot-race in a Seattle that at first seems a retro-eyed view of the future --dirigibles and maglevs, and an ancient Space Needle-- but has an underbelly as secret as the race itself, revealed to its particpants by hints and covert signals. In this respect, the echoes of pre-legal homosexuality/lesbianism are reinforced by the matriarchal society, and the fact that the sole male in the narrative is the flashy, preening heterosexual Narciso. Except that things are not what they first seem, as Kip discovers.
Will McIntosh seems to be everywhere at the moment, including Interzone and Black Static. 'Linkworlds,' his contribution to Strange Horizons, is atypically bravura piece; Tweel, a savant, is taken to the world of Cyan to act as an assistant navigator and changes their view of the 'universe.'
In 'Ki Do (The Way of the Trees)' by Sarah Thomas one of the residents of the Arnold Arboretum Bonsai Pavilion recounts the events of the summer of 1986 and the visit of Kaelyn, a disturbed young gaijin horticultural student who changes the arrangement of the trees forever.
Individually, each of the stories is excellent, although read collectively in one sitting there is an over-reliance on current tense and an elliptical, economical style, as if Strange Horizons is deliberately rejecting the plain, straightforward narrative of other magazines. For that reason, the stories are better read as they are published.
Bruce Sterling Reviews
There is a greater proportion of non-fiction to fiction than in most magazines, much of it of a very high level.
March reviews include John Clute on Michael Swanwick's The Dargons of Babel, Bruce Sterling on David Edgerton's The Shock of The Old, Sterling's own Ascendencies reviewed by Nader Elhefnawy, and Adam Roberts reviewing Four Novels of the 1960s by Philip K. Dick.
Non-Fiction
In addition, Joanne Merriam's Werepenguin and other poems by Robert Borski and Kendall Evans sit alongside artwork, as well as columns by Susannah Mandel and James Schellenberg.
As always, Strange Horizons is a good stopping off point for the thoughtful and literate reader.
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