From richard.horton@sff.net Mon Mar 15 23:43:17 2004 Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:44:55 -0600 From: Rich Horton Newsgroups: sff.people.richard-horton, sff.discuss.short-fiction Subject: Summary: Some Debuts and a Demise, 2003 Summary, Some Debuts and a Demise, 2003 I've got a least one more magazine debut to get to later, but for now I'll cover four magazines that published their first (and so far only, as far as I know in each case) issues in 2003, plus one that had its last. 1. Flytrap This is a venture from Locus Assistant Editor Tim Pratt and his fiancée Heather Shaw, who is (as is Pratt) a promising young writer. The first issue included 10 stories, all short, totaling about 17,000 words. Highlights included Greg van Eekhout's "Fishing, I Go Among Them", an meditation about an executioner; Barth Anderson's "Scrapbook for an Epidemic", about a magazine infected by a disease causing aphasia; and Karina Sumner-Smith's moody and sad "She Is Elizabeth Lynn Rhodea". The rest of the stories are generally strong, and quite well-written. The poetry is also pretty fair stuff. 2. Trunk Stories This magazine edited by William Smith featured 5 short stories, totaling some 10,000 words. The main unifying characteristic of the stories is some very unusual ideas, and perhaps a tendency towards horror. I thought some of the ideas pretty good, but the stories really didn't work that well for me as stories. Best probably were "Landscape" by Brett Alexander Savory and "A Few Leaves from the Travelogue of Doctor Julius Jonsson, Cryptobotanist and Hylesoprotolist, Bay Ridge" by Erik Johnson. 3. Neo-Opsis This is a new Science Fiction oriented magazine from Canada, edited by Karl Johanson. I was quite impressed by the first issue -- no potential award nominees, but 5 pretty solid stories. 2 novelettes, 3 shorts, 30,000 words total. Derryl Murphy contributed a strong ecocatastrophe story, "Island of the Moon", about an alien visiting Earth to witness the demise of a species. Steven Stanton's story "Timestealer" is built around a nice idea, selling intense "experiences" from the viewpoint of one person, at the cost of their memories of the experience. Sherry D. Ramsey's "On the Road with Fiamong's Rule" is a humourous "road trip with alien" story that works pretty well, also. The others are by Ian Creasey and Davin Ireland. 4. Alchemy This magazine is more fantasy-oriented. The editor is Steve Pasechnik. There were 6 stories: 1 long novelette and 5 shorts, totaling about 33,000 words. I rather liked the novelette, Sarah Monette's "The Wall of Clouds", about a strange set of patients in a convalescent home, and some unexpected deaths. There was also a good Carol Emshwiller short, "Lightning", about a woman who loses her identity after a lightning strike, and a very good Theodora Goss story, "Lily, With Clouds", about a woman coming home to her prudish sister to die, with her late husband's mistress in tow. Oh, and the strange effect of her husband's paintings on people. Alex Irvine contributed a decent story, too, "The Fall at Shanghai". There is also a new R. A. Lafferty story, and a story by a writer new to me, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. 5. 3SF Sadly, 3SF (to which I contributed a monthly column), did not survive. Its third and last issue appeared in 2003. Liz Holliday was the editor. This last issue had 7 stories, two of them novelettes, about 38,000 words total. I think my favorite story was Ian Watson's "Man of Her Dreams", about interactive dreaming.