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| Art by Todor Hristov |
Short(ish) Reviews of Speculative Short Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction. Word counts are approximate. Opinions are my own. (also, probably SPOILERS ABOUND!)
Showing posts with label Fantasy Scroll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantasy Scroll. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #13
As if deeply understanding the shit that has been world news of late, the most recent Fantasy Scroll arrives to lighten the mood. Mostly. There is a definite sense of fun to a lot of the stories in the issue, and as always with the graphic series Shamrock. But more than that there's also a great momentum to the issue, moving from light and funny to more serious themes. Even at its darkest and more bleak, though, the issue's stories know how to hold onto the light, onto hope, and in the midst of some truly frightening events happening around the world, the issue is a pleasant distraction and a nice mix of genres. So time to review!
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #12
A new issue of Fantasy Scroll has dropped and this issue seems to me to be all about frustrated simplicity. Thinking something will be simple, will be easy, only to find that when you start pulling it apart there's all this…mess. All these angles that weren't considered and situations that weren't foreseen. Things go from bad to worse in some, from bad to better-but-not-great in others, from bad to still-rather-bad, and even from not-all-that-bad to oh-fuck-no!!!! These stories (and graphic story) around about having something in your grasp and then finding there's no ground beneath your feet, and either learning to fall well or trying to fly. Lots to look at, too, so I'm going to jump right in!
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| Art by Jonathan Gragg |
Monday, February 22, 2016
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #11
The February issue of Fantasy Scroll is out and it's a bit of a departure from what I'm used to from the publication. Not in a bad way, as this issue certainly brings the weird and revels in some strange visions of speculative fiction, from dragon bodies turned into houses to lost children living in a state of suspended bliss, the stories are often uncomfortable in a very effective way. The issue takes a lot of chances and, I think, they mostly pay off. There's a lot of stories full of the Valentine's spirit (and many more with a twist on the romantic impulse) as well as more than a few that feature some sort of revenge. All in all it's an eclectic issue that's unified by a feeling of unease and some fantastic stories. To the reviews!
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| Art by Jeremy Vickery |
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #10
Though it comes at a bit of an inconvenient time to review quickly, the new Fantasy Scroll is out and it is a mostly enjoyable experience. As always, there's a nice mix of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. The fantasy here is perhaps a bit revenge-focused, but the science fiction and horror both shine here, and as always there is a great graphic story to get a new chapter of. Overall, it's still a great source of stories, putting out nine original fiction pieces and a graphic serial. To some reviews!
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| Art by Joshua Hutchinson |
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #9
Well October is really trying to kill me, though perhaps with kindness if the new issue of Fantasy Scroll Magazine is anything to go by. The publication normally puts out a pretty stacked ToC, but this issue has not a single reprint so far as I can tell, which means nine original short stories (only one of them flash) and a graphic story. I'd mind more if everything wasn't so good, once again proving that Fantasy Scroll knows how to satisfy regardless of speculative genre. Horror makes a bit more of a statement this month, perhaps because the issue releases so close to Halloween, but otherwise there is just about everything a person could ask for, from swashbuckling fantasy adventures to more ponderous and emotionally devastating science fiction. So without further ado, to the reviews!
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| Art by Jessica Tung Chi |
Monday, August 24, 2015
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #8
Wow, this issue of Fantasy Scroll is stuffed full of fiction. Honestly, I was not expecting there to be this much original fiction, and only one flash story in the mix. The good news is that it's another solid issue, with a nice mix of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Plus another installment of Shamrock, and I think that more places should feature graphic stories as well. But with so many stories I'm not sure I can find a central theme of this issue. Or perhaps I can, because a good number of them deal with people facing the idea of willful ignorance. How it is incredibly dangerous and harmful and how it can be overcome. So onward with the reviews!
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| Art by Chris Drysdale |
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #7
So the new issue of Fantasy Scroll Magazine is out. And, if the news that they will be upping their output means they can continue to put out this level of quality, I am quite pleased. Back by popular demand (including mine) is the graphic continuation of Shamrock, and overall the issue has some gems. Stories about freedom and escape and confinement. Stories of Hell and dragons and futures where author's lives are boiled down to their vices. Not as many flash fiction stories as most issues, but still a mix of shorter and longer works, and nothing too too long, so things move quickly and the issue is definitely a satisfying one. So let's get to the reviews!
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| Art by Andreas Rocha |
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #6
Today I'm looking at the latest issue of Fantasy Scroll Magazine. Six new stories that I'm looking at and a few reprints that I'm skipping over for now. It's a solid issue, though I am a little sad that there is no further graphic adventures in this issue. Maybe in later installments. The editorial wasn't lying when it mentions young women taking charge in this issue, though there is also a deep vein of family running through it as well. The shorter stories might tend toward a bit more humorous, but most of the others circle around some sort of loss. That takes the form of dead parents in two of the stories, a dead grandmother in one, and a sick child in another. All well done, and the magazine continues to provide a nice read with a large number of stories.
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| Art by Franklin Chan |
Friday, February 20, 2015
Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #5
The greatest thing about this issue of Fantasy Scroll? I'm in it! But of course I won't be reviewing my story for ethical reasons. It's "The Thousand Year Tart," by the by. And that I'm not reviewing it doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. Because maybe you'll like it. Maybe? Ahem. That said, I'm still going ahead and reading the other stories in the issue because I'm still a fan of the publication. It's on the bigger side of things, too, but there's quite a few reprints so I'm going to stick to the strictly new stories. Okay!
Stories:
"The City Dreams of Bird-Men" by Emily Cataneo (5055 words)
A sad story about an astronomer trying to find some sign that the Bird-men will return to her city to save it from an approaching plague called the Dark. The Bird-men, made by astral magic, are a blessing and a curse, as all things are that come from using the magic. When the astronomer is taken to a remote monastery because she knows the secrets of astral magic, at first she refuses to use it to either save the city or save herself. Because her father died from using the magic. Because she knows it will twist her intentions. Only she can't help herself and tries to use the magic to get free, and instead seals the city's fate and has to use the magic once again to get the Bird-men to return. It's a tragic story that seems more about things leaving and never returning than anything else. The love she has for a man. The Bird-men. Some things cannot be mended and the astronomer finds that out in the end, clutching at hope. It's rather sad, but I still liked the muted ending with her clutching that feather, knowing and hoping still.
"Moksha" by Andrew Kaye (3956 words)
Okay this story had me glued to the screen, not least because I've been watching Ancient Aliens and the whole Indian-Alien connects are stressed pretty hard there and so this captured that connection, with gods descending through skymouths and battles in the sky and it's all well done. On top of that, the character work is spot on, these magic-users able to remember their lives and everything they've done and starting to buckle under the pressure of it. That they would seek out release makes sense, and so contrasting the main character to the man trying to call the gods down to end his cycle I thought was well done. I liked how the past melted into the present, how it all met up in flames in the end. That the main character was trying so hard to deny the weakness inside her, but even so there is the doubt there that in another few lives she, too, might start to crave release. A great story.
"Tempest Fugit" by Christine Borne (3254 words)
A story about the ghost of a sea captain who died in a great battle. Who died a hero, and yet who has lingered at a small bordello for three hundred years. And after three hundred years he finds himself forgotten, or nearly forgotten, his ability to interact with the world fading with that memory. And now there is a chance to move on, to leave, to pass. He doesn't really want to, but as he watches all of his men who died with him returning to the sea, returning to eternal rest, he has to make the choice of what he will do. It's a brooding story, with the sense that the captain has lost almost everything, that the world has changed around him and his great deed has come to little. At least in resting he won't have to see the world change more. More a story about being caught in the past than anything, I think the point is to see that while the events of long ago might become forgotten, it's important to move on. Some things don't need to be remembered so much. They become more irrelevant. And the ghosts need to move on, to make their own way. A ponderous story, it's moving and effective and worth a read.
"Human Bones" by John Giezentanner (1005 words)
This is a strange flash story about a man trying to kill himself by jumping in front of a train. It's boredom more than despair that seems to prompt him, and he doesn't get the timing right so instead of dying his arm is shattered, flayed open. And when he sees his bones he thinks something isn't right. Something is off about them, as if they are synthetic and not organic. He dreams, or experiences a vision, of some past or future where everything is falling down, where there is no human life at all. And when he wakes in a hospital it might all have been fake, just a dream, but then he finds a chip of his bone, His unreal bone. I wasn't quite sure about the ending, because I wasn't sure how high up in the building they were. Either he kills himself for real this time or he escapes. And I'm not sure which I would like more. It's a neat story, though, short and lingering on some very interesting images. Probably I'll just have to revisit it to make up my mind about the ending.
"Bandit" by John Stevens (349 words)
Well that was...short. A story of a man who befriends a raccoon only to take some drastic steps to keep it around, this story shoots for the shocking twist ending with fair results. I mean, it's cute with him and the raccoon and the story does a good job using a very limited space to shock and show the main character's unbalanced nature. The shift from silly story about an animal friend quickly turns, and the ending has some very dark implications and turns the story into a shock serial killer story. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of that trope. It's pretty well done, but I personally am a bit tired of seeing that be the reveal, especially with the victims being who they are. Still, it did make me think for a minute at the beginning that this was going to be a different sort of story. So it succeeded in settings its trap well.
Graphic Story:
"Shamrock" by Josh Brown and John Fortune
A short and action-packed six pages about a wandering warrior princess named Shamrock. She's out minding her own business when she comes across some guys trying to capture a tiger. The two save each other as Shamrock frees the tiger, and after a further adventure decide to travel together. It's short and basically what one would expect from a fantasy story about a warrior princess. It does seem to evoke the kind of 90s historical/mythological shows like Xena and Beast Master, and with that brush of nostalgia it's a pretty fun story. It doesn't exactly try for depth, but it does introduce its characters and the art seems appropriate, a mix of more cartoonish and real, reminiscent of Bone or the more recent Barbarian Lord in tone and quality. For some clean fun, look no further (though the costume that she wears is...I couldn't quite figure it out. A loincloth and pants with holes in them? But yeah, still a rather fun tale...).
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| Art by Todor Hristov |
Stories:
"The City Dreams of Bird-Men" by Emily Cataneo (5055 words)
A sad story about an astronomer trying to find some sign that the Bird-men will return to her city to save it from an approaching plague called the Dark. The Bird-men, made by astral magic, are a blessing and a curse, as all things are that come from using the magic. When the astronomer is taken to a remote monastery because she knows the secrets of astral magic, at first she refuses to use it to either save the city or save herself. Because her father died from using the magic. Because she knows it will twist her intentions. Only she can't help herself and tries to use the magic to get free, and instead seals the city's fate and has to use the magic once again to get the Bird-men to return. It's a tragic story that seems more about things leaving and never returning than anything else. The love she has for a man. The Bird-men. Some things cannot be mended and the astronomer finds that out in the end, clutching at hope. It's rather sad, but I still liked the muted ending with her clutching that feather, knowing and hoping still.
"Moksha" by Andrew Kaye (3956 words)
Okay this story had me glued to the screen, not least because I've been watching Ancient Aliens and the whole Indian-Alien connects are stressed pretty hard there and so this captured that connection, with gods descending through skymouths and battles in the sky and it's all well done. On top of that, the character work is spot on, these magic-users able to remember their lives and everything they've done and starting to buckle under the pressure of it. That they would seek out release makes sense, and so contrasting the main character to the man trying to call the gods down to end his cycle I thought was well done. I liked how the past melted into the present, how it all met up in flames in the end. That the main character was trying so hard to deny the weakness inside her, but even so there is the doubt there that in another few lives she, too, might start to crave release. A great story.
"Tempest Fugit" by Christine Borne (3254 words)
A story about the ghost of a sea captain who died in a great battle. Who died a hero, and yet who has lingered at a small bordello for three hundred years. And after three hundred years he finds himself forgotten, or nearly forgotten, his ability to interact with the world fading with that memory. And now there is a chance to move on, to leave, to pass. He doesn't really want to, but as he watches all of his men who died with him returning to the sea, returning to eternal rest, he has to make the choice of what he will do. It's a brooding story, with the sense that the captain has lost almost everything, that the world has changed around him and his great deed has come to little. At least in resting he won't have to see the world change more. More a story about being caught in the past than anything, I think the point is to see that while the events of long ago might become forgotten, it's important to move on. Some things don't need to be remembered so much. They become more irrelevant. And the ghosts need to move on, to make their own way. A ponderous story, it's moving and effective and worth a read.
"Human Bones" by John Giezentanner (1005 words)
This is a strange flash story about a man trying to kill himself by jumping in front of a train. It's boredom more than despair that seems to prompt him, and he doesn't get the timing right so instead of dying his arm is shattered, flayed open. And when he sees his bones he thinks something isn't right. Something is off about them, as if they are synthetic and not organic. He dreams, or experiences a vision, of some past or future where everything is falling down, where there is no human life at all. And when he wakes in a hospital it might all have been fake, just a dream, but then he finds a chip of his bone, His unreal bone. I wasn't quite sure about the ending, because I wasn't sure how high up in the building they were. Either he kills himself for real this time or he escapes. And I'm not sure which I would like more. It's a neat story, though, short and lingering on some very interesting images. Probably I'll just have to revisit it to make up my mind about the ending.
"Bandit" by John Stevens (349 words)
Well that was...short. A story of a man who befriends a raccoon only to take some drastic steps to keep it around, this story shoots for the shocking twist ending with fair results. I mean, it's cute with him and the raccoon and the story does a good job using a very limited space to shock and show the main character's unbalanced nature. The shift from silly story about an animal friend quickly turns, and the ending has some very dark implications and turns the story into a shock serial killer story. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of that trope. It's pretty well done, but I personally am a bit tired of seeing that be the reveal, especially with the victims being who they are. Still, it did make me think for a minute at the beginning that this was going to be a different sort of story. So it succeeded in settings its trap well.
Graphic Story:
"Shamrock" by Josh Brown and John Fortune
A short and action-packed six pages about a wandering warrior princess named Shamrock. She's out minding her own business when she comes across some guys trying to capture a tiger. The two save each other as Shamrock frees the tiger, and after a further adventure decide to travel together. It's short and basically what one would expect from a fantasy story about a warrior princess. It does seem to evoke the kind of 90s historical/mythological shows like Xena and Beast Master, and with that brush of nostalgia it's a pretty fun story. It doesn't exactly try for depth, but it does introduce its characters and the art seems appropriate, a mix of more cartoonish and real, reminiscent of Bone or the more recent Barbarian Lord in tone and quality. For some clean fun, look no further (though the costume that she wears is...I couldn't quite figure it out. A loincloth and pants with holes in them? But yeah, still a rather fun tale...).
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