SONGS OF INNOCENCE #3, A5, 116pp p/b, $5 (3/$12) from Michael Pendragon, P.O. Box 719, Radio City Station, Hell's Kitchen, NY 10101-0719, USA. The sister magazine to Penny Dreadful, with poetry, short stories, essays, and artwork which celebrate the nobler aspects of mankind and the human experience, though with a darker feel than the title suggests. Illustrated by D. Crockell, this issue carries work by Michael Pendragon, John B. Ford, Joseph Biddulph, John Light, Louise Webster, Ian Deal, Sue Phillips and many others.
SPACE AND TIME #92, A4, 52pp, $6:50 (2/$10; outside USA 2/$11) from Space and Time, 138 W. 70th Street (4B), New York, NY 10023-4468, USA (http://www.cith.org/space&time.html). A rich mixture of fiction and poetry covering all aspects of the fantasy genre – science fiction, supernatural horror, swords and sorcery, and the unclassifiable – from Philip Thompson, G. Woodrum, Leanne Groeneveld, Michael Meeske, Pete D. Manison, Del Stone Jr, and Eve Fisher.
SPECTRUM #3, 160pp B-format paperback, £3:99 (UK and worldwide surface 4/£14; worldwide air 4/£17) from Spectrum Publishing, PO Box 10308, Aberdeen, AB11 6ZR (e-mail: mail@spectrumpublishing.com; http://www.spectrumpublishing.com). New science fiction from Keith Roberts, Charles Stross, Eric Brown, and Jack Deighton.
SUPERFLUITY #1, A5, 36pp, £2:75 (4/£10) from Scribbled Publications, P.O. Box 6234, Nottingham NG2 5EX (e-mail: peter@larkin96.fsnet.co.uk). General interest poetry magazine with work by Neil Henderson, Richard Wonnacott, Wendy Webb, Vincent de Souza and many others.
THE THIRD ALTERNATIVE #24, A4, 68pp, £3:25 (6/£18; Europe 6/£21; USA 6/$36; r.o.w. 6/£24) from TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB (e-mail: ttapress@aol.com; http://www.tta-press.freewire.co.uk). "Extraordinary new fiction" from Paul J. McAuley, Christopher Kenworthy, Allen Ashley, Christopher East, Alexander Glass, and Charlee Jacob, plus an interview with Douglas Coupland and an appreciation of Federico Fellini.
WRITERS' BULLETIN #25, A5, 28pp, £2 (Europe £2:40; r.o.w. £3) from Cherrybite Publications, Linden Cottage, 45 Burton Road, Little Neston, Cheshire CH64 4AE (e-mail: helicon@globalnet.co.uk). General interest writers' magazine with news of magazine markets, competitions, courses and conferences, as well as book reviews and publishing news.
ZENE #23, A5, 36pp, 6/£12 (Europe 6/£15; USA 6/$24; r.o.w. 6/£18) from TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB (e-mail: ttapress@aol.com; http://www.tta-press.freewire.co.uk). A comprehensive listings magazine for prospective contributors to the independent press. This issue features guidelines from Britain, Ireland, USA, and Canada, plus competition news, reviews and articles.
CATTLE MUTILATIONS: AN ELUSIVE PREY by Samuel Adams, ISBN 1-57197-217-XA5, 84pp p/b, $15:95 from Pentland Press Inc., 5122 Bur Oak Circle, Raleigh, NC 27612, USA (http://www.pentlandpressusa.com). When Adams, a Mississippi cattle farmer, finds one of his prize cows bizarrely mutilated, he sets out to find out who, or what, killed his livestock. Before the truth is finally revealed, his investigation uncovers a history of cattle mutilation in the locality, and leads to real-life close encounters with beings from other worlds. Adams describes his exploits as though he's telling you the story over dinner, but this naive style belies a carefully crafted piece of writing. His credentials carefully established (conveniently, he had a previous career investigating issues of national security), he immediately disarms the reader by embracing and encouraging disbelief at his tale. Thereafter he nonchalantly drops in other background information whenever it's required, deus ex machina-like, until the reader's swallowing the most preposterous assertions hook, line and sinker! Whether it is a carefully-crafted send-up of the alien abduction genre, or indeed Adams's honest account of what he believes took place on his farm, this slim volume is an absolute gem.
CONTAGION AND OTHER STORIES by Brian Evenson, ISBN 1-877655-34-1, A5, 152pp p/b, $11 from Wordcraft of Oregon, P.O. Box 3235, La Grande, OR 97850, USA (e-mail: wordcraft@oregontrail.net; http://www.oregontrail.net/~wordcraft). Short literary fiction from a writer whose immaculate prose confronts the reader with troubled and troubling lives that, ultimately, are no less human than our own.
THE RAGCHILD by Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis, ISBN 0-9531468-2-0, A5, 181pp p/b, £4:99 from Darren Floyd, RazorBlade Press, 108 Habershon Street, Splott, Cardiff CF24 2LD (http://www.razorbladepress.com). A classic fantasy of good versus evil set in contemporary Swansea in which a runaway accidentally discovers a secret world called 'old town' within Swansea which is frozen in time. At the same time the malevolent Ragchild is forming an army of disparate, fractured people to destroy 'old town'. As you'd expect in such circumstances, events can only end in a fateful and cataclysmic showdown.
GESTALTMACHER, GESTALTMACHER, MAKE ME A GESTALT by Steve Sneyd, ISBN 0-95351-13-2-4, A5, 82pp p/b, £5:99 (US $12) from The Four Quarters Press, 7 The Towers, Stevenage, SG1 1HE. The veteran SF poet makes joyous contact with the impossible strangeness of the Universe across past, present and future.
STRANGE ATTRACTION edited by Edward E. Kramer, ISBN 1-930595-00-X, 445pp, $29:95 (also available: signed limited edition hardback (1 of 400), ISBN 0-9665662-2-X, $75; signed deluxe edition hardback (1 of 100), ISBN 0-9665662-1-1, $275) from ShadowLands Press, P.O. Box 2366, Centreville, VA 20122-2366, USA (e-mail: info@bereshith.com; http://www.bereshith.com). You may not have heard of Lisa Snelling, but her sculptures have inspired work by the likes of Neil Gaiman and Stephen King. One particular piece, a kinetic sculpture entitled 'Crowded After Hours', is a Ferris wheel peopled with odd and haunting individuals, and it's these riders of the wheel, and the stories they have to tell, who form the starting point for this handsome anthology. Among the contributors you'll find Michael Bishop, Charles De Lint, Harlan Ellison, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Robert J. Sawyer, John Shirley, S.P. Somtow, and Gene Wolfe. Each story has in turn been illustrated by Lisa Snelling, but if you're feeling flush you can buy the deluxe edition and receive an exclusive limited edition sculpture all of your own.
HIDEOUS PROGENY edited by Brian Willis, ISBN 0-9531468-3-9, A5, 293pp p/b, £6:99 from Darren Floyd, RazorBlade Press, 108 Habershon Street, Splott, Cardiff CF24 2LD (http://www.razorbladepress.com). What would the world have become, if Victor Frankenstein's attempts to conquer death had not gone awry? Would some events of the world we know still have emerged, or would it be completely, and utterly, transfigured? These are just some of the questions that the 17 new stories in this anthology attempt to explore, featuring such masters of the macabre as Peter Crowther, Paul Finch, Tim Lebbon, Joel Lane, and Steve Rasnic Tem.
SEE NO EVIL: BANNED FILMS AND VIDEO CONTROVERSY by David Kerekes & David Slater, ISBN 1-900486-10-5, B5, 416pp p/b, £15:95 (US $25:95) from Headpress, 40 Rossall Avenue, Radcliffe, Manchester M26 1JD (e-mail: david.headpress@zen.co.uk; http://www.headpress.com/). Chronicling the phenomenal rise of video culture, Kerekes and Slater describe not only the factors that made it possible, but also the backlash that was generated by the booming and unregulated video market. They go on to explore its alleged associations with criminal activity, and discuss murder cases supposedly influenced by films, as well as interviewing key players in the video 'underground'. The main bulk of this book, however, comprises a directory of more 70 banned films from to Anthropophagous the Beast to Zombie Flesh Eaters, each with full plot synopsis and analysis. Compiling this massive volume has obviously required an amazing amount of work, but the writers' efforts are more than rewarded – See No Evil is a key text that deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone remotely interested in the 'video nasty' phenomenon.
