Something Wicked Issue 12 (August 2011)

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    Well here we are, another month and another issue, our second, fully-digital online issue.

    We have some awesome fiction for you this month, starting off with a trip to a courtroom for a very interesting trial in “The Devil’s Advocate” by Ivor W. Hartmann. This is followed with a story about a hack writer whose story ideas come back to haunt him in “Happiest Amongst Mortals” by Glen Damien Campbell.

    We then visit with a man struggling to come to terms with the loneliness of his life only to be offered the kind of company he wasn’t expecting in Brian Kirk’s “No Longer Alone”. And we close off the issue with a whopping great novelette by M. Scott Carter about “The Bayside Incident”, which tells the story of the small town of Bayside where, for some reason, the murders have started again.

    Our feature interview for this month is with Arthur C. Clarke Award winner, Lauren Beukes. I spoke to Lauren a week before she won the award in an interview for Escape Pod, so this time round I wanted to know more about what it felt like to be the Clarke winner, and if she felt any pressure carrying the genre-fiction flag for South African writers.

    Well that’s our issue, plus the usual assortment of non-fiction and Writers Cornered pieces. We hope you enjoy it, feel free to comment on any and all of the stories on the site, and if you get a chance go ahead and rate us, or write a review.

    Remember to “like” our facebook page to keep up to date with all news, or better yet, follow us on Twitter @Somethin_Wicked for some daily mindless garbage interspersed with profound glimpses into the inner workings of my brain.

    Clarkesworld Magazine – Issue 59

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    The August 2011 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine.

    This issue features fiction by Yoon Ha Lee (“Conservation of Shadows”) and Chen Qiufan (“The Fish of Lijiang”), part two of a group interview with epic fantasy authors, an interview with Minister Faust, an article by Karen Burnham and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

    Lightspeed Magazine Issue 15

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    Every month Lightspeed Magazine features all kinds of science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between.

    “Defenders” by Will McIntosh explores an isolated nation and culture of created beings, who invite their creators for a visit twenty-eight years later.

    In John Varley’s “Just Another Perfect Day,” Varley attempts to convince us that we’ll be just fine . . . despite the panic, the amnesia, and the Martians.

    Genevieve Valentine returns to the fiction section of Lightspeed with “The Nearest Thing,” a future in which emotional entanglement in the work place is even more complicated than we know it now.

    Connie Willis lets us tag along on a tour of possibility in “Nonstop to Portales.”

    Adventure Tales #6

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    This issue of ADVENTURE TALES includes 3 stories by H. Bedford-Jones (“Mustered Out,” “The Badman’s Brand,” and “Surprise in Sulphur Springs”) plus “The Fugitive Statue,” by Vincent Starrett (featuring detective Jimmy Lavender), “Miracle,” by John D. Swain, “The Devil’s Heirloom,” by Anthony M. Rud, “The Tapir,” by Arthur O. Friel,” “Thubway Tham’s Dog,” by Johnston McCulley, “Lancelot Biggs Cooks a Pirate,” by Nelson S. Bond, and “Payable to Bearer,” a crime novelet by Talbot Mundy. Poetry by Avram Davidson, Poul Anderson, Clark Ashton Smith, and Fritz Leiber.

    Apex Magazine Issue 27

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    Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field.

    Table of Contents

    Fiction
    “The Whispered Thing”
    Zach Lynott
    “The Tiger Hunter”
    Rabbit Seagraves
    “The Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion”
    Lavie Tidhar

    Poetry
    “The Djinn Prince in America: A Microepic in 9 Tracks”
    Saladin Ahmed
    “Down Cycle”
    Elizabeth R. McClellan

    Nonfiction
    “Five Genre Books that Raise Mind-numbing Philosophical Questions”
    Jason Sizemore

    Apex Magazine is edited by award-winning author and editor Catherynne M. Valente.

    New York Review of Science Fiction #276

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    Busy Summer: Two forgotten future war novels; Lovecraft on the stage; heroic fantasy and its critics; the composition of Frankenstein; and reviews.

    On Spec Magazine – Summer 2011 #85 vol 23 no 2

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    The Summer 2011 issue of On Spec Magazine.

    This issue features short stories by Steve Stanton (“Hedge of Protection”), Ryan M. Williams (“Space Monkeys”), Allan Weiss (“The Whole Megillah”), Michael R. Fletcher (“Artificial Stupidity”), Priya Sharma (“The Fox Maiden”), Chadwick Ginther (“First Light”), and Geoffrey W. Cole (“On the Many Uses of Cedar”); poetry by A.E. Weber (“Dust to Dust”) and Eryn Hiscock (“The Life Cycle of Clouds”); guest editorial by Hiromi Goto (“A Planet of One’s Own”); Tribute by Candas Jane Dorsey (“Farewell to Joanna Russ (1937-2011)”); author interview by Roberta Laurie (“Steve Stanton: Writing with Faith and Hope for the Future”); artist interview by Cat McDonald (“Dan O’Driscoll”); editorial by Diane L. Walton; cover art by Dan O’Driscoll (“Deep Blue Seven”).

    Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #74

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    Issue #74 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Siobhan Carroll and Marko Kloos.

    Reviews

    “A neatly twisted tale of conspiracies and plots… Recommended”
    Lois Tilton, Locus online

    The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine, Year Two

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    NEW LOWER PRICE!

    A foreigner duels his lover’s clan with a living sword grown from bone….

    A captain’s daughter must write a poem to free her becalmed ship….

    A troubador plays a world-destroying song for a countess’s execution….

    A flock of clockwork birds tries to redeem their Jaguar Knight creator….

    These and other awe-inspiring fantasy stories await in The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine, Year Two, a new anthology of sixteen short stories and novelettes of literary adventure fantasy from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, the pro-rate online magazine Hugo Award-winning editor Lou Anders of Pyr Books says “is rapidly becoming my favorite short fiction magazine of all time.”

    The Best of BCS, Year Two features such authors as Marie Brennan, Rachel Swirsky, 2009 Campbell Award Finalist Aliette de Bodard, and 2010 Campbell Finalist Saladin Ahmed. It includes “The Isthmus Variation” by Kris Millering, named to Locus’s 2010 Recommended Reading List, and “The Pirate Captain’s Daughter” by Yoon Ha Lee, a Finalist for the 2010 WSFA Small Press Award.

    Table of Contents

    The Six Skills of Madame Lumiere · Marissa Lingen
    The Pirate Captain’s Daughter · Yoon Ha Lee
    A Serpent in the Gears · Margaret Ronald
    The Isthmus Variation · Kris Millering
    The Leafsmith in Love · K.J. Kabza
    Eighth Eye · Erin Cashier
    The Motor, the Mirror, the Mind · T.F. Davenport
    Remembering Light · Marie Brennan
    More Full of Weeping Than You Can Understand · Rosamund Hodge
    Great, Golden Wings · Rachel Swirsky
    Throwing Stones · Mishell Baker
    Memories in Bronze, Feathers, and Blood · Aliette de Bodard
    And Other Such Delights · James Lecky
    Pawn’s Gambit · Adam Heine
    Mister Hadj’s Sunset Ride · Saladin Ahmed
    To Kiss the Granite Choir · Michael Anthony Ashley

    Bull Spec #6

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    Issue 6 (“Autumn 2011”) issue of Bull Spec, a quarterly magazine of speculative fiction.

    This issue features fiction by Tina Connolly (“Selling Home”), Stuart Jaffe (“Perchance”), Dale Mettam (“We Don’t Do Quests”), Amber D. Sistla (“Fadeout”), and Kenneth Schneyer (“Less Than Absent”); part 2 of 4 of the Jeremy Whitley (story) and Jason Strutz (art) graphic short story “The Long Lives of Heroes”; interviews with John Claude Bemis, Lev Grossman, Lewis Shiner, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and Teresa Frohock; poetry, reviews, art, and more. Cover art by Jeremy Zerfoss. 64 pages.

    REVIEWS:

    • Locus Online, by Lois Tilton — Of Jason K. Chapman’s “When Dreams Wake” she writes, “A fine story, with well-done imagery: RECOMMENDED.”
    • SFRevu, by Sam Tomaino — “Bull Spec is back after a long absence with issue #7, some nice stories and some more great stuff. … Bull Spec is definitely worth subscribing to!“
    • Tangent, by Kevin R. Tipple — “a very well-done magazine containing numerous interviews with various authors, various features, and plenty of book reviews.”

    Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #73

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    Issue #73 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Rosamund Hodge and Adam Callaway.

    Reviews

    “Recommended”
    Lois Tilton, Locus online

    Part 5, The Holy Road

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    The Rifter is a ten-part serialized novel by award-winning author, Ginn Hale. The first episode, The Shattered Gates, was published on March 8, 2011. Further installments will be published on the second Tuesday of each month.

    Part 5, The Holy Road, was published on Tuesday, June 14th.

    When John opens a letter addressed to his missing roommate, Kyle, he expects to find a house key, but instead he is swept into a strange realm of magic, mysticism, revolutionaries and assassins. Though he struggles to escape, John is drawn steadily closer to a fate he share with Kyle—to wake the destroyer god, the Rifter, and shatter a world.

    “The true sorcery here is in Ginn Hale’s writing, which is by turns funny, fierce and lyrical. I can’t say enough good things about her work. Rifter is an astonishing story: terrifying and yet romantic. I was bewitched from the first sentence.”
    —Josh Lanyon

    Read an Excerpt:

    Chapter Forty-Four

    Despite the heavy canvas walls of the taverner’s tent, the noise and perfumes of the surrounding Harvest Fair infiltrated the air. John easily picked out the musical calls of taye sellers and salt vendors. He could smell frying dumplings and freshly cut onions. The laughter of men and children drifted past, as did the soft murmurs of women’s conversations.

    Inside, his surroundings felt far more subdued. The muscular, bearded proprietor and his serving women gathered around the stacked barrels of beer, wine, and liquor. They spoke quietly among themselves as they filled flagons and rough clay pitchers. One girl tended a small charcoal fire where kettles of daru’sira stood heating.

    The majority of the men seated around the tables spoke in lowered voices and wore expressions that struck John as somber if not solemn. He supposed it wasn’t the joyous men of the world who needed to drink themselves into oblivion before noon. Though, the dampening presence of both an ushiri and an ushman among their company could also have been responsible for the oddly sober atmosphere.

    “Such a serious expression, Jahn.” Ravishan swayed on the bench seat beside him. A flush colored his pale cheeks and his eyes were both dark and glistening beneath the shadows of his sharp black brows. “You should have a drink.” He held up his small glass and the strong floral tang of potent flower liqueur drifted from it.

    “I promise you there is no point in attempting to lure Jahn,” Hann’yu commented from across the table. He cupped a mead glass gently between his tanned hands but drank little from it. “Nothing tempts him.”

    “I’m sure something does.” Ravishan’s speculative stare was only interrupted by the arrival of a plump young woman with thick black bands tattooed around her tanned fingers. She placed another steaming pot of daru’sira down on the table in front of John. He thanked her and she smiled in a long-suffering manner. Her livelihood was not made by plying men with inexpensive daru’sira. However, her expression lit up as she noted the nearly empty pitcher of flower liqueur in front of Ravishan. But Hann’yu caught her attention and requested a plate of cutlets before she could offer Ravishan a second round of the liqueur.


    Apex Magazine Issue 26

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    Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field.

    This month we bring three outstanding stories to our dedicated readers. “The Neighborly Thing to Do” by T.J. Weyler starts as a classic Gothic tale, but a wicked twist adds a memorable dynamic. “The Widow and the Xir” by Indrapramit Das explores the pain of grief and how difficult it can be to let go of a deceased loved one. In Theodora Goss’s powerful “The Rapid Advance of Sorrow,” fiction editor Catherynne M. Valente completes a three story cycle of loneliness, sorrow, and loss.

    Rounding out this month’s content is a nonfiction piece from Paul Jessup. Jessup lists some outstanding weird reads in his “The Top 10 Experimental Genre Books You’ve Never Heard Of.”

    Apex Magazine is edited by award-winning author and editor Catherynne M. Valente.

    Fantasy Magazine Issue 52

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    From modern mythcraft to magic realism, Fantasy Magazine is your guide to magical realms and worlds beyond tomorrow:

    Many towns are full of folks who’ve lost treasures, things like a home or an eye or a family. But in J. S. Breukelaar’s “Union Falls,” one town full of losers is visited by a remarkable keyboard player—who uses her gifts to heal the hurts left by loss.

    M. Rickert spins an ancient myth into a poignant reflection on tragedy throughout the ages in “The Machine.”

    Bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente returns to our pages, after far too long an absence, and takes us to a Brooklyn of snow and silence in her new story “The Wolves of Brooklyn.” In it, a group of friends realize just how much has changed since wolves began prowling the streets of their neighborhood.

    Kelly Link gives us a modern vision of the Swan Princess in her story “Swans”—but this princess is far too crafty to let magic get in her way.

    Something Wicked Issue 11 (July 2011)

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    Something Wicked is an online magazine and featuring new stories and articles available to download on the first of every month.
    You can also Get a Subscription right here through Weightless Books.

    We start the July 2011 Issue (Issue 11) with “The Silver City and The Green Place”, by Abi Godsell, which tells the tale of a breakthrough scientific experiment in artificial intelligence. Next up is “Unstitched Love” by Michael Bailey, which is all about a little girl making a teddy bear for her rather annoying sister, needless to say things don’t quite turn out as planned.

    “Sky Painter”, by Michael John Grist is an epic fable about a fallen king and the love he left behind, and we close of the issue with a virtual reality noir murder mystery entitled “Alpha & Omega” by Paul Marlowe.

    Our feature interview for this month is with author of The Mall, SL Grey, who is actually the pseudonym of Louis Greenberg and Sarah Lotz (remember Sarah? She won our debut issue Short Story Competition).

    And don’t forget the non-fiction, we have Writers Cornered interviews with all four of our authors, an article on the feasibility of true AI and a wacky piece on psychotic toys and why we love them.

    And that’s our issue, we hope you enjoy it, and if you do, take out a subscription, tell your friends, follow us on twitter (@Somethin_Wicked), “Like” us on Facebook, and buy a subscription for everyone you know.

    Clarkesworld Magazine – Issue 58

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    The July 2011 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine.

    This issue features fiction by Gord Sellar (“Trois morceaux en forme de mechanika”) and An Owomoyela (“Frozen Voice”), part one of a group interview with epic fantasy authors, an article on end of the world movies by Daniel M. Kimmel and an editorial by Neil Clarke.