zombie realms of fantasy
Jul. 31st, 2009 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sergebroom“…welcome to the zombie Realms of Fantasy…”
So says Shawna McCarthy in her editorial. Strictly speaking, referring to her revived magazine as a shambling and rotting semblance of life is rather unflattering. And inaccurate. I guess that calling if the Modern Prometheus’s Realms of Fantasy would have been too much of a mouthful.
How does the magazine, now under the ownership of Warren Lapine, compare to its old incarnation?
I don’t have the older issues within reach, as they are 2000 miles away, but overall it looks pretty much the same. There is no use for background colors and white glossy paper is used instead, but the same columns are there, with the same authors. I was a bit surprised that the videogame reviews and the book reviews had switched places, with the latter now being toward the end of the magazine, but that’s where the editor put herself so am I to quibble?
What of the fiction? It’s as gorgeously illustrated as ever. By some strange coincidence, not only was the magazine resurrected, but most of the stories were about Death and overcoming it. The exception was Bruce Holland Rogers’s ”Well and Truly Broken”, about three young sisters who go into the forest in spite of their having been forbidden to do so there by their parents. We know what happens when a fairy tale’s character ignores an interdiction. The story’s flaw is that it’s too short. I know, on second thought it is the right length, but that’s how I felt the first time around.
Meanwhile, Tanith Lee’s ”Our Lady of Scarlet”, suffers from typos and many dropped words, which constantly jarred me out of this tale of the Plague and of a desperate attempt to stop it.
Ian Creasy’s ”Digging for Paradise” has a man tricked by a sorcerer into coming to the End of Days to dig out stones filled with Earth’s magic after their being buried for aeons. That means the man’s wife is now long dead and beyond his reach. Or is she? The man doesn’t know if he can trust the sorcerer’s promises especially when the latter will have gained access to that unlimited magic. The story has a structural problem, regarding one of the main conflicts is resolved, but overall I liked it.
My favorite story is Dennis Danvers’s ”Healing Benjamin”. When he was a teenager, Jeffrey’s refusal to let his old cat Benjamin die was such that the strength of his desire nrought Benjamin back to life and health. Decades pass and, while Jeffrey is getting older, Benjamin isn’t. And has learned to talk.
So says Shawna McCarthy in her editorial. Strictly speaking, referring to her revived magazine as a shambling and rotting semblance of life is rather unflattering. And inaccurate. I guess that calling if the Modern Prometheus’s Realms of Fantasy would have been too much of a mouthful.
How does the magazine, now under the ownership of Warren Lapine, compare to its old incarnation?
I don’t have the older issues within reach, as they are 2000 miles away, but overall it looks pretty much the same. There is no use for background colors and white glossy paper is used instead, but the same columns are there, with the same authors. I was a bit surprised that the videogame reviews and the book reviews had switched places, with the latter now being toward the end of the magazine, but that’s where the editor put herself so am I to quibble?
What of the fiction? It’s as gorgeously illustrated as ever. By some strange coincidence, not only was the magazine resurrected, but most of the stories were about Death and overcoming it. The exception was Bruce Holland Rogers’s ”Well and Truly Broken”, about three young sisters who go into the forest in spite of their having been forbidden to do so there by their parents. We know what happens when a fairy tale’s character ignores an interdiction. The story’s flaw is that it’s too short. I know, on second thought it is the right length, but that’s how I felt the first time around.
Meanwhile, Tanith Lee’s ”Our Lady of Scarlet”, suffers from typos and many dropped words, which constantly jarred me out of this tale of the Plague and of a desperate attempt to stop it.
Ian Creasy’s ”Digging for Paradise” has a man tricked by a sorcerer into coming to the End of Days to dig out stones filled with Earth’s magic after their being buried for aeons. That means the man’s wife is now long dead and beyond his reach. Or is she? The man doesn’t know if he can trust the sorcerer’s promises especially when the latter will have gained access to that unlimited magic. The story has a structural problem, regarding one of the main conflicts is resolved, but overall I liked it.
My favorite story is Dennis Danvers’s ”Healing Benjamin”. When he was a teenager, Jeffrey’s refusal to let his old cat Benjamin die was such that the strength of his desire nrought Benjamin back to life and health. Decades pass and, while Jeffrey is getting older, Benjamin isn’t. And has learned to talk.
Ben quickly laps up his tea and jumps onto the bed, spry as ever, pushing my frail hands apart and inserting himself once more in my grasp. I can feel him through my skin, thin as paper, his heart beating, hard and steady , through my fingertips. “Good night, Jeffrey.”
