Three Things About Me by Aliya Whiteley

This is Aliya Whiteley’s first novel, after 2004’s superb novella Mean Mode Median, and a rather different proposition from that earlier work. In the little Devon town of Allcombe, seven people begin their training course at a bank’s call centre. They play a game as an icebreaker: each person says three things about her- or himself, but only two are true; the other group members try to guess which is the lie. We then follow the trainees to the end of the course two months later, by which time their situations have changed somewhat…

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

The Bullet Trick by Louise Welsh

When stage magician William Wilson accepts a gig at a policeman’s retirement party in Soho, he doesn’t realize just how much trouble it will cause. The retiree, Detective Inspector James Montgomery, has an envelope in his pocket whose contents are of interest to the club owner, Bill Noon; Montgomery used them to blackmail Bill’s father – and, later, Bill himself. So Bill would very much like to know what’s in that envelope; would William be kind enough to steal it for him?

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

The Last Days of Johnny North by David Swann

‘Publishing at the edges of reality and fantasy,’ says the Elastic Press website; and, indeed, Andrew Hook has shown a healthy disregard for genre boundaries, happily publishing mimetic fiction alongside fantastic tales, usually in the same volume. The Last Days of Johnny North stretches (pun intended) this ethos in a somewhat different direction: only two of the pieces could be considered fantasy (and even those can be rationalized); but what David Swann does is to make the mundane seem strange, even hallucinatory...

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

Scifantastic Vol. 1, Issue 3

Scifantastic is, as its name implies, a magazine of science fiction, fantasy and horror; and the stories in this issue cover a pleasingly broad range (though leaning towards the fantasy/horror end of the spectrum). And there are plenty of them: eleven stories in the magazine’s thirty pages, plus a smattering of non-fiction. But does the quality match the quantity?

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

Parenthesis, ed. Ra Page

This is the second anthology from Comma Press to showcase authors with ‘no major publication behind them’ (the first was 2005’s Bracket). Unlike the previous volume, Parenthesis is (according the press release) intended to be an anthology of ‘experimental writing’. Now, I must be honest and admit that those are two words that usually send a shiver down my spine, as I imagine them to describe something horribly pretentious and incomprehensible. Doubtless this is unfair of me, and I certainly needn’t have worried about it with Parenthesis, which is a very welcoming anthology – though that doesn’t make it an easy ride...

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

X and Y and Other Like Stories by Heidi Cyr

"Is it love, or just another psychotic episode?" This question is posed on the back cover of this enigmatic little book, and it expresses the main theme of Heidi Cyr's first collection; you may find yourself asking it as you read many of the stories...

Continue reading at SF Site.

Rabid Transit: Menagerie

This book is the fourth in the Rabid Transit series of anthologies. I'd not encountered the other three, so I wasn't sure what to expect; but the cover blurb promised that the stories in Menagerie "show different ways to break out of the conventions of the shopworn story." I was interested to see what the authors had come up with.

Continue reading at SF Site.

Further links:
Vandana Singh
Matthew Cheney
Dean Francis Alfar
Rudi Dornemann
Christopher Barzak
Alan DeNiro
Kristin Livdahl
Velocity Press

Singer in the Snow by Louise Marley

The frozen world of Nevya experiences summer but once every five years, with the coming of a second sun known as the Visitor. The Nevyans are therefore dependent on quiru, the magical fields of light and heat generated by Singers. Mreen has just qualified as a Cantrix, and will shortly travel to the House of Tarus, where she will provide quiru for the inhabitants. Her quiru are exceptionally strong, such that a nimbus of light surrounds her constantly; but she is mute, though able to communicate telepathically (as can all Singers) and through sign language. A student Singer named Emle is assigned to go with Mreen and act as her interpreter for a time, before returning to Conservatory. Emle is highly talented, but frustrated that she cannot channel her Gift to produce quiru. Meanwhile, at Tarus, young stable hand Luke has his own problems, namely his stepfather, Axl. The hrussmaster is abusive towards Luke's mother Erlys, but she refuses to stand up to him. Luke fears for his sister Gwin -- and Gwin harbours a secret that could make those fears well-founded...

Continue reading at SF Site.

Further links:
Louise Marley
Marley's blog
Viking