Reviews

Spectral Realms No. 15 by Manuel Pérez-Campos, Wade German, M.F. Webb, Maxwell I. Gold, F.J. Bergmann, Ann K. Schwader, Frank Coffman, Ngo Binh Anh Khoa, K.A. Opperman, Geoffrey Reiter, David Barker, Jay Sturner, S.T. Joshi, Abigail Wildes, Alicia Hilton, Joshua Gage, Conrad Aiken, Steven Withrow, Daniel V. Sauer, Carl E. Reed, D.J. Tyrer, Darrell Schweitzer, Leigh Blackmore, Oliver Smith, D.L. Myers, Josh Maybrook, Chad Hensley, Ashley Dioses, Adam Bolivar, Lori R. Lopez, Jordan Zuniga, P.B. Grant, Manuel Arenas, Justin Permenter, Scott J. Couturier, Charles Lovecraft, Alfred Tennyson

jeffhall's review

4.0

Although I was not entirely enthusiastic about the contents of the previous issue of Spectral Realms, No. 15 is a return to form, and even contains some surprises for a long-time reader. These come in the form of excellent contributions from Lori R. Lopez ("Plague" and "A Crow is Calling") and Oliver Smith ("The Banquet of Thelassa" and "An Old Bone in the Bluebells"). Both Lopez and Smith have been published in previous installments of Spectral Realms, but their work had never really grabbed my attention in the same way that the pieces noted above have done. It's great to see the stable of talented poets expanding, a fact which bodes well for the future of Spectral Realms.

On the flip side, it's no surprise that much of the best verse herein comes from the poets who typically shine out from these pages: in this issue, Darrell Schweitzer and Steven Withrow are as reliable as ever, and one can only regret the absence of any new verse from Christina Sng.

Other notable poems are M.F. Webb's "The Gathering" and P.B. Grant's "The Eden Spills", the latter a case study in how to use a traditional verse form and well-trod subject matter to express something fresh and thought-provoking.