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standback's review
"Illusions of Tranquility" and "The Economy of Vacuum" do go rather well together; both were well-written and portrayed desperate situations convincingly and with a lot of color.
"Dragon's Teeth" I was disappointed with. I enjoyed the online reprint of "Wizard's Six" for its intriguing premise and the brutal use of it; this story, on the other hand, seemed a muddle of many different things, none of them used in a satisfying manner. The setting has accumulated more methods of magic than you can shake a stick at, but none of them seem to actually come into play. The protagonist seems hardly affected by all the years he was transfigured, and most disappointing, practically every promise the story makes of tension or future drama has little to no follow-through. I feel like I may be missing something, but I'm having a difficult time seeing what.
"Blight Family Singers" and ?"Farewell Atlantis" were both fun little ditties. Quirky, odd, and offbeat. Light, but I definitely enjoyed.
"Hell of a Fix" was a lot of fun. "I'm an actuary" - that line had me in stitches. I wasn't crazy about the eventual conflict - the "wouldn't it be dull if everybody were good" theme has been around for a while, and I didn't find this version very convincing or engaging (and couldn't they have solved world hunger or something before fixing everything back up?). I enjoyed Hardacre's theological musings a lot - although I think they'd be more interesting still if they were less explicitly told, and were shown to have a more concrete relevance.
"...Did Something About It" was worthwhile for the punchline alone. "Iris" was short and sweet.
"Inside Time" felt overly contrived for me to enjoy it. Firstly the entire situation seemed too utterly convenient and isolated. Much more than that, though, I'm bothered by the implication that Herel could have just left everything alone, and Mae would have been absolutely fine. By all appearances, leaving Mae alone with Conway would have been atrocious. Fine, so we cover that by making Herel a despicable person with an overriding ulterior motive - but that's just overly convenient again, stemming out of how the story needs to go more than any preestablished character of Herel's, and it doesn't answer the question of what he should have done.
"I Needs Must Part..." I need to reread in a less tired state of mind. Clearly, not the type of story meant to be read with muddled concentration. I enjoyed what I read, though - very vivid, with precisely the right bizarre resonance to carry off a piece like this.
"Bad Matter" - nearly forgot this one! Very nice piece. The comparison to LeGuin is well warranted - kudos. The footnotes were very distracting at first, but they served their purpose well, and the feeling of otherness definitely came across very strongly.
All in all, a fair issue. I felt a bit let-down - while there were very few stories I didn't enjoy (let alone actually dislike), none of them grabbed me either. I think what I felt most missing was a sense of excitement, of wondering what's going to happen next. This issue had plenty of content and variety, but, to my own taste, nothing both substantial and complex that I could really sink my teeth into. Ah, well. Perhaps that's what next issue's for!
"Dragon's Teeth" I was disappointed with. I enjoyed the online reprint of "Wizard's Six" for its intriguing premise and the brutal use of it; this story, on the other hand, seemed a muddle of many different things, none of them used in a satisfying manner. The setting has accumulated more methods of magic than you can shake a stick at, but none of them seem to actually come into play. The protagonist seems hardly affected by all the years he was transfigured, and most disappointing, practically every promise the story makes of tension or future drama has little to no follow-through. I feel like I may be missing something, but I'm having a difficult time seeing what.
"Blight Family Singers" and ?"Farewell Atlantis" were both fun little ditties. Quirky, odd, and offbeat. Light, but I definitely enjoyed.
"Hell of a Fix" was a lot of fun. "I'm an actuary" - that line had me in stitches. I wasn't crazy about the eventual conflict - the "wouldn't it be dull if everybody were good" theme has been around for a while, and I didn't find this version very convincing or engaging (and couldn't they have solved world hunger or something before fixing everything back up?). I enjoyed Hardacre's theological musings a lot - although I think they'd be more interesting still if they were less explicitly told, and were shown to have a more concrete relevance.
"...Did Something About It" was worthwhile for the punchline alone. "Iris" was short and sweet.
"Inside Time" felt overly contrived for me to enjoy it. Firstly the entire situation seemed too utterly convenient and isolated. Much more than that, though, I'm bothered by the implication that Herel could have just left everything alone, and Mae would have been absolutely fine. By all appearances, leaving Mae alone with Conway would have been atrocious. Fine, so we cover that by making Herel a despicable person with an overriding ulterior motive - but that's just overly convenient again, stemming out of how the story needs to go more than any preestablished character of Herel's, and it doesn't answer the question of what he should have done.
"I Needs Must Part..." I need to reread in a less tired state of mind. Clearly, not the type of story meant to be read with muddled concentration. I enjoyed what I read, though - very vivid, with precisely the right bizarre resonance to carry off a piece like this.
"Bad Matter" - nearly forgot this one! Very nice piece. The comparison to LeGuin is well warranted - kudos. The footnotes were very distracting at first, but they served their purpose well, and the feeling of otherness definitely came across very strongly.
All in all, a fair issue. I felt a bit let-down - while there were very few stories I didn't enjoy (let alone actually dislike), none of them grabbed me either. I think what I felt most missing was a sense of excitement, of wondering what's going to happen next. This issue had plenty of content and variety, but, to my own taste, nothing both substantial and complex that I could really sink my teeth into. Ah, well. Perhaps that's what next issue's for!
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