Runalong The Short Shelves - Parsec 13
Publisher - PS Publishing
Published - Out Now
Price - £5.99 via https://pspublishing.co.uk/parsec-digital-magazine---issue-13-6515-p.asp
For this short fiction trip back to Parsec Magazine’s latest edition and editor Ian Whates has a fine selection for readers
The Packet by Neil Williamson - this novella has been split across three editions and in this I was very interested to see how it wrapped up. The good news is very well. This is a fascinating take merging Scottish social history with science fiction and the theme that corporations are always looking to exploit the hopes of the downtrodden be that sending people to the New World or a far off planet to work. For the final act Williamson brings in an intriguing new character that explains some of the mysteries but also acts as a key device better to free yourself or stick together. It’s a thoughtful final act as to what we readers would be doing in the same place. It’s been a great trip and well worth your time.
The Time Traveller’s Husbands by Gary Kilworth - a man tells us of his wife who had the unique ability to travel in time and how she used that with others to explore history. It’s an extremely well told tale of a happy relationship where they’ve learned there will be absences and things he just can’t comprehend but there is a huge bond between them. It’s also a tale of tragedy and loss. It’s a tale with a looming disaster of love when it goes wrong, grief and how you try to move on but with a unique science fiction angle to add to it. Really well told.
Ocean of Storms by Michael Carroll - this was a fascinating story when our narrator tells us immediately they’re 6058 and it imagines a human race that have learned to stop dying and aging. Carroll explores really well the ramifications of that idea with a planet constantly building new levels and yet has constant material but at the same time has a cost for nature. It all sounds horribly plausible and in some ways a world that is stuck on doing the same things all the time. Our narrator gets ensnared in an idea of one his descendants to be come famous. Even with such amazing technology human greed doesn’t go away and the idea they have is pretty horrible. The finale though is well worth the wait….
In The Tangle of the Seas by Cecile Cristofari - A beautiful tale of loss and hope set in a world destroyed by rising sea levels. Our narrator has pretty much hidden from the world and now just focuses on trying to save digital memories from the detritus of our rubble. But a chance encounter with a man trapped in a storm shows a whole new side to her world. There is a lovely amount of character building in this tale as we uncover our narrators life but also a message about just as much as we can destroy ourselves we may decide to use our time well for the future. An elegant tale to savour.
The Melusine Pact by KB Willson - this more fantastical horror tale has a mystery of a man and his child. It unfolds well but I wasn’t too keen on the ending being bit of a self sacrifice tale I’d dint quite buy the need for.
The Steam House In Innsmouth by Paul Di Fillipo - this tale is really enjoying itself imagining a Jules Verne style group of adventurers reunited on an immense steam powered machine to investigate a mystery in the new world: Di Fillipo spends time to set up this group and all their previously unheard adventures before them doing a mash up with cosmic horror as the story’s title just point out! Very breezy and a fine tribute to the two genres it tips a hat to.
The First and Future Forest (A Fable, On Behalf of Trees) by Maura McHugh - an elegant poetical story creating for the reader how a group of sentient trees could become its own civilisation. We experience time and life from their perspective and the use of language is lush, flowing and full of nature and science with such a touch of the epic tale to it. A pleasure to read.
In the non-fiction section of the magazine. I really enjoyed In The Weeds where Jared Shurin and Anne C Perry talk about trope tagging and I liked the way this article pointed out this isn’t actually something new the ‘yoof’ have done and pointing out the many tropes used for older fantasy readers use to navigate a genre. A really good thought provoking article to challenge some of the grumbles I see elsewhere.
Life In The Fast Lane has an article by the great Annie Czajkowski talking about their research into how music affects writing. It’s. This explored a new research project and how it started exploring what music means to writers but also how it helps tasks plus an insight into how research works. Really interesting and I’ll be interested to hear where this study goes next.
There are a fine set of reviews from Jack Deighton, HE George, Andy Hedgecock, Stewart Hotston, Nick Hubble, Juliet E McKenna, Donna Scott, Duncan Lunan and Kari Sperring. I loved this range in this edition and shameless Booktempting to admire.
Finally in Life Is All Loose Ends Andy Hedgecock interviews Nina Allen whose new book A Granite Silence explored a historical real life crime tale but links to a long writing career exploring ambiguities and shifting narratives .its a really good flowing piece about how the themes authors keep coming back to do evolve in their work as well as also how this story got researched and the perspective Allen wanted to show.
