Tag: reviews

September 10, 2013

A Brush With Mythical Madness

A review of Ursula Pflug’s The Alphabet Stones (Blue Denim Press, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille Ursula Pflug writes The Alphabet Stones with a mixture of rural Ontario accent and a transcendent poetic quality. Her work glitters with the cadences of rural ontario while evoking a deeply poetic quality and beauty of phrasing. The Alphabet Stones is a voyage of self...

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September 6, 2013

Cold War Superheroes Frozen in Suffering

A review of Peter Darbyshire’s “The Last Love of the Infinity Age” in Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing (ChiZine Publications, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille Many of those who grew up with comic books fantasize about a world full of superheroes… but what would that world really be like? Peter Darbyshire’s “The Last Love of the Infinity Age” explores...

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September 4, 2013

Perfect Bodies

A Review of Don Bassingthwaite’s “Too Much is Never Enough” in Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Fiction (ChiZine Publications, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille We live in a society in which bodily perfection is considered a major goal. Our society privileges its ideas of beauty, its entrenched notions of health, and able-bodiedness. People medically modify their bodies, cosmetically alter them...

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September 2, 2013

Shifts into the Weird

A review of Lydia Peever’s Pray Lied Eve: Tales of the Untoward (Hora Minor Productions, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille Lydia Peever’s short story collection Pray Lied Eve is deeply psychological, exploring the inner recesses of her characters’ minds as their worlds are shifted slightly into The Weird. Her characters are whirled up in plots beyond them, motivated by forces outside...

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August 28, 2013

Trapped by Destiny

A review of Lydia Peever’s “Shrinking Dwell” in Pray Lied Eve (Hora Minor Productions, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille It starts with a ball of ice that has fallen from the sky. Connor becomes fascinated with this odd phenomenon, obsessed with the mystery and the need to solve it. He can’t figure out why others aren’t as interested as he is...

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August 26, 2013

Ch-ch-ch-changes

A review of Randy McCharles’ “The Awakening of Master March” in The Puzzle Box (Edge, 2013). By Derek Newman-Stille Warlock wants to be a musician. He has been a roadie for 5 years and he feels like he should step up his game and start his own band… the problem is – he has never learned to play music. Warlock...

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August 19, 2013

Protagonist problems

A review of Michael Kelly’s “Blink” in Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing (ChiZine Publications, 2013). By Derek Newman-Stille Writing speculative fiction is pretty dangerous… your perceptions change to adapt to a world that is off-kilter from what we like to see as “the norm”, your understanding of the world shifts to adapt to a new worldview, and you...

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August 17, 2013

Haunted by Nostalgia

A review of Lydia Peever’s “Everyday” (in Pray Lied Eve, Hora Morior Productions, 2013). By Derek Newman-Stille Our houses are places where we are supposed to be safe, places of comfort and security… but what happens when that space is disrupted? Houses can become estranged fast when we are alone, and when changes happen to our dwellings that we know...

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August 12, 2013

Malicious Math

A review of Matt Moore’s “Delta Pi” (from Torn Realities, Post Mortem Press: 2012) By Derek Newman-Stille Matt Moore’s “Delta Pi” is an Aurora-nominated short story that plays with the idea that math can be a spell as powerful as any invocation. Math is a language, a coded system, and reality imposes strict rules upon it, but math is also...

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August 9, 2013

Ticks of a Deathwatch Beetle

A review of Postscripts to Darkness 3, Edited by Sean Moreland and Aalya Ahmad (Ex Hubris Imprints, 2013) By Derek Newman-Stille This will be the third Postscripts to Darkness volume that I have reviewed, and it is the best so far. The quality of the writing and artwork is even more impressive than the first two volumes. The stories in...

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