Review: Uncanny Magazine Issue 1: November/December 2014
By EricMesa
- 3 minutes read - 561 words
Uncanny Magazine Issue 1: November/December 2014 by Lynne M. Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Yet another demonstration of authors who are doing great things with the short story format. I’ll definitely be buying other issues. As usual for magazines and anthologies, a collection of my status updates.
“The Uncanny Valley” - An intro and the the mission statement of the magazine.
“If You Were …. White” - About Jungleland and a premise not unlike Roger Rabbit (the movie, not the book) where all the animal actors in movies were sentient.
“Presence” - Sad tale about caring for a parent in hospice care via a robot
“Late Nights at the Cape and Cane” - A perfect use of the short story form to tell the story of some super villains at a super villain bar.
“Celia and the Conservation of Entropy” - A precocious high school girl goes back in time to visit her grandfather. The story is fun as written, especially Celia’s mindset. But it all comes together in the final page (as is often the case with mysterious short stories)
“Migration” - About a world in which birds carry souls.
“The Boy Who Grew Up” - A teenager meets Peter Pan (who’s now also a teenager) and gains some perspective on his situation. It was sad, but perhaps a bit hopeful at the end.
“Her Fingers like Whips, Her Eyes Like Razors” - what I find annoying about many stories of the fey is that they seem cryptic to a fault. You never quite know WTF is happening and that’s annoying. It’s not a trope I enjoy. That said, the story overall was good and was successful in conveying the emotions it wanted to.
“Mars..Attacks!” - This article, like other similar ones, made me both happy and sad at once. And, considering it was written 3 years ago, almost sunk me into depression. It’s about how geek women are constantly attacked, especially online. (Something I just learned about in the past 2-3 years) It’s also about hope with all the female geek cultures. But to see where we are in 2017….ooh boy.
“Worldcon Roundtable” - a roundtable panel conducted via email about Worldcon. Made me more interested in trying to attend a WorldCon. There’s a lot of drama around it and that was even present in the roundtable. But fan comes from fanatic, so I’m not surprised people are extremely passionate about it. The important thing is everyone remaining respectful and polite.
“Does Sex…Soft?” - Shout out to God’s War,which I read last year! I have a hard time understanding the mindset of the people she’s criticizing. Sex, love, & romance are a part of the human condition.While I understand if a story ignores it because it takes away from the narrative (books don’t mention every character’s bathroom use), don’t think any story is poorer for including.
I skipped over the shorts article.
“Kissing Song” - a poem
“The New Ways” - a poem
“The Whalemaid, Singing” - a poem
“Interview: Headley” - So much of the tiger story is based in reality, it blows my mind. Also great to see her thought process.
“Interview: Beth Meacham” - Neat talk about how she worked with Jay
“Interview: Christopher Barzak” - A discussion about his short story in the magazine as well as his career.