Clockwork Phoenix 4

by Mike Allen (Editor), Yves Meynard, Ian McHugh

The ground-breaking, boundary-pushing, award-nominated series of fantasy anthologies series returns for a fourth installment through the miracle of Kickstarter, bringing you eighteen brand new tales of beauty and strangeness.

With stories by Yves Meynard, Ian McHugh, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Richard Parks, Gemma Files, Yukimi Ogawa, A.C. Wise, Marie Brennan, Alisa Alering, Tanith Lee, Cat Rambo, Shira Lipkin, Corinne Duyvis, Kenneth Schneyer, Camille Alexa, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Patricia Russo and Barbara Krasnoff.

Table of Contents
“Our Lady of the Thylacines” by Yves Meynard
“The Canal Barge Magician’s Number Nine Daughter” by Ian McHugh
“On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse” by Nicole Kornher-Stace
“Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl” by Richard Parks
“Trap-Weed” by Gemma Files
“Icicle” by Yukimi Ogawa
“Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story” by A.C. Wise
“What Still Abides” by Marie Brennan
“The Wanderer King” by Alisa Alering
“A Little of the Night” by Tanith Lee
“I Come from the Dark Universe” by Cat Rambo
“Happy Hour at the Tooth and Claw” by Shira Lipkin
“Lilo Is” by Corinne Duyvis
“Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer” by Kenneth Schneyer
“Three Times” by Camille Alexa
“The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
“The Old Woman with No Teeth” by Patricia Russo
“The History of Soul 2065″ by Barbara Krasnoff

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Science Fiction, Steampunk

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita.

An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his forthcoming dark fantasy novel TRAIL OF SHADOWS, his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO and THE GHOULMAKER’S ARIA, and his newest horror collection, SLOW BURN.

UNSEAMING and AFTERMATH OF AN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable “The Button Bin” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy.

As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for MYTHIC DELIRIUM, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years.

He’s a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include STRANGE WISDOMS OF THE DEAD, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor’s Choice selection, and HUNGRY CONSTELLATIONS, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee.

With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.

Reviews

[Meredith is a hot mess · Rating 3 out of 5]

rtc

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally posted on Short Story Review:

Highlights:

"Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl" by Richard Parks
"Icicle" by Yukimi Ogawa
"Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story" by A.C. Wise
"The Wanderer King" by Alisa Alering
"Lilo Is" by Corinne Duyvis
"Selected Program Notes From the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" by Kenneth Schneyer
"The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly" by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
"The History of Soul 2065" by Barbara Krasnoff


With a release date of July 2013, Clockwork Phoenix 4 will provide some not-so-light summer reading. The latest in the series edited by Mike Allen, Clockwork Phoenix 4 was Kickstarter-funded, and the introduction to this volume has Allen explaining the reason behind this crowd-funded reincarnation, rather than the puzzle of an introduction which began the first three volumes. This volume contains eighteen original stories which can only be classified as speculative; most of them blur or even reject genre lines altogether. The common thread which runs through these stories is a sense of unsettling strangeness. There were several moments when reading that I felt physically altered, only to realize that it was the story and not my body which was causing the queasy feeling in my gut.

That is not to say that these stories are not enjoyable; they are, in a discombobulating, shiver-inducing kind of way. And there were several of the tales which left me thinking on them long after I had finished reading. I can't say that I understood all of the stories in this collection -- there are a few, such as Yves Meynard's "Our Lady of the Thylacines" and Benjanun Sriduangkaew's "The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly" -- whose surface-level meanings remain fuzzy, but I feel as though that confusion might add to these stories' charm. For certain, there is not one story in Clockwork Phoenix 4 that I found completely absent of merit.

In Richard Parks' "Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl," two personifications of two distinct clichés meet on a beach on several separate occasions. The Drowned Girl floats in the ocean until she washes upon a shore and upsets a community then promptly disappears, giving them an urban legend to pass down for generations. The Beach Bum falls in love summer after summer, a fling which the lovers will remember for the rest of the lives. Both characters exist mostly in the memory of the people they have left. Together they speak of their reasons for existing, their reasons for performing the same ritual again and again. This story has an unexplainable but beautiful sadness to it.

Yukimi Ogawa's "Icicle" is a simple, folkloric story of a half human, half snow-woman whose body boasts both a human heart and an icicle which rests poised ready to pierce her heart. Her fragility comes to be a burden when she decides to see the ocean, traveling far from the mountain where she was raised. Never having known her father, the story feels from the beginning as though that might be where her quest will lead. Not entirely predictable, however, the story does end on a disquieting revelation.

A boy and a girl, a devil and a ghost, make a yearly bet -- they never remember the results -- on who can capture the most souls in A.C. Wise's "Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story." A tragic story in which the sense of entrapment is palpable, "Lesser Creek" also says something about gender roles, as the village's perceptions of the two spirits differs greatly, and the methods with which they extract their souls both sets them apart and unites them.

In Alisa Alering's "The Wanderer King," a post-apocalyptic story in which the apocalypse is never explained, society has been split into two factions: the Wanderers and the Fixers. Two friends -- Pansy, a Wanderer, and Chool, a Fixer -- find a crown and set off to find the dead body it belongs to, the king who will save them. An eerie tale of redemption as Chool seeks to atone for her own bloody past, of which Pansy is not aware.

A woman has a spider-demon's child and is then forced to raise her on her own in Corinne Duyvis' "Lilo Is." Short and sweet, "Lilo Is" explores a mother's challenge to instill in her child a solid sense of self-esteem.

Written as a program to a gallery's art exhibition, "Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" by Kenneth Schneyer is an innovative story told in an innovative way. The program notes feel like authentic program notes, complete with the program writer's pompous discussion questions which often miss the mark completely. A vivid retrospective of an imaginary artist's interesting life, with clues contained within the piece that there is much below the artwork's surface.

In Benjanun Sriduangkaew's "The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly," a woman with little time to live has her heart replaced with bees in a world where technology and life are intertwined. It's a challenging story which will reward readers more familiar with the science fictional tropes in which the story deals, but I found the details of her transformation fascinating, and her search for her missing sibling hits home.

"The History of Soul 2065" by Barbara Krasnoff is the story, told in ten-year increments, of a group of family and friends who meet each year for seder. The character Abram tells them, on the youngest member's first seder, of a legend: originally, there were 60,000 souls in the universe which were broken into pieces. When all the pieces of a soul return to one another, "a part of the universe is healed and made whole." The group decides that they are all part of Soul 2065, and a tradition is born where each year they tell each other one thing that has happened to them throughout the year. It's interesting to hear the complete lives of so many characters, and the moment of realization that the story is not as simple as it first appears is a shock.

Available here for pre-order, Clockwork Phoenix 4 also contains:

"Our Lady of the Thylacines" by Yves Meynard
"The Canal Barge Magician's Number Nine Daughter" by Ian McHugh
"On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse" by Nicole Kornher-Stace
"Trap-Weed" by Gemma Files
"What Still Abides" by Marie Brennan
"A Little of the Night" by Tanith Lee
"I Come From the Dark Universe" by Cat Rambo
"Happy Hour at The Tooth and Claw" by Shira Lipkin
"Three Times" by Camille Alexa
"The Old Woman With No Teeth" by Patricia Russo

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been waiting for this book to come out after hearing an excerpt of Shira Lipkin's "Happy Hour at the Tooth and Claw" (which appears in this anthology). Lipkin's story wasn't like anything else I had ever heard, a funny, irreverent, heart-breaking, pan-galatic, inter-dimensional story told in alternating viewpoints.

And then I read the entirety of Clockwork Phoenix 4.

It is safe to say that NONE of these stories are like anything I've ever read before. Nicole Kornher-Stace's “On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse” presents an apocalyptic future so vivid and real (and fully fledged) that the constellations and their accompany mythology are re-imagined!

Kenneth Schneyer's “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer” presents the story in the form of a program guide at an art museum, leaving the reader to wonder if it's a ghost story, a story of an artist's decline into mental illness, or really just an exhibit of fanciful art.

Gemma Files's “Trap-Weed” merges pirate lore and selkie mythology and turns it upside down and inside out in a stunning, imaginative, breathtakingly original way.

Truly, the same can be said of all the stories in this anthology. Almost every story plays with form as well - Schneyer's program guide type notes and Kornher-Stace's star charts presentation. But these aren't the kind of naval-gazing "experimental fiction" exercises of someone trying to be clever, that cheats or play tricks on the reader, that plays with form just to show off; oh no, these writers ARE clever, and smart and funny and earnest and melancholy and thoughtful and thought-provoking and always deliver a solid story, and any playing with form is only to show, not that it can be done, but simply that there are other, equally effective though not yet thought of, ways of doing it (it being "presenting/telling a story").

[Beth Cato · Rating 4 out of 5]

The overall theme of Clockwork Phoenix 4 tends towards the weird, and features some very experimental structures and voices. Some of these stories struck me as very strong--even bringing tears to my eyes--while a few others left me more confused than anything. To highlight some of my favorites:

- "The History of Soul 2065" by Barbara Krasnoff depicts a drastically changing world, as shown in family and friends as they gather for seder. The ending of this is stunning.

- "Lilo Is" by Corinne Duyvis explores the depths of a mother's love for a most unusual child. The thing that struck me most about the story is how real the relationships felt.

- "Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" by Kenneth Schneyer uses a very unusual format, which is usually a major turn-off for me. However, this one works for me because of the familiar format of a museum guide to an exhibit, and the magical subtext that grows with the story.

- "Beach Bum and Drowned Girl" by Richard Parks takes on some genre tropes with a new spin. I really liked the awareness of the characters.

[Malapata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nominado al Nebula al mejor relato corto este año.
No sé qué tiene este relato, pero me enganchó. De entre los nominados de este año es el que más me ha gustado (quizás porque es el único que no apuesta claramente por el sentimentalismo, aunque tampoco lo evite). Una historia narrada a partir de los resuménes que aparecen en el folleto de una exposición de pintura. Al principio descoloca un poco, pero consigue despertar el interés y hacer que se espere con ganas la siguiente descripción.

[Francesca Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is from back in 2013--it just occurred to me that I never transferred this review from LJ to here. It's a partisan review as I did proofreading for the volume.

I’m going to focus on just four stories, the stories I found myself thinking about for the longest time after reading them, but I‘ll have shoutouts for a handful more at the end.

The first, by Nicole Kornher-Stace, has a huge title: “On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse.” These are ominous star charts, drawn in pine pitch on birch bark, on horsehide, carved on whalebone, spray painted on brick. Two—gruesomely, but appropriately, for the story—are laid out on human skin, one etched, one painted. The harsh myths attached to the constellations dovetail with the personal story of Archivist Wasp, imprisoner of ghosts, herself a prisoner. It’s a flawlessly told story in a vivid, brutal post-apocalyptic world.

The second, by Kenneth Schneyer, makes a great companion piece to the first. This one also has a doozie of a title, “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer.” Where “Leitmotif” was told in and around an archive of star charts, “Program Notes” is told through notes for a painting exhibition. (These come with study questions that are hilariously apt examples of the form.) Although the notes are resolutely focused on Latimer’s changing art style, we readers can understand from them her loves, her difficult relations with her parents, and her supernatural gift. The notion of “highlight figures”—actualized ideals of a person, which Latimer paints with supersaturated brightness—lingered with me long after I finished the story.

Now we take a step back in the anthology’s order for a story by Corinne Duyvis, a story with one of the shorter titles in the anthology, “Lilo Is.” I enjoyed this story so much that after I finished it, I grabbed a family member and made her read it so I’d have someone to talk to about it. The titular Lilo is the daughter of a single mother who wants the best for Lilo, wants Lilo to be happy in herself and with herself, but who struggles as a parent because Lilo’s father was a spider demon, and consequently Lilo’s eating habits and anatomy present difficulties. Lilo’s mother loves her wholeheartedly, though, and the way she helps Lilo deal with Lilo’s differences is really touching (and Lilo really is persuasively, believably arachnid).

The last of my four is Benjanun Sriduangkaew’s “The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly.” This story was refreshingly science fictional and also refreshingly non-European in setting. How I basked in that! The river the protagonist wades through is the Prayapithak; the cities in which she chases down unpermitted images of herself are Samutthewi, Yodsana, and Laithirat. New syllables for the tongue, and different scents, too: coconuts and frangipani and orange blossom.

In the futuretime of the story, memory is held in common, and any person altering it alters it for everyone. That’s what Sennyi’s sister did: run away and erase almost all traces of her existence. Sennyi, who’s terminally ill, resolves to solve the mystery of her sister’s disappearance before she herself dies. Sennyi also resolves to replace her own heart with a hunting bird—but gets given bees instead. I won’t spoil the rest of the story; I’ll just add that those bees are more than just a storytelling flourish. They are plot relevant, and the story is as much about revolution as it is about family, and as much about personhood as both of those others.

Those are the four, but you also owe it to yourself to catch “Trap-Weed,” Gemma Files’s awesome story in which a male selkie (I feel the need to specify since so often the selkies we see in stories are female) and a shark-were (not a were-shark; a shark-were) team up to mutiny against the sorcerous and piratical (and cursed—and handsome) captain who’s forced them to serve him. The power dynamics, the dialogue, the magic—mmm, very, very delicious. Then there’s Shira Lipkin’s “Happy Hour at the Tooth and Claw,” which answers the question, what happens when a lonelyhearted vampire falls for a vivacious werewolf, and all this is witnessed (. . . or caused) by a barfly witch who has issues of her own? And finally, there’s “The Old Woman With No Teeth,” by Patricia Russo, whose eponymous protagonist keeps on interrupting the narrator as he tries to tell her story. I wish I could give you a quote, but they’re so neatly embedded in the story that it’s hard. It’s signature Patricia Russo, though, and she’s always good.

And, as I say, all the stories are good. Tanith Lee’s “A Little of the Night,” Ian McHugh’s “The Canal Barge Magician’s Number Nine Daughter,” and Cat Rambo’s “I Come from the Dark Universe” create rich worlds; Richard Parks’s “Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl” and A. C. Wise’s “Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story” are quiet ghostly (and watery) love stories. Camille Alexa’s “Three Times” is also a watery love story, but very different, and like “The Bees Her Heart . . .” it features a non-European setting. Barbara Krasnoff’s “The History of Soul 2065” encompasses a whole lifetime. The protagonist of Alisa Alering’s “The Wanderer King” is struggling with some very legitimate guilt over her actions during an ethnic conflict, while the protagonist of Yves Meynard’s “Our Lady of the Thylacines” has a struggle of a different sort ahead of her. Marie Brennan’s “What Still Abides,” an Anglo-Saxon-era story told in Anglo-Saxon cadences, neatly subverted my expectations, and Yukimi Ogawa’s “Icicle” played with some of the ideas and details of Japan’s snow-woman story in a way I quite liked.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doesn't disappoint. You read Clockwork Phoenix books the way you would eat a meal prepared by a master chef: trusting that every ingredient is placed precisely and with a purpose, even if one bite is bitter, it is to allow you to savor the sweetness of the next. In that way, the book absolutely succeeds and is a triumph. It's harder for me to comment on individual stories, they are too much a part of s greater whole. Ok, off the top of my head, I really liked "Happy Hour at the Tooth & Claw" by Shira Lipkin, about a dimension hopping witch who plays match maker. Also "Icicle" by Yukimi Ogama, about a snow-woman. And "Lilo Is" by Corinne Duyvis. Was it better than Clockwork Phoenix 3? Quite possibly. Fewer of the melancholy stories I tend to like, but a more cohesive total. A feast.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beauty and strangeness indeed: stories to sip and to savor. Stories to read over lunch that will give your food savor. I liked almost all of them, but my favorites were:

The Canal Barge Magician's Number Nine Daughter, Ian McHugh
A Little of the Night, Tanith Lee
The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly, Bejanun Sriduangkaew
The Old Woman with No Teeth, Patricia Russo (the world needs more Patricia Russo)
The History of Soul 2065, Barbara Krasnoff (made me cry in the best way)

Recommended for lunches, commutes, baths, and any other quotidian moments that need a little magic.

[Tyrannosaurus regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall definitely exceeded the average anthology for me. I'll have to come back and review a few of the pieces that really stuck with me, of which there were several.

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

https://aspeccharactersoftheday.tumbl...

[blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very delightful and unique stories :)

[Bookmole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Though looking at the ToC, there were more stories that I enjoyed than I remember. Not really a recommendation, is it? There is a full table of Contents at the end of the review; first my take on the stories I loved and loathed.

The Canal Barge Magician’s Number Nine Daughter - Ian McHugh - 4 star tale with magic and golems.

Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl - Richard Parks - 4 star take on Myffic Feems.

Icicle - Yukimi Ogawa - 5 star tale of love and redemption.

Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story - A.C. Wise - 5 star ghost story, very reminiscent of Stephen King and Ray Bradbury and in a very good way.

Lilo Is - Corinne Duyvis - 5 star tale of motherhood.

The History of Soul 2065 - Barbara Krasnoff - 5 star tale of Seder and Memory.

These were the ones I felt worth reading. The remainder are, for the most part, good well-written stories that didn't quite get it right. However, I loathed Tanith Lee's offering with a passion caused by a dreadful storyline fueled by great disappointment - Tanith is one of my favourite authors, so I was really looking forward to her tale. And then I wasn't. Loathing caused by temper tantrum?

Table of Contents
Introduction - Mike Allen
Our Lady of Thylacines - Yves Meynard
The Canal Barge Magician’s Number Nine Daughter - Ian McHugh
On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse - Nicole Kornher-Stace
Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl - Richard Parks
Trap-Weed - Gemma Files
Icicle - Yukimi Ogawa
Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story - A.C. Wise
What Still Abides - Marie Brennan
The Wanderer King - Alisa Alering
A Little of the Night (Ein Bisschen Nacht) - Tanith Lee
I Come From the Dark Universe - Cat Rambo
Happy Hour At the Tooth and Claw - Shira Lipkin
Lilo Is - Corinne Duyvis
Selected Program Notes From the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer - Kenneth Schneyer
Three Times - Camille Alexa
The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly - Benjanun Sriduangkaew
The Old Woman With No Teeth - Patricia Russo
The History of Soul 2065 - Barbara Krasnoff

[Kinsey_m · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've just read the first story "Our Lady of the Thylacines" and I'm having difficulty getting into a new story, although I'm sure there are many good ones in this collection. "Our Lady..." was very interesting and suggestive, so much so that midway through the story I was imagining what could be possibly happening and I came out with a response that turned out to be much more interesting (to me) than the one revealed by the ending :(

Basically, we meet a child who is living in a super creepy version of the garden of Eden and is sometimes visited/educated by "the lady". What is actually happening? It is revealed at the end of the story, but that ending wasn't really my cup of tea, while the setting and atmosphere were actually very good.

I doubt that I will read the whole collection in one go, rather, I'll take it up from time to time.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a lot of his stories, Ken manages to play virtuoso narrative games while keeping the story incredibly human and moving. This is a perfect example. This is a found-document story that follows the life, work, and love of an artist from the present into the future. It manages to stay true to the impersonal tone of a museum catalog while being engaging and tantalizing in what it tells us about Theresa, and about what it leaves out.

[SmokingMirror]

3 stars Tanith Lee "A Little of the Light" A nice twist in the depiction of vampirism, original in the way Tanith can be on the subject. Worth reading and even seeking out, but the other facets of the tale are not as vividly depicted as she can do.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for 2013.

It was interesting, but it didn't click with me. I don't want to ruin it, so just read it if you like.

[Jill Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Selected Program Notes From the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" by Kenneth Schneyer. Nebula nominee short story.

[Trish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so technically I haven't read the whole magazine - just one of the stories: The Bees her Heart, the Hive Her Belly, by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Very strange, but not really quite my cup of tea.

[Dusty Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover promises "tales of beauty and strangeness" and by god it delivers. This is a collection of stories to boggle the mind and exercise the imagination. A must read for fans of weird speculative fiction.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction C643 2013