Midnight Echo Issue 6

by Alan Baxter, Cody Goodfellow, Jiraiya Cummings, Shane

Midnight Echo is the official magazine of the Australian Horror Writers Association.Midnight Echo magazine is released in a limited print edition and in digital format (epub, mobi, and PDF), and contains more than 100 pages of horror (or dark) fiction, poetry, art, comics, book releases, and more! Visit us at www.midnightechomagazine.com ISSUE 6Nine stories are set in the far future and taking place in the distant reaches of space. Inside you’ll discover a strange world with a planetary ring forged from organic matter, bizarre aliens cataloguing and collecting humans to populate their idea of paradise, Lovecraftian horrors come to life in the heart of a comet, cybernetic monsters hunting humans in the hull of an abandoned star ship, and paranoid space explorers pushed to their limits at the frontier of an uncharted universe. This issue also includes the 2011 Australian Horror Writers Association’s Flash Fiction and Short Story Award winning entries.“Earthworms” by Cody Goodfellow“Trawling the Void” by Alan Baxter“Out Hunting For Teeth” by Joanne Anderton“Graveyard Orbit” by Shane Jiraiya Cummings“Surgeon Scalpelfingers” by Helen Stubbs“Silver-Clean” by Jenny Blackford“The Wanderer in the Darkness” by Andrew J McKiernan“Winds of Nzambi” by David Conyers & David Kernot“Duncan Checks Out” by Nicholas Stella“Dead Low” by Cat Sparks“More Matter, Less Art” by Stephen Dedman“Seeds” by Mark Farrugia The issue features an in depth interview with Charles Stross, one of the most imaginative and insightful science fiction authors writing today. Stross has been honoured with two Hugo awards and Locus Reader awards, and has published more than a dozen novels, including Saturn’s Children and The Fuller Memorandum. He talks to David Conyers for Midnight Echo about his Lovecrafitan science fiction horror series, The Laundry, and his latest novel, Rule 34.A second interview is with Chris Moore, world renowned British science fiction artist best known for his striking covers for Orion Publishing’s SF Masterworks series. Insights are gained into Moore’s process for achieving his striking and imaginative art, and the many changes he has been facing in the publishing industry since he began illustrating in the 1970s.The cover for Midnight Echo 6, ‘Strange Behaviour’, is a creation of talented UK artist, Paul Drummond, who will be well-known to readers of Interzone and Jupiter for his striking depictions of star ships, futuristic humans and robots. Featured interior illustrators include Steve Gilberts, David Lee Ingersoll, Olivia Kernot and Nathan Wyckoff.Midnight Echo 6: The Science Fiction Horror Special, has been edited by South Australian trio, David Kernot (editor of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine), Jason Fischer (Writers of the Future winner and Aurealis nominee), and David Conyers (author of The Eye of Infinity, The Spiraling Worm and co-editor of Cthulhu Unbound 3).

167 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 30, 2011

About the author

My book rating system:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Brilliant, I bloody loved it!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Really good, highly recommended.
⭐⭐⭐ - Enjoyable, well worth a read.

I don't talk about ⭐⭐ and ⭐ reads because I only talking up the good stuff. That's why my Goodreads rarely has anything under a ⭐⭐⭐.

Bio: Alan Baxter is a British-Australian multi-award-winning author of horror, supernatural thrillers, dark fantasy, and crime. He’s also a martial arts expert, a whisky-soaked swear monkey, and dog lover. He creates dark, weird stories among the valleys of southern Tasmania.

Fond him online at www.alanbaxter.com.au

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Australian horror magazine put out a special science fiction edition in order to combine the two genres. It contained eleven short stories, a poem, two interviews, and some interior artwork. I didn't much care about the poem and artwork. So I will just comment on the 13 other items:

6 • Earthworms • [Cthulhu Mythos short fiction] • short story by Cody Goodfellow
13 • Trawling the Void • short story by Alan Baxter
21 • Charles Stross • interview of Charles Stross • by David Conyers
27 • Out Hunting for Teeth • short story by Joanne Anderton
35 • Chris Moore • interview of artist Chris Moore • by David Conyers
40 • Graveyard Orbit • short story by Shane Jiraiya Cummings
54 • Surgeon Scalpelfingers • short story by Helen Stubbs
58 • The Wanderer in the Darkness • short story by Andrew J. McKiernan
69 • Winds of Nzambi • short story by David Conyers and David Kernot
79 • Duncan Checks Out • short story by Nicholas Stella
83 • Dead Low • short story by Cat Sparks
93 • More Matter, and Less Art • short story by Stephen Dedman
100 • Seeds • short story by Mark Farrugia

I bought and read the issue for the Cody Goodfellow short story. I was interested in sampling his work before deciding to commit to one of his novels. I liked Goodfellow's short story better than any other in the issue and thus decided to read the novel, which wasn't as strong as the short story, sadly. The story features a crew of shipwrecked Earth space explorers who lose their bodies and are merged into one and have to figure out how to collaborate in order to get out of a tough situation. The interpersonal drama was very well written: mature, realistic, and dark, just the way I like my SF. It was hard to get my bearings sometimes due to Goodfellow's throw the reader into the story and see if they sink or swim sort of style. But it nevertheless completely mesmerized me. It's one of the few stories in this anthology that really sticks with me and the only one written by an American.

The other 4-star work was the interview of Charles Stross. It was very well done and made me want to read more of Stross's work. So far I have only read one Stross short story, which I greatly enjoyed. I have a copy on my shelves of his Accelerando. This interview makes me determined to give the novel a try some time this year.

The other stories were various blends of SF and horror, most more enmeshed in one genre than the other. A lot of them tended to blend one into the other because they were similar in narrative writing styles and contents. If I were the editor, I would have placed the similar seeming stories at opposite ends of the anthology instead of together, as Baxter did. None of the other ten stories were standouts, but all were enjoyable enough to read, and had one feature or another that held my interest making me happy to have read it by the end. I give them all three stars.

There was only one exception, the next to last story, which is the spot most editors reserve for their weakest piece. I agree with Baxter's implied judgement that "More Matter, and Less Art" by Stephen Dedman was not good. It was about how pornography will be viewed and enjoyed in a future dystopia that I found unrealistic and uninteresting, and vaguely gratuitous in a low-brow sense. This collection would have been stronger without this contribution. The writing was amateurish, full of cliches and overly obvious metaphors that make me want to be sure to avoid other Stephen Dedman work.

In all, I would say that if you are a real fan of horror and science fiction, this collection will never be your favorite, but it might be an enjoyable way to spend five hours or six, particularly if you like one or two of these authors. The Cody Goodman short story alone might be worth the $1.99 it costs for Kindle. I also recommend this for Charles Stross fans. The interview was truly illuminating.

[Michael Lasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standout stories: “Earthworms” by Cody Goodfellow; “Out Hunting For Teeth” by Joanne Anderton; “Seeds” by Mark Farrugia. Very good stories.