What do you think?
Rate this book
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2016
CONTENT:
Novella
"The Liar" by John B Murphy
Novelets
"The Ghost Penny Post" by Marc Laidlaw
"Red in Tooth and Cog" by Cat Rambo
"The Language of the Silent" by Juliette Wade and Sheila Finch
"A Mother’s Arms" by Sarina Dorie
Short Stories
"Belief" by Nancy Kress
"Nanabojou and the Race Question" by Justin Barbeau
"Diamond" by Chris DeVito
"The Silver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D" by N. J. Schrock
"Golden Gate Blues" by James L. Cambias
Volume 130, No. 3&4 #724, March/April 2016
Edited by C.C. Finlay
Cover art by Jason Van Hollander
Novella
"The Liar" by John B Murphy
Novelets
"The Ghost Penny Post" by Marc Laidlaw
"Red in Tooth and Cog" by Cat Rambo
"The Language of the Silent" by Juliette Wade and Sheila Finch
"A Mother’s Arms" by Sarina Dorie
Short Stories
"Belief" by Nancy Kress
"Nanabojou and the Race Question" by Justin Barbeau
"Diamond" by Chris DeVito
"The Silver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D" by N. J. Schrock
"Golden Gate Blues" by James L. Cambias
Volume 130, No. 3&4 #724, March/April 2016
Edited by C.C. Finlay
Cover art by Jason Van Hollander
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
256 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2016
9 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
C.C. Finlay
66 books96 followersFormer Editor, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Author of The Prodigal Troll, the Traitor to the Crown Series, and Wild Things, plus dozens of short stories. World Fantasy Award Winner, and finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Sidewise, Sturgeon, and Locus Awards. Teacher at Clarion and elsewhere.
Married to novelist Rae Carson.
Married to novelist Rae Carson.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 31, 2016
"A Mother’s Arms" by Sarina Dorie deserves a nomination.
April 13, 2016
Loved the novellette A Mother's Arms by Sarina Dorie and Golden Gate Blues by Janes L. Cambias. Also, take a look at the novella by John P. Murphy - The Liar.
As always I turned to Charles de Lint's Books to Look for (Thank Gaia for this column) and Kathi Maio's movie review that this time covers: The Potato Farmer who worked the Problem. Guess who?
This magazine never fails me. It's the one that when it arrives in the mailbox, I actually feel glee.
As always I turned to Charles de Lint's Books to Look for (Thank Gaia for this column) and Kathi Maio's movie review that this time covers: The Potato Farmer who worked the Problem. Guess who?
This magazine never fails me. It's the one that when it arrives in the mailbox, I actually feel glee.
July 3, 2017
review later
October 6, 2017
A lot of the stories were average to good, A Mother's Arms by Sarina Dorie was fantastic. I think it's worth going out of your way to read.
May 11, 2017
March/April 2016 Fantasy and Science Fiction
7 • The Ghost Penny Post • 33 pages by Marc Laidlaw
Good/Fair. Hewell, a postal inspector from London, makes a trip to Binderwood to investigate some irregularities in the mail. He finds an overlapping mail service.
40 • Red In Tooth and Cog • 20 pages by Cat Rambo
Good+. Old appliances have taken refuge in a nearby park. One steals Renee's phone. She's not too worried about the phone, but the case was decorated with a pair of opals that she really regrets losing. She spends more and more time visiting the park getting to know its inhabitants. Better story if you are sympathetic to the appliances.
60 • Belief • 18 pages by Nancy Kress
OK/Good. Andrea is a scientist having troubles at work. Her daughter Natalie is searching for something spiritual, iarrthoir. Not too gripping, but a great ending.
95 • The Liar • 60 pages by John P. Murphy
Very Good+. The New England town of Versailles has had at least one teenage death on November 5th going back nearly seventy years. When Pastor Julie asked Greg Kellogg to become sexton he learned this and began to investigate. Greg has the ability to create lies, e.g. light bulbs that stay lit, and tries to use his power to overcome this string of accidents.
156 • Nanabojou and the Race Question • 11 pages by Justin Barbeau
Good. The trickster Nanabojou goes to Virginia when he hears of legislation being made by the white men to classify races.
167 • The Language of the Silent • 29 pages by Juliette Wade, Sheila Finch
Good/Very Good. Ifigenia is a linguist. Just before the mission with the Oloa, the ship runs into some space debris causing her to go deaf. She still accompanies the ambassador to the planet. While there she learns of a second race that has been enslaved and which is now fighting back.
196 • Diamond • 4 pages by Chris DeVito
OK. Twist ending of Jackie Robinson breaking into the big leagues.
212 • The Sliver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D • 5 pages by N. J. Schrock
OK+. An exploratory mission finds silver strands in the atmosphere. The more they see the strands the more it looks like they portray sentient behavior.
217 • A Mother's Arms • 22 pages by Sarina Dorie
Excellent/vg. An octopiller village is damaged by a fight between mothraflies and a sky beast. One octopiller mother lost all eight of her babies and wants revenge upon the sky beast. She finds a larvae inside and adopts it. Really touching story told from the perspective of the octopiller mother.
239 • Golden Gate Blues • 17 pages by James L. Cambias
Very Good/excellent. A private investigator is hired to look into the death of a giant octopus. I love the assemblage of characters and oblique references to other inhabitants (superheroes and villains).
7 • The Ghost Penny Post • 33 pages by Marc Laidlaw
Good/Fair. Hewell, a postal inspector from London, makes a trip to Binderwood to investigate some irregularities in the mail. He finds an overlapping mail service.
40 • Red In Tooth and Cog • 20 pages by Cat Rambo
Good+. Old appliances have taken refuge in a nearby park. One steals Renee's phone. She's not too worried about the phone, but the case was decorated with a pair of opals that she really regrets losing. She spends more and more time visiting the park getting to know its inhabitants. Better story if you are sympathetic to the appliances.
60 • Belief • 18 pages by Nancy Kress
OK/Good. Andrea is a scientist having troubles at work. Her daughter Natalie is searching for something spiritual, iarrthoir. Not too gripping, but a great ending.
95 • The Liar • 60 pages by John P. Murphy
Very Good+. The New England town of Versailles has had at least one teenage death on November 5th going back nearly seventy years. When Pastor Julie asked Greg Kellogg to become sexton he learned this and began to investigate. Greg has the ability to create lies, e.g. light bulbs that stay lit, and tries to use his power to overcome this string of accidents.
156 • Nanabojou and the Race Question • 11 pages by Justin Barbeau
Good. The trickster Nanabojou goes to Virginia when he hears of legislation being made by the white men to classify races.
167 • The Language of the Silent • 29 pages by Juliette Wade, Sheila Finch
Good/Very Good. Ifigenia is a linguist. Just before the mission with the Oloa, the ship runs into some space debris causing her to go deaf. She still accompanies the ambassador to the planet. While there she learns of a second race that has been enslaved and which is now fighting back.
196 • Diamond • 4 pages by Chris DeVito
OK. Twist ending of Jackie Robinson breaking into the big leagues.
212 • The Sliver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D • 5 pages by N. J. Schrock
OK+. An exploratory mission finds silver strands in the atmosphere. The more they see the strands the more it looks like they portray sentient behavior.
217 • A Mother's Arms • 22 pages by Sarina Dorie
Excellent/vg. An octopiller village is damaged by a fight between mothraflies and a sky beast. One octopiller mother lost all eight of her babies and wants revenge upon the sky beast. She finds a larvae inside and adopts it. Really touching story told from the perspective of the octopiller mother.
239 • Golden Gate Blues • 17 pages by James L. Cambias
Very Good/excellent. A private investigator is hired to look into the death of a giant octopus. I love the assemblage of characters and oblique references to other inhabitants (superheroes and villains).
July 1, 2016
Mes nouvelles préférées de ce numéro:
"Red in Tooth and Cog" de Cat Rambo: une nouvelle qui débute de façon très banale, mais dont l'aspect science-fictionnel est ancré dans le quotidien, ce qui donne une force au propos.
"A Mother's Arms", de Sarina Dorie: une belle adoption d'un point de vue extra-terrestre, avec des éléments caractéristiques à la fois cohérents et ancrés dans les émotions. Une belle réussite, une auteure que je compte suivre.
Pour les autres nouvelles:
"The ghost Penny Post" est intéressant, mais un peu longuet et nébuleux.
"Belief" est très bien écrit, mais je ne comprends pas son appartenance au genre (bien que Nancy Kress soit d'abord une auteure de genre, cette nouvelle-là est dans le monde actuel, pas même de la mundane SF ou de l'anticipation rapprochée).
"The Language of the Silent' est une histoire très bien sur les difficultés de communication et les rencontres culturelles, au personnage principal bien étoffé, mais l'élément perturbateur (perte de l'audition) ne cause pas de difficultés assez prolongées dans le temps, ou ce n,est pas suffisamment montré dans le texte. À un certain point, il faut se rappeler qu'elle n'entend plus, car les dialogues se poursuivent comme si de rien n'était. Les deux auteures (Wade et Finch) ont un bon potentiel, mais il restait du travail sur cette histoire.
"Nanabojou and the Race Question" est une sorte de conte amusant, mais qui m'a fait me questionner sur les récents débats d'appropriation culturelle, ici l'utilisation de la culture amérindienne.
"Diamond", comme "Belief", a un lien plutôt ténu avec le genre et m'a laissée indifférente.
"Silver-Strand... Crucis-D" a une prémisse intrigante, mais l'écriture est trop technique/scientifique. J'aime bien la Hard SF, mais ça doit être bien intégré, ça prend trop de place ici.
"Gloden Gate Blues" est une histoire amusante à la limite de la parodie, ayant lieu dans un univers de superhéros... mais ceux-ci sont absents de l'intrigue. Drôle et léger.
Enfin, la novella "Liar" tient davantage du fantastique, un fantastique qui prend un temps à s'établir, et le début est un peu lent, mais le mystère s'installe tranquillement, l'urgence d'agir. Cependant, la phrase finale m'a laissée perplexe, ne sachant pas comment l'interpréter. Dois-je remettre en doute toute l'histoire? Ça fait un peu : "était-ce un rêve?" et ici, je ne trouve pas cela approprié.
"Red in Tooth and Cog" de Cat Rambo: une nouvelle qui débute de façon très banale, mais dont l'aspect science-fictionnel est ancré dans le quotidien, ce qui donne une force au propos.
"A Mother's Arms", de Sarina Dorie: une belle adoption d'un point de vue extra-terrestre, avec des éléments caractéristiques à la fois cohérents et ancrés dans les émotions. Une belle réussite, une auteure que je compte suivre.
Pour les autres nouvelles:
"The ghost Penny Post" est intéressant, mais un peu longuet et nébuleux.
"Belief" est très bien écrit, mais je ne comprends pas son appartenance au genre (bien que Nancy Kress soit d'abord une auteure de genre, cette nouvelle-là est dans le monde actuel, pas même de la mundane SF ou de l'anticipation rapprochée).
"The Language of the Silent' est une histoire très bien sur les difficultés de communication et les rencontres culturelles, au personnage principal bien étoffé, mais l'élément perturbateur (perte de l'audition) ne cause pas de difficultés assez prolongées dans le temps, ou ce n,est pas suffisamment montré dans le texte. À un certain point, il faut se rappeler qu'elle n'entend plus, car les dialogues se poursuivent comme si de rien n'était. Les deux auteures (Wade et Finch) ont un bon potentiel, mais il restait du travail sur cette histoire.
"Nanabojou and the Race Question" est une sorte de conte amusant, mais qui m'a fait me questionner sur les récents débats d'appropriation culturelle, ici l'utilisation de la culture amérindienne.
"Diamond", comme "Belief", a un lien plutôt ténu avec le genre et m'a laissée indifférente.
"Silver-Strand... Crucis-D" a une prémisse intrigante, mais l'écriture est trop technique/scientifique. J'aime bien la Hard SF, mais ça doit être bien intégré, ça prend trop de place ici.
"Gloden Gate Blues" est une histoire amusante à la limite de la parodie, ayant lieu dans un univers de superhéros... mais ceux-ci sont absents de l'intrigue. Drôle et léger.
Enfin, la novella "Liar" tient davantage du fantastique, un fantastique qui prend un temps à s'établir, et le début est un peu lent, mais le mystère s'installe tranquillement, l'urgence d'agir. Cependant, la phrase finale m'a laissée perplexe, ne sachant pas comment l'interpréter. Dois-je remettre en doute toute l'histoire? Ça fait un peu : "était-ce un rêve?" et ici, je ne trouve pas cela approprié.
January 10, 2017
"The Liar" by John P. Murphy - I enjoyed the small town New England setting and the set-in-his-ways bachelor main character. However, some of the character interactions felt off. I liked the lying knack, but thought its opposite wasn't really well integrated into the story. Finally, the mystery and its resolution didn't feel very satisfying to me.
"The Ghost Penny Post" by Marc Laidlaw - Set in Victorian England, a strange shadow realm discovered by a postal inspector is the means for the story to make some observations about today's virtual or secondary lives like online RPGs or LARPing. The late introduction of another element made the ending seem rather bizarre to me.
"Red in Tooth and Cog" by Cat Rambo - Fun and well played out premise. At the same time, it made me think about how attached we can become to things (especially tech stuff) and anthropomorphize them. Also, electronic waste is actually a growing issue if not exactly in this way!
"The Language of the Silent" by Juliette Wade and Sheila Finch - This one seemed more like an excerpt than a stand-alone story and just left me feeling lost. There were some hints at interesting world-building if we had enough time to make more sense of them.
"A Mother’s Arms" by Sarina Dorie - A fun and clever comparison of an alien prospective on humans with a mother's prospective on children.
"Belief" by Nancy Kress - Not really a story. Just a reflection on having faith in only the tangible versus really knowing anything beyond.
"Nanabojou and the Race Question" by Justin Barbeau - A history lesson told in a dryly humorous style as a Native American folktale.
"Diamond" by Chris DeVito - Only thing speculative about this is that it hasn't quite happened yet. Also guessed the twist pretty early.
"The Silver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D" by N. J. Schrock - This felt like it was trying too hard to be literary. So it was pretty but read more like a poem than a story.
"Golden Gate Blues" by James L. Cambias - Veronica Mars in comic book world, but from Dad's POV. Definitely entertaining -- I'd like to see more episodes of this father and daughter PI team solving unusual cases.
"The Ghost Penny Post" by Marc Laidlaw - Set in Victorian England, a strange shadow realm discovered by a postal inspector is the means for the story to make some observations about today's virtual or secondary lives like online RPGs or LARPing. The late introduction of another element made the ending seem rather bizarre to me.
"Red in Tooth and Cog" by Cat Rambo - Fun and well played out premise. At the same time, it made me think about how attached we can become to things (especially tech stuff) and anthropomorphize them. Also, electronic waste is actually a growing issue if not exactly in this way!
"The Language of the Silent" by Juliette Wade and Sheila Finch - This one seemed more like an excerpt than a stand-alone story and just left me feeling lost. There were some hints at interesting world-building if we had enough time to make more sense of them.
"A Mother’s Arms" by Sarina Dorie - A fun and clever comparison of an alien prospective on humans with a mother's prospective on children.
"Belief" by Nancy Kress - Not really a story. Just a reflection on having faith in only the tangible versus really knowing anything beyond.
"Nanabojou and the Race Question" by Justin Barbeau - A history lesson told in a dryly humorous style as a Native American folktale.
"Diamond" by Chris DeVito - Only thing speculative about this is that it hasn't quite happened yet. Also guessed the twist pretty early.
"The Silver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D" by N. J. Schrock - This felt like it was trying too hard to be literary. So it was pretty but read more like a poem than a story.
"Golden Gate Blues" by James L. Cambias - Veronica Mars in comic book world, but from Dad's POV. Definitely entertaining -- I'd like to see more episodes of this father and daughter PI team solving unusual cases.
June 8, 2016
The Ghost Penny Post was an awesome take on a relatively new hobby.
Red In Tooth and Cog was my favorite of the issue, probably. A very interesting and well-developed premise. Also, whether real or imagined for a pen name, Cat Rambo is a cool nom de plume. I'd actually thought it was the name of a story originally, lol.
The Language of the Silent is one I would like to refer to my friend Oliver (if he reads this review) b/c it has to do with linguists.
A Mother's Arms was a fantastic! In fact, in retrospect, it comes very close to Red In Tooth and Cog for being my favorite for the issue. An incredibly interesting tale that takes many small but satisfying twists that makes it unique to a scifi reader.
The Liar was a really cool longer story with a character whose interesting talent puts him in a unique position within his community.
The Silver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D contains a good conundrum and some beautiful visuals.
Golden Gate Blues was just all around awesome and would make a great adaptation for certain styles of pen/paper/dice rping.
*Note: I keep my analysis purposefully light so that I hopefully don't give away details. Hope you read them, they're a great magazine!
Red In Tooth and Cog was my favorite of the issue, probably. A very interesting and well-developed premise. Also, whether real or imagined for a pen name, Cat Rambo is a cool nom de plume. I'd actually thought it was the name of a story originally, lol.
The Language of the Silent is one I would like to refer to my friend Oliver (if he reads this review) b/c it has to do with linguists.
A Mother's Arms was a fantastic! In fact, in retrospect, it comes very close to Red In Tooth and Cog for being my favorite for the issue. An incredibly interesting tale that takes many small but satisfying twists that makes it unique to a scifi reader.
The Liar was a really cool longer story with a character whose interesting talent puts him in a unique position within his community.
The Silver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D contains a good conundrum and some beautiful visuals.
Golden Gate Blues was just all around awesome and would make a great adaptation for certain styles of pen/paper/dice rping.
*Note: I keep my analysis purposefully light so that I hopefully don't give away details. Hope you read them, they're a great magazine!
March 29, 2016
As always, some great stuff in here, and some that's merely average. Loved Sarina Dorie's "A Mother's Arm." A fantastic tale from a different POV--awesome stuff. And the author is a pretty cool lady!
March 22, 2016
Solid issue. Lead story "The Liar" by John P. Murphy was particularly strong. I also enjoyed "A Mother's Arms" by Sarina Dorie and "Golden Gate Blues" by James L. Cambias.
Read
April 19, 2017"The Liar," by John B. Murphy. 4 stars.
Read
October 28, 2017Surprisingly good creature-feature novella anchoring this issue, not my usual thing.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews