GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 6

Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine #6

by Debbie Moorhouse (Editor), Jim Pascual Agustin, Lou Antonelli

Issue 6 bounds onto the scene with a bright and blooming selection of prose, poetry, and art. Whether it's old tales retold with a new face, like an irreverent version of Sleeping Beauty, or a tale of renewal on the Wheel of Life, Issue 6 has a fresh feel to it. We're stepping through doors into unexpected places, washing our brains clean of memories, and getting a shiny coat of paint.

As always, GUD brings you the cream: haunting stories, evocative poetry, and art that you'll want to frame and hang on the wall. Issue 6 has a fantastic alternate history from Lou Antonelli that'll make you look at US/Irish connections in a whole new way. Issue 6 has weird and wonderful art from Andy B. Clarkson. Issue 6 has poetry from Rose Lemberg and Jim Pascual Agustin. Issue 6 has...way too much to summarise.

Comprising:

Stories

As the Wheel Turns by Aliette de Bodard;
Salad Days by E. H. Lupton;
How to Recover From a Hundred-Year Sleep by Sue Williams;
Dispatches From The Troubles by Lou Antonelli;
The Naming Braid by Lindsey Duncan;
In The Garden of Rust and Salt by Ferrett Steinmetz;
Annicca by Ian McHugh;
Who You Talking To, Zone? by Bob Tippee;
The Last Butterfly by Lavie Tidhar;
What Happens in Vegas by Caroline M. Yoachim;
Hateful by Lydia Ondrusek;
Maisy's Many Souls by Matthew Sanborn Smith;
Doors by Rajan Khanna.

Poetry

Fire at the time factory by Jennifer Jerome;
The Dream Reader by Margaret Bashaar;
Traveling by Catherine Zickgraf;
Definitely Us by Brett Elizabeth Jenkins;
Again by Molly Horan;
Bridging by Shweta Narayan;
All You Had by Jim Pascual Agustin;
Whale on the Roof by Rose Lemberg;
The Girl Who Married a Buddha by Margaret Bashaar;
Sand Clings to My Toes, Daddy by Jim Pascual Agustin;
Crumpled Receipts by Bryan Christopher Murray;
Doll by Marina K. Richards;
Memoir: Murray Street by Tara Deal;
soft and bright by Teresa Houle;
Inner Fabric, Wall-to-Wall by Richard Spuler;
Moonlight Sonata for a Proto-Surrealist (minor keys only) by Jonathan Emerson Hobratsch.

Art

Flat Worm by Dave Migman (cover);
Thought Process by Andy B. Clarkson;
The Smoke by Bob Evans;
Rousing the Whirlwind by Aunia Kahn;
Erqi by Elizabeth Kate Switaj;
Mystif Eye by Andy B. Clarkson;
Generation Gap by Arthur Wang.

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2010

Reviews

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really an outstanding issue. I don't think there are any weak pieces in this, but I'm writing this review months after having read the issue and the pieces that live on in memory as truly superior are Aliette de Bodard's As the Wheel Turns; Lindsey Duncan's The Naming Braid; Ferrett Steinmetz's In the Garden of Rust and Salt and Lavie Tidhar's The Last Butterfly. I remember Dispatches From the Troubles (Lou Antonelli); What Happens in Vegas (Caroline Yoachim) and Maisy's Many Souls (Matthew Sanborn Smith) less fondly but very vividly. They too are solid and beautifully polished works.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know this one as intimately as the other GUDs, having merely proofread it, but as usual, it's a fun combination of stuff. A bigger dollop of poetry than usual, which is nice.