Excerpt from the Short Story, “Black Crater, White Snow”

Black Crater, White Snow, illustration from The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories

by Melanie Lamaga from the collection The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories,  now available from Amazon. Jade I slide to the barn on a skin of blue ice, sky layered rose and gray. Almost dawn. The wind, a white knife, cuts through my red down coat. Pinfeathers escape—a flock of tiny geese vanishing […] Read more »

Excerpt from the Short Story “What Kind Are You?”

"What Kind Are You?" illustration from The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories

by Melanie Lamaga This excerpt is from the collection The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories, available from Amazon.com in paperback and e-book format. WHAT KIND ARE YOU? “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” -William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark When I remember Dundalk, […] Read more »

Review of Brown Girl in the Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson

Serving the Spirits In this near future, post-apocalyptic Toronto, the wealthy live in the suburbs. In the inner city, government and social structures have disintegrated after a series of riots. “The ones who couldn’t or wouldn’t get out,” use a system of barter, and live under the shadow of crime-lord Rudy and his posse. Ti-Jeanne, […] Read more »

Short Stories by Kelly Link, a review

Review of Kelly Link, by Melanie Lamaga, The Metaphysical Circus

Nobody writes cooler stories than Kelly Link. Link’s stories draw from fairy tales, myth, pop culture, experimental, horror, gothic, and detective fiction, the tabloids, dreams, nightmares, and half a dozen other things. But this is not merely pulp fiction—wham, bam, thrill and chill. Link uses the tools of pulp fiction to deal with literary concerns: […] Read more »

Sojourn with the Watercolor People

The Watercolor People, a collage by Melanie Lamaga, The Metaphysical Circus

Fiction by Melanie Lamaga The Watercolor people are angry with me. You may not think that sounds ominous, but believe me, they have a list of people they’d like to kill. They’ll go through with it, too, given the chance. Even the children can be vicious. Now you’re laughing. Perhaps you, like many others, have […] Read more »

Review of Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente

A Beautiful View of The Singularity Imagine if you could go anywhere, do anything, and never be alone. Would it bother you if your closest companion and co-creator was a machine? You might think so, but then again you might change your mind after reading this gorgeous, evocative novel, narrated by Elefsis, the machine in […] Read more »

The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier

The Illumination is a literary novel with only one fantastic element, but it’s a doozy: one day, inexplicably, the bodily pain of each and every human being on earth begins to manifest as a white light. Everything from a headache to leukemia shines out of the body like a beacon for all to see. The […] Read more »

Freaks’ Amour, by Tom De Haven

Mutants on the Outside, Looking In Hardcore. That’s the word that comes to mind. But not just because Freaks’ Amour refers to a XXX rated show where Normals go to watch mutant men rape their wives and girlfriends (and for a finale the Normals pelt them with rotten fruit). The sex scenes are not particularly […] Read more »

Review of Illyria, by Elizabeth Hand

An Elegant Explosion of Repressed Creativity and Desire This is beautifully written, Romantic (in the 18th century sense, not the Danielle Steele sense) novella about soul mates, forbidden love, and being a magical child in a family that’s lost its mojo. It’s also about talent, both the kind that emerges full-blown and the kind that […] Read more »

Review of Osama, by Lavie Tidhar

Wishing Terrorism Was Only Fiction Many people have compared the novel Osama by Lavie Tidhar to books by Phillip K. Dick. It is similar in that the main characters come to realize that reality is not at all what it seems, and that there are those who would stop them from learning the truth. However, […] Read more »