"The Ice is Singing" by James Patrick Kelly
"Blink" by Thomas Seay
"Lost Men" by Billie Aul
"Moonblind" by Tanith Lee
"Captain Fantasy and the Secret Masters" by Tim Pratt
"Dusi's Wings" by Maya Lassiter
Looking at this issue of Realms of Fantasy, I don't envy RoF editor Shawna McCarthy. Every page illustrates just how complex a task a fantasy magazine has today, and how varied an audience. The paper is slick, the printing high quality, but the cover illustration is fairly crude, aiming at the D&D crowd. There are multiple ads for weapons, indicating a readership who take an active part in their fantasy, perhaps via SCA or RenFests. The non-fiction is by well-established names with a deep knowledge of the fantastic (Emma Bull, Terri Windling, Gahan Wilson), and the fiction draws its inspiration from all over the map, and is targeted across an equally broad range. Talk about juggling!
"The Ice is Singing" by James Patrick Kelly
The first story, "The Ice is Singing," by James Patrick Kelly, is more of a prose poem than a story. It opens with a striking line, "The man in the ice is wearing a blue three-piece suit," and follows the main character through a quiet path of discovery as to who the man is and why he's in the ice. Suspense isn't really part of this story; I assumed the ending from the opening lines and the story's chill tone. The story's entire appeal centers on Kelly's ability to trace delicate moods. There is little new here, but what's here is nicely done.
"Blink" by Thomas Seay
As the editorial blurb indicates, "Blink" is a story about a man after his death, and consists of a series of interesting images that are witty and thought-provoking. However, the story lacks emotional punch; somehow the main character's life, death, loves, and face to face encounters with God all remain minor and distant (and the specifics of some of the imagery resonate at times with the film Defending Your Life), as if deeply emotional issues had been treated intellectually. So…a good, if familiar, idea, cleanly written, with touches of witbut not the story it could be.
"Lost Men" by Billie Aul
Sam, the private eye narrator of "Lost Men," walks some even meaner streets than most detectives; the client who employs him at the story's opening, and sets everything in motion, is a goth chick who's looking for her missing vampire lover. This isn't the first true love who's gone missing, and Sam follows his instincts into a series of seedy dives inhabited by supernatural beings and aliens of lively and sometimes mismatched sexualities, to solve the case of the missing perfect lovers. If "Blink" evoked an Albert Brooks film, "Lost Men" reminded me of the WB's Charmedthe episode "Animal Pragmatism," for those who follow it–but crossed with The Maltese Falcon, and with wit as the payoff instead of WB eye candy. Little is new here either, but Aul handles it nicely, integrating the PI plot patterns with a slew of supernatural creatures and 21st century relationship encounters. Fun.
"Moonblind" by Tanith Lee
After one mood piece, one distant story, and one fluffy story, Tanith Lee's poetic tale of the hunt is a shocker to read. Its stylized prose and nature imagery barely seems part of the same genre. As one might expect from long time star Tanith Lee, this story delves deep into the mythology of the hunt. Lee uses intentionally simple language, that of the fairy tale, but tackles a complex array of emotional issues: the power dynamics between man and woman, between mother and son, between man and nature, all of them explored through a contest of love and power between the hunter and the hunted. I don't want to reveal any more of the specifics to those who haven't read the story yet, but it is nicely done; every detail matters in this story.
"Captain Fantasy and the Secret Masters" by Tim Pratt
This is my favorite story of the issue, by far. As the title suggests, this is a superhero story; Captain Fantasy is somewhere between Captain America and Superman in his powers and personality. However, this story manages to work both as a superhero story that might have been found in comics thirty, or even fifty years ago, with a battle of pure good against pure evil, fought at a smash'em up pace, and to critique and deconstruct such stories, much as Watchmen did. Captain Fantasy's exploits are put into context with period sexual attitudes, contemporary ethnic clashes, and a larger human context of what it means to be human, to have heroes, to face them as people, and to still admire them. The story's plot is complex, and is a true "plot," in that there are multiple double crosses, and meanings within meanings; I was happy just to hold on for the ride. The only thing I objected to was the quick pace with which everything was resolved at the story's end, but that too fits with comic book storytelling. Highly recommended.
"Dusi's Wings" by Maya Lassiter
One thing fantasy can do for us is to give shape to the mysterious in the world; another is to make emotional yearning concrete. The early sections of "Dusi's Wings" do just that. I wanted to know who Janie was, why she was in such pain, and who or what Dusi (the creature who listened to her) was. The story unfolds from that early hook with the logic of a fairy tale or myth; seemingly chance meetings between Janie and Dusi leads both of them deeper into their pasts and hearts, where they must confront their fears and pain. They do, opening the door to a new future, but the story is marred for me by an ending that was too easy, too fast, and too expository. Still, there was a strong grasping towards the spiritual in fantasy here that was very promising, and I look forward to reading more by Lassiter.
Greg Beatty was most of the way through a PhD in English at the University of Iowa when his advisors agreed that letting him go to Clarion West 2000 would be a good idea. Bad idea. He finished his dissertation on serial killer novels, then gave up on traditional academia and returned to his original dream of writing fiction. He's had a number of stories published, since then with acceptances by SCI FICTION, 3SF, Palace of Reason, The Fortean Bureau, Would That It Were, deathlings.com, Abyss & Apex, Oceans of the Mind, and several anthologies. For more information on Greg's writing, visit http://home.earthlink.net/~gbeatty/.