Grimdark “Caver, Continue” by Caitlin Starling
“We Have Always Been This Way” by Eric LaRocca
“Lullaby for a Lost World” by Aliette de Bodard
“Last Pale Light in the West” by Josh Rountree
“No Secrets Here” by Gemma Amor
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
In addition to five new works of fiction, this issue offers a generous number of interviews, articles, and essays.
“Caver, Continue” by Caitlin Starling follows the struggles of a man assigned to map a system of caves for weeks, wearing a high-tech suit that connects him to a base above ground. He suffers many mishaps along the way, ending in a strange encounter.
Although the use of advanced technology suggests science fiction, the story has the flavor of horror mixed with surrealism. There is no obvious explanation for why the organization that hired the man deliberately sends him to his death. The other person the man meets below ground is equally mysterious, as is the enigmatic conclusion. The work is more effective at creating a mood of paranoid desperation than a coherent plot.
“We Have Always Been This Way” by Eric LaRocca takes place during a war of genocide against gays and the transgendered. A man fighting on the side of the exterminators enters the shelter of a woman. During their encounter, he reveals his reason for needing a surgeon, and she unveils a dark secret of her own.
I have been deliberately vague about plot details, because much of the story’s impact comes from what the two characters initially hide from each other. This is a gruesome tale of body horror, and even some fans of grimdark fiction may find parts of it highly disturbing. An implied connection between transgenderism and grotesque manipulations of the human body may be coincidental, but it might make some readers wonder about the story’s intentions.
Written in the currently popular technique of second person present tense, “Lullaby for a Lost World” by Aliette de Bodard addresses you as a dead woman who has been sacrificed in a painful way in order to magically preserve the pleasant lifestyle of the inhabitants of a mansion as the world sinks into chaos. Years later the same fate awaits another woman, and you rise from your grave.
Written in a darkly poetic style, the story creates an effective mood of Gothic gloom. The theme of revenge from the tomb is hardly a new one, so the climax is not surprising. The physical form you take is unique, I’ll admit, but in a way that is bemusing.
The narrator of “Last Pale Light in the West” by Josh Rountree is a twelve-year-old boy. His small Texas town is burnt to the ground and almost all of the inhabitants killed by the Devil. He sets out in the company of two outlaws and a drunken self-proclaimed preacher to kill the Devil, leading to multiple bloody encounters and a final showdown that reveals his own secrets.
The author combines supernatural horror with Western fiction, resulting in a compelling tale of violence and retribution. The narrator’s voice is authentic, making the fantastic elements seem real. More than merely an effective work of escapist entertainment, the story has much to say about human evil.
“No Secrets Here” by Gemma Amor features a sadistic king who hunts down and kills the young daughters of men who displease him. A woman performs a gruesome task for a witch in order to save the life of his latest intended victim and exact justice.
The story has the feeling of a dark fairy tale. Its supernatural content is vivid and original. The king is a one-dimensional figure of pure wickedness rather than a fully developed character, but this may be necessary for the kind of story being told.
Victoria Silverwolf ate some unusual vegetarian “hamburgers” recently.