Monday, September 22, 2008

Review: AntipodeanSF Issue 124

Firstly, the results from issue 123 of AntipodeanSF:

1. "The Luckpot" by Shaun A. Saunders
2. "Saving Time in the Sunshine State" by Glenn Davies
3. "KSDH 12" by Steve Duffy
4. "Oracle" by Daniel S S Santos
5. "Now You See Me" by Brent Lillie
6. "Fahrenheit 41" by Simon Petrie
7. "Waste Disposal" by Trost
8. "The Empty Swing" by Richard
9. "The Mage and I: You Bore Me" by Wes Parish
10. "The Reaction" by David Schembri

My vote for last month came in 5th, but what do I know? I'm only a reviewer.

For this issue we have:

50 worders

Future Tense by Ashley Hibbert

An interesting autobiographical take on being an author.

The Holiday by Melanie Rees

A funny scene with a couple (not necessarily human) trying to decide on where to go for their holidays.

Moving onto the bigger fictional offerings...

Follower of the Prophet by Sharif Oerton

A whimsical wish of all those who despise Microsoft, the beginning of the end of the conglomerate that has become the norm for so many.

A living Room by Richard Ridyard

If one ignores the typos, this is a cute little piece about misconception. Everything is revealed in the end and tended to make me smile rather than punctuate any sense of foreboding.

Home for Christmas by Gwyn Gordon (first fiction pub)

Poignant and beautifully written with a theme of be careful what you wish for. This is my vote for this months edition. I look forward to reading more of Gwyn's fiction in the future.

The Day the Sky Fell by Stuart Wilson

Worlds within worlds. A nicely told tale of apocalyptic change on a world contained inside another. We’re not told the whys and wherefores but there is a sense of place and of character that comes across in this short piece. Well done.

Make Mine a ‘327 by Shaun A Saunders

Shaun once again comes through with a nice short sci-fi, set in the past about the future. Don’t understand what I mean? Go have a read J

Stumblebum Productions by Wes Parish (another regular)

Teens in space. Amusing but a bit of a let down in the end.

The Bride by Camile Picott

I could be biased but this is gruesomely wonderful with a nice little twist on the end. Must be something about PARSEC writing contest winners.

Genesis by David Kernot (another regular)

A different way of looking at the current practices of “file sharing”

Booze by David McVeigh

Societal values—in reverse. Funny and sobering at the same time.

Fingertip by Chris Kakris

Another along the lines of be careful what you wish for although this was one line too many for my liking. Well told, fast, punchy.

In "Going Critical", Jan Napier gives a very positive review of Joe Hill’s anthology “20th Century Ghosts”, so positive in fact, I may have to venture out and give this one a once over myself.

Vide

Nuke reviews Firstborn by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter. The words “If you like hard, solid, SF…” puts me off moving forward with investigating this one. I’m much more of a soft SF fan than anything too hard and in need of engineering degree.

Ionospherics

Nuke gives us the three laws of Arthur C Clarke and an invitation to use them for inspiration for future submissions. Just for completeness the three laws are:

Clarke's first law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is almost certainly wrong.

Clarke's second law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Clarke's third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for posting Clarke's three laws. I am going to print them out and have them tattooed on my arm for easy reference.

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