THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION #674 (2008)

‘Fullbrim’s Finding’ by Matthew Hughes is apparently one of a series of stories and novels featuring a character named Henghis Hapthorn. Not having read any of these previous tales I may not have caught all the continuity references here, but the basic gist of this light-hearted look at a detective hunting a missing person who has gone to uncover the secret reality of the universe is clear enough. This is an engagingly written little tale, reminiscent in places of Douglas Adams work, though inevitably any story promising to reveal the mind-shattering secret of life, the universe, and everything, is bound to have a slightly anticlimactic ending.

‘Reader’s Guide’ by Lisa Goldstein is a story about storytelling, depicting a fantastical infinite library of all possible stories where author’s receive their ideas from their Muses. An interesting concept, but what really makes this story work is the way it is told in the form of one of those nauseating ‘reader’s guides’ you sometimes find in schoolbooks, supposedly to encourage children to think about the story they have just read – the ridiculous example given here of ‘How would the story be different if the characters were all lemurs’ had me chortling away merrily. A delightfully offbeat little fantasy tale.

Michale Blumblein’s ‘The Roberts’ takes the old idea of a man creating an artificial woman to be his partner, then adds a twist whereby the mans’ driven nature leads him to fear that he is neglecting her, and so create additional copies of himself. This is an interesting story musing on the nature of happiness and the act of creation, and just about manages to sustain its substantial length, though I felt the ending lacked any real satisfactory payoff. I’m also sad to say I wasn’t particularly enamoured of Blumblein’s unfocused writing style, which somehow managed to feel at the same time both overwritten and yet often distant, with the narrative frequently being told in broad synopsis-like strokes.

In ‘Enfant Terrible’ by Scott Dalrymmple a child prodigy hides a terrible secret concerning his mental ability. A short and punchy SF tale, there’s nothing particularly original here, but this is an enjoyable enough read all the same.

‘Poison Victory’ by Albert E. Cowdrey is an alternate history story, telling the tale of how Germany won World War 2 thanks to the actions of one man on the Russian Front. It’s a decent enough tale of it’s kind, though to be honest I’m not a huge fan of alternate histories, and there seems to be an overabundance of stories where the Nazi’s won the Second World War.

James L. Cambias’ ‘The Dinosaur Train’ features a troupe of the animals as part of an American travelling show. One could argue that this is really just the familiar story of an old-time entertainer desperately clinging onto their old way of life, but there are some nice touches along the way, such as the insinuation that the wonderment at seeing dinosaurs walk the Earth once more would ultimately prove to be short lived.