Saturday, December 01, 2007

The Harrow 10.10 (2007)

The Harrow, Vol 10, No 10 (2007), ed. Dru Pagliassotti. Online. Available: theharrow.com.

Reviewed by Djibril al-Ayad

The Harrow is one of the most prolific and consistent small-press horror magazines, with issues appearing more or less every month since at least 2005, and archives going back to 1998. Each issue runs five or six stories, a handful of poems, and usually several reviews of fantasy or horror titles. The website is well-organized and spartan (and I mean that in a good way—no bells and whistles to slow down my old browser or dialup connection; nice plain text for my hand-held device or blind text-reader), all based around a content management system for publishing academic journals. This means it is efficient and well-organized, but there are few if any glossy features, illustrations, or very personal touches.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Not One of Us 37 (2007)

Not One of Us issue #37. April 2007. Pp. 51 . $4.50.

Reviewed by Djibril al-Ayad

Not One of Us has been published for over twenty years now, with issue one appearing in October 1986, and in the intervening time it has consistently published high-quality, atmospheric horror on the theme of the alien, the misfit, and the unfortunate. This issue, which editor John Benson describes as the "comrades issue" is a typically entertaining and thought-provoking read, with five short stories and seven poems.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Williamson, Ephemera (2006)

Neil Williamson, The Ephemera. Elastic Press, 2006. Pp. 217. ISBN 0-95488-126-5. £5.99.

Reviewed by Djibril al-Ayad

This latest collection from the growing stable of Elastic Press features sixteen impressively varied short stories, published over the last ten years in such venues as The Third Alternative, Interzone, and other small press titles. One story is previously unpublished. The literary range covered by Williamson between these covers is very wide—both in terms of genre and mood and style—but almost all of them are somewhere between good and excellent in quality. As a collection, consequently, this is far more readable cover-to-cover than most.