This issue is relatively big. Bewildering Stories thanks all our contributors for making it equally good.
One of the shorter chapters in Julian Lawler’s Prophet of Dreams has one of the longer titles. Chapter 8, “Opportunity Amid Destruction,” tells how an outcast and his familiar fairy hope to gain acceptance by coming to the aid of the refugees from The City.
How about a simple, tasteful story of two neighbors? Only, I doubt you’d want to live next door to either of them. Ásgrímur Hartmannsson blows the lid off in “The Neighbour.”
Here is, at last, new contributor Anthony Heffernan’s mysterious story of a heart attack in far-away places: “The Cyclops Syndrome.”
It had to happen: a tale of rip-snorting orcs straight out of stock fantasy. But wait... we normally see orcs only as cardboard enemies; what is life among them really like? Readers familiar with Thomas Lee Joseph Smith’s sly humor will see that we may already know more about it than we may think, in his deceptively allusive “Orc of the Covenant.”
Who says flash fiction leaves too little room for characters to change and develop? Um.. guiltee! Thomas R. shows us how it’s done. Just step into his time machine and travel this way... to “A Life of Strange Miracles.”
John Thiel shows us a hero with a bright idea, one that makes the best of a bad situation or the worst of a good one. Which it is depends on one’s point of view. What is the hierarchy of enmity when zero equals infinity? Tough question? Well, “The Ranger Knew a Trick”...
Gerardo Brandariz extends the theme of engagement — political and moral commitment — raised in recent issues of Bewildering Stories. Civilization has never had it so good; but has it run out of gas? Is it philosophically adrift? “Whither the 21st Century: Enlightenment or Barren Paradise?”
We seem to have completed a long cycle of serials, at least for the moment. But wait, lest I speak too soon: Tala Bar has sent us a novel. It will begin to appear as soon as we can figure out what to put where.
Meanwhile, a different cycle has started up: new contributors. Anthony Heffernan appears in this issue, and two more are scheduled for issue 86: Lewayne L. White has a jovial fantasy spoof; and Caroline Misner proves that Canadians can, too, write horror.
Among our veterans, Ásgrímur Hartmannsson depicts a character who has this thing about insects; or is it the other way around? Charles Richard Laing has one of his longest stories to date; and Thomas R., one of his shortest, by way of a Challenge. There’s a lot to enjoy in this issue and a lot to look forward to in Bewildering Stories.
Readers’ reactions are always welcome. Please write!
Copyright © 2004 by Bewildering Stories
