Art Design: A beautifully dark and electric cover for Issue # 30 of Talebones, A Magazine of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy. In addition to the outstanding cover art by Jeff Sturgeon, Talebones # 30 also features ten more black and white illustrations by artists such as Dora Wayland, Keith Boulger, Bob Hobbs, Adam Ross, Fiona McAuliffe, Tom Simonton, and Eric M. Turnmire. Keith Boulger's illustration of a thoughtful lady cupping her breasts while looking at fruits was very good. Tom Simonton's stark illustration of robots hunting an astronaut was also a favorite.
The Short Stories: I was looking forward to some dark, gritty Science Fiction stories in Talebones, A Magazine of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy. Perhaps the story that best fit that bill was "Mama's Lightning Bugs" by Brian Scott Hiebert. Victims of lightning strikes have the power to absorb electricity and they band together against a common aggressor. I thought the guy hunting them down would have been someone from the Electric Company or an angry consumer, but the story had a darker twist. The story of the lightning strike survivors really drew me in, and the conclusion delivered. Another excellent story from this collection was "One Day, In the Middle of The Night" by James Van Pelt. This short story had all the elements of a classic episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. An astronaut is accidentally awakened from his sleep-pod during a deep-space mission. His efforts to track down his brother who is on another part of the ship and who was also awakened lead to unexpected consequences. "The Wooden Mother" by Michael Poore was a nice bit of dark fantasy. "Take The Stairs" by Ray Vukcevich; and "A Whole Man" by David J. Schwartz provided thoughtful takes on Big Brother, Homeland Security, and Political Correctness. The only two stories that seemed out of place were "Treats" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman and "Still Life with Boobs" by Anne Harris. "Treats" was a story about ninth grade kids which might have been inspired by The Breakfast Club. "Still Life With Boobs" is about a woman who breasts pop off and go rolling down the streets every night so they can party with the body parts of other people who are similarly afflicted. I kept thinking about road-kill and those cat-sized New York City rats as I read the story. To reveal more would spoil the ending!
Interview: An informative and new interview of Science Fiction author Ben Bova by author Ken Rand.
The Poetry: Katherine Elwevar, William John Watkins, and Roger Dutcher contributed poems with a Science Fiction slant to this issue.
The Rest of the Story: Book reviews, movie and T.V. series reviews, editorials, and the profiles of the authors.
Overall: Talebones is $6 for 96 pages of Science Fiction short-stories and excellent art. For readers and writers who enjoy great short stories, magazines like Talebones are few and far between. Publishing a good mix of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy stories is an art in itself. The publishers, Patrick and Honna Swenson have been publishing Talebones since 1995 and that is a tremendous achievement for any Small Press.
Grade: B
