Reactions to ST 21
... have been fairly positive so far. Praise has been heaped on the authors and the general standard of stories is regarded as high by those who've made their opinions known. This is of course a classic case of the self-selecting sample. Also, people who find they don't like ST are hardly going to subscribe to it. But I'm hearted by the obvious pleasure the magazine brings to readers. Without the reader, the writer is a voice crying (drunkenly, I'll be bound) in the wilderness, and the editor isn't looking too clever either. So keep those responses coming. You might want to comment here, get a debate going, that sort of thing.
Comments
I'd already read stuff by Iain Rowan and Adam Golaski before so was expecting to very much like there contributions; what was nice was to find other equally good stories by authors new to me.
I'll be putting a review on my blog at some point.
Steve Duffy's story stood out to me because of the uniqueness of the narrator's voice. The supernatural element is her Cassandra-esque curse (to know the future but to be unable to change it). On its own, that would be of little interest to me, but in the case of Duffy's narrator--a woman whose economic and political status strips her of any power--it's a fine metaphor.
I thot it worth noting that two of the other stories in ST21 ("On the Edge of the Map" and "Virpus") hinge on functions of the Internet and the way it can isolate people (thus making them into potential victims).
Not that that isn't a fine reason to write a story, but some of those in ST21 seemed to me more elegiac, surreal or have some social commentary behind them rather than being horror (or as well as, maybe).
I'm sure people who read the mag have moved beyond the lazy shorthand of supernatural = scary, but still it was nice to see such a fine refutation of such simple thinking.
I will cast my vote for AGA.
Sam