Hoops – a story that is quite horrific if you look at it from one angle, miraculous from another. I try to see it from the second, someone rebuilding a beloved toy or such, but I fear there is more a Frankenstein vibe going on, and the omission of one little bit might well be a terminal mistake for the creator – unless he can just reach a little further.
Aun – A world where magic is common place would really change the way things work, and having magic users working in hospitals seems a rather perfect fit. But here it seems that the necromancers et al, are working against the medical staff, bulling the person into death... or perhaps there is more going on than we realise. All the same quite a creepy feel to the end of the tale.
Juelz4sure – I’m not sure if I am reading this in the way that Juelz intended it, but I just love the synchronicity of the piece and I am rather partial to my version of events! Some form of immortal figure, claiming those that deserve death, until he at last reaches someone who does the same, perhaps even a replacement, as he is judged and fails, just as so many did before him.
Stormcrow – A truly clever story that sees (I think) an alternate war fought by mystical creatures, juxtaposed onto ‘real life’ situation. Very clever as the way it is presented feels just right, from the references to the fall from the sky, to the final resting place to the beetles waiting to dismember. Excellent.
Vertigo – A total inversion of the norm where the mystical masters bicker and argue about what makes the world work, and then crazy belief that somewhere there might be a world that is held together by science. Now this is true fiction.... or is it the start of the end of the world?
Hope – How strange? And to start with I thought we were going to have a hellish opus conducted by a large rock singer. (which reminds me IO have not listened to that in ages?). Instead we have an unsettling tale of a disgruntled committee representing the community of a fridge taking things into their own hands. If I knew the refrigerator had life like that inside it, and was left a message in sauce on the door it get the best clean of its life. Which reminds me...
r j dando – As with so many of the stories there is much left unsaid, and rather than underselling the story it opens the imagination, and this is one such story. On the face of it we have someone making a deal with another, but we are not told what, only what she will lose. And that is the stroke of genius it allows our thoughts to run wild with just who it is in the hospital and what is so precious that they are prepared to sacrifice one of the happiest days of their life. For just an hour.
MemoryTale – Another story that is open to interpretation, I like to think that Bob is someone who is a baseline normal person, in a world where everyone else is more than normal. Obviously it makes him a target for ridicule and teasing, he does not fit in and it just makes him different. A clever take on the theme, well executed.
