Ray Vukcevich’s “You Go Too Far “ is the sort of story that makes writing these reviews difficult. The story, which appeared in  issue 17 of the second incarnation of Pulphouse Magazine, is only about 250 words long.

At its most basic, “You Go Too Far” is the story of a man receiving oral sex. The set up is a portrayal of the couple’s relationship, with the woman trying to set a romantic mood for the two of them. Told from the man’s point of view, he praises himself for his witty repartee, even as she tries to let him know that his sense of humor is more a barrier in their relationship than an endearment.

Told to him in an intimate moment, he reflects that it isn’t the first time he’s heard this sort of criticism. In fact, he understands that it can be a problem, not just in this sort of situation, but in other aspects of his life and he has attempted to rectify his short-comings, by reading books and attending seminars, although that action doesn’t necessarily mean that he fully embracing the fact that his sense of humor might actually be a problem.

Naturally, given when Vukcevich has written about the male character, all of his thoughts, the activity, and the woman’s comments, the story is a set-up for a joke, and not a particularly original or funny joke. What gives the slight piece of writing any heft at all is the implied threat make by the woman and the implications for what may happen after the story ends.

While Pulphouse is considered a speculative fiction magazine and the issue “You Go Too Far” appears in sports the line “Hugo Award Nominee” on the cover, there is nothing about the story that places it within the realm of speculative fiction. In fact, the magazine’s tagline simply reads “A fiction magazine,” and fiction, more than anything else describes the story. It would not have been out of place in any mainstream fiction publication.

Included in this series because of the magazine in which it was published, had I selected a story with specific speculative fiction content to represent the last story in my collection by an author whose name begins with the letter V, it still would have been a work by Ray Vukcevich, although it would have been “White Guys in Space,” which appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1996, two years after “You Go Too Far” was published.

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Steven H Silver is a twenty-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference six times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.