Black Gate

How did the crew at Beneath Ceaseless Skies choose to welcome the new year? With a pair of quiet yet powerful fantasy stories.

The first one, “Wooden Boxes Lined with the Tongues of Doves” by Claire Humphrey, starts with the old trope of a sorcerer’s apprentice, but quickly steers into an unexpected and disturbing direction. Claire Humphrey plays nicely with the unreliable narrator perspective as the horrifying conclusion becomes clear to the reader, even if it’s never explicitly stated.

“Think of Winter” by Eleanna Castroianni does a fair bit of world-building, despite the fact that we are never taken outside of the cathedral where the point-of-view character lives. While an initial reading suggests that there are only two characters in this story, the magic cards provide commentary in the form of stilted haiku that elevate them to a character in their own right. Congratulations to Ms. Castroianni on her first published story; she’s off to a great start.

The cover art, “The Sacred Flames” by Jinxu Du, doesn’t connect to either story, but does give a nice “entering a world of grand adventure” feel.

Sure, you can check out both stories (as well as a podcast of “Wooden Boxes Lined with the Tongues of Doves”) for free at www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/issues/issue-216, but these publications only survive through financial support. So why not drop ninety-nine cents and actually pay for it?

We last covered Beneath Ceaseless Skies with issue #215.

The first Nightmare issue of 2017 opens with a cover by Adobe Stock artist annamei titled, “Conceptual illustration of broken doll with buttons.” Sadly, no creepy dolls in this issue, but there are plenty of other staples of the horror genre on display.

It starts with “Loneliness Is in Your Blood” by Cadwell Turnbull, a different sort of vampire tale. The author not only twists expectations by choosing a non-European vampire legend as a springboard, but also uses a second person perspective with surprising effectiveness.

The subverted expectations continue with “The H8TE” by Lilliam Rivera. While she borrows lightly from the zombie tropes that we all know by heart, the story speaks much more to the fears of children of addicts than the fears about the apocalypse. My favorite zombie stories (of which there are precious few) have been the ones that show how society would likely continue to function just fine if the dead began to walk, essentially showing off how we can accustom ourselves to any horrible situation.

Passing into the second half of the issue, we have “Redcap” by Carrie Vaughn, which initially comes off as another of those dark fairy tale stories that you’ve already read a hundred times. But as it progresses, you realize that the author is talking about more than mythic symbols of puberty or some other college thesis fodder. “Redcap” is a horror story that directly discusses the nature of horror and, in a roundabout way, why we read horror stories or watch horror movies in the first place.

“Redcap” sets a pretty high bar for this issue, and yet the editors save the best for last with “Blood Mangoes” by Ashok Banker. Set in a dystopian environment that just happens to be a real place that exists in the modern world, “Blood Mangoes” follows the old-school horror formula of “being careful what you wish for” to a resolution that will satisfy both gross-out horror fans and admirers of the quiet horror style. A tough balance that’s pulled off beautifully.

If you want to check out this issue, head to www.nightmare-magazine.com/issues/jan-2017-issue-52. And while you CAN read all of these stories online for free, these magazines only survive with financial support. So why not drop $2.99 for the issue and ensure that this amazing series continues for years to come?

See more detail on the issue here. We last covered Nightmare with issue 51.

So this issue marks the beginning of a new publication schedule for the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, as it switches to a completely bi-monthly schedule (as opposed to mostly monthly with a couple double-sized issues). But don’t fret; the page count in each issue has been doubled, meaning that you’ll still be getting the same number of pages per year, just delivered less often.

The snowy scene on the cover, courtesy Aga Es, clues us in that this is the winter issue. Of course, only two of the stories within reference winter in any way (and one of them is a bit of cheat, but more on that when we get there), but it’s still a nice dozen stories to keep you entertained on a snowy night.

We start with “Chin Yong-Yun Stays at Home” by S.J. Rozan, which is a wonderful opener for any fans of Nero Wolfe and other armchair detectives. While this is probably my favorite story of the dozen, don’t quit reading with this one.

“Christmas 1953” by Dennis McFadden is the first of two stories with a winter theme and is probably the most difficult to follow of all the selections in this issue. Of course, this is to be expected as it deals with traumatic memories and how they alter our perception of the present.

“Futures Off at Closing” by John H. Dirckx is a mystery that benefits from having a quirky detective with a unique perspective. As with so many quirky detective stories, the satisfaction comes from following the protagonist’s thought process more than actually trying to work out the puzzle.

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