Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2017

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

A better than average issue. Richard Chwedyk’s story about bioengineered dinosaurs takes some time to get started but is a cracker of a tale full of interesting dinosaurs with fleshed-out personalities. Other good tales are by Robert Grossbach, Matthew Hughes, Arundhati Hazra and Eleanor Arnason.

• “The Man Who Put the Bomp” by Richard Chwedyk: another romp with the author’s bio-engineered saurs (small dinosaurs) that live peacefully in an isolated home. But their isolation comes to an end when one of their designers comes to visit them along with a visitor that may have other intentions. Add to this mix a side-story about a toy-car that can somehow move (modified by their enigmatic genius of a saur, Geraldine?) and it promises to be an explosive ending.

• “Driverless” by Robert Grossbach: an interesting ‘if this goes on’ look at what happens when the competition between various driverless car companies causes the companies to make the cars more competitive and aggressive about picking up passengers; perhaps too aggressive.

• “Ten Half-Pennies” by Matthew Hughes: a light fantasy tale about a boy who initially pays for the services of a minder (with ten half-pennies) who works for a money collector. The minder is fascinated by the boy and takes him in as an assistant. Time passes as they get to know one another and trust each other. That trust will be tested when the minder asks him to steal a valuable and then sends him away for his own good. Only later does the boy learn what happened and resolves to help the minder and repay his debt.

• “The Avenger” by Albert E. Cowdrey: a story about a clash between two people over money that turns serious when the ruffian of the two goes too far and causes the death of the other. The widower goes to an unusual man for revenge. Through a series of induced visions, the ruffian is harassed and finally forced to capitulate.

• “The Toymaker’s Daughter” by Arundhati Hazra: an interesting tale about a young girl with a gift for bringing toys to life. But her gift is misused by businessmen, making her withdraw into herself. By the poignant end of the tale, she is recovering and learning that she has to hide what she can do.

• “A Green Silk Dress and a Wedding Death” by Cat Hellisen: a fishing town by a river is suddenly seeing mutated fish. The source turns out to be a river spirit who has been waiting for the gift of a bride from the town, who now has to decide whether to give up her life in the town.

• “Miss Cruz” by James Sallis: a tale of a down-and-out man who discovers he has a gift for making people do what he wants them to do. Now the question is whether he will use the gift wisely.

• “Daisy” by Eleanor Arnason: an entertaining tale of a private detective hired by a known mobster to look for his pet octopus, presumed kidnapped. But the clues don’t add up. If you know that octopuses are highly intelligent, you’ll probably can give a good guess as to what happened, but the story still have surprises in store for the reader.

Magazine read from 2017/03/02 to 2017/03/22