Issue 11 of Electric Velocipede was simply packed with short stories. 13 Stories + Poetry. It's a decent mix of authors I've read, heard of, and have no clue about. What I like best is that there are very few disappointments with a handful of stories which stand out. Buckell's "The Duel", a story putting the Alexander Hamilton / Aaron Burr duel in a historical and science fiction context was perhaps my favorite of the set. "Last Bus" was a sad, but sweet story of a lost soul waiting for the last bus to somewhere even though the buses don't run anymore. I also liked "Nine Billion and Counting", a story which initially has no hint of genre weirdness but is about a wife who thinks she has a perfect husband until she learns that he never stops counting to one hundred. The changing robotic nature of "Moon Does Run" was also a pleasant surprise.
I suspect that "A Punctuated Romance" is a story which will be hit or miss depending on the reader. It's a word play game about punctuation put into story form about a romance. The story felt a bit too precious for its own good and did not work for me, but I believe others will be delighted by Mary Turzillo's story.
There were a handful of stories which were simply not memorable and I had to go back and check to see what they were about because I could not remember.
"Quitting Dreams" is a blend of literary fantasy and is pretty much what you would expect from Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Cheney. A decent story, but lacking that something extra that can make a Jeffrey Ford story stand out for me. But, with that said, Jeffrey Ford"s most celebrated work is often the stories which fail to capture me ("Botch Town" being a recent example).
When I placed the order for this issue of Electric Velocipede I had just been disappointed by the debut issue of Steampunk Magazine and while I admired some of the authors collected by EV, I had no idea what EV might be all about. Issue 11 was everything I hoped it would be and is enough to sell me on future issues of Electric Velocipede. This is what I want a fiction magazine to be: packed with good stories that make me feel like my money was well spent. In that, EV has met and exceeded my expectations.
Fiction Contents:
* Tiger, Tiger by Liz Williams
* Milk and Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
* Moon Does Run by Edd Vick
* The Duel by Tobias Buckell
* How to Get Rid of Your Monster: A Series of Usenet Postings by Scott William Carter
* Quitting Dreams by Matthew Cheney & Jeffrey Ford
* A Punctuated Romance by Mary Turzillo
* Last Bus by Jennifer Pelland
* Sometimes I Get Lost by Steve Rasnic Tem
* Nine Billion and Counting by John B. Rosenman
* Bar Golem by Sonya Taaffe
* The Geode by Marly Youmans
* Sweetness and Light by Nicole Kimberling
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