TITLE: Electric Velocipede
ISSUE: #21/22
WEBSITE:  www.electricvelocipede.com/

Picking up where we left off with last week’s review, “Memories of Chalice” by Peter M. Ball is a tale of memory. Or more specifically a lack of it and the trade in it. The narrator describes his fall from prominence pushing exotic memories. The world suggested here would be an interesting one to see in a larger format. It deals with memories being traded on an open market, influenced by a mysterious machine called the Nexus.

“In the Dark” is the first in a series of poems by Ki Russell that suggest speculative topics. None of them display the opaqueness that is the bane of most fantasy poetry. “Infatuectomy” and “Drowning in Pearls” also appear in the issue.

“Infitity Degrees” is the way I’ve chosen to represent the story title by Darin Bradley, the actual symbols aren’t available in web readable fonts. This story, like William Shunn’s earlier effort, is contained within a set of documents with biographer’s notes describing the more and more eccentric properties of those documents. And like Shunn’s entry, the author plays too much on the format of the piece, making it fit the document frame too exactly for dramatic purposes.

Monica Byrne’s “The Comedy at Kualoa” depicts the first inter-species dramatic performance as a group of sentient dolphins are setting up to put on a show at the Grand Kualoa Theatorium. There is a bit of culture shock, though, the two species not seeing eye to eye on what constitutes and acceptable performance. There is a bit of trouble keeping track of who is who in this story, as it is possibly told from one too many perspectives.

“The Stone Cutter” by Damon Kaswell introduces us to a world where cities have stone hearts that must be maintained by a stonecutter. In the city of Hektanos, the stonecutter  Marick is busier than most due to the evil antics of the town’s mayor. Each week the Mayor holds court and dispenses justice to the townspeople and afterwards unburdens himself to the stonecutter in the believe that Marick will be unable to tell of his crimes due to atrocities committed in his own past. The story has a stronger moral fabric than most, its emotions have justifications outside of the conceits of the protagonist, which is a refreshing change of pace.

“Patience” is a three part poem by E. Lily Yu. The language here is more lyrical than Russell’s entries but what it gains in evocative verbiage, it loses in comprehension. A lot of poetry is meant to be open-ended, meaning different things to different people. This is one of those that can only be judged by an individual reader.

The flash story, “The Portal to Heaven” by Shira Lipkin poses the scenario of what happens when humanity can overcome mortality and its consequences on the mythic order of things. Heaven is slowly emptying as synthesized humanity takes control of the reigns of death, even going so far as to resurrect those from the past. It’s difficult to convey a complete sense of a story in such a short format but Lipkin does it well here.

The issue contains an interview with J.M. McDermott on his most recent book as well as an excerpt of Never Knew Another.

John Ottinger III’s essay on zombies in literature, “Content TKTK: Brains Lite,” is an interesting diversion. He details the earliest appearance of what we could reasonably call zombies and shows the influential trail authors like Richard Matheson have blazed to get us to the current day monsters.

“Intrepid Travelers” by Josh Rountree is the highlight of the second half of the issue. A trippy, Philip K. Dickesque picture of the future where the current superpowers of the world are redistributed galactically and represented by their most charismatic leaders. The story begins with a raid on the Kennedy sector’s mother planet, New Hyannisport. The AI captain Kesey has developed a new method of spacefaring, using psychoactive drugs to allow a medium to place them in time and space through the force of hallucination. The medium is our narrator and he’s quite worse for the wear. Spies from the various galactic governments are all on board, trying to figure out what the chaotic captain is up to. The story is brisk balances action with political intrigue, trippy visuals, and an extremely compelling cast.

“Carte Blanche” by Genevieve Valentine brings us back to earth with a bleak tale of some post-apocalyptic world from the viewpoint of a prisoner. The narrator is constantly being asked to provide feedback on shapes printed on cards. His internal monologue jumps here and there, recalling times with family, times of freedom and heartbreak. We are never sure what goal the captors wish to fulfill but we see the toll it takes when eventually even freedom is not enough to vanquish the pains of their charge. This story succeeds more for the ability of the author to compel us with the character than with plot information.

In “Worm Days” by Karl Bunker, an enormous 50 ton worm feasts on the narrator’s neighbor’s house. But the worm isn’t the point, only the world in which the worm exists. We find human connections with all their difficulties and frustrations at the heart of this tale. Bunker makes a wryly humorous jab at the strange spontaneity of relationships and the sometimes ridiculously holistic ways they form.

“Unlocking the God” by L. L. Hannett introduces us to Steward, a man with a city growing from his palm. And while this seems to be a compelling synopsis, the story, unfortunately, doesn’t hold up as well.  It weaves between two story lines, Steward trying to rid himself of the embarrassing protuberance and Garrett trying to pursue his love Renata in the ever changing landscape of Novander, the city on Steward’s hand. Much of the story is spent inside the heads of the two protagonists and after a while the premise just starts to lose it’s flavor like a tired piece of gum and I found myself wanting to skip to the next story.

“The Long Trajectory” is a nifty piece of disaster SF in poetry form by Geoffrey A. Landis.

“My Lovesick Zombie Boy Band” by Damien G. Walter is a story with very YA sensibilities. The protagonist is a teenage witch or sorceress, it’s never exactly explained, having problems with her parents. As sort of a low rent The Orange Eats Creeps, it has it’s moments. But the teenage angst angle never quite connects with me as a motivational tool. Your mileage may vary.

“Beata Beatrix” by Jenna Waterford is another flash story, a little purple in its construction, that details a ghostly curse and a lost love. Waterford basks in the language, making the actual story somewhat obfuscated but the short nature of the piece forgives this particular indulgence.

“An Abiding Memory of Scarecrows” by William Knight is a tale with quite a bit of world building. A fantasy landscape with the obligatory tavern and a cruel sorceress, the story shifts back and forth through time, giving the reader insight into wars fought and children lost. The quality of the writing here is inconsistent with the rest of the issue but fills an otherwise vacant traditional fantasy slot.

“Pie in the Sky” by Michaela Roessner opens with a question, why do people explain the unknown with the otherworldly? The story that proceeds is told in memoir voice about a girl’s difficulty in obtaining dessert. Roessner keeps things light as she demonstrates her inability to serve herself sweets over the years.

“Gaining Traction” by Jonathan Wood continues the food theme as the narrator finds himself trapped amongst Ramen Noodles and other symptoms of his crumbling life. Surrealism is more generally born from paranoia rather than wholesale depression and as a result Wood’s tale seems fresh.

“Checkmate” by Brian Trent take place in Thoth’s underworld and is populated by literal chessmen seeking to thwart the efforts of a Rook to attack London. There is a decidedly Victorian feel to the story but it never stoops into familiar steampunk tropes in order to tell the story. The thought of playing literal chess over land is a compelling premise that pulls the reader through this unique story.

Bar antics are the order of the day in “Sampling the Aspic” by Penelope O’Shea in which the narrator opines in conversational tones about recipes to combat bad karaoke.

Finally, Jim C. Hines responds to food related questions in “Blindfold Taste Test.”

Electric Velocipede #21/22 is an enormous slab of quality speculative fiction in both breadth and width. The quality of the stories and writing is top notch throughout, their worst in most cases comparable to the best of competing semi-pro publications. Without a doubt it is worth your patronage. The revelation that this may be the final print issue of EVP makes seeking it out even more desirable.