ResAliens 4 - Like a church social
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 8:13AM By Luke Navarro
Once upon a time the avid speculative fiction fan could walk into any local bookseller (and often any well stocked comic or gaming shop) to find a wide selection of periodical fiction. Whatever your fancy there was likely a journal or magazine dedicated to it. Its pages would be filled with well crafted short stories from up and coming young writers but also from the best craftsmen of the genre. Asimov, Lovecraft, Doyle and many more published their work, even their novels, first as serials. Today the local bookseller is all but gone and with it speculative fiction periodicals. Unless you happen to live near an increasingly rare niche bookstores you will be limited to the one or two magazines that big box bookstores might carry. This is not to say that the speculative fiction periodical is dead. It is not, it has just moved.
The world of online speculative fiction is a daunting one to enter. Hundreds, if not thousands, of 'zines pepper the internet, their pages filled with stories of dubious and inconsistent quality. It is a landscape desperately in need of a roadmap. So when John Ottinger, one of my favorite reviewers, asked if I would review ResAliens 4, an online Sci-Fi magazine that he had guest edited, I jumped at the opportunity.
The perfect fiction magazine is an a chef's tasting menu of literature. Each bite is a perfectly crafted whole and yet fits into the flow of a greater meal. ResAliens 4 is rather like a good old fashioned church social. It is a filling meal, with a few standout dishes, set into a surprisingly spiritual context.
The opening dish, Fishing the Moons of Jupiter by Jason Rizos, sets the tone for the meal. Part adventure, part thought experiment, part morality tale this piece of short fiction awakens the diner to the depths that will be found at this table. Immortals by Leah Darrow and End of Eden by Shane Collins both offer dark pictures of the future ethics of humanity with End of Eden giving a particularly crushing sense of reality to this meal. Salieri by Marina Julia Neary evokes H.G. Wells' Griffin and Kemp and is a fitting homage to the story that found its first publication in the pages of Pearson's Magazine nearly 120 years ago. ResAliens 4 closes at a high point with Testament by Michael C. Lea, a profound story about the nature of religion and faith.
Great science fiction provides a clear mirror by which we can see our society and selves. ResAliens 4 succeeds in providing entertaining fiction that also asks the reader to delve deeper into questions of ethics, ecology and spirituality.
Luke Navarro was provided with a copy of ResAliens 4.
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for the thoughtful, overall impression of our magazine. Appreciate your time and the mention! Lyn from ResAliens.com
And thank you for the kind words on my story as well! It's very gratifying to get a positive response from a reviewer.