Brace your sphincters for a bevy of bodacious science-fiction, it's time for this crummy review blog that no one reads to venture forth into the world of weird fiction magazines!
I admit, I'm not the best at keeping up with genre fiction periodicals. Even the classic stuff that a fan of adventure, fantasy, horror, or sci-fi should indulge in, whether it's Amazing Stories or Weird Tales, always seemed to slip past my radar in favor of larger anthologies or compilations. However, in recent years we've had an uptick in independently published short fiction magazines celebrating various facets of pulp and genre fiction and I decided it was well past time for me to check some of them out considering the absolute state of mainstream publishing at the present. The first one I gravitated to was the science-fiction magazine Aegeon, mainly because I discovered the editor on X and found his observations on the hell of modern Western civilization to be right up my alley.
So Aegeon #9 is the most recent issue of the magazine as I write this review, and it's quite a breath of fresh air and a welcome respite from mainstream sci-fi. I think the badass 'synthwave Whitesnake music video' front cover probably grabbed my attention first, but the back cover blurb imploring the reader to "put down your soy fiction and your Harry Potterized time-travel stories" was probably what made the sale for me. But does this tome back up all the shit-talking?
Well, they're not all winners. There's a couple of pieces here that are part of ongoing serials, so if you're a dork like me jumping in at issue nine and trying to read them in medias res then you might struggle to understand everything that's going on. (But that's the fault of yours truly, not those stories.) There are one or two pieces that didn't quite grab me all the way - "Fernworld" by Bruce Pendragon for instance - has a plot involving a planet full of... well... ferns and a stranded space traveler. The main character's plight is identifiable by the reader from extremely early on in the story, so much so that I was waiting for an even bigger twist or something wildly unexpected to go down on this weird plant planet... but the twist never came, resulting in what I felt was a muted and flat ending.
However, I ended up enjoying the majority of the short stories featured in this issue of Aegeon. Some of my favorites include the trippy "Mara and Dizzy" by A.J. Bell, which... I'm not sure if it was intended as an anti-drug PSA, but the characters experiencing swift consequences of taking unknown street drugs and then suffering through wild hallucinations that involve living chess pieces in the aftermath sure could pass for an anti-drug PSA. Also, there's a cat in it. Cats are cool.
I also had a lot of fun with "Polybius" by Michael Gallo (who is also credited for a chunk of the interior artwork in this issue too - more on that in a moment). The story focuses on the rather creepy urban legend of the Polybius arcade machine and features an aging Italian pinball wizard and what may or may not be a former member of the 'men in black'. The author is clearly well-versed in arcade machine lore and also has some insight into the myths surrounding Polybius, which adds a nice air of authenticity to the piece. He also manages to convincingly work a Motörhead reference into the narrative, so how could I not give the author his laurels here?
For me, the star of the show is "The Duelists" by C.P. Webster. What starts out as something of a military adventure tale with a German pilot and an American pilot vying for domination of the skies quickly turns into something otherworldly and mysterious as the two pilots whose countries are at war with one another become makeshift allies after crash landing into what appears to be an alien world. It would be a crime to reveal the lovely twist of this story here, so I can go no further with any plot synopsis. But I also liked this story for its brief character studies. One of the characters is clearly more educated than the other and the reader is left wondering if this will pay dividends for him or be his undoing as the story progresses. C.P. Webster's fiction has also been featured in the likes of The Bizarchives and Lovecraftiana, and based on the strength of "The Duelists", I'm definitely going to be seeking out more of this author's works in the future.
Beyond all of the short fiction crammed into this bad boy, there's also a whole lot of black and white artwork to pore over, some non-fiction editorials about the way of the world right now, and a hilarious 'mail bag' section at the end. There's a couple of comics and even a pair of old-school mazes to solve if that's your thing, but neither of these things were really up my alley. Still, there's something for everyone in Aegeon if you're a sci-fi fan - made even sweeter by the fact that it's free of the taint of contemporary social politics. I will very likely be perusing for back issues of this magazine in the near future. Recommended.
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