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Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet – May 2010

Number 25

May 2010

Biannual

C.D. Thomas

Upon finding Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet on the review list, there was but one response I could make – SQUEE!!!

Upon finding Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet on the review list, there was but one response I could make – SQUEE!!!

I’ve trusted Small Beer Press to publish well-done and interesting “speculative fiction” (if there’s another phrase the cool kids use nowadays, do let me know). LCRW gives us a taste of their authors, past or future, through some very delicious stories.

I’m sorry I never heard of Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, but on the weight of his sly tale “A City of Museums” (trans. by Edward Gauvin), I’m keeping my eye on him.

Eilis O’Neal’s “The Sleeper” and Daniel Braum’s “Music of the Spheres” are in a similar magic realism vein. As part of LCRW‘s mission, stories that could be published in conventional literary journals rub cheek-by-jowl with work based deeper in the fantastic; it’s all good. Literally.

As for more traditional fantasy, Jennifer Linnaea rings a few changes on The Days of Magic in “Fire-Marrow.” Richard Parks’s “The Queen’s Reason” pulled a twist that I didn’t predict, and that takes some doing. And one image – that terrier – twisted itself into a dreadlock of wackness in Sarah Tourjee’s “The Problem With Strudel”. It was the first story I noticed, and as with work in more “twee” experimental journals, I was prepared to toss it across the room; I’m glad I didn’t. It goes deeper.

Two stunners in this issue made me optimistic about the state of fantasy, which considering LCRW‘s stature in the F&SF community, shouldn’t be surprising. In the urban fantasy “This is Not Concrete,” Ben Francisco created a monster that scared me in broad daylight. I only hope that the open-endedness of the climax means that he’s considering expanding it. As for Haihong Zhao’s “Exuviation”? A finely-polished boat of translucent carapace, taking me to a place I was glad to visit.

Overall, these smart-alecks might not take their editorial voice seriously (“If you move, please remember to send us your Change of Address. Thank you! Easy way: [email], Another way: [snailmail], Impossibility: telepathy.”), but damn if they don’t treat their authors and their works like offset gold. More, more, more please.
[smallbeerpress.com/lcrw/]

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