The first Cirsova Magazine of 2023 does not disappoint. It’s full of wonderfully weird stories. Please be aware that there are some very minor spoilers in the reviews that follow.

The Unshrouded Stars – David Skinner
I didn’t think I was going to like “The Unshrouded Stars,” it being a combination of sorcerous fantasy and hard science, which I like only in moderation. It took me a couple of pages to get into it.

In a world where supernatural creatures prowl, Hatcher is an astronaut who intercepts a Lamia intent on killing and eating defenceless human prey. In order to stop the Lamia, Hatcher enters into a devil’s bargain with her. To Hatcher’s surprise and puzzlement, the Lamia wants to accompany him to the International Space Station. He’s up for crewing in several days’ time, so it’s possible, if very crazy. How they manage to get the Lamia aboard the rocket is a little gem of storytelling in itself. Once on the station all sorts of spooky and interesting things start to happen.

“Unshrouded” starts off low-key and morphs into an oppressive atmosphere of creeping malice when the Lamia gets aboard the Space Station. Hatcher tells the story, witness to the effects that the Lamia is having on him and the other astronauts. Mr. Skinner adds a twist, actually two twists, to the story, two-thirds of the way in. Everything becomes murky, claustrophobic and fraught with menace.   

“Unshrouded” works so well because the Lamia is a superbly realised villainess. By the end of the story Mr. Skinner has built out his hybrid fantasy/science world to the point where we understand the Lamia’s motives, maybe even admire her a little. This is a subtle, scary, enjoyable story with a wonderfully engaging antagonist. “Unshrouded Stars” is a five-star read.

Hunger in the Void – Andrew Gallant

“Hunger” is set in the solar system of the future, one where star-gates, “Orion Gates,” have been discovered. This has necessitated the creation of a space force of ”Voyagers,” fearless stoic spacemen explorers who go alone through Orion Gates in custom-built spaceships. They each have a robot companion, which provides technical and astrophysical support.

Voyager Allan Buckley and his trusty robot Sigma-6 are ordered to investigate an Orion Gate somewhere beyond the orbit of Pluto. Several robot probe ships have already flown through this Orion Gate, none have returned.

Our venturesome pair transit the Gate, to find they are in the immediate vicinity of one astral phenomena and an alien lifeform. Both of them are extremely deadly. Now the trouble really starts!

“Hunger” has some fine world-building, in what is mostly an old-school SF story. There’s some real science which frames the story but “Hunger” wears its astrophysics lightly. There’s just enough astral mechanics to fuel the Voyager’s predicament. Allan Buckley’s character is revealed through action, not talk, which keeps the story moving fluidly as danger mounts upon danger. The robot Sigma-6 adds a realistic technical heft to the story and (thankfully) is not there for Robbie Robot repartee.

I said earlier that “Hunger” is mostly old-school SF. Underline the “mostly.” The story has an extravagant explosive climax. I can’t imagine how Mr. Gallant will top this finale.

The Gold Exigency (Part 1 of 4) - Michael Tierney
While we are talking extravagant, let’s review “The Gold Exigency (Part 1 of 4)” by the master of pulp extravagance, Mr. Michael Tierney. It starts with a short prologue 75,000 years in Earth’s past and swiftly moves to 200 years in the future.

The story itself opens on the planet Trovador and goes straight into the action. Constable Conrock, a police officer, is about to execute a “sting” on some Black Star Reavers. To the reader this seems suicidal. Black Star Reavers are humanoid reptiles with a taste for (real) human flesh. There’s more description but it’s clear from the start they are a race of lethal evil bastards. 

Conrock kicks off a very satisfying violent action scene which morphs into a meeting with Achilles Hister, head of the Artomique Corporation. Hister gives Conrock a new job.

And then everything goes in the pot.

Conrock is on the chase for something that’s not (yet) quite clear. The Black Star Reavers are pissed. Space ships fly. Several new characters appear, including an older man who seems to accomplish feats beyond the capabilities the human body.

It’s all action at this point, with some outrageously-imagined locales and violent combat. I think this may be my favourite Michael Tierney story. It’s tightly plotted, with a kind of fight and run rhythm. I found two of the characters very engaging, one of them being Conrock. Spoiler control prevents me naming the other.

Tension-wise, important actors are loose in the galaxy, for good or evil, who knows? Episode 1 and it’s already a wild story.  

Looking forward to the next episode.       

Quicksilver – J. Comer
A team of miners and scientists on Io, Jupiter’s moon, get an alert that Cartmill Station on the moon Callisto has been struck with a deadly plague, Kratman’s Virus. The miners are devastated. They have friends and family on Cartmill. Earth can’t send a rescue mission. The distances are too great and by the time it arrived everyone on Cartmill would be dead.   

The team on Io have the facility to produce nanobots that can kill Kratman’s and a fabricator to make them. They are the closest to Cartmill.  But the data highway between the planets is low-grade, the Io scientists calculate it will take three years to transmit the Nanobot data to Callisto. And there’s the question of the fabricator.

I really liked the setup of “Quicksilver”. The hard facts of Cartmill’s predicament are as cold as stone and utterly unyielding. Mr. Comer really makes us feel the scientist’s desperation and anguish as the iron laws of physics drives a knife into their hopes.

In their desperation the scientists come up with a near-suicidal plan. To jury-rig a rocket-ship from an experimental engine they have. And the ship will have to be manned.

The story moves from a fearful tension and people clutching at straws to an insanely dangerous space flight. This is superb storytelling and the dangers of space are impeccably told. Both from the perspective of solar astrophysics and the horrific choices facing the crew, who at the end of the day are just ordinary folks. And the character writing here is masterful. I was really invested in the scientists, real personalities/people who have to find superhuman courage during their endeavour.

This is an exciting, carefully imagined hard science space adventure. It has a strong emotional charge and characters I came to care for. Good story.

Comes the Hunter – Bill Willingham
We are in a post-apocalyptic western world. A hunter who is past his prime on a horse that’s not entirely organic is tracking a truly evil man. There’s some deadpan dialogue between the hunter and his horse as they follow a trail of dead people killed by the sorcerous plague that the evil killer is dispensing.

The landscape is mostly desert, and may even be Texas. The hunter has some magical protections that are fading, a good sword and a sorcerous pistol which is out of bullets. Hunter and horse come to a clapboard western town, where the hunter is pretty sure the final showdown will take place.

The tone here is very much Spaghetti Western, with a dash of mordant humour. “Hunter” is a rich fun mashup. Post-apocalyptic, sorcery, westerns and cybernetic animals. The story takes its time to ease you into a world that is simultaneously familiar and unreal. The hunter is old-school, there’s a whiff of Clint Eastwood about him. You fully expect the story to end in a gun-duel.

This is a tale with pace and some trickery as it moves to its denouement. It’s a satisfying enjoyable story, short with a decisive ending.

“Starring Hedy Lamarr” – Troy Riser
An amazingly atmospheric story – set in 1960s Britain, with all the historic datedness of early James Bond. Though it’s an MI5 that appears to be broke and fighting a horrifying evil that is literally unbelievable.

Fitch is a veteran of an unspoken war in which an impossible evil can use humans as living weapons. He’s been teamed up with Hargrave, a big ex-SAS soldier newly recruited to MI5. Their first mission is to get to the north of England.

Fitch is smart, cynical, battle-hardened, a little neurotic. Hargrave is stolid, taciturn and phlegmatic. But it’s a long journey and they talk. We rapidly get a macabre picture of a world under threat from a power it doesn’t comprehend

Their mission is blown almost at the start. They are attacked by possessed humans, who are very difficult to kill. Combat scenes in this story are brutal, with a side helping of gore. This feels pulp in the “Thrilling Men’s Adventures Magazine” kind of way. It’s violence well done with real emotional (and physical) impact.

The relationship between the two men sustains the story, Hargrave in particular evolves emotionally and intellectually as it progresses. One thing I particularly liked about the character is that he never ceases to be a bad-ass thug. There are some fresh ideas in the story, including a truly vile use of human beings as weapons. You’ll have to read it, describing it would be a spoiler.   

The mission’s ultimate goal is to reach “The Lady.” The title pretty much gives away her identity.

A violent but incredibly well observed story. The characters and the descriptive passages are compelling, really drawing you in.

Fresh, different and gripping.  

The Feast of the Fedai – Jim Breyfogle
For those of us who’ve been keeping up with our favourite sword and sorcery duo, The Mongoose and the Meerkat, there are new problems to resolve, some of them not amenable to a sword-thrust. A lot of the fun in M&M stories are the revelations and conundrums that pop out of the woodwork as the tales are told.

This story is an onion-peeler on several levels. We now know that Kat is a princess and that she is bound by honour to try to reclaim her country (as told in the previous story “Thunder in the North,” Cirsova Magazine Winter 2022). “Feast” briefly recaps this information and then we are off playing very deadly games.

We are back in Alomar, city of labyrinthine political chicanery and gaudy deadly slums. It’s the Mongoose and Meerkat’s hometown and the start point for their quest to liberate Kat’s homeland. There are people who don’t like them even here. A lot happens that’s dangerous and there’s some quality dialogue when it does. There’s a tense little teaser scene between the Mongoose and The Hand, the Bursa’s attack dog and deadly assassin. I swear that if the Mongoose and the Hand do not have a duel to the death before the series ends, I am going to knock on Jim Breyfogle’s door and ask for my money back. It’s a duel I would really like to read.      

This is a clever and compelling addition to the Mongoose and Meerkat legend, with not one, not two, but three reveals in the conclusion. Class act story.   

EGG – Jaime Faye Torkelson
A story about a team of scientists, geo-researchers, on a scientifically anomalous moon, Epsilon Epsilon Six. The moon is familiarly known to its hard-bitten science team as “Egg.” It’s way in the future and humans have explored the galaxy. In all their explorations humans have never found any other intelligent life.

Egg initially hosted a profitable mining operation. But Egg is unstable and prone to geo-shocks, three mining operations in a row were destroyed by its quakes. Now it’s only human inhabitants are the planetologists. They know that it’s only a matter of time before Egg destroys their research base and much of their technology is built to allow them to escape Egg’s surface quickly.

“Egg” revolves around the twin axes of Commissioner Ramirez, head of the operation, and the clever technology that the planetologists depend upon to survive. Ramirez runs the station and the story introduces us to the other scientists through him.

Egg’s shiny metallic surface become prone to greater and greater quakes. It’s clear that the end is near…

“Egg” tells a workmanlike story of science striving to understand the universe. A tale of knowledge discovered at a cost. It’s a story in the style of old-school SF.         

Search Pattern – William Subokski
This is a story that defies easy categorisation. A boy witnesses the miraculous healing of his father by a stranger. That act helps define his life. Set in the world we know the story is a kind of a memoir of the man’s life and achievements. There’s a lot of descriptive storytelling, interlaced with some real-world events that give the story an intelligent, hard edge. The writing is light, entertaining and very confident. At no point does the story let up on what is quite a long account. This is compelling storytelling.

It’s also a mystery story. The man, now wealthy and respected, is searching for something. By the time one reaches the end of the story his quest has gathered a huge emotional momentum. There’s a wonderful humane ending. I wish I could say more but spoilers would ruin the story. I urge you to read it.

This story reminded me of old school SF writers who were a tad more “worldly” than some of their compatriots. It reminded me of the thought-provoking SF stories that the New York Times published in the 1960s. It reminded me of writers like Gerald Kersh and Jack Finney, writers whose work I admire.

It’s a fine story. Actually it’s a damn fine story. I was moved by it. Exceptional.    

My Name is John Carter – James Hutchings
This issue almost ends with part 15 of James Hutching’s epic poem, “My Name is John Carter.” John Carter recounts his experiences with alien telepathy.

The end (of this issue)
“Notes” gives updates on all the Cirsova projects coming in 2023. If you want to see the full slate, here are the headlines!