Cover: Jörmundgandr © Joshua Chapman
Editor: F.J. Bergmann
Layout: F.J. Bergmann
Production Manager: F.J. Bergmann
Mailing: Brian Garrison
Buy this issue of Star*Line in print for $5.00 plus $2 U.S./$3 international shipping, or as a PDF for $2.50.
See our subscription page for details. Better yet, become a member of SFPA and never miss an issue!
Menu
Online Issue Contents
Wyrms & Wormholes: THE TRUMP OF DOOM
The thing about most science fiction and fantasy (she says, solidly smacking horror on its ugly head) is that even the most menacing plots and dystopian settings end up not being insurmountable. Presented with despots, tyrants, and those of Little Judgement, our plucky heroes and heroines, as well as those who fall on the intervening spectrum, gird up their loins, charge their phasers, hone their blades or hollow-point their bullets, and carry on. It may be a long, difficult struggle; there may be grievous losses, but our protagonists come away all the stronger for having faced the darkness and pummeled it to its knees rather than succumbing to despair.
You, shadow, leap the wall
and climb up the ladders of the silos.
Open wide their steel doors of night.
—Gregory Kimbrell, “Nocturne (Wind from the Hills)”
We must take courage from our genre; that we will come out of what seems like certain destruction fundamentally unharmed, if not unchanged, with an immoderate array of poem ideas. At the very least, we can still be charmed and distracted from woe by what is available in speculative poetry these days. I’ve recently encountered two delightful genre-ish books: the hilarious Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra, and The Primitive Observatory by Gregory Kimbrell, both of which I hope will soon be reviewed herein. And anyone is welcome to submit reviews of their run-ins with spec po books.
They knew simply that from the earth, this infernal thing had risen and that to the earth it must return via a burning door.
—Gregory Kimbrell, “The Advance of the Glacier”
Let’s put the “u” back in “dystopian”!
—F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line Editor
Editor's Choice Poems
"The Usual Muck," by Magdalena Ball
I’m wondering about aliens
and what they’ll look like
when they finally come
waving imperceptible antennae
searching for leaders and finding no one
up to snuff
a subversive act on my part
but that’s not the only reason
more a subtle tug, like something lost
or a dream whose substance
has dissipated into morning
but which still lingers as distraction
it’s okay, I’ll say
offering myself up to their cool
inhuman gaze, and sighing a breath
full of biomarkers, my smell familiar
to them, and I’ll know what I’m looking at
even if no one else does
the shadow biosphere
below the region of electrical charge
here all along, and I knew it too
but couldn’t put a finger on
meanwhile Enceladus
shoots water molecules to Titan
its global ocean home
to who knows what
waiting to meet the neighbours
too busy howling
to hear the doorbell.
"Chemical Submission," by Chris Galford
Sans conveyance I have borne
starbursts of cities
fractured glimpses through corridors
dusted by radioactive moments—
they are burned into flesh,
scars decaying day by day into
crisscross mementoes of empty rooms
injections of imagination
twisting hubris and atomized madness
into something vaguely human.
Time and again, different forms
submit to the chemistry
a blink, a drip, a flash of substance
that supplants substance—
I am bled dry of the same things
these streets once ran with:
we are each of us divided,
into cells, remnants skeletal
as captives of science,
one preserved and one destroyed.
"Wilderness 2050," by Mary Soon Lee
Greater Yellowstone National Park
stretches from Portland to Chicago,
crosses the Rockies and the Mississippi.
Sapling forests inhale carbon dioxide,
breathe out wetly in long green sighs,
guarded by cyber wolves—
Engineering raised to art form:
each wolf with its own algorithms,
its own hue of nanocrystalline eyes.
"The Best Western on 107 Piscium E," by Deborah L. Davitt
Shuttles freight humans
to this world, mostly tourists,
here to snap pictures
on beaches made of crystal
and ride the tame dinosaurs.
A family of four
leaves the spaceport in a cab,
sharing their ride with
a seasoned business traveler,
who doesn’t look out windows.
Chittering curses,
the insectoid driver swerves
through lanes poised mid-air,
and leaves them at their hotel,
which boasts both pools and restaurants.
Faceless hotel rooms
overlook alien roads;
the family’s too pleased
to find fault with a view of
traffic and neon billboards.
Downstairs at dinner,
they want to sample local
fare; aquatic slugs,
served medium-rare in honey,
with a side of crispy worms.
The business traveler
a table over, orders
a vat-grown burger,
which he could have had on Earth,
eats only what’s known, mundane.
The family hastens
out of the hotel to walk
streets lit by three moons;
the businessman stays behind—
all his wonder’s been road-killed.
"A Different Britain," by Jenny Blackford
Boudicca’s griffin-riders routed
the mages of Carthage with bale-fire,
elf-shot and dragon’s-teeth
two thousand years ago.
Even now those same immortal beasts
patrol our Anglic coasts
against baleful sendings from
the lost continent,
in the sun, broad paws
treading the violet mists
high over sheep-dotted clover.
Come winter solstice, all Angland
converges at the Henge.
Seven Royal unicorns and
our crimson-scaled Dragon Queen
curve the sacred gyre time
and again through melting snow,
refreshing and protecting
our small universe.
"job interview," by Davian Aw
Well! I think it’ll be very exciting
to work with other species, you know,
experiencing alien cultures,
smashing that final frontier,
lots of travel to exotic new worlds, of course
and, oh, so much of their technology
is absolutely amazing …
the truth:
only aliens
see her as fully human.
Full Table of Contents
Departments
- Wyrms & Wormholes * F.J. Bergmann
- SFPA Announcements
- President’s Message * Bryan Thao Worra
- In Memoriam: Scott E. Green * Herb Kauderer
- From the Small Press • Joshua Gage, Herb Kauderer, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Sandra J. Lindow , Diane Severson, Daniel C. Smith
- Stealth SF: Elegy in a Suburban Churchyard • Denise Dumars
Art
- Volcanic Crawler Emerges * Denny E. Marshall
Poetry
- Zheng He * David Barber
- asteroids * LeRoy Gorman
- each ship burns * Robin Wyatt Dunn
- “space station break-up” * Susan Burch
- The Usual Muck * Magdalena Ball
- “which you” * Christina Sng
- “scent of blackened” * Greer Woodward
- “maybe there are” * M.X. Kelly
- “election defeat” * LeRoy Gorman
- “black moon” * Christina Sng
- Things Fall Apart * Jenny Blackford
- Something Sinister * G. A. Scheinoa
- The Ambassador Takes One for the Team * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- While I wait … * Terrie Leigh Relf
- Halo Effect * Michael Kriesel
- A Planet’s Right To Say No * David Barber
- “bloody spindle” * Christina Sng
- Chemical Submission * Chris Galford
- Unlike Here * Claudine Nash
- They’ll Be Back * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Abtu and Anet * M. C. Childs
- Another Year * Roger Dutcher & Joanne Merriam
- Magicians * Mary Soon Lee
- Telemorphosis * Rohinton Daruwala
- “time travel therapy” * LeRoy Gorman
- “time travel dentistry” * LeRoy Gorman
- “at the yam-field border” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- epitaph for the crab monster * Herb Kauderer
- “all that talk” * Christina Sng
- Parting * Deborah L. Davitt
- Time Travelers Suck * Justin Zimmerman
- “at the edge of time” * John Reinhart
- there was little argument * John Reinhart
- Wilderness 2050 * Mary Soon Lee
- “Silent passengers sleeping” * Matthew Wilson
- Once Human * Deborah L. Davitt
- The Werewolf Earns a Living * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Homeworld Bias * Ken Poyner
- Pop Culture Fairy Tale Tweet * M.X. Kelly
- The Best Western on 107 Piscium E * Deborah L. Davitt
- “in the spacestation lobby” * Lauren McBride
- Occasional Werewolf * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “not what you seem” * Deborah P Kolodji
- Here Comes * Neal Wilgus
- A Different Britain * Jenny Blackford
- The Kinsmen * Cas Blomberg
- Interplanetary Immigration Policy * Mark Danowsky
- Ice Desert Skating Club of Europa * Robert Frazier
- voyage stranded * John Reinhart
- “sea serpent by starlight” * Lauren McBride
- End-Times Tables * Margarita Tenser
- Now I’m going down * Robin Wyatt Dunn
- “served with fingerlings” * ayaz daryl nielsen
- “the sea gulls screaming” * ayaz daryl nielsen
- “braiding tentacles” * Herb Kauderer
- Some Things Never Change * Alan Ira Gordon
- “stripped screws & nuts” * LeRoy Gorman
- Natural Form * JD DeHart
- The Graveyard of Ships * Deborah L. Davitt
- Back into the atmosphere * Magdalena Ball
- Substrates * J. Zachary Rothstein
- job interview * Davian Aw
- A Well-Seasoned Vehicle * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Suburbia 2050 * Mary Soon Lee
- The End of the Fabulous * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “squalling from a shelf …” * ayaz daryl nielsen
- epitaph for the invisible man * Herb Kauderer
- Invitation * Mary Soon Lee
- The Right Stuff * Steven Wittenberg Gordon
- “Here lies Richard Kingdon” * Matthew Wilson
- Adam’s Other Son * Glenn A. Meisenheimer
- Dinosaur Time Travel * Gary Every
- The Consequences … * Kenny A. Chaffin
- Cryogenic Sleep * Robin Wyatt Dunn
- “zero gravity” * LeRoy Gorman
- open the fridge * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Tending a Trace of Chaos * Daniel Ausema
- archaeological puzzle * Davian Aw
- The Pax Pandemica * William John Watkins
- Being Human … * Beth Cato
- “Halloween night” * Christina Sng
- Ghost Light Paradelle * Deborah L. Davitt
- The Boy of Sparrows and Silver * John W. Sexton
- Rooted Here Now … * Lauren McBride
- “mesmerizing, but” * ayaz daryl nielsen