Readers
Rich Horton's Market Summaries:
Summary: Fictitious Force, 2005
Fictitious Force is a brand new 'zine. Its most obvious external difference is its format; it is a saddle-stitched magazine, similar to many small 'zines, but it is folded along the long axis of a standard sheet of paper: in other words, it's tall and thin. All told, it's an attractively presented small 'zine. Its first issue, Fall 2005, featured 12 stories, an mix of short-shorts and longer short stories (5 short-shorts according to my definition). Some 35,000 words of fiction overall.
My favorite stories were Sean Melican's short-short "A Spec(i)fic Retrospective", Sandra McDonald's "The Writer's Orchard", and Beth Bernobich's "Watercolors in the Rain". Melican's story is a very clever piece about the history of SF centered around a wildly different important magazine. McDonald's is a "where do writers get their ideas" piece, quite well done. Bernobich's story is a moving look at an older couple and their stale marriage, and an attempt to revive it, told via fantastical imagery.
I'm not ready to make any broad declarations about this magazine -- the first issue is promising but not brilliant, and it could be wonderful -- or not -- we'll see.
