Readers
Rich Horton's Market Summaries:
Summary: On Spec, 2005
On Spec put out four issues this year, starting with Winter 2004/2005. These issues included
39 stories, all short, only one a short-short. The total word count was just under 170,000, very similar to the past couple of years.
The best stories were from the first issue of the year, an excellent issue with a compelling theme ("Addiction"). These were "Bliss" by Leah Bobet (my favorite On Spec story of the year), and "Jacobson's Organ Grinder" by Trevor Nickel. "Bliss" is about a drug which makes you happy, at the cost of the desire to do anything. An antidote drug can reverse the effects -- but what if someone not on Bliss takes the "antidote"? "Jacobson's Organ Grinder" tells of a drug made by aliens that stimulates human perception, almost giving people telepathy. The protagonist uses it to help negotiate deals -- and also to try to help his relationships with women. But when a negotiating partner realizes he's using the drug, problems arise.
Other good stories: Cliff Burns's amusing "Surrealist World" (about what the title says!), Hayden Trenholm's solid space adventure piece "Like Monsters of the Deep", Robert Weston's striking "Mourning Sickness", in which one's grief is quite literally represented by an elephant following you around -- the size and vigor of the elephant corresponding to the depth of the grief, which can make funerals awkward!, and M. Thomas "Fire and Ash", in which an oppressed group is forbidden books, and one man responds by eating them.
There was also good work from Jack Skillingstead, Ian Creasey, David Redd, Susan Urbanek Linville, and no fewer than three pretty good stories from Kevin Cockle.
