eFiction Issue 18

Image via WikipediaI ran around Amazon earlier today looking for new fiction magazines that I thought I'd like to try. Certainly, Amazon's 14 day, money back guarantee, and cancel at any time. eFiction bills itself as an indie fiction rag. It's a monthly magazine that's $1.99 per month. There is also the option to purchase an individual copy for $3.99. I'm not really sure why those who rule the eFiction Magazine chose to charge so much for an individual copy. However, I'm sure they have reasons, valid or otherwise. Also, of the nine reviews that are posted on Amazon, eight gave the rag 5 stars, while one gave it 4 stars.

Before getting into the fiction, my initial impression of the formatting is very positive. It is about as well formatted as Fantasy and Science Fiction. Coming fresh off of reading their latest edition, it is inescapable that I will be comparing apples and oranges. Before getting into the stories, I can say straight off that one thing put me off right away: the serial. There are three serial pieces in this issue. Each of the three is rather short: between 1k-3k words. I don't know how long these stories go on for, but by comparison, Fantasy and Science Fiction has five novelets, each of which are between 7k-11k words. It also has seven standard short stories. The 'why' of reasoning for eFiction Magazine is likely very simple: it's a hook. If you like even one of the short stories, it'll keep you coming back for more. However, I think it's a cheap trick. If they have good fiction, this is enough to bring me back. Also, one cannot use the 'not enough paper' or 'doesn't fit into our format' excuse, since these are exclusively electronic issues. They're going to have to have some mind blowingly good short fiction to make me not cancel the subscription. A rough word count of the fiction, including the three poems and the serial fiction is just over 20k. This contrasts poorly with over roughly 60k for Fantasy and Science Fiction.

So, thus far, my first impressions after having taken in the trial, has been chilled. So, onto the fiction itself.

Motivator, Kristy Feltenberger Gillespie

This is a very short story which is about murder. A twin has lived in the shadow of her sister all her life. The sibling rivalry between the two has been a one sided affair, with the narrator's twin usually getting the win.

She relates to her 97 year old grandfather her urge to kill her sister. He says that you have to kill the people you hate. She takes his advice literally, and helps her sister down a flight of stairs. When she gets back to grandpa, she confesses her crime. He explains to her that she ought not to have taken the ramblings of an old man so literally, but he nonetheless takes her secret to the grave.

It was an OK story.

ASIDE

I plugged eFiction Magazine into Google and found a site called Sabotage. His impressions on the magazine were rather negative as well. He seemed to be calling the fiction in the magazine consistently mediocre and unpolished. I wouldn't call "Motivator" unpolished, but it is rather mediocre.

Without Form or Substance, Phyllis Anne Duncan

Image via WikipediaThe premise of the story reads, "If you could go anywhere in history, where would you go?" Well, apparently nowhere at all. A young woman gets the opportunity to take a time machine that turns you into a fly on the wall, or more descriptive, an invisible observer, to watch history take place. When she discovers that this is really her job, she balks and declares, "History is discovery through meticulous research... (using a time machine) makes the process too easy." In other words, it's better in this character's mind to read books about history than it is to actually observe it happening.

OK, it's sort of like science fiction with the main character balking at the opportunity of a lifetime. There are a lot of paragraphs to get us nowhere. I'd say it's definitely not a recommended read. In fact, one might say that this story is without form or substance.

Kimberly Anne, Steven Terrill

I do not doubt that a story about a young girl running away from a physically and sexually abusive father would be an interesting tale. As we peel back the layers of reasons as to why the character is running away from home, the story itself is pretty much finished. At the end of what really ought to be the introduction to the tale, we are left where there's a young girl at a bus station, probably without any money or any real way to escape her situation, with no clear resolve or information about her further adventures in life. Again, a fairly mediocre story.

Gypsies, Richard Sutton

This is another mediocre story about a boy who is moving from one town to another. There's nothing particularly interesting about this story, either.

Blind Date, Mary O'Neil

A couple meets at a bar. While they're there, having drinks, a robber with a gun comes in and discretely robs the bartender. Bartender tries to give information about the robber to the police. Then, asking if there were any other witnesses, police ask if anyone else saw him. Bartender recommends the strange androgynous couple who were sitting at the door but are now gone (he doesn't know that they're in the theatre next door.)

Again, mediocre story that goes nowhere. It's like a joke without a punchline being told by an amateur comedian who is the only one who laughs at his jokes.


Divine Providence, Robert Turner

Image via WikipediaAlready my temper was a bit off by the time I got to this story because of the fairly uninspiring and boring fiction before it. But, I really do think the worst was saved for last.

A man hires an assassin who ends up killing the man's daughter. He tries to find a good place to bury her, which he does, before he goes off to lose himself on the road to escape being caught. The characters are rather pathetic, the dialogue is far from authentic, and the plot is as interesting as a broken down chair waiting on the side of the road for a garbage truck to put it out of its misery.

Poetry, Various

I read the first poem. But, I could barely stomach it, and I didn't feel like further wasting my time on the others. Maybe there was a brilliant work just after the first, but I won't be reading it.

Conclusion
Image by revtango via Flickr
It should come as no surprise to anyone that I do not recommend this book. The only thing it's really got going for itself is the superb layout and formatting. Whoever designed this magazine did as good a job as they did at the much larger and well established Fantasy and Science Fiction. It's just too bad that the fiction itself is the kind that should have never seen the light of day. I've never been terribly fond of plain-vanilla fiction, so maybe I'm just reading the wrong genre and I'm being too harsh. On the other hand, when they call themselves an indie publisher, I expect something different and cutting edge. Maybe something that doesn't really succeed more than a fraction of the time because it's bleeding edge, but there's no redeeming quality to these stories at all. The proofreaders and the formatters have done a fine job. The editor(s) and writers... well, I won't see if they improve since I will be cancelling my subscription forthwith.