Stygian Articles
Issue #6 Summer 1996
56 pages/$5 3201 Sun Lake Dr.
St. Charles, MO 63301-3012
charon@il.net
Publisher/Editor Jeremy E. Johnson

This issue of Stygian Articles starts off with two strikes: it opens with part II of a story by Douglas Hewitt titled "Pain Control." (The opening slot of a magazine should never be a difficult sell for a new reader -- and part II of anything is going to be a difficult sell if you weren't around for part I). "Pain Control" is a James Bond-type affair, about a man sent to infiltrate a cult of pain armed with a handy pill that allows one to not only deal with intense pain, but mend the flesh that's been injured almost instantly. If I'd read the first half, perhaps the ending wouldn't have been so disappointing. Or perhaps it still would have. Strike one.

Next up is the ubiquitous D.F. Lewis with "Big Ship, Little Ship and Brown." As usual with Lewis' short fiction, this piece is filled with poetic images and deft turns of phrasing. But what is the plot? Don't ask me. Strike two.

After a series of poems by John Grey and Sandy Adams, Stygian Articles finally takes a base. It's a walk, but hey, we'll take anything at this point, right? Kevin J. Garvey's "Cereal Killer" smacks a little much of writer's whining, but Garvey manages to pull off the tale in second person, which is always a good trick. The plot? You are a frustrated, (and talentless) writer who abducts a horror editor to torture him for not accepting your brilliant "Cereal Killer" story. You go a little bit too far. You get the idea.

Following a poem from Lida Broadhurst and some small press reviews, Paul DeCirce checks in with "If You Find Buddha On The Path, Kill Him," a grimly amusing tale of a man looking for a hit man...to have himself murdered. Tim Emswiler's "The Law of Conservation of Pain," follows, giving another example of second person narrative (very odd to find two incidences of this in one volume!) One of the issue's more inventive pieces, it deals with a man who can absorb other people's pain like a sponge, "curing" them of their problems. But eventually, a sponge must be wrung out...

Another good offering comes in Rich Gray's "The Book of Answers." When a librarian is accosted by a seeming nutcase about a rare "Book of Answers" that supposedly is in a newly acquired (and as yet unboxed) collection, the librarian is given a chance to ask the question of a lifetime. The issue ends with a SF-H lark called "Omnibus" from Milton E. Wheeler, Jr. It follows the descent of a nano-architect from nerd to powerful creature of the night.

Stygian Articles seemed to grow stronger for me with each story. If subsequent issues keep up that same trend, this should mature into a fine digest of horrific fiction.

Copyright © 1996 by John Everson. All Rights Reserved.