I'm not an objective reviewer. My friend Gerri Leen's story, "Windows to the Soul," for which I was a first reader, is included in this issue. But for what it's worth, I enjoyed this greatly--more than I expected. This is a slim volume of only 152 pages, other than my friend I didn't recognize one name on the contents page, and in the Afterword the editor admits the two previous issues didn't sell more than a hundred copies. A shame in my opinion, because this compared well to many another much more high-profile speculative fiction collections I've read. Not all of the stories appeared for the first time here given the information at stories end, but certainly all but my friend's were new to me. Most fit quite well into the theme sounded in the title: enchanted and deadly mirrors, magic eyeballs, tinted glass, a genie's bottle, windows. The sixteen short stories were a nice mix of science-fiction, fantasy, horror of various kinds--even humor. When I review anthologies I like to pick out at least five favorites, and that wasn't easy in this instance and I didn't dislike any of the stories. I'm going to try though--besides my friend's story (a chilling, very short story about a "dark glass" indeed) the below were my top five favorites in the order they appeared:

Kenneth B. Chiacchia, "Imaginal Friend" - Rather twisty little science fiction story dealing with aliens and a chilling game using virtual reality.

Rachel Swirsky, "Monstrous Embrace" - This dark fantasy stood out for it's fairy tale feel and mixture of a first and second person point of view.

Kathryn Board, "Broken Things" - The genie's bottle isn't the only broken thing needing repair. Left me smiling.

Kurt Kirchmeier, "Souls on Display" - This left me smiling too. A lovely fable about the soul and Heaven.

Loretta Sylvestre, "A More Beautiful Monster" - This is on the other side of the pole as the story above. About devils and damnation--and redemption. ( )

Here be Ideas — Review: Triangulation: Dark Glass, by Parsec Ink
reviewed by Erin Hoffman

Edited by Pete Butler. Contributors include Mark Onspaugh, D. K. Thompson, Kenneth B. Chiacchia, Rachel Swirsky, Aaron Polson, Lon Prater, D. J. Cockburn, Gerri Leen, Jason K. Chapman, Kelly A. Harmon, Kathryn Board, Amy Treadwell, David Siegler, Kurt Kirchmeier, Loretta Sylvestre, and Craig Wolf. Triangulation: Dark Glass. 158 pages. $12.00 USD. ISBN: 978-0578031033.

This sixth installment in the PARSEC Triangulation series — an “annual confluence of speculative fiction” — is the first that I’ve read, and ultimately leaves me intending to seek out future issues in the series, even if its editor of the last three years, Pete Butler, announces in his afterword that he will be moving on and leaving the ship in the hands of assistant editor Bill Moran. While not every piece here is a winner, the sheer variety of material presented, its clean and professional production, and its attention to thought-provoking ideas makes Dark Glass unique in speculative fiction collections, and a worthy contribution to the field.

The collection shows a fondness for both flash and reprints, some of which are quite successful and some less so. Of the flash, pieces like Gerri Leen’s “Windows to the Soul” give us a glimpse into a dark and unpretentious world, entering and exiting with a quick simplicity that — unlike the piece’s title — sells the concept and leaves it lingering in memory long after reading. Other short pieces don’t fare as well, opening more questions than they close, and not in good ways.

Of the entire collection, Rachel Swirsky’s “Monstrous Embrace” (originally printed in a Subterranean collection of dark fantasy) emerges as a clear frontrunner, and is the first sequentially in the collection that delivers the moral ambiguity and contemplation I found I was seeking in an anthology with the evocative theme of “dark glass”. In addition to painting a vivid world with teeth a-gleam, Swirsky deftly juggles time, setting, and character into a seamless narrative that leaves the reader feeling inextricably woven into a world with no way out, a fairy circle in which nobility and heroism exist only to cast a shadow onto what lies beneath them, until we aren’t sure which way is up.

Contrasting this vivid and dark fairy tale is the also notable “Perchance to Dream” by D. J. Cockburn, a clever story that is charmingly and refreshingly unaware of its cleverness. In its way Cockburn’s piece is as contemplative as Swirsky’s, but this tale of a fallen WWII spitfire pilot who winds up in the wrong afterlife takes the opposite tack, dancing lightly through its philosophical constructs and landing us on an ending that is both surprising and perfect. There were many ways this story could have taken a wrong turn, and it took none of them.

Loretta Sylvestre’s “A More Beautiful Monster” manipulates traditional tropes — a sorcerer, a demon, and a priest who wants to stop them — but delivers story unpretentiously and with a satisfying end. Kurt Kirschmeier’s “Souls on Display” introduces a more innovative concept and more directly embraces the notion of ‘dark glass’, coming through with one of the more poignant and memorable stories in the collection.

Other stories more unfortunately seem bogged down in clever-first-line-ism, hitting us with a punchy witticism that is both difficult to follow and difficult to recover from. The stories can’t keep up, but except in the case of non-storiness, it’s hard to blame them. I the reader am more fickle (not to mention more stubborn) prey, and prefer to be snuck up on. I had a lot of trouble with D. K. Thompson’s “Saint Darwin’s Spirituals”, which had some compelling ideas behind its world, but got bogged down in inexplicable character action and gratuitous (not to mention oddly exploitative) sex.

In the end, as with virtually any collection, there are some misses and some hits, but only one or two stories that seem out of place in concept or execution. Accompanying them are several unique offerings well worth reading, as well as second-appearance reprint pieces that deliver excellent story and variations on the theme. There is a philosophical undercurrent to the collection as a whole that is rare and refreshing in an anthology of speculative fiction, indicating thoughtful care and honesty that are reflected also in the book’s fine and satisfying presentation. A carefully crafted total work that is a tribute to this already well regarded series.

reviewed at Ideomancer ( )