What do you think?
BFS Journal #13
BFS Journal #13
The thirteenth edition of the British Fantasy Society's journal features contributions from Allen Ashley, Andrew Orton, Clifford Beal, David Gullen, David Howe, Deborah Walker, Gary Couzens, Helen Marshall, Howard Watts, Lavie Tidhar, Marie O’Regan, Marion Pitman, Mark Manley, Mark Williams, Mike Barrett, Noeleen Kavanagh, Phil Lunt, Rachel Coles, Rebecca Lloyd, Richard Webb, Robin Hickson, Roy Gill, S. Marcus Jones, Sarah Doyle, Stephen Theaker, Stuart Douglas, Suzanne J. Willis, Tina Rath and Zoe F. Gilbert.
The fiction was edited by Sarah Newton, and the poetry by Ian Hunter. The cover art is by Howard Watts.
The fiction was edited by Sarah Newton, and the poetry by Ian Hunter. The cover art is by Howard Watts.
192 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2014
About the author
Sarah Newton
32 books26 followersSarah is a writer of science-fiction and fantasy roleplaying games and fiction. Her works include the cosmic fantasy novel "The Worm Within", the transhuman space opera novel "Mindjammer", and the Award-winning RPG line of the same name using the Fate Core system; the "Zero Point" campaign for the Achtung! Cthulhu RPG; the "Monsters & Magic" RPG; the “Legends of Anglerre” roleplaying game; the "Burn Shift" post-apocalyptic setting for Fate Core; and numerous short stories. She has recently completed her first novel in French (and is in quest of a publisher) and is currently working on an English-language version of the French RPG "Capharnaum" while writing her second French novel. She lives in a field in rural France, from where she occasionally manages a blues-rock band, surrounded by numerous farmyard animals.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
January 21, 2021
The Apothecary’s Tale by Robin Hickson
“For the letters, unlike their frosted surround, are transparent; carved like a stream across a beach.”
This is a stunning piece of prose and it is written by an author whose name is new to me. I can only compare it to stories by Colin Insole (one of my favourite writers ever), and if you already enjoy one of these two authors, I am confident you will enjoy the other, well, certainly this story, at least, as I have no experience of other stories by Hickson. I shall certainly be seeking them out. Having said all that, I am not sure I am on safe ground plotwise, but yet, in a way, I am, because it has left many questions in my mind, which is probably its purpose.
There was a ‘dodgy doctor’ in the Allen Ashley story above, one who prescribed medicines or drugs for Dora. Here he is called an Apothecary or, I infer, a chemist. The story’s ending significantly adds two letters to that latter word by which action it links much together in my mind. The fact that there is a recurring reincarnation of the Apothecary’s cat, there is, too, of the Apothecary himself, I guess, who calls himself ‘you’, when referring to an earlier self, or a later one? There is an element of guilt or shame at his sexual longings, and there is a gritty and/or phlegmy watermark threading or seeping through, like an inner palimpsest, the past and destiny and other characters in the Apothecary’s shop.
The guilt and shame lead to the inevitable, perhaps. The prose is full of the viscous, the vicious, the crepitating of smoke and fire, as well as an incredible scene involving ice-making for sodas that the Apothecary sells. The words in fact act in the way that this Journal’s first story stated that words can act, as more than just meaning, but also physically and spiritually. Do read this story and tell me what you think. Am I on the right lines?
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
“For the letters, unlike their frosted surround, are transparent; carved like a stream across a beach.”
This is a stunning piece of prose and it is written by an author whose name is new to me. I can only compare it to stories by Colin Insole (one of my favourite writers ever), and if you already enjoy one of these two authors, I am confident you will enjoy the other, well, certainly this story, at least, as I have no experience of other stories by Hickson. I shall certainly be seeking them out. Having said all that, I am not sure I am on safe ground plotwise, but yet, in a way, I am, because it has left many questions in my mind, which is probably its purpose.
There was a ‘dodgy doctor’ in the Allen Ashley story above, one who prescribed medicines or drugs for Dora. Here he is called an Apothecary or, I infer, a chemist. The story’s ending significantly adds two letters to that latter word by which action it links much together in my mind. The fact that there is a recurring reincarnation of the Apothecary’s cat, there is, too, of the Apothecary himself, I guess, who calls himself ‘you’, when referring to an earlier self, or a later one? There is an element of guilt or shame at his sexual longings, and there is a gritty and/or phlegmy watermark threading or seeping through, like an inner palimpsest, the past and destiny and other characters in the Apothecary’s shop.
The guilt and shame lead to the inevitable, perhaps. The prose is full of the viscous, the vicious, the crepitating of smoke and fire, as well as an incredible scene involving ice-making for sodas that the Apothecary sells. The words in fact act in the way that this Journal’s first story stated that words can act, as more than just meaning, but also physically and spiritually. Do read this story and tell me what you think. Am I on the right lines?
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review