Originally posted on Short Story Review:Highlights: "Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl" by Richard Parks "Icicle" by Yukimi Ogawa "Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghost Story" by A.C. Wise "The Wanderer King" by Alisa Alering "Lilo Is" by Corinne Duyvis "Selected Program Notes From the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" by Kenneth Schneyer "The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly" by Benjanun Sriduangkaew "The History of Soul 2065" by Barbara KrasnoffWith a release date of July 201...

The overall theme of Clockwork Phoenix 4 tends towards the weird, and features some very experimental structures and voices. Some of these stories struck me as very strong--even bringing tears to my eyes--while a few others left me more confused than anything. To highlight some of my favorites:- "The History of Soul 2065" by Barbara Krasnoff depicts a drastically changing world, as shown in family and friends as they gather for seder. The ending of this is stunning.- "Lilo Is" by Corinne Duyvis

Nominado al Nebula al mejor relato corto este año.No sé qué tiene este relato, pero me enganchó. De entre los nominados de este año es el que más me ha gustado (quizás porque es el único que no apuesta claramente por el sentimentalismo, aunque tampoco lo evite). Una historia narrada a partir de los resuménes que aparecen en el folleto de una exposición de pintura. Al principio descoloca un poco, pero consigue despertar el interés y hacer que se espere con ganas la siguiente descripción.

Doesn't disappoint. You read Clockwork Phoenix books the way you would eat a meal prepared by a master chef: trusting that every ingredient is placed precisely and with a purpose, even if one bite is bitter, it is to allow you to savor the sweetness of the next. In that way, the book absolutely succeeds and is a triumph. It's harder for me to comment on individual stories, they are too much a part of s greater whole. Ok, off the top of my head, I really liked "Happy Hour at the Tooth & Claw" by

Beauty and strangeness indeed: stories to sip and to savor. Stories to read over lunch that will give your food savor. I liked almost all of them, but my favorites were:The Canal Barge Magician's Number Nine Daughter, Ian McHughA Little of the Night, Tanith LeeThe Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly, Bejanun SriduangkaewThe Old Woman with No Teeth, Patricia Russo (the world needs more Patricia Russo)The History of Soul 2065, Barbara Krasnoff (made me cry in the best way)Recommended for lunches, c...

Overall definitely exceeded the average anthology for me. I'll have to come back and review a few of the pieces that really stuck with me, of which there were several.

(view spoiler)[This looks like a good one! I picked this up for A Little of the Night (Ein Bisschen Nacht) by Tanith Lee but I think I'll give all the short stories here a try. (hide spoiler)]

https://aspeccharactersoftheday.tumbl...

Meh. Though looking at the ToC, there were more stories that I enjoyed than I remember. Not really a recommendation, is it? There is a full table of Contents at the end of the review; first my take on the stories I loved and loathed.The Canal Barge Magician’s Number Nine Daughter - Ian McHugh - 4 star tale with magic and golems.Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl - Richard Parks - 4 star take on Myffic Feems.Icicle - Yukimi Ogawa - 5 star tale of love and redemption.Lesser Creek: A Love Story, A Ghos...

3 stars Tanith Lee "A Little of the Light" A nice twist in the depiction of vampirism, original in the way Tanith can be on the subject. Worth reading and even seeking out, but the other facets of the tale are not as vividly depicted as she can do.

This story was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for 2013.It was interesting, but it didn't click with me. I don't want to ruin it, so just read it if you like.

I had been waiting for this book to come out after hearing an excerpt of Shira Lipkin's "Happy Hour at the Tooth and Claw" (which appears in this anthology). Lipkin's story wasn't like anything else I had ever heard, a funny, irreverent, heart-breaking, pan-galatic, inter-dimensional story told in alternating viewpoints. And then I read the entirety of Clockwork Phoenix 4.It is safe to say that NONE of these stories are like anything I've ever read before. Nicole Kornher-Stace's “On the Leitmoti...

“Selected Program Notes From the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" by Kenneth Schneyer. Nebula nominee short story.

This is from back in 2013--it just occurred to me that I never transferred this review from LJ to here. It's a partisan review as I did proofreading for the volume.I’m going to focus on just four stories, the stories I found myself thinking about for the longest time after reading them, but I‘ll have shoutouts for a handful more at the end. The first, by Nicole Kornher-Stace, has a huge title: “On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse.”...

I've just read the first story "Our Lady of the Thylacines" and I'm having difficulty getting into a new story, although I'm sure there are many good ones in this collection. "Our Lady..." was very interesting and suggestive, so much so that midway through the story I was imagining what could be possibly happening and I came out with a response that turned out to be much more interesting (to me) than the one revealed by the ending :(Basically, we meet a child who is living in a super creepy vers...

In a lot of his stories, Ken manages to play virtuoso narrative games while keeping the story incredibly human and moving. This is a perfect example. This is a found-document story that follows the life, work, and love of an artist from the present into the future. It manages to stay true to the impersonal tone of a museum catalog while being engaging and tantalizing in what it tells us about Theresa, and about what it leaves out.

Okay, so technically I haven't read the whole magazine - just one of the stories: The Bees her Heart, the Hive Her Belly, by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Very strange, but not really quite my cup of tea.