Imaginary Beasts: Book Four Review

[brigdh]

imaginarybeasts, which hopefully you remember from my post six days ago, is "a webzine dedicated to original fiction of the oneshot variety". Each issue, or book, has a theme; the fourth's is 'Heatwave'. This book was a particularly stellar issue; I really enjoyed all of the stories, and do recommend that you go read them. Nonetheless, here are my favorites:

Bring Rain by Hacy Morris. A story about kids that manages not to be cloying or sickeningly sweet, but dry as the drought it's about. The world-building done in little allusions in this is really exquisite, and the ending is surprisingly uplifting. I'd love to see more about these characters.
June Mermaids (or: a letter of business concerning an ill-advised love affair) by lacewood. A terribly fun story! The humor here is so biting and droll, but I adored the situation of a young girl needing to be saved from her romances (or so it seems), and I love how the author fits vampires and witches and mermaids into our world in a way that makes them seem utterly normal. It's a very neat trick, and one that makes for such an interesting read.
Long Hot Night by hazard_us. This one gets my 'if you only read one, make it this one!' stamp of approval for this book. It's told in a indescribably gorgeous language that sounds just like a story told around a campfire, but sharp and cruel as one of the oldest fairy tales. It's full of details that make it seem like a painting or carving- the dust on a road, the kiss of the sun, owl witches, the heat of a family argument. The story takes original elements and things from Native American myth, and creates something with the two that absolutely should not be missed.
Heatfish by takairino. I love this drawing! I want this on a t-shirt. The colors and the idea and the style- oh, it's just too awesome.

You can read all of the stories and see all of the art here. If imaginarybeasts sounds interesting to you, they are currently looking for submissions for Book Five, the theme of which is 'Ghost Story'. You can sign up here, but the post is locked to members of the community.

Comments

[gen50.livejournal.com]

sounds like an interesting read
i friended the community but cant post until the mods add me
i have a story all ready to go... just perfect for it.
it does involve an imaginary beast.
would you like to take a first read at it?
it was up in a forum i used to go to, but when the site owner moved
the forum folded up.. so

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, only the mods can post to the community. The way it works is that you write a story to the theme of the new book, and then email it to the mods, who have an editor go over it, and then all the stories get posted at once. They have more detailed instructions over at the community.