Imaginary Beasts: Book 13

[brigdh]

imaginarybeasts is "a bi-monthly webzine dedicated to original fiction of the oneshot variety". Anyone may participate, whether you would like to write, make visual art, volunteer to help with beta'ing, or, most importantly, read and review the stories. Etc, etc, here's the tag for previous reviews.

Each edition, or "book", has a theme; February's (I am so far behind, Jesus Christ) was "Erase/Rewind", which basically means 'free for all'. Writers and artists were free to use any of the previous themes. I have a lot of recs for this review, but the quality was really particularly high this time. My favorite stories:

Citydust by overrule. About the life of a city, the birth and death of a city, and how to love a city. Short but vivid.

That Beautiful Apple by scratchmist. A retelling of a well-known myth, but it would be cheating to tell you which one before you've read it. Or not a retelling, a sequel, a second chance for the people involved. Simple, but so well-done.

[ctrl]+[alt]+[del] by rei_kurasaki. A cyberpunk story, set in a Terminator/Matrix -esque world, but more brutal than either of those movies. Plus, gay boys!

The Cobbler's Son by phoenixgold. This is obviously using the language and tropes of fairy tales, but it's like the anti-fairy tale. By which I mean not that it's sad or aggressive, but it's just an entirely other thing than stories of heroes and monsters and destiny and treasure. A wonderful little tale.

The Assassin's School for Girls by hazard_us. Now this one is a fairy tale, but it's like what would happen if Edward Gorey wrote a fairy tale. Detailed, precise, and fun.

The Greatest Bluesman by thanatophilia. This story is far and away the "if you only read one, read this one" of the issue. In fact, I think it might be the "if you only read one, read this one" of the entire imaginarybeasts archive. I'll repeat that one more time: read this one. This is amazing. It reads like a song, with the perfect rolling rhythm of its Louisiana setting. Death, the devil, and souls sold for musical ability, and even though I know you've heard that story before, it's still new this time. Here's the first paragraph:

Catherine Mary Saint Croix done eat her baby. Done eat her baby and start singing so sweet. Townsfolk call her a witch (which means knowledge and just imagine what horrors of horrors she knows). Townsfolk say she sold her soul. Townsfolk run her out of town and they don't wanna hear from her no more.

It's so good, I cannot tell you.

You can read all of the stories and see the art here.