Matthew Kressel
Author of King of Shards (The Worldmender Trilogy)
About the Author
Series
Works by Matthew Kressel
The History Within Us 3 copies
Sybil's Garage No. 3 1 copy
The Bricks Of Gelecek 1 copy
Sybil's Garage No. 5 1 copy
Marie and the Mathematicians 1 copy
The Girl In The Basement 1 copy
The Many Faces Of Lisa Adorn 1 copy
Associated Works
Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2019) — Contributor — 131 copies, 4 reviews
Mad Hatters and March Hares: All-New Stories from the World of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (2017) — Contributor — 124 copies, 10 reviews
Weird Dream Society: An Anthology of the Possible & Unsubstantiated in Support of RAICES (2020) — Contributor — 3 copies
Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #133 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
Members
Reviews
Saving Diego [short fiction] by Matthew Kressel
Diego is an addict hooked on a drug called jisthmus on the remote planet Gilder Nefan. His former partner in drug dealing crime, Mikal, makes the long journey to help Diego kick his habit, in order to assuage his guilt over leaving his friend in the lurch during a police raid years before. Diego has a mysterious minder called Saa and local mythology connect the Numens, a godlike race. to jisthmus. The story moves to a (somewhat predictable) neat conclusion
1 
AlanPoulter | Mar 25, 2009 |
AlanPoulter | Mar 25, 2009 | 
Sybil's Garage, a slim 8 1/2" by 7 1/4" magazine published by Senses Five Press, New Jersey, is dedicated to "Speculative Fiction, Poetry & Art". I received issue #4, normally priced at $5, as a review copy
Layout and Design: The magazine has a glossy, full-color cover and is printed on fine white paper with decent margins and text sized for ease of reading without being obnoxiously large. The illustrations - mostly public domain line-drawings from the 1800s - are cIean and given generous white-space. In other words, this is a decidedly more handsome effort than your typical SF periodical. Advertising is confined to a single, topical page at both front and back.
Content: When I first added up and averaged my rankings for the individual pieces, I was surprised to see the outcome: 3 stars (which should translate to, 'Overall, the collection is of average quality; nothing to write home about, either in anger or praise.') My gut impression was really more positive. Ah, but then I must note that I consistently rank poems lower than prose and it's hardly fair to knock a magazine that mentions poetry in the masthead for actually including a healthy sampling of on-theme poems. It's probably more significant that I, a poetry-disdaining philistine, quite liked J.C. Runolfson's "define your terms" love poem, The Answer Compounded and JoSelle Vanderhooft's Flesh Into Sand in which a sly, obsessive (female) landscape considers the sexy climber she has claimed as her own.
As for the stories, Sybil's Garage #4 had two offerings that really struck me. Pairings by John Bowker is the history of a marriage written in socks told in just over a page. I wanted to hear more from Catherine, a woman whose identity seems entirely tied up in being a wife until the day she finally finds a reason to act. I do wish the catalyst was something not quite so trite, but it's a small criticism. Means of Communication by Barbara Krasnoff is the only prose science fiction piece in an issue dominated by dark fantasy. The unnamed narrator is the sole human menial on a first-contact station otherwise staffed by "hero"-scientists and their robot assistants. As rehabilitation for an unspecified crime, her memory and personality have been altered, a change that only the condescending doctors seem to regard as an improvement. I want this story to continue. I want to see more of the "alien" lizards, understand more about the station's culture, one that values learning but seems to punish emotion, and I was absolutely ready to hear more from the narrator. In short, I loved this story and will be looking for more from Krasnoff. (A novel, perhaps?)
Other standouts include
- Seas of the World by Ekaterina Sedia, an icy vignette of two people whose only remaining connection is an absence.
- After the War by Leah Bobet: the boy goes willingly off to war; the man is forever haunted by it.
- Devin Poore's interview with Stephen H. Segal (He's the creative director for Wildside Press, not an action film star.) and
- Strangeness by Steve Rasnic Tem: What initially seems to be an ordinary lifeless marriage turns out to be an infestation of succubi, head-swallowing grins and other signs of a warped reality. Or maybe it's all in the mind of a housewife driven crazy by tedium.
My final rating? A solid four stars. (Recommended.)… (more)
Layout and Design: The magazine has a glossy, full-color cover and is printed on fine white paper with decent margins and text sized for ease of reading without being obnoxiously large. The illustrations - mostly public domain line-drawings from the 1800s - are cIean and given generous white-space. In other words, this is a decidedly more handsome effort than your typical SF periodical. Advertising is confined to a single, topical page at both front and back.
Content: When I first added up and averaged my rankings for the individual pieces, I was surprised to see the outcome: 3 stars (which should translate to, 'Overall, the collection is of average quality; nothing to write home about, either in anger or praise.') My gut impression was really more positive. Ah, but then I must note that I consistently rank poems lower than prose and it's hardly fair to knock a magazine that mentions poetry in the masthead for actually including a healthy sampling of on-theme poems. It's probably more significant that I, a poetry-disdaining philistine, quite liked J.C. Runolfson's "define your terms" love poem, The Answer Compounded and JoSelle Vanderhooft's Flesh Into Sand in which a sly, obsessive (female) landscape considers the sexy climber she has claimed as her own.
As for the stories, Sybil's Garage #4 had two offerings that really struck me. Pairings by John Bowker is the history of a marriage written in socks told in just over a page. I wanted to hear more from Catherine, a woman whose identity seems entirely tied up in being a wife until the day she finally finds a reason to act. I do wish the catalyst was something not quite so trite, but it's a small criticism. Means of Communication by Barbara Krasnoff is the only prose science fiction piece in an issue dominated by dark fantasy. The unnamed narrator is the sole human menial on a first-contact station otherwise staffed by "hero"-scientists and their robot assistants. As rehabilitation for an unspecified crime, her memory and personality have been altered, a change that only the condescending doctors seem to regard as an improvement. I want this story to continue. I want to see more of the "alien" lizards, understand more about the station's culture, one that values learning but seems to punish emotion, and I was absolutely ready to hear more from the narrator. In short, I loved this story and will be looking for more from Krasnoff. (A novel, perhaps?)
Other standouts include
- Seas of the World by Ekaterina Sedia, an icy vignette of two people whose only remaining connection is an absence.
- After the War by Leah Bobet: the boy goes willingly off to war; the man is forever haunted by it.
- Devin Poore's interview with Stephen H. Segal (He's the creative director for Wildside Press, not an action film star.) and
- Strangeness by Steve Rasnic Tem: What initially seems to be an ordinary lifeless marriage turns out to be an infestation of succubi, head-swallowing grins and other signs of a warped reality. Or maybe it's all in the mind of a housewife driven crazy by tedium.
My final rating? A solid four stars. (Recommended.)… (more)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 19
- Also by
- 31
- Members
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- Popularity
- #229,022
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 4
- ISBNs
- 10