Midnight Echo Issue 11 (2015)

Review

After something of a hiatus the eleventh issue of Midnight Echo landed on our desk thanks to the excellent work by Publicity manager Greg Chapman. Guest editor this time was Kaaron Warren, a well-regarded writer within the Australian horror scene, who choose as her theme for the issue "sinister". Not entirely sure this was a successful decision as "sinister" is pretty hard as a concept to nail down and for mine most of the prose in the magazine at best skims the concept. Clearly Ms Warren has her own definition of the term and the stories, poems, etc. in the magazine reflect that definition. Hey make your own mind up; I'm just reviewing over here.

Issue 11 presents us with the usual editorial, nine pieces of prose - including the 2014 AHWA Flash and Short Story winners, an interview with Aaron Sterns of Wolf Creek fame, a small amount of advertising, and unfortunately the invariable poetry entries. Once again an issue of Midnight Echo appears to be trying for some sort of literary merit rather than appealing to fans of the dark genre. Got to say that's a mistake if the AHWA are dedicated to growth of horror within the wider Australian community, relevance to a modern audience should be the key there.

Like most I was here for the prose, the issue is strong in this regard and worth getting your hands on if you enjoy a later night chill or two of the reading kind. Leading the batting order is Vincent G. McMackin's Gardening at Night, a tale that almost works as the perfect psychological yarn. Unfortunately McMackin tips his hand in one direction taking out any Babadook style multi-interpretation. Still when it comes to quiet horror McMackin has it down pat, I've pencilled the Author's name in to check out what else he might have lurking in dusty corners. Perfect Little Stitches for mine was the best piece of prose writing in the magazine, including the 2014 AHWA winners. Author Deborah Sheldon has it working on multiple levels, a purely supernatural piece or a downright horror excursion. One of those stories that leaves things with the reader knowing where it might go, excellent achievement with a couple of well received jump scares. Marija Electra Rodriguez's The Crying Room left me somewhat confused, what was the point of the tale? One of those stories you run across that makes you go hmmm, could it even be considered horror?

Which brings us to the 2014 AHWA winners for the short and flash fiction competition, always a highlight when included in a Midnight Echo issue. Keith Williams took out the short story award with the nominal horror tale Sundown. Come on this yarn is pure Sci-Fi with horror infused into the plot to satisfy the requirements. As a story in its own right Sundown works, just what would happen if the sun went out, but I kind of thought the horror elements, ghosts in this case, were surplus to requirements. On the other hand Stuart Olver's flash piece What Came Through was a worthy winner, though to be honest it is slightly derivative of previous works, see Stephen King's The Jaunt for example. I was digging where Olver took his yarn; naturally being flash a lot is left to the reader's imagination as to what might happen post story in the universe the Author creates. A solid piece of writing for mine that is worth the price of admission to Issue 11 in its own right.

Evan Purcell surprised me with Uninvited, a story you expect to go in a single direction but which supports a couple of widely outrageous twists. Purcell has knocked it out of the ball park with this piece of prose that works at undermining reader expectations. Pennywise meets the Pied Piper comes to mind. By the Light Unseen, a particularly bloody story by Mark Farrugia, introduces some quiet horror to the second half of the magazine, all about the atmosphere with most things left unstated. Claire Fitzpatrick's Madeline can be interpreted in a couple of ways but heck the Author puts the gore back in the horror story. Talk about your ultimate body re-arranging metaphor for the horror of growing into adulthood, the story is a hoot and a holler. And finally in a similar fashion Accident Report can be interpreted on a number of levels, either psychologically or supernaturally, making me wonder if the best horror prose has this aspect to it. Author Jarod K Anderson tells a deceptively simple tale, but ensures the reader isn't quite certain how to interpret what has been put down on the page.

Now I'm just going to say the number and quantity of stories in Issue 11 makes the magazine more than worth the cover price. I would also point out the magazine operates as a sort of primer for some very talented Australian authors. Hey don't believe me, buy the magazine kids and form your own opinion. But wait, as the adverts say, there's more.

Sinister Reads brings us the latest crop of AHWA member releases, and to be honest there's a whole bunch of novels I need to add to my reading list. Jason Franks teams with Leigh Kuilboer and Mark Farrugia to bring the graphic story The Old Portrait to us. Two thumbs up to the AHWA editing team for the decision to include comic style tales in each issue of Midnight Echo, as they are an ongoing horror medium that don't get enough exposure. Cream on top of this particular issue of Midnight Echo is an interview by Mark Smith-Briggs with Aaron Sterns of Wolf Creek 2 movie and novel fame.

As mentioned somewhere above the magazine does have a fair amount of poetry, those literary pretensions again, but thankfully you can skip through them, assuming you aren't a member of the wine and cheese set. Horror is a hard sell to even the horror faithful in Australia, the AHWA really need to deep six the poetry in order to expand the possible market for Midnight Echo.

A notable non-inclusion this issue was the movie column! Come on, Australian horror movie is rocking early 2015 with Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead the top grossing horror flick thus far this year, Charlie's Farm about to see the light of day, and a number of other releases coming at us in the next month. Added to this Aussies are killing it in Hollywood with Greg McLean leading the charge.

Overall another excellent edition of Midnight Echo with a few stray issues that may be off putting for a few readers. On the bright side of the tomahawk there's some excellent prose to be grooving out to and the magazine as ever is of a high professional standard. If you haven't picked up a copy of the magazine yet then issue 11 is probably a decent start that might just get you into the whole horror prose thing again. A magazine that show cases the best Downunder has to offer, get ready to rock again.

You can collect your electronic edition of Midnight Echo Issue 11 for the outrageously low price of $2.99 right here. Don't be concerned about the format, for the one low price you get all three of the major current ones. While on the Midnight Echo site you can also score all past editions, happy reading there kids.