ReviewAs astute regular visitors to the site may have noted I'm now a card carrying, or should that be carrion carrying, member of the Australian Horror Writers Association. Apparently they even lower standards to let Reviewers into the fold. Issue three, therefor, of Midnight Echo now becomes the magazine of my Association, but don't worry I'm still ready to polish the new ball and bowl some bouncers at it if necessary.New issue new editor, this time round Stephen Studach took up the challenge of appeasing the market. Might have been just me but I failed to note a direction for Midnight Echo this time round, and I must say there was a heavy increase in the amount of Johnny Foreigner stories appearing. On the bright side Stephen did include a number of flash pieces, and for those interested I'm sure poetry's re-inclusion would have been welcomed. As usual there's enough going on between the covers to cover about everyone. Issue three weighs in at a tad over 40 pages longer than Issue two, so you are really getting quality here for an unbelievably good price. Okay admittedly there were a couple of half page advertisements and eleven pages were taken up by a graphic novel extract, but there's really not a hell of a lot to complain about unless you're a Pom, in which case you would be complaining regardless. Once again big bad Dave Schembri has taken on the task of making everything look good, and he really has outdone himself this time round. Dude you deserve an extra beer for the effort put into Issue three! We get a recurrent art theme through the issue of what I took to be stalagmites and the like, about every story gets a neat hand drawn piece after it, and you could have knocked me over with a feather when I realised the cover artwork and final page art were by renowned U.S artist David Stoupakis. Actually I should come clean here, David Schembri has an interview with Stoupakis in the issue else I wouldn't have had a clue who the Artist was. So there you go I'm learning stuff to bring up at dinner parties, thank you Mr Schembri and the Australian Horror Writer's Association. In the wash up the Magazine is looking good, and you get some quality artwork to look at. Okay so what do we get in issue three, besides a couple of Interviews, and an excerpt from a graphic novel. Glad you asked, they could have retitled Issue three the bumper Issue to be honest. Stephen Studach kicks things off with the by now habitual editorial, and have to say that was worth reading even if somewhat prosaic in terms of a magazine start off point. However the real bonus with Issue 3 is an amazing twenty two stories contained within the pages. There seems to have been no set selection criteria, besides quality of prose, for the stories and they range in length from some hard hitting flash pieces to a couple of fairly long short stories. Must admit to skipping over a couple of stories that didn't drag me in, but what the heck if you don't like a couple then there are plenty more to keep you entertained. And have to say there's a few really rippers in this issue, more on those later in the review. For the wine and cheese set Editor Studach has rustled up quite a mob of poems for you to knock yourself out over. I counted seventeen individual poems, but since I wouldn't know a good bit of verse unless it leaped up and bit me on the arse via screaming guitars I have no idea of worth. Rule of thumb I guess, the prose is pretty top notch so I guess the poetry is probably pretty good as well. As we have come to expect the back couple of pages give brief details about the individual Contributors to the issue, including web sites for those of us that might want to check out other works by Dark dreamers we noted in the issue. I'm simply loving this aspect of Midnight Echo and am finding in each issue at least a couple of Writers I was unaware of. Looks like 2010 will be a very busy reading year judging from the number of books I've submitted to the reading pile. Naturally there were a few stories that stood out for mine, total subjective opinion of course, read on at own risk people. Martin Livings delightful piece Silence caught me by surprise, simply an excellent piece of flash writing, and remind me never to go fishing in a secluded location with Livings. Wayne Summers kicked me around the lounge room with the insanely gruesome The Playmate, that one just keeps getting darker the further into the story you get. Another flash piece, Labour Pains by Eugene Grammelis, caught me completely by surprise, didn't pick the ending there at all. I did enjoy The Guardian by B.Michael Radburn, though there were echoes in the plot device of a Stephen King short story. And finally Mark Farrugia's Single Mother of None was fittingly gruesome. Overall the content of Midnight Echo Issue 3 matches the high standard set in the first couple of issues, with maybe a couple of weak links this time round. I already mentioned that advertising is included for the first time, not intrusive and I definitely checked out a couple of links, and the promised letters page didn't make it into the issue. Side note there, I actually sent off a note to the publishers but it apparently got lost in cyberspace. Must remember to retry sending for Issue 4. Notably missing from Issue three was the nasty side of horror, generally you can be assured of at least one story that heads into the meat works, and the regulation Felicity Dowker outing. What's the problem Ms Dowker, word processor at the repair store? As usual I'm left with a whole bunch of Writers I need to follow up on, to see what else they have published. Once again Midnight Echo proves to be a fine advertisement for local dark genre Writers. Midnight Echo is a publication from The Australian Horror Writers Association. Australian Horror Issue 3 can be purchased direct from the AHWA as either a pdf download ($3.50 USD) or a softcover magazine ($12.95USD plus shipping). Story submissions are welcome, see Midnight Echo for details. The magazine is accepting Stories of various length, Poetry, and Art.
Please note neither ScaryMinds or MovieHeretic have an association with Midnight Echo or the AHWA. We receive no remuneration from sales of the
magazine. The review of the third issue has been published as a service to readers from the wider horror community world wide. |
