Shimmer #18 hit the streets like a boss in February, and here are three reviews as to its gorgeousness!
SF Revu on Shimmer #18, “Shimmer Number 18, again I say, one of my favorite small press magazines. This issue is guest edited by Ann VanderMeer and she does a fine job with a very mixed lot of stories.”
Casual Debris, “There is less fantasy in a good sense, and instead a healthy combination of fantasy, science fiction and psychological horror.”
Casual Debris says: Shimmer Seventeen features a little sci-fi, some nice ghosts, as well as more than one second-person narration, several unsympathetic mothers and three Canadians, all tossed to the far-end of the collection. My favourites are those by Alex Dally MacFarlane, Yarrow Paisley and Kim Neville.
Sam Tomaino, who has been there since issue one, has some kind words about Shimmer #16:
I was in there at issue #1 in January of 2006. My review began with “This is a nicely produced new small press publication. The editor states that she wants a ‘particular kind of short story — the combination of a strange and original idea, a well-developed plot and characters, delivered with exquisite writing.’ Does it succeed at this? Let’s see.” After reviewing individual stories, I concluded with “So yes, this is well worth the $5. Buy it!” So what about this issue?
On Shimmer’s home page it states that the magazine publishes “contemporary fantasy short stories, with a few ventures into science fiction or horror, and the stories tend to be tinged with sorrow (though we’re not averse to the occasional funny tale)” and I found this to be accurate. Shimmer has a distinct feeling to it: rawer than Apexand more surreal and fantasy-oriented than the classic science fiction that you might find in Clarkesworld. There was something very physical about some of the stories in issue #16 of Shimmer: an awareness of the body, the blood, and of mortality. Though the stories taken as a whole don’t turn away from the classic narrative shape they don’t embrace it, either, tending at times towards provocative, moody meditations on life, love, and death.
Mr. Long serves up some thoughts on each story–thank you Mr. Long!
What a nice little publication. I’ve been meaning to get a subscription to this respected quarterly, and as soon as I subscribed online I received an e-promise from publisher Beth Wodzinski that she’ll drop it in the mail shortly. A week later I had my copy. Service like that alone deserves a subscription.
Shimmer has recently announced that it is paying professional rates for its stories, which is big news for this little magazine. It publishes contemporary fantasy, with an occasional foray into science fiction or horror, “and the stories tend to be tinged with sorrow,” as its home page says. On the basis of Issue 15, I’d call that a fair description — especially the sorrow part.
In the July issue of Locus, Rich Horton heaps praise upon”A Window, Clear as a Mirror” (Shimmer #13), by Ferrett Steinmetz, “one might call it bittersweet, though that’s not quite right: resignedly true, I suppose.”
“Four Household Tales,” as told by Poor Mojo’s Giant Squid, also gets a nod!
The stories themselves, for the most part serious or even melancholy, are built on fresh ideas or at least interesting twists on established ones. Their fantastical elements range from the overt—mermaids and magic portals—to the mere shimmer of possibility hovering just beneath their surfaces. -Jessica Barnes
People are saying good things about Shimmer #13. Are you one of them? If you’ve reviewed Shimmer, let us know!
Shimmer Number 13 is here and, once more, is delightful. In a previous review, I said that the stories in Shimmer were like piece of fudge. Well, I read this issue in the week after Easter and it seemed like a Whitman Sampler. I never knew what I was going to get, but none of them were coconut. I never liked coconut. These stories were all caramel, nougat, toffee, cherries and other delightful stuff. – Sam Tomaino, SFRevu
The fantasy here definitely has a darker tint, offering some disturbing images. A good issue. –Lois Tilton, Locus Online
