The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2020

A better than average issue, with fascinating stories by James Morrow, David Erik Nelson, Brian Trent and a hilarious story by Madeleine Robins exploring a fantastic version of "My Fair Lady" that probably deserves to be made into a play too.

• "Knock Knock Said the Ship" by Rati Mehrotra: on a spaceship that tries to tell 'Knock Knock' jokes, a former Lunar refugee working off her debt is thrown into conflict when the ship is taken over by attackers also from Lunar, who did so to get supplies for fellow refugees. Should her loyalties lie with her shipmates or with the attackers?

• "Last Night at the Fair" by M. Rickert: it's the last night at a fair, and in this fantasy, the attractions are free for all to enjoy until the break of dawn.

• "Bible Stories for Adults No. 37: The Jawbone" by James Morrow: another in a line of tales giving an SF spin to various Bible characters, this one looks at Samson, the source of his strength and what happens when it is discovered that it can be transferred to various implements and transforms them into weapons of personal destruction that echoes the gun culture in the USA.

• "Spirit Level" by John Kessel: a man attempting to sell his old house encounters the spirits of his ex-wife and father under unusual circumstances, as his ex-wife isn't dead, and the father proceeds to put him in his place via his spirit level (the carpenter's tool). Via interactions with his current lover and his elderly mother, we learn more about his current circumstances and his desires to return to an earlier life when his mother was more active and loving and his father able to use the spirit level for it proper purpose.

• "All Hail the Pizza King and Bless His Reign Eternal" by David Erik Nelson: a strange fantasy story about events that happened in the past and present around a pizza oven in a closed shop. The pizza shop was involved into a strange murder case in the past. Now, in the present, it is to be reopened, but the appearance of the Pizza King and his request for blood to 'close the circuit' would get the two characters involved in a mad dash to ward off a possible invasion of the Earth.

• "Madre Nuestra, Que Estas en Maracaibo" by Ana Hurtado: a fantasy story involving a niece who visits her family home as her grandmother is near death. But her grandmother's strange behaviour, wailing and moving in unexpected ways, may be connected to her past practice of praying for the dead who don't get to go to heaven, and only she can help her grandmother now as the ghosts return to haunt them instead.

• "A Bridge from Sea to Sky" by Bennett North: the Earth's space elevator suffers major damage at a time of budget cutbacks. Now, the only maintenance crew for the cable must find a way to fix the damage and convince the various countries to come together to keep it running.

• "Crawfather" by Mel Kassel: a story about a family 'tradition' to do battle with a huge crawfish (or crayfish) and what happens when things go wrong: a person dies and others decide to take revenge.

• "'Omunculus" by Madeleine Robins: a hilarious story involving Henry Higgins (from 'Pygmalion' or 'My Fair Lady') meeting with a man named Rossum who proceeds to provide Higgins with what he wants: an automaton who can speak. Higgins, being who he is, begins to teach it to speak Proper English and names it Eliza. Events then proceed as expected, even the ending when Higgins gets his comeuppance when the machine puts him in his place. A nicely written piece that gives an SF spin on a well known tale.

• "The Staircase" by Sephanie Feldman: a group of friends tests the 'legend' of a staircase on a hill that supposedly leads somewhere else. But when one of them momentarily vanished and then returns with a changed behaviour, are the rest of her friends willing to follow where she has gone?

• "The Monster of Olympus Mons" by Brian Trent: on a Mars being torn apart by civil war, a civilian hero stumbles into a museum for help, only to discover it inhabited by the least expected of Martian 'creatures'. They decide to complete a mission for him against the current tyrants of Mars. But they are being chased by a military officer who thinks that 'facts' should 'fit' the narrative he wants. And it is in the final confrontation between them that we discover who are the real monsters to be found on Mars.

• "The Shape of Gifts" by Natalia Theodoridou: a naturalist is gifted with the ability to see the future of the creatures and people she meets, making her wary of relationships. But when she senses the possible future of a fellow observer who is the only person she likes to meet, she has to decide whether to embrace whatever the future has in store for them.