The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2019

An average issue with interesting stories by Gregor Hartmann, Matthew Hughes, R.S. Benedict and with an especially interesting story about a musical faun by Jerome Stueart.

• "The Unbearable Lightness of Bullets" by Gregor Hartmann: a detective enlists the help of a patrol officer to solve the mystery of the murder of a currency trader that appears to have been too successful.

• "The Plot Against Fantucco’s Armor" by Matthew Hughes: what starts out for the servant as an innocent task to get the design for trouser buckles for his magical master turns into a detective story as the servant finds himself caught up in a conspiracy over who would eventually replace the ruler of a city and is tasked with getting to the bottom of the plot. But as it turns out, the actual target of the plot may not be the ruler after all.

• "At Your Dream’s Edge" by S. Qiouyi Lu: a story about a Nightmare app that does what it says: summons a nightmare to scare you. The user of the app in this story uses it to prepare for an unpleasant meeting with relatives, but in the end, you wonder whether the meeting is really worse than the nightmares faced.

• " All of Me" by R.S. Benedict: an unusual and interesting story that plays with the idea of the mermaid that becomes human. Only this is an unusual 'mermaid' who undergoes radical surgery to appear like a Hollywood starlet and proceeds to use her unusual skills to do more than one thing at a time (actress, writer, 'nature lover', paparazi target, etc.). But when she tires of being human, she plans to go out with a bang.

• "Miscellaneous Notes from the Time an Alien Came to Band Camp Disguised As My Alto Sax" by Tina Connolly: that is what happens in the story. Wrapped around the story of an alien disguised as a sax is a woman who longs to be appreciated by another member of the band, which might lead to another version of sax.

• "The Mark of Cain" by John Kessel: a disjointed story that Kessel originally wrote years ago but put aside that he now picks up that looks at the life of a writer who may have done some bad things in the past. In between are analysis of the character's action.

• "Playscape" by Diana Peterfreund: a story tinged with horror about a mother with a child who knows a neighbour. When the neighbour's child just disappears while playing on a playscape at a park, opinions ranging from murder to child neglect are thrown at the neighbour. But as the mother lets her child play on the very same playscape, you start to wonder if there might be some truth to the neighbour's version of events.

• "The Free Orcs of Cascadia" by Margaret Killjoy: a strange story about a journalist who looks into unusual musical subcultures. In this case, the musical subculture is 'orc music' which somehow develops into an actual orc culture. The journalist gets the chance to interview an orc musician who created an uproar when he kills another orc musician on stage and goes into hiding. The interview would reveal just what kind of orc culture has developed. Think of it as a LARP (live action role playing) game, but played with real seriousness.

• "Dear Sir or Madam" by Paul Park: a letter written to the reader by the protagonist who can fabricate realities. But the story wasn't gripping enough for me to really understand the purpose of the story.

• "Postlude to the Afternoon of a Faun" by Jerome Stueart: a fascinating fantasy story about a faun who loses his clarinet to a religiously righteous person. Many years later, the clarinet returns to him via a student who wants to learn to play it. He yearns to be reunited with the magic of his clarinet, but also to be able to teach the student to play jazz with it. It is only with the help of his fairy friends and some improvised jazz music that he may finally achieve his objectives.

• "Bella and the Blessed Stone" by Nick Dichario: a story of strange coincidences involving a stone from the sky (a meteorite) that saves an abused child from being killed by her father. As the story of the miracle spreads, it would take another strange coincidence to end the story.

• "Contagion’s Eve at the House Noctambulous" by Rich Larson: a story of a future involving a group of families with advanced biological technology that are living in a world after a contagion has wiped most of the rest of humanity. But even in this future, sibling rivalry rears it head, and it would come to a climax on a day when the families 'celebrate' their freedom from the rest of humanity.