This week we travel to Oz for some antipodean sci-fi.
Dimension6 is a new, quarterly Creative Commons-licensed magazine dedicated to speculative fiction. Before issue three arrives in October, we’d like to take you back to their first issue for three diverse stories.
Richard Harland’s “Ryder” falls nominally into the genre of steampunk, but this is not a story of top hats and corsets and monocles. In fact, it’s not Victorian at all, but set in an alternate World War One, and concerns a “boundary rider” named rider and his much more intelligent companion Sally. It’s closer to the world of Oswald Bastable than K.W. Jeter.
Charlotte Nash’s “The Message” is much more straightforward futuristic sci-fi, but with a keen sense of characterization that often goes begging in the genre. Known more for her rural fiction, Ms. Nash observes details sharply and suggests a much larger world than the action itself treats.
“The Preservation Society” is a zombie tale. Not another zombie apocalypse story, you groan, and your groan has been answered. Jason Nahrung has actually created a clever story about holding onto history through blood. You will have to read it to see what that means.
Enjoy.
