featuring
featuring art photography by Shasta Lawton
Illustrated by Will Ferret
Owen R. Powell
photo detail by Shasta Lawton
illustration by Shasta Lawton
Illustrated by Serhiy Krykun
Welcome dear readers to the August 2015 issue, featuring five new stories to enthrall, entertain, and disturb you. All free of monetary charge, because as most of you already know by now, the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction remains a non-profit, community run webzine which focuses on publishing original science fiction, fantasy, and almost everything in between that it can get its hands on, along with scanned artwork conceived to showcase our 21st-century fanzine in the best light possible, which is to say from behind the glow of a thin film transistor liquid crystal display on most computer monitors and smart phone screens nowadays.
For our eighteenth issue we have a grand variety of authors and stories to show and tell about. Things just fell into place during the composition of this particular edition of the FREEZINE. It is with a sense of sincere gratitude that I have been enabled to present the following authors and artists.
A. A. Attanasio begins our August, 2015 issue with the ten-part serialization of his story Swimming in the Ghost River. It began on Monday, August 3 and continued one chapter every weekday until its conclusion on Friday, August 14. The art you see accompanying this transformative serial was photographed and otherwise put together by the wonderful Shasta Lawton; you really brought it home for us with your superb creative imagery which not only enhanced but complemented the flow of the source material. I think both Shasta and Al deserve a round of applause for presenting us with such an elegant ten part visual reading treat. We here at the Freezine are extremely pleased this story will remain accessible in our archives for further readings. It is a bright odyssey into the serene interior of the human heart reflecting on our cohabitation within the animal kingdom. Its central theme and bewitching style of execution remain impressed in my mind's eye. The serene and reflective imagery provided by Shasta really add depth to the unfolding story and help carry it along with a dream like sense of location for the haunted and poetic narrative provided by the author. Swimming in the Ghost River will remain archived here in the PENTAQUARK issue on the FREEZINE's official site for posterity and your viewing and reading pleasure.
Until the next issue manifests itself woven of the seemingly chaotic interfaces between a growing cadre of like-minded fellows braving the ever increasing temperatures of a world we have pushed so hard it has no choice but to react with natural hostility against our encroaching dominion right here in an environment where natural selection continues to balance itself against a biological war whose constituents sync up with the most unusual and unexpected allies we could imagine throughout this profound and diverse planetary empire.
Look deep into the Sunstone of your mind's eye and realize we are all set up to be harmonized within the natural spirit of this super magnetic creation that we've all somehow been summoned to participate in. Right here and now working together on this planet we constantly leave our impact both in small individual ways and in a larger collective manner. That is why we may rest assured.
A. A. Attanasio begins our August, 2015 issue with the ten-part serialization of his story Swimming in the Ghost River. It began on Monday, August 3 and continued one chapter every weekday until its conclusion on Friday, August 14. The art you see accompanying this transformative serial was photographed and otherwise put together by the wonderful Shasta Lawton; you really brought it home for us with your superb creative imagery which not only enhanced but complemented the flow of the source material. I think both Shasta and Al deserve a round of applause for presenting us with such an elegant ten part visual reading treat. We here at the Freezine are extremely pleased this story will remain accessible in our archives for further readings. It is a bright odyssey into the serene interior of the human heart reflecting on our cohabitation within the animal kingdom. Its central theme and bewitching style of execution remain impressed in my mind's eye. The serene and reflective imagery provided by Shasta really add depth to the unfolding story and help carry it along with a dream like sense of location for the haunted and poetic narrative provided by the author. Swimming in the Ghost River will remain archived here in the PENTAQUARK issue on the FREEZINE's official site for posterity and your viewing and reading pleasure.
Which brings us to our second tale, Misha Nogha's powerful science fable Jupiter Ring. This compelling story bends the cautionary around the subject of a super collider more powerful than Hadron called Jupiter Ring and the staggering outcome between its employees and some meddlesome crows. This story was originally written a long time ago but the manuscript was lost to the ravages of time. Lucky for us Misha was determined to rewrite the story from memory and revised whatever portions necessary to keep it up with the times. It was by virtue of some mysterious synchronicity that just last month CERN announced the discovery of the pentaquark at the LHC. The precise configuration of the pentaquark isn't exactly known, only its existence has been officially determined now. What I really like about Misha's story is how much deeper it is willing to take the reader. A big shout out to Chief Brother Master Cat Will Ferret for his kind permission to use his artwork for this story. Will's blue saddle blanket depicting the crow in flight serves as the perfect device to symbolize Misha's story. Thanks to both of you for the consummate offering that is Jupiter Ring. It's really a great followup to Al's serial before it.
Next up we owe a considerable amount of gratitude to Owen R. Powell for his powerful and psychedelic excursion Noetic Vacations. This telling bravely crosses the gap between story and reader in such a way as to wholly transport each to the other's domain in a thrilling exchange of places leaving one feeling as if they were just sent through a hyper dimensional portal to spend a quick burst of action and a brief lapse into meditation with the authors of their dreams. Well if one happens to already be a fan of super charged highly imaginative fiction, this story takes on even more significant dimension and we are certainly proud to showcase it here in the company of all the PENTAQUARK tales. The close up of the oil drop image at the top of the story comes courtesy of Shasta Lawton's photographs of the northeastern shoreline of the Great Salt Lake nestled alongside the Wasatch Mountain Range of Utah. A mighty hails to our brother Owen for writing such a dazzling piece. Thank you for sharing this vision with the rest of us here reading the FREEZINE.
detail of a photo by G. Alden Davis
Our fourth story The Memory Sector was written by Brian "Flesheater" Stoneking, you may have stumbled upon his pulp action science fiction stories over at Intestinal Fortitude. In any case, this is his first appearance within the digital pages of the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Sometimes what the mind craves is just a good old fashioned story that hearkens back to a more golden era and delivers the science fictional action in a straightforward manner. Such is the case with the gripping tale about what happens to mankind after engaging in a war of the mind with an extraterrestrial race of Cephalopods bent on complete enslavement of the human race. If the tricks these freakish alien creatures resort to weren't so damn heinous maybe we'd get along with the strange octopoid race. Nawww...this is a battle to the death! A loud and hearty Thank You To Brian Stoneking! Oh, and we managed to recycle some older, buried and lost until now freezine artwork from some long forgotten issue, a Cephalopod illustration by Shasta and a tentacle in space I did.
Beware the appendage's needle
Speaking of the end, this brings us to our fifth and final story in our August, 2015 PENTAQUARK issue. Veteran author John Shirley contributes his sixth original story to our venerable webzine, a searing black satire called Where The Market's Hottest. This time, through our contacts and with help from the ever scheming Nano Armada mysteriously guiding the development of our webzine from the distant future, we managed to get award-winning Ukraine illustrator Serhiy Krykun to provide the infernal artwork for John's topical story. Thanks to John Shirley for continuing to trust and support our ragtag webzine. And a most grateful and extreme Thank You to our comrade in arms from the Ukraine's literary scene, Serhiy Krykun who knows how to wield his pen of many colors like a hyperkinetic weapon trained on the bull's eye of our imagination. You have truly met and then surpassed expectations with this particular illustration, as you usually do in all your artistic pursuits, Serhiy! I do not feel I am over stating it when I say I think it's a triumph.
The image of the damned businessman grimacing in hell with an infernal metal dollar sign apparatus wedged in his mouth really goes well with our overall theme here of being a free venue where brave authors with more than a little rock and roll coursing through their veins may provide a host of readers and an even smaller group of aspiring writers with equal shares of inspiration and entertainment in the form of written tales of terror and wonder.
Let it serve as a quiet reminder to those among us with more affluent aspirations that the lure of money, while necessary for us all to pursue our livings here in our modern society, may come with a startling price should it cultivate in one's heart the excessive need for increasing amounts of it even in the face of some of its side effect's uglier consequences both to our minds and the very environment which strives to support them. Remember to stop and smell the roses every once in an odd while and give something of yourself to this ever elaborating contemporary world we've all found ourselves bound within.
Once again, a sincere and heartfelt Thank You goes out to Al Attanasio, Shasta Lawton, Misha Nogha, Will Ferret, Owen R. Powell, G. Alden Davis, Brian "Flesheater" Stoneking, Serhiy Krykun, and John Shirley for leaving a hard-earned, reflective piece of yourselves up here in the easily accessible archives of the FREEZINE of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Look deep into the Sunstone of your mind's eye and realize we are all set up to be harmonized within the natural spirit of this super magnetic creation that we've all somehow been summoned to participate in. Right here and now working together on this planet we constantly leave our impact both in small individual ways and in a larger collective manner. That is why we may rest assured.
The FREEZINE Will Return
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