I recently received this tantalisingly difficult book, having purchased it from Ex Occidente Press.

Les Éditions de L’Oubli MMXIII. A very aesthetic hardback shown above, ninety-six pages, my edition numbered 3 of 121.

I needed to read it all before attempting a review, unlike my normal RTRcausals.

It needs to be read again and again but reading it once is also enough, because you shall never get to the bottom of it, however many times you read it, although I was surprised at what wonderful things I got from the book without yet getting to the bottom of it. A blend of real 19th century geographical history intuiting the inuit where the edges of the world meet and fold and hide between America and Russia, real people and places you can find on Wikipedia (look up ‘Fort Ross’ as just one example), manuscripts with missing pages, a balloon flight, and an Inner (multi psycho and physico mobius section?) Earth that the author of the ’Nemonymous Night’ novel understandably enjoyed more than any other reader. Well, that is my boast. And an Exposition Internationale in Paris, so why was this book not published by this publisher’s Exposition Internationale imprint?  A blend of all Literatia Ex Occidente so far, plus HP Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness, the works of H Rider Haggard and Salvador Dali’s novel ‘Hidden Faces’ - all bolstered or surrounded by Cantwell’s unique mindscape-in-wonderful-prose that is different from all those.  Different and difficult but I do wonder if I understood more than I give myself credit for. [And it has my favourite ever typo to discover: dessicated for desiccated (on the last page).]

(There may be more comments below)

Triolet – Jess Hyslop
“‘Good morning, Mr and Mrs Lewis!’ she says, and her face goes all over wrinkles as she smiles.”

A beautifully original concept for a story that I will not give away here, other than to say it skilfully blends an ordinary suburban reality with the poetically fey and plant-like. A Hardy perennial of changing emotions and relationships. Something Elizabeth Taylor the fiction writer may have written if she lived today. It is comforting and discomforting at once and I shall be ever grateful as to the hint on how to discover one specific feature of the nature of a ‘triolet’ that I didn’t know before, as I have now done.
Also, I guess my own acquired interpretation of the previous story, in the shade of the Intentional and Affective Fallacies of Literature — and indeed possibly my whole approach to reviewing from 2008 — has now been given more than just an oblique licence by this story’s “It means what you make it mean. It means what you think it means.”

Interzone #246 (May – Jun 2013)

TTA Press

My RTRcausal of the fiction in this magazine that I received as a result of my subscription to TTA Press.

All my previous reviews of TTA Press publications are linked from HERE.

The fiction in this issue is written by Steven J. Dines, Jess Hyslop, Nigel Brown, Aliette de Bodard, Priya Sharma, Lavie Tidhar, Georgina Bruce, Shannon Fay.

My review will appear in the ‘comment’ stream below as and when I read each story.

It may take some while to complete this review during the period I remain busy preparing the ‘Horror Without Victims’ anthology.

TTA Press

My RTRcausal of the fiction in this magazine that I received as a result of my subscription to TTA Press.

My previous Black Static reviews are linked from HERE.

The fiction in this issue is written by Nina Allan, Joel Lane, Ilan Lerman, Andrew Hook, Sean Logan.

My review will appear in the ‘comment’ stream below as and when I read each story:

Eibonvale Press (2013)

A collection of stories by Quentin S. Crisp

Book & other items purchased from publisher. Signed and lettered E.

Sculpture made from QSC’s shed hair: Miranda Keyes
Cover Art: David Rix
Quentin’s haircut: Jazz Topalusic
Quentin’s trousers: Dominika Kieruzel
Quentin’s Shirt: Emily

My ‘RTRcausal’ review will be conducted in the comment stream below as and when I read each story.

It may take some while to complete this review during the period I remain busy preparing the ‘Horror Without Victims’ anthology.  Anything beyond the stories and their physical accoutrements are outwith this review.

[My previous reviews of Quentin S. Crisp fiction: HERE]

Spectral Press (2013)

This book was purchased by me from the publisher and is signed by the author as numbered 51/125.

My ‘RTRcausal’ of this book will appear in the comment stream below as and when I read each section:

TTA Press (2013)

Book purchased from the publisher.

My RTRcausal of this novella is to be conducted in the comment stream below.

My previous TTA Press reviews HERE.

I have real-time reviewed an earlier version of JANE here, but I do intend to conduct a review of this new book in due course. In these special circumstances and bearing in mind other matters earlier described by me here and here, I shall wait until I have absorbed as many other reviews of it as possible, in order to give one all-encompassing panoply of a review. This hopefully will prove to be another constructive review-experiment to match my recent RTRcausals-with-images. The new review method that I shall apply to JANE will weave among the ‘synchronised shards of random truth and fiction’ emanating from a whole world’s reaction before being factored into my own revised reaction!

A picaresque review for a picaresque book.

When I receive my copy of this book from Amazon, I shall post a picture of it in the comment stream below from where my eventual review of it will also be linked.

Edit: Matters now indeed continue in the comment stream below.

My RTRcausal of the fiction in Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction #43 starts HERE.

ISBN 978-0-9561533-7-1

Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction website.

The fiction is by Madeleine Beresford, Gary Budgen, Douglas Thompson, Howard Watts and Mitchell Edgeworth.

My previous reviews of TQF publications: Real-Time Review of TQF #37 & Real-Time Review of TQF #39 & Real-Time Review of TQF #40 & Real-Time Review of TQF #41.