But I go on too long. Within its parameters, The 3rd Alternative is quite successful, and this issue is one of the better ones. Maybe the best story here is Tim Lees' "Everybody's Crazy in the West," which is probably the least "typical" of the offerings herein. A writer, his career fading, is forced to take a job writing a "Making of..." book about a movie. His expertise is apparently in cinematic history, as we are presented brief excerpts from a rather long and pompous unpublished project of his, The Culture and Philosophy of Cinema. Soon we learn that the Hollywood and the cinema that he is working in and writing about is not quite like our Hollywood and our cinema -- and his relationship with the flunky assigned to shepherd him about the project takes on a different nature, as well. I won't reveal the twist, but it's cute and nicely handled.

Sten Westgard has published a few interesting stories that I've seen, including at least one previous appearance in this magazine, and I also rather liked his "Contracting Iris," a noirish (in mood) SF story about a "recruiter" for a university and one of his prize recruits, in a future dominated by genetic manipulation and corporate competition for the best talent. Also interesting was a somewhat Orwellian SF tale by Conrad Williams, called "Excuse the Unusual Approach," about an obscure man who finds himself offered a strange job in a rather oppressive seeming future, and at the same time meets a woman who is very interested in him. Somehow we know this can't come to a good end -- I wasn't wholly convinced, though. The background was just a bit too lightly sketched. Still, interesting. The other stories tend rather more sharply to the contemporary dark fantasy/horror end of the spectrum, and as I have said, they are well-executed but not wholly to my taste.

The 3rd Alternative is also well populated with features. Each issue seems to have an article about an avant-garde filmmaker -- this issue's article is about Jan Svankmajer. There is also an interview with China Miéville, the exciting young British novelist, author of King Rat and Perdido Street Station; and a shorter interview with Nicholas Royle. Columns by Peter Crowther and Allen Ashley, and a generous section of book, film, and music reviews by divers hands are also included. The artwork is mostly photographs of a somewhat abstract or processed nature, and quite well-matched to the overall thematic nature of the magazine. In all, it's a publication that seems very sure of what it wants to be, and always interesting if not always precisely my cup of tea. Definitely worth trying.