The SF Site Featured Review: Electric Velocipede, Number 1 and 2

Electric Velocipede, Number 1 and 2

Electric Velocipede
Electric Velocipede is available by subscription ($10US -- USA, $15US -- Canada, $20US -- elsewhere) or by single issue ($3US -- USA, $4.50US -- Canada, $6US -- elsewhere). Send you order to and make money orders/cheques payable to:
John Klima
c/o Electric Velocipede
PO Box 663
Franklin Park, NJ 08823

Electric Velocipede

A review by Rich Horton

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The last few years have seen a proliferation of SF-oriented "'zines", simply produced on 8.5" by 11" or 8.5" by 14" sheets folded once and stapled, generally featuring a mix of fiction (often rather slipstreamish), poetry, and reviews. The gold standard is represented by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link's Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. I've lately seen the first two issues of Electric Velocipede, edited by John Klima, which fits the above description pretty well. If it's not quite up to Lady Churchill's levels, it is still an enjoyable production.

The first issue features six stories and several poems, as well as some reviews of short fiction collections. The leadoff story is "Timeless Appeal", a time travel piece by Analog regular Shane Tourtellotte. It's fully as good as most of Tourtellotte's stories for Analog, and it's certainly hard enough SF for that magazine: proof, I suppose, that good stories do slip through the cracks of the major magazines. The story takes a slightly different tack on the idea of time travelers visiting the past to study historical events: they might try to avoid influencing history at all, but can they avoid affecting themselves? Nice stuff. The other stories include two stories about newly created vampires -- not sure if this was on purpose or not. I quite liked Alexander Irvine's brief "Suicide Hotline" in this (no pun intended) vein. I also liked Lawrence Schoen's quiet "Past Waves", about someone who claims to be the last survivor of Atlantis. The poetry is a mixed bag, but Mark Rich contributes a strong piece, "In Memoriam (J.K.)", and I was particularly impressed by B.A. Chepaitis' "Pantoum of the Foothills", an essay in English of a Malaysian poetic form.

The standout stories in the second issue are by Mark Rich, Rick Bowes and Ezra Pines, and Jeff VanderMeer. None of them are quite Hugo material, but they are fun reading. Rich's "Fling But a Stone" is straight SF, about a future journalist who finds himself under pressure to renounce his purchase of an upscale journal, on the grounds that only sufficiently affluent people are supposed to read it. Bowes and Pines contribute "Mr. Brain and the Island of Lost Socks", a wacky piece that appears to have been written in sections, each collaborator trying to top the other in putting Mr. and Mrs. Brain in odder situations. And VanderMeer's "A Few Notes Upon Finding a Green Alien Baby Figurine in a Specimen Trap at Longitude __, Latitude __, Dr. Larry Gilchrist, Ph.D." is another fairly oddball piece about a scientist driven mad by jealousy and by the title figurine. The poetry is again uneven, with Mark Rich again contributing one of the best pieces.

Rich Horton is an eclectic reader in and out of the SF and fantasy genres. He's been reading SF since before the Golden Age (that is, since before he was 13). Born in Naperville, IL, he lives and works (as a Software Engineer for the proverbial Major Aerospace Company) in St. Louis area. He writes a monthly short fiction review column for Locus. Stop by his website at http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton.