Elsewhere in the issue we are presented with opaque slipstream, queasy semi-satire, po-faced post-apocalyptic SF and, in the case of Mark Rich's "Catch and Release", an obvious, one joke short short. None of these present the reader with anything to get overly excited about.

Electric Velocipede also publishes poetry, which in this issue is of markedly lesser quality than the prose. Several of the pieces are simply haikus, a form the editor is keen on but which I am less convinced about. Added to this is the fact that the author of the two longer pieces, Christina Sng, doesn't seem to understand that poetry is more than a case of inserting a line break every half dozen words.

Although this issue is not particularly strong content-wise, the nine stories plus poetry and non-fiction still probably offers value for money. Klima is clearly selecting interesting material for Electric Velocipede but unfortunately the execution of the stories presented here is decidedly hit and miss.

I'd also like to place this review in the context of other reviews of Electric Velocipede, particularly Trent Walters overview of the first three issues in this publication. In it he writes: "I get upset alongside (or sometimes for) the writers or editors, when they have done something well, get slighted by a cursory or negative review without substantiating precisely why." It probably won't have escaped the reader's notice that this could be applied to my review as could his other criticism of "giving a paltry handful of paragraphs mention... (averaging a sentence per work)." Why then have I chosen to ignore Walter's specific criticism? Criticism can take many forms and a review is only one of them. In my view sustained, in-depth criticism can only be applied to a substantial body of work (regardless of its quality) and Electric Velocipede #4 simply does not meet this criterion. Instead of a critical essay I offer a review that is a brief, personal assessment of the fanzine, in the manner of Rich Horton's previous reviews.