Hello! Today I have a magazine review for you all. I’ve never done one of those so please bear with me as I get this figured out right along with you. I usually review one story at a time or, very rarely, a collection of stories, which PARSEC does have in every issue but that’s not everything they have on offer. Find out more below!
About the Magazine
Issue #: 5
Editor: Ian Whates
Pub Date: Fall 2022
Reading Format: electronic
Length: 78 Pages
Cover Art: Les Edwards
More info and available to purchase here.
Discount Code for 25% off: 25PARSEC
Table of Contents
- Introduction – Ian Whates
- The Day The Time Travellers Came – Gary Gibson
- From Below –Warren Benedetto
- Within The Concrete – Steve Rasnic Tem
- Theo Ballinchard And The Oranges Of Possibility – Patrice Sarath
- A Stranger In Town – David Gerrold
- Farewell, Pavonis – Eric Brown & Keith Brooke
- Dog Days In The Ghost Garden – Liz Williams
- Once And Future Queen – Jenny Barber
- Terms And Conditions – Fiona Moore
- I Know What You Are – Matt Thompson
- Winter Bloom – John Dodd
- In the Weeds — Anne C. Perry & Jared Shurin
- Life in the Fast Lane – featuring Juliet Mushens
- Reviews
- Interview with award-winning author Lavie Tidhar
About the Magazine
The Dazzling New Star of Genre Periodicals
A digital magazine featuring the very best in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
- The latest fiction from established writers such as DAN ABNETT, RAMSEY CAMPBELL, MIKE CAREY, PAUL DI FILIPPO, SCOTT EDELMAN, ESTHER M. FRIESNER, GARY GIBSON, KIM LAKIN, KEN MACLEOD, ANGELA SLATTER, ANNA TAMBOUR, IAN WATSON, ALIYA WHITELEY, NEIL WILLIAMSON, alongside the best new stories from emerging talents and debut authors.
- On-point articles and regular columns, exploring genre fiction in all its forms. Interviews with leading authors and artists.
- Insightful and informative book reviews by a carefully selected cadre of reviewers, assessing current titles and imminent releases from publishers big and small.
SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW AVAILABLE
Review
As I said above, this is my first time reviewing a magazine so I’m not entirely sure how detailed to get into everything. I was initially a little bit apprehensive because I can be a bit of a scaredy cat and knew that there are horror stories in ever issue of PARSEC. I did decide to accept a review copy though and am glad for that because I really enjoyed the variety of short stories in my issue. I decided to approach each one with an open mind despite my worry and was pleasantly surprised by the various themes, writing styles, and unexpected conclusions. I was never quite sure what to expect and while I did enjoy some of them more than others, overall I thought it was a pretty good lineup. Notable favorites were The Day the Time Travellers Came by Gary Gibson, From Below by Warren Benedetto, and Terms and Conditions by Fiona Moore. By the time I read the last short story (due to various life things, it took me longer than planned to finish the magazine), I had forgotten about the other content that would be waiting for me at the end and it was such a fun surprise to read through that. In the Weeds by Anne C. Perry & Jared Shurin and Life in the Fast Lane featuring Juliet Mushens were both really fascinating, especially because I recognized several authors, books, and other things mentioned in them. Various book reviews and a very detailed interview with award-winning author Lavie Tidhar rounded out my first experience with PARSEC really well. While some of the short stories were definitely better to my liking than others, the variety of stories and content promises to have something for everyone and I’ll happily pick up another issue in the future.
What’s Next?
Either you’ve arrived here by seeing my post first or because you’re working your way through the tour from issue to issue. Either way, I will happily point you to the review for PARSEC Issue #6 by KBbookreviews, which you can find here. If you have not seen the reviews for the previous issues yet, you can start at the beginning with a review for PARSEC Issue #1 by Fantasy Book Nerd here.
The Shaggy Shepherd 
This was interesting. I’ve never thought of or how to review a different type of print media like this. I’d say you did well with it though!
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Thank you!
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