Heliotrope is one of those magazines you accidentally discover one day after they do an entire issue dedicated to one of your favorite authors. After that, once you discover that you can download and read all their back issues for free from their website, you start reading their regular stuff. At least, that’s how it was with me.

I first heard of Heliotrope when they did an all-Moorcock issue, which was pretty awesome. It was also awesome that their magazine is free. So I went back to the beginning and started reading. This issue is their first, and while not free of warts, it definitely does a wonderful job of being a speculative fiction magazine.

“Honey Mouth” by Samantha Henderson

“Honey Mouth” tells the story of a person who moves to a haunted house. The presence of the ghost, a young girl, fills the narrator’s mouth with the taste of honey, for reasons which are divulged by the end of the story. In a quest to discover the cause of the girl’s mysterious disappearance shows appearances can be deceiving.

“On the Air” by Edward Morris

“On the Air” is a feel-good story, reminiscing on those “good old days” of radio, featuring an all-star cast of the entertainment titans of the day. While it reads like an (alternate) history lesson, the story has a good point, and a wonderful message, which overcomes any shortfalls or lacks of believability to its storytelling methods.

“American Gothic” by Michael Colangelo

“American Gothic” reads like an Aesop’s fable, if Aesop were a sociopath. The life of a rural family wrought with alcoholism, abuse, and neglect is viewed through the eyes of animals... or are the humans the true animals? This tale is chilling.

“Pasiphae’s Machine” by Catherynne M. Valente

“Paisiphae’s Machine” is a poem that tries to tell a story. I must admit, it was lost on me. I blame either the poetic structure or the actual formatting on the page (the MONOSPACE font made it problematic to read).

“The Novella: A Personal and Professional Exploration” by Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer writes an essay on the novella, and how it’s a wonderful form for speculative fiction. It’s long enough to tell a complete story, but not so long as to require a lot of excess filler, such that you might find in a novel that graces the NYT Best Seller list every once in a while. He has a good point.

“The Skeptical Fantasist: In Defense of an Oxymoron” by R. Scott Bakker

Bakker discusses how as an author of epic fantasy, he thinks it a shame that so many dismiss the genre as “kid’s stuff,” or not worth the time of those who normally read “literature.” And he further discusses how this skepticism can actually be a GOOD thing for the fantasy writers out there.

“Where’s the Sci-Fi” by Heidi Wessman Kneale

Kneale writes an abbreviated history of science fiction, from Verne, and Wells, and pulp to whatever it is now. Very enlightening to the science fiction reader.

Overview

Checking Heliotrope’s website, I find it a shame that they haven’t published an issue in quite some time. I find their stories to be entertaining, and from authors that I haven’t ever heard of, or have heard very little about, mostly from foreign magazines. Heliotrope offers a breath of fresh air from the “usual suspects” you’ll find in the same four speculative fiction mags lining the newsstands. ( )