Somewhat weaker offering in this series. There seemed to be a lot of filler in the non-fiction parts. I hate RPGs so that was lost on me. The long Japan travel piece was insubstantial to say the least. The three more literary essays were good, especially the Ligotti piece.

The fiction was generally good but including a story by Flannery O’Connor with no context seemed random. The story itself is, of course, great but it just seems thrown in. There is one questionable fiction offering by Mark Washburn that contains a thinly veiled retelling of the Amanda Knox myth that once again dabbles with the libelous and sadistic, or just plain psychotic. The woman is innocent, get over it. I’m tired of jerk off fantasies by men insistent on their own licentious retelling of this story. Not only is the story unoriginal, but it isn’t very good. Who the hell is Mark Washburn anyway? I can only speculate that editor Joshi didn’t know the context of the story or has his own sick fantasy about it.

The verse was all pretty good. ( )

The Weird Fiction Review is basically a magazine published in higher-quality book format. I admit I bought this one for the cover art, though of course I expected to like the contents as well. I enjoyed the stories for the most part, though a couple were head-scratchers. The one about a young female trying to escape from alien invaders was heartbreaking. The reprinted Flannery O'Connor story would have made a good episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I even liked some of the poems.

The nonfiction was a mixed bag. The article about weird erotica of the 60s and 70s was entertaining. I skipped a few of them (the ones on Patrick McGrath and J.M. Barrie seemed to only be of interest if you've read them, and the Ligotti essay references a book of his which I've not yet read but recently acquired--I'll try to remember to come back to that one later.) I skimmed the travelogue about a bunch of manga fans in Japan, which rambled on a bit. The piece on Erol Otus was my favorite. Though he was my least favorite of the old stable of D&D artists, seeing his work again evoked intense feelings of nostalgia, and it was interesting to hear about the behind-the-scenes workings at TSR. (I appreciate his style a bit more now that I am older.) ( )