Black Static 15
Cover Art by Ben Baldwin
Stories:
Eight Small Men by James Cooper (novelette)
illustrated by Ben Baldwin
I have a night light that fills my room with a soft green glow. When Helen stays over it makes her uncomfortable. She says she can’t sleep. She says it’s too alien, like trying to sleep inside the hub of a UFO. I look at her face and realise she is right. Everything is transformed; even her skin is imbued with a sick green pallor that makes her look like the very thing I should be afraid of.
The Knitted Child by Simon Kurt Unsworth
illustrated by Jim Burns
This is what it knew: When the old woman’s granddaughter’s menses came again, there had been tears and grief. The old woman, punctured by the granddaughter’s loss but seeing that her shoulders could bear no more sorrow than the weight they were already carrying, had gone as quickly as her age would allow to her room. She went folded in on herself, her shoulders sticking out like crow’s wings, her spindle arms and treet-wig hands no defence against the digging pain in her own belly. The long-forgotten memory of her own bleeding out returned with a terrible clarity and she had remembered then, remembered all the life she had carried inside herself and lost in her earlier years, remembered the pain, remembered the hopes that shrivelled as they were exposed to the air. Remembered about loss. She had held herself clenched until she was back in her room and then she allowed her own tears to come, and when they did they were hot and heavy and danced like flies upon her cheeks. Sitting in her chair, she finally allowed her own grief to hold court, and it ruled her with fists of thick, wringing iron.
Maximum Darkness by Alan Scott Laney
illustrated by David Gentry
Late one Saturday afternoon Robin Parker went searching in his parents’ attic for an old book. He had no idea of its title or any of the names listed on the cover, but he did remember its lurid dreamscape. It was a classic piece of pulp imagery, with a howling beast bearing down on a group of strangely submerged humans that screamed in horror as they sank into each other. The book was fairly memorable as well, though none of its stories matched the cover. One of them had promised the tale of a dead man reawakened by his desire for revenge, which suggested plenty of ghoulish necromancy or weird science. What it delivered was something very different, and yet all the more disturbing for Robin. It seemed that, eventually, the terrifying events depicted in the story were going to overwhelm him. It was a slow development, over many years, but inevitably the time had come.
Babylon's Burning by Daniel Kaysen
illustrated by Rik Rawling
“There’ll be girls, Daniel,” said my brother. “Loads of stunning girls.” What he meant was: whores. I’d heard about what happened at these company parties. Call girls were scattered about, and they were free-to-access, as it were. I shivered slightly. “You don’t like the idea of girls?”
Death By Water by Sarah Singleton
illustrated by Ben Baldwin
Only the Chinese takeaway was open. Mauve light fell through the window onto the pavement. Ian stood outside, hands in pockets, staring at the posters in the glass door, adverts for last year’s carnival and a breakers’ yard. How long since he’d eaten? Hard to say: it wasn’t hunger that impelled him but a longing to escape the cold.
Features:
White Noise
news compiled by Peter Tennant
Interference by Christopher Fowler
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Electric Darkness by Stephen Volk
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Night's Plutonian Shore by Mike O'Driscoll
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Blood Spectrum by Tony Lee
DVD/Blu-ray reviews of new releases, including Blood Feast 2, Street Trash, Wrong Turn 3, Dungeons & Dragons, House, Train, The Day of the Triffids, Halloween II, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, Surrogates, Tony, Dante's Inferno, In the Electric Mist, Long Weekend, Pandorum, Cabin Fever 2, Wolfhound, Triangle, Sorority Row, Growth, Room 36, Whiteout, Stan Helsing, Malice in Wonderland, Borderland, Jennifer's Body, Open Graves, Paranormal Activity, plus easy to enter draws to win several of these DVDs/Blu-rays
Case Notes by Peter Tennant
reviews of books by Alexandra Sokoloff + interview + competition to win her novels, plus features on graphic zombie novels, PS Publishing novellas by Rick Hautala and Derryl Murphy & William Shun, and Australian Horror including Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror: The Year's Best Stories and books by Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Paul Haines, Robert Stephenson, Kaaron Warren, and Stephen M. Irwin.
How To Buy:
You can buy Black Static in good bookshops, newsagents and specialist stores, both here in the UK and overseas. If your local shop doesn't stock the magazine please ask them to order it in for you. You can also order Black Static via mail order distributors such as Fantastic Literature and BBR, or download an e-version from Fictionwise (see link). By far the best option though, for you and for us, is to take out a subscription to the magazine direct: please just click on the link below or above, or go straight to our secure Shop, where you can buy our stuff with a credit/debit card or paypal. Thanks!
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