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FARthing: science fiction, fantasy and horror Spring 2006 - issue 2
01/08/2006 . Source: Danny O'Connor 
pub: Farthing Magazine. 98 page A5ish size magazine. Price: £2.50. Subscription: £10/4 issues. Buy FARthing in the USA - or Buy FARthing in the UK  check out website: www.farthingmagazine.com
In its own universe, 'FARthing' accounts itself as a magazine. So I suppose we should do the same in ours even though without articles, reviews and adverts, its 'digest' size gives it the look and feel of an anthology but what the hell, let's not be speciest about this kind of thing.
There are no poems (yeah!) and no flash fiction (boo-hoo!). What it does have is ten top quality short stories which by editorial policy are all less than 7000 words. By selection, some of them are a lot shorter than that and thus entirely better for it. It's the quality of the stories that makes this magazine work. It also has a few drabbles, works of exactly 100 words, posted on to the blank spaces left at the end of a story.
The first story 'The Old Man And The Sneakers' is a classic small town paranoiac eventually 'taken over' as in 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers'. 'The Slug Planet Messiah' is a rumbustious tale where an earthling becomes a 'God' to an alien race. The twists here are that the aliens are of superior intellect and want rid of him in order to save themselves from genocide. 'Panacea' is a slickly told tale of the dilemma of a kindly alien of superior powers to ours. 'Back Again' is enjoyable tosh of alien invasion. The narrator here is not omniscient but more fallible than most. 'The Eyes Have It' is a post-modern fairy tale.
'Reassurance' is a sweet telling with a nice twist on a werewolf tale. 'The Ties That Bind' is a well-written witches' tale which keeps its own internal logic intact. 'Bell Book And - ?' is a fast action poltergeist story which slightly glosses over the science it utilises. 'Armadillo' is a 'different sentience' alien invasion where the protagonists (us humans) have their technology become their Achilles' heel. The last story, 'Cod Philosophy', is the strangest of the lot, a talking fish demands to be eaten. It is my pick in the new game of 'spot the 'slipstream' story'. No duds here then.
FARthing deals in SF, fantasy and horror so if you have set aside for yourself such a thing as a monthly allowance for small pleasurable things then I suggest that you hit their site and get a subscription for, as yet, there's no ISSN ordering number. The lack of this number may make it more difficult for paupers like me to pester The Big Librarian In The Sky to dole out the required funds from His Periodicals Budget to secure loan copies.
There is no doubt in my mind that the early copies of this 'FARthing' are going to become collectors' items at future SF conventions and any gathering where three or more of the initiated meet.
Danny O'Connor
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