Oort Clouds Publications                               VacHume Press

Surprising Stories

A Magazine of the Mundane Made Into Phantasy

May 2008      Issue #17

“I dreamed there was a magazine like this.”----Dom Sperry

“Can something like Man exist?”—Bobo

“A man who cannot discuss the whole Universe with me is not a Master.”—Yahres Moulty

Editor: John Thiel

Production: Eric Thiel

Server: DCWI

Art Editor: Ramos Fumes

Poem Art and Background Art : Ellie

Technical Assistance: Bobo the Robot

Public Relations: Yahres Moulty

Cover art by Raphael Feinstein

Contents

 

 

Editorial

 

Fiction

The Invisible Enemy by Lawrence Dagstine   art by Ramos Fumes

      It was hard to see what they were up to.

A Slave in Utopia by Jamie Meyers       art by Maxine Colby

     It detracted from the pleasure of being there to be in chains.

Dark Mitosis by Jessica Howe    art by Maxine Colby

   Fear is a sickness that spreads.

Captain Stoner's 2000-Mile-Long Fishtail and Mozart by  M. F. Korn     art by Maxine Colby

   This man died an existential death through fear of the clouds.

A macrocosmic eden  by  Rex Depaola     art by Willie Peppers

   Crazed deros or bots on the loose in a genetics installation.

Evolution by  Margaret Karmazin art by Eugene Gryniewicz

  Is it to be accompanied by mutation?

Hikin'  by  Steve Andreorio    art by Eugene Gryniewicz

   It gets you from place to place, unless it does not.

slobs of space by Gerald f. heyder    art by Marc Schirmeister

   Life on other planets might well be a bunch of goons.

Story of a Void by  Ailyn Amory    art by Eugene Gryniewicz

   Don't look so lonely there, Man!

St. George and the Curse by  Albert J. Manachino    art by Joanne Tolson

     Both brought to you by an experienced writer of fantasies.

The Big Discovery on Mars by  Bob Bolin     art by Larry Nadolsky

     Life would be the biggest discovery yet.

Life on Venus by Cathy Neumeier   art by La Joilette

     High life, at that.

dust to dust by  Richard stone     art by Ramos Fumes

     It is a hurtful thing to destroy a city through carelessness.

Articles

Darkness, Cosmic Flight by  Steve Sneyd

     A look at some science fantasy verse by Lord Byron

The Haunting of Notcka Forest by  Lawrence Dagstine

    This should appeal to all ghost hunters.

Automated  by   Jim Sullivan

     Do robots rule your life, or rather, lives?

Secrets of the Harlem Car Bomb   by  Flint Mitchell

     The drinks are on the house.

Features

The Passing Scene   A photographic look at sf's past.

Role-Playing Games by  E. Mark Mitchell   A study of a new past-time.

Who Was Quetzalcoatl?  by  Harbard Eustrom   With Mayan

                           archaeological photos.

 

 

Columns

A Galactic View  by  Paul Truttman

The Spaced-Out Library  reviews by Elmwood Kraemer

The Computer Corner   You'll see Joanne Tolson here

Authors on View   Meet who writes and draws for us.

Printout    e-mail from readers

The Cosmic Trading center  Just a little advertising

 

Poems

Mallefactius Mallefactotum   by Peter Zenger

A Protégé of Copernicus in naples   by McArthur Gunter

Twilight Time by C. David Hay  

Melinda of the Fire  by Sean McCormack

The dead of fallen hollow  by James Kelly

Nightmare by Ronda Lawson

Last Page   links, official data, guidelines & the like

 

Contents