Shadowed Realms

DARK FLASH FICTION ONLINE MAGAZINE

Issue 6

Brimstone Press (Jul/Aug 2005)
ISSN 1832-0651
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Reviewed by Mark Deniz, Feb 2006

On my first visit to the Shadowed Realms, I was excited by the newness of the concept for me, to be able to sit down and engage myself in seven flash pieces of dark fiction. This enthusiasm was heightened after noting that the last three stories in the issue were the actual top three placed stories in the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA).

My eagerness to read these seven snippets into the darker side of our psyche was however dampened somewhat by the opening story “Nothing of Him that Doth Fade”, by Poppy Z. Brite, which is the first part of a three part short story, concerning itself with a homosexual pair’s failing relationship whilst on holiday in the Sydney area. The tale introduces an accident towards its conclusion yet this wasn’t enough to whet my appetite for the remaining two parts.

“The Eye in Room 16”, by Terry Dowling, was more like what I had been expecting and returned my level of expectancy to my earlier state. This is a wonderfully paced, engaging story, dealing with a young boy’s over-active imagination (or is it?), whilst staying alone in a dorm room at boarding school.

Richard Harland’s “The Empty Child”, is a wonderful idea for a story and is filled with some excellent descriptions and imagery. Whilst reading however, I couldn’t help feeling that events were taking place too quickly and that this narrative would have been more suited with life as a novella or at least longer than the usual short story. Wolf is a character that I would have liked to have seen more of.

In direct opposition to Brite’s disappointing trilogy, comes Robert Hood’s four part short “Autopsy”, which left me eager to find out why it is so important for Flanagan to find that worm inside the corpse. The writing is fluid and Hood drew me in with every line.

“The River, Black with Night” by David Witteveen is, in many ways, the simplest of the tales on offer in this issue. Its simplicity is perhaps what makes it the darkest of the seven stories and, for me, justifiable winner of the AHWA competition for flash fiction. It is delicately paced, progressing evenly and is the story that left me cold with its cool, calculated evil decision by the protagonist.

“Moving Dad” by Steven Cavanagh, required a second reading from me, not feeling like I had gotten the whole essence of the story and I was well rewarded. Cavanagh writes in a deliberately matter-of-fact style regarding a situation that is anything but and this, for me, is one of the highlights of the story which took second place in the AHWA competition.

Third place winner Joanne Anderton, with her story “The Feast”, concludes this issue of Shadowed Realms and it is a beautifully narrated piece, simple yet effective, vague yet descriptive, capturing the essence of dark fiction, without over-exaggerated gory passages.

All in all a successful first visit for me to the Shadowed Realms. Adding the website to your browser could be a shrewd move if you are looking for good, solid horror fiction that is short and anything but sweet.

Brimstone Press (Jul/Aug 2005)
ISSN 1832-0651
Read this issue
Go back to the Reviews page
Reviewed by Talie Helene, Aug 2006

Shadowed Realms Issue 6 is particularly important as it showcases the winners of the AHWA Flash Fiction Competition held as part of the launch of the Australian Horror Writers Association (at Continuum 3, 2005.) In terms of announcing the presence of Australian horror writers to the wider world – readers, editors, publishers – an online magazine is an extremely appropriate (and powerful) medium by which to showcase the winners. This integration of publications with AHWA activities is to be commended, and hopefully this is the first of many highly visible enterprises of this kind.

Issue 6 features six short-short stories, and the first instalment of a serialized longer story, by genre-transcending Poppy Z Brite. Brite's contribution, “Nothing Of Him That Doth Fade”, has previously been published (in Aqua Erotica, 2000), but given the prestige she brings to the publication, one can hardly be too critical of Challis for including a reprint. It’s a fair extrapolation to say Brite draws inspiration from the real-life scenario of the disappearance of two American tourists, Tom and Eileen Lonergan, on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998. Brite re-casts the terrifying scenario - What if the couple were gay? What if they were on a last-ditch holiday to save the relationship? Brite employs a recognizable Australian back-drop – the Sydney Opera House and Harbour restaurants, Manly Ferry, local cuisine (Balmain Bugs); aside from the window dressing of Australia, the particularly Australian element is space – the loneliness of landscape and seascape, the way one can become lost in it… remoteness is terror here.

This first instalment establishes the characters and their relationship. One can easily draw out autobiographical aspects – the characters are a professional writer and a pastry chef. Tension in the relationship – an infidelity, souring of romance, increasing distrust and resentment – an emotional drifting apart gives way to danger of a literal drifting apart. The intimacy is immediate and convincing, the male voices authentic, the cadence by turns lyrical and controlled – all hallmarks of Brite’s work. One could debate the artistic foibles of disjointing such a story by serialization – but hey, here’s some fine writing by a very accomplished writer available to read online – for free! – So, what’s to criticise?

Terry Dowling “The Eye In Room 16” kicks off with a pedestrian first line: “Here it was!” The story is a mild young adult fantasy, that never quite establishes the necessary air of paranoia in the narrative. This would have been far more powerful in the first person, given that there is only one character, and one setting. Claustrophobia and agoraphobia could have underpinned this, but instead narrative in a third person limited voice allowed the reader too much disengagement. The literary reference to Odysseus blinding the Cyclops could have been made much more of, for Homer’s original is truly grisly and horrific. The repeated incorrect spelling of Odysseus as “Odysseos” was cringe-worthy. I found this story a real anticlimax, falling short of what I expected from such a lauded writer; perhaps if Dowling had borrowed the chanting hypnotic cadence from Homer, as well as a monster, this may have had a more convincing atmosphere?

Richard Harland’s “The Empty Child” – this is a kind of fairy tale – in the grisly tradition of the Brothers Grimm – told in the voice of a predatory animal, and following an internal logic, as fairytales are wont to do. Harland has a natural (unnatural?) affinity for weirdness; he handles beautifully detailed structure. I respectfully take a different stance to my fellow ASif! Reviewer, Mark Deniz, who found this to be paced too quickly, and thought it ought to be a longer work. Harland has mastery of a poetically strong use of imagery, and to my sensibilities this story was both epic and economical. Beautiful dark stuff.

“The River, Black With Night” is David Wittveen’s AHWA Flash Fiction Award winning story. An excursion in terrifying psychological realism, with cinematic pacing – great use of sentences of varying lengths. Establishing an oppressive heat, a strained relationship, rural isolation, poverty – Wittveen builds up a believable scenario, culminating in sociopathic disassociation – the story's strength is bringing the reader along from a mundane empathy, to an awful insight.

“Moving Dad” is Steven Cavanagh’s Second Place winning story – beginning with whimsical familiarity, moving to poignancy. A lovely slow reveal, blurring the line between the infirmity of advanced age, and the shambling corruption of undeath. An exploration of a universal horror – the realisation of the mortality of the father – I won’t spoil the ending, but Cavanagh kicks off beautifully into an even deeper horror in the last line. Fantastic dialogue in this one too.

Joanna Andeton’s Third Place winning story “The Feast” – physical, tactile description – a female protagonist’s abandonment of the role of protector, to see a love one again – this is a kind of familial love story. Andeton opens a door briefly onto an entire world, we catch a moving glimpse of a society caught in a dangerous balance – and the door closes, the story abiding in how much is left unsaid.