Links, Page 30
Steve Redwood's Review of Theaker's Quarterly Fiction
Not long ago, I reviewed Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction and Diane Andrews’s “The Speed of Darke.” Mr. Theaker was kind enough to link to my review from his website in tandem with another review of his zine, including all the selections from Issue #17 in which the story I chose to review appeared.
The other review was presented in the magazine Whispers of Wickedness. Its author is Steve Redwood, a published writer of numerous short stories, both genre and literary, as well as two novels thus far. Mr. Redwood’s fantasy novel Fisher of Devils received praiseful reviews and was nominated for Best Novel 2003 by the British Fantasy Society.
In regard to both Mr. Redwood’s review of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction and Ms. Andrews’s story, what struck me was how closely his thoughts parallel mine. (His review preceded mine, but I had not read it or had been familiar with him at the time I wrote my own.) As I would classify Mr. Redwood as a reviewer extraordinaire, a writer of erudition and experience wielding a rapier wit, I find it most satisfying that my thoughts on the subject matters were not at all out-of-step with his, let alone radically so.
Mr. Redwood’s reviews in Whispers of Wickedness are a joy to read; simultaneously informative and enjoyable. Now that through serendipitous happenstance I am familiar with him, I am most anxious to read his fiction.
Here is an excerpt from my review of “The Speed of Darke,” by Diane Andrews:
“As for me, I have never deemed it particularly clever to write literature in one’s privately invented cipher; unless, of course, the author’s intention is to expose the insipid literary pretensions of reviewers such as me. Now that would be a fanciful charade worth receiving.
