Fiction

	Title	Editor rating (1-5)	Reader rating
	Bogamus the Troll - Nathan Jones - Bogamus the Troll is a charming story about a likeable troll for children aged 7 to 11. Bogamus was having a bad day. The billy goats Gruff had buffeted him off his bridge. But a prang from a billy goat's horn was not the end for Bogamus, who found himself floating along the...		4
	A Time for Evron - Bryan Smillie - 'A Time for Evron' has won awards from the Canadian Children's Book Centre and the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario and has been included in the...		4
	This Year, Next Year - Raif Tremaine - 'This is Raif, who'll be your sound man.' He could never admit to calling us Sound Directors; he was a failed technician, promoted to management. Three romantic interludes in a young man's life in the early 1960s, when the cold war was raging, America was slowly recovering...		3.5
	Chronicles of Bursts of Light and Shadow - Cordelia Clark - Chronicles of Bursts of Light and Shadow: Poems of Bipolar Depression is a cumulative work that chronicles descent into madness. Extract: And how the snow did fall, As the ice upon her soul reverberated its never ending chime, Heart so full...		3.5
	Grunt RX-10 - Martin Kolacek - Grunt RX-10 is a sci-fi comedy about a neurotic machine who is so depressed by being a metallic item without a soul that he becomes a renegade in the world of machines. While escaping the High computer's servants he snatches a female machine and looks forward to interconnecting the fuel tanks...		3.6
	Open Pen - issue 1 - Open Pen - The first issue of Open Pen features James King and his children’s adventure piece ‘The Giant Tree’. When the story first came to us we were delighted that we’d found a story so strong, so well written, so early in our campaign to find the best of London’s aspiring writers. The story follows a...		3.5
	Magestic - Part 2 - Geoff Wolak - "With Big Paul driving, we headed north towards a seldom-used airfield. Little did I know at the time about how important this place would be in the years to come." 'Magestic' is the story of a time traveler sent back to London in 1984 to avert a global calamity due in 2025. To do so he...		4
	Open Pen - issue 2 - Open Pen - Open Pen's second issue starts with Pure Fields, Anna Harvey's thoughtful tale of a young lady caught between her past and her present. It is a credit to the writer that the story flows so eloquently whilst steering clear of sentimental irreverence. The second...		3
	Short Stories - Wyn Preston - Excerpt: "Richard! Hello" she almost asks. She wears a face of complex confusion, as though I shouldn't be in this continent, let alone this street. Her head tilts as her stare falls just short of hitting my eyes as though trying to read something printed upside-down. It...		3.5
	Friends - Robert Gannon - Friends comprises three short stories. "Peach" is the story of Cal, an old whiskey drinking Cracker, and Peach, a pretty black schoolgirl who is looking for a summer job. Their paths cross in rural Alabama in 1951. Despite the great differences in their age and social status they find common...		2