Magazine Review: Fantasy Tales Autumn 1989 edited by Stephen Jones
Fantasy Tales was a British fantasy and horror magazine that ran from 1977-1991, though since it only published twice a year that’s not a huge number of issues (24). It was modeled after the classic pulp Weird Tales, and had a high percentage of notable authors for what started as basically a fanzine. By the issue I have to hand, it had moved to professional printing.
“The Sustenance of Hoak” by Ramsey Campbell leads off the issue with the introduction of his sword & sorcery character Ryne. Ryne is a mercenary who got tired of meager paychecks and decided to go treasure hunting with a friend. They’ve heard of a village called Hoak, which supposedly has a great hidden treasure. On the way, they were jumped by bandits and the friend was badly injured.
The people of Hoak try to keep Ryne out, claiming that the treasure is not technically in the town and can only be accessed from outside it. Ryne’s not currently interested in the treasure, and insists on breaking in so he can get medical attention for his friend. The healer gives it a shot, but it’s too late. Then Ryne discovers that no one who enters Hoak ever leaves–and the true nature of the treasure.
The sword and sorcery subgenre often has overlap with horror, and as you might expect from Ramsey Campbell, this is one of those stories.
“The One Left Behind” by Stephen Gresham is more of a straight-up horror story. A college student is assigned to photograph “the grotesque” for a class, and is having a bit of difficulty finding a proper subject. Then he learns about an abandoned shanty in Alabama that was used as the subject for an interesting painting, and decides that might work. The shanty isn’t quite as abandoned as advertised, and he isn’t going to pass his class…
“John and the Magic Skillet” by Jessica Amanda Salmonson is a folktale-style story about an alligator hunter who meets someone claiming to be his grandmother deep in the swamp. She offers him a gift, but he proves an ungrateful cuss so things go wrong.
“The Embracing” by David J. Schow is in the “splatterpunk” subgenre he named. A dissenter blinded by his dystopian society wanders a labyrinth filled with monsters that pretend to be his lost lover. Has he himself become a monster? As you might have gathered, this one’s gory.
“Fatal Bellman” by Alan W. Lear takes place in a postapocalyptic city after the flames destroyed most of humanity. Those humans left have been strangely changed. This one doesn’t directly state some things, and I had to reread a few passages to get what I think the author was implying.
There are also a couple of short poems.
“The Cauldron” is the letters column, with the usual plea for more frequent publication. “Future Fantasy” by Mike Ashley is the book review column, which does a lightning round of about a hundred titles grouped into various categories, with a star rating and two or three sentences each. There’s a British-centric convention calendar (but Worldcon was in the Netherlands that year.) And finally, a biographical piece on cover artist Angus McKie.
All in all, a nice collection of stories with appropriate art. As a British magazine, and “semi-pro” for most of its run, it may be hard to find in America. But several of the individual stories have been reprinted elsewhere, and I understand there was a “Best Of” collection printed some years back that might be easier to get hold of. Recommended to horror/fantasy fans.
