2012 draws to a close, and 2013 starts!  It was a good year for SF/F fans, with John Carter, Brave, and The Hobbit, and four issues of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.  And we keep the trend going with three great new stories and two poems. Fiction Contents Dusts of War, by Ben Godby Get your new […]

DUSTS OF WAR, by Ben Godby: The cart creaked, its wheels full of summer dust, as the peddler pushed it gently up the slope of the road, past the first houses, and onto the main street of the village. It was late afternoon, nearly dusk, and the sun had a lazy warmth to it. It […]

SHADOWS AND HELLFIRE, by R. Michael Burns: “Dive heedlessly into death, and you will wake up.”                              — Yamamoto Tsunemoto,                              Hagakure All around him, the dead drew closer, faces ash-pale, sunken eyes blazing with hatred. Hokagé’s hand went instinctively for his sword — but of course he wasn’t armed, not in the dead of […]

KINGDOM OF GRAVES, by David Charlton: Plague had come to the lands west of the river Elakk, and so Rakhar the Half-Orc came, too. He came to their towns with only his spade slung over his shoulder, taller than any man and uglier than most. His brow was heavy and hung low over dark, sunken […]

YASHUB-GEB, by James Hutchings: Old Yashub-Geb fell out of space the last and greatest of his race. Deep doleful furrows framed his face — his stubborn strength was flagging. His scales were brass that once were gold; his baleful blood ran slow and cold. An ancient story nearly told was Yashub-Geb the dragon. His eyes, […]