Unreal Magazine: Vol. 2 (ePub)

Featuring Ken Liu, Jerry Oltion, Yoon Ha Lee, Robert J Sawyer, Rebecca Linam, Joe Taylor, and Liam Hogan. Edited by Daniel Scott White.

There's a common thread in this magazine. And it's a good one. From over the rainbow, far beyond the edge of the real world, bards and sages keep telling us: "Be careful what you wish for!"

You might think the grass is greener on the other side, but there's a price to be paid when the genie offers you those three lucrative wishes. There are unforetold consequences to being granted your deepest dreams and desires. And so it goes in the wonderful world of magic, a topsy-turvy place that keeps knocking the characters bound inside each story off balance.

Stop and think about it for a moment. Isn't that the way things really are for you and I? Aren't we all living somehow strangely in those same faraway places that appear upon these very pages? Don't we also get knocked off balance from day to day while chasing our desires? Life is but a dream...

While you're reading this magazine, put on a pair of wings, because you're going to need it. This magazine is about fiction that isn't made for this world.

- "State Change" by Ken Liu is a metaphorical look at being a prisoner to yourself.
- "Flying Lessons" by Liam Hogan is a humorous take on a magical lesson gone suddenly wrong.
- "The Graphology of Hemorrhage" by Yoon Ha Lee tells the intricate story of a magical writing system.
- "There Goes The Neighborhood" by Jerry Oltion is a modern day magical rendition of keeping up with the Joneses.
- "Fallen Angel" by Robert J Sawyer is about the danger of flying too high, about promises broken and the payment that follows.
- "Damsel in Distress" by Rebecca Linam is about a knight who's had way too much adventure.
- "What Is Sewn Daintily, Is Sewn" by Joe Taylor is a symbolic treatment of the foreplay that leads up to an angelic encounter.

These stories will make your head spin, your heart flutter, your pulse fluctuate and your knees weaken. They'll bring you high and take you low, and then they'll drop you on the curb next to the portal you just left behind. They are the stuff of dreams gone through a mind-bending encounter. Worked over and turned upside-down.

Thanks for reading these pages. Please return your wings at the door when you're done. See you next time in Vol. 3!