Issue Five is bright red, glossy, and has the words ‘Nemo Book’ contained within a black box. ‘The Robot and the Octopus’ is the first story, a wonderfully humorous piece which features a robot on the rampage. For reasons no one can understand, the robot is dragging an octopus behind it in a tank. Scientists watch security tapes and television screens in bafflement and concern. ‘The Robot and the Octopus’ is a very well written and entertaining story.

’Driving in Circles’ is darker. A bickering couple, clearly on the edge of breaking up, are driving through the countryside. They are literally driving in circles within the context of their relationship, until they finally have a minor accident. Back on the road, they travel through an ominous landscape, where shadowy shapes appear in the night beyond, as well as a dark leathery winged creature. This landscape could be symbolic of their relationship and a certain primitive tendency in humans towards destructiveness. When they emerge into what might be the real world again, their argument is forgotten, but there’s a casualty near the road to remind them of the dangers they’ve passed.

’Running Away To Join The Town’ opens on the arrival of ‘Rainscissor and Morgoder’s Autoscopic Cavalcade’ - a circus of sorts. Marcel, a young boy, watches their procession. He lives with his mother and seems spoiled and self-centred, though it soon becomes clear his father’s disappearance has something to do with this. Banned from attending the circus, he goes anyway and gets more than he bargained for when he meets a small clown who hankers after a mother. This story has a particularly good opening section, while the ending was perhaps not quite as strong, possibly because it consists of two short sections in a story that is otherwise less fragmented. But ‘Running Away To Join The Town’ is still well worth reading.

’Solid Gold’ is less successful. The female narrator’s self-obsession is narcissistic, her femininity self-conscious. There’s also an overly formal narrative style, which isn’t completely excused by the narrator’s desire to put her common roots behind her.

’George the Baker’ meanwhile centres on “a small, white ball of animated flesh” which has been discovered by George. He takes it to the bakery and believing it to be shivering from cold, makes it comfortable. The rest of the story follows his thoughts and theories on the strange creature, and what to do with it. This piece could have done without the huge long paragraphs, particularly since it’s a slower moving story generally. The opening sentence is also rather clumsy. Otherwise, the story is well written.

’The Hills Are Alive’ is written in a very formal, somewhat old-fashioned, style. There are points relating to the narrator’s reflections where the prose becomes perhaps a little too dense. But this is still a good story, following a couple who escape from city life to a country cottage. The woman wishes to paint but gets increasingly frustrated at her attempts. Her partner, the narrator, later encounters a young woman during a walk. She is a painter, and he invites her to their home to give his wife lessons. But things take a darker turn. There’s a weird atmosphere in this story reminiscent of David Lindsay’s classic metaphysical novel, ‘The Haunted Woman’, though the plots are quite different.

’Huntin’ Season’ was perhaps the story that worked least for me in this magazine. Featuring killer babies who crawl around and eat people, it seemed out of place. Parts of the narrative tended towards a gross-out style of horror common in the US, but very different from the more subtle and understated narratives that predominate in Nemonymous. This story would fit fine in another magazine. There is nothing wrong with the story in itself. But everything from the narrative voice to the subject matter contrasted too strongly with the rest of this issue of Nemo.

’Well Tempered’ is a darkly humorous story about nine-year old January, a bit of a brat, who gets it into her head she wants to be a pop star like Pixie Harmon who plays piano on MTV. January’s parents buy her a baby grand, but in no time at all she’s lost interest and refuses any instruction. A strange new tutor turns up, and decides to do a bit of tuning. “This instrument is not well tempered” he tells the mother, before asking her to leave. Later it becomes apparent that it wasn’t the piano he tuned. The humour in this story is well handled, especially January’s attempts at sabotaging her piano instruction.

‘The Scariest Story I Know’ switches between different narrating strands: first person, third person, second person, third person and back to first, in a mirroring, symmetrical technique. This is a ghost story based on a family’s grief and the separation of two people, a father and son, from the third person, their wife and mother. But the story plays with the reader, allowing them to make one set of assumptions about who is dead, before revealing the truth. The strength of this story is that it is grounded in human emotions and relationships. It’s a quietly mature and sophisticated take on the supernatural. ’New Science’ has the narrator meet an old acquaintance for dinner before they go to her home to have sex. The woman is dying and has requested this brief intimacy. There’s a headless doll on her windowsill, next to a photograph of her in healthier times. Something about this doll chills the narrator. The details about the woman’s illness, the narrator’s feelings of tenderness towards her, are handled sensitively, and it’s this central section in the narrative that is particularly strong. Otherwise, it’s a supernatural story with a twist.

’Soul Stains’ is the best story in this issue, and one of the best in this particular series of small press reviews. Using a densely antiquated prose style, it appears to be set in an alternative past. While there are references to phonographs and photography, the events in the narrative are also more reminiscent of earlier times. A tattooist is murdered by locals, and his home and possessions destroyed. His fate is similar to that of witches of earlier times. There’s a supernatural element to his tattoos, and many begin to itch or leak after his death. The story is told from the perspective of a barmaid, his lover and first client. She is remarkably articulate for a barmaid, but there is more to her than meets the eye. The prose is a bit too dense at times (and occasionally flawed), creating unnecessary obfuscation, but ‘Soul Stains’ is otherwise a story that can be read again and again and is surely deserving of inclusion in the next edition of ‘The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.’

‘Grandma’s Two Watches’ is set in an Israeli kibbutz where crop circles have begun appearing. Any connection with aliens or UFOs is denied, and a couple of English visitors claim responsibility. However, it later becomes clear that they’ve been asked to take the blame by the child narrator’s grandmother. The kibbutz setting of this story is one of its strong points. A gentle humour runs through the piece, and though not one of the stronger stories, it provides a nice end for this issue of Nemo.

Nemonymous has some of the best production values of any of the magazines featured in this quarter’s reviews. It’s definitely one of the best UK magazines, though the current issue is a little slimmer than earlier issues.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.