Farewell to the Fortean Bureau

The final issue of Fortean Bureau has just gone online, and it's a sad farewell from here, because I was quite fond of FB and usually found at least one story and/or poem an issue that was worth not just reading, but writing about (e.g. "Stitching Time" by Stephanie Burgis). I was also addicted to Nick Mamatas's typically acerbic columns.

Speaking of Nick, his final column is a not-for-the-faint-of-heart review of Paraspheres, the large anthology of "nonrealist fiction" or "new wave fabulism" or "whatever" put out by the good people at Omnidawn.

Also in this final issue is Jay Lake's story "The Soul Bottles", originally published in Leviathan 4 (which, once upon a time, I reviewed). I love the imagination behind "The Soul Bottles", and despite my quibbles with the neatness of its ending, all sorts of images from it have stuck with me since I first read it in Lev 4, and it has remained one of my two or three favorite Jay Lake stories.

So adieu, Fortean Bureau -- may your soul be unbottled and released back into the paraspheres before all our time is stitched! (And may I nevermore wax lyrical!)

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