The third issue of Postscripts comes with, finally, an intro by editor Peter Crowther, in which he outlines his hopes and intentions for the magazine. As for the content :

Chaz Brenchley. Dragon Kings Play Songs of Love.

The Chief Eunuch visits a remote Taiwanese village, seeking brides for the Emperor, and Ma Yi has to use her wiles, and draw on her experiences as a concubine many decades ago, the avert great misfortune descending on the village as love, as it invariably does, finds it way despite large obstacles.

Gene Wolfe. Comber.

Excellent, vivid piece from Wolfe. He envisages cities, large cities similar to those we know, built on large bodies of rock which are afloat on the oceans. The cities ride the waves, massive waves, and when another city hoves into view, and a collision in imninent, smaller, more human dramas unfold.

Stephen Volk. Curious Green Colours Sleep Furiously.

Volk leaves no sentence or phrase unturned in search of le mot juste, as the totally irrational world he creates enables wordplay and incident without any constraint. For my taste, just a step too far, and I was concentrating too hard on making sense from the wordplay.

David Herter. Black and Green and Gold.

The title refers to colours dominating the city of Prague. Through a letter we find out about a journey deep, deep into the catacombs of an old city which harbours some dark, ancient secrets. Atmospheric, although not exactly breaking new ground.

Jack Dann. Dreaming with the Angels.

Part of Dann's alternate history series in which James Dean did not die in a car crash. Here we share Marilyn Monroe's final hours, her suicide following her disappointment in finding out that she was not pregnant, as she had hoped.

Richard Bowes. Circle Dance.

According to the intro intersection of 'speculative fiction and personal history', and the personal history element adds another layer to a story which already features a story within a story, as an author reflects on his relationship with his brother, who is finally succumbing to long-term ill health, whilst writing a piece of speculative fiction (which he shares with us) in which youthful transgressions take place in a very strange world, mirroring the struggles in the real world. An excellent story.

Gary Kilworth. Murders in the White Garden.

Herr Maurer is a young man summoned to the estate of a German aristocrat. Hes is bewitched by the aristo's daugher, however she has eyes (and other bits of her anatomy!) for another - a young man of less noble station in life. Maurer has been summoned to solve a murder mystery - a murder in a garden of the grand house, one furnished with many statues. The young man is determined to solve the case, and finds that it is a love affair of a much older vintage which has led to the bloodshed.0

Joe Hill. Best New Horror.

You would think that the editor of an annual horror anthology would have had alarm bells ringing long before the drive up a very remote lane to a very strange looking house, to visit a very strange author.....

Hopefully, no element of blending speculative fiction and personal history for Hill, as Bowes has above!

Conclusion

A good mix of speculative/horror for those who like it more traditional than, say, you get in The 3rd Alternative. Me, I'm waiting for this issues which are to come which promise stories (hopefully more sfnal) from the likes of Stephen Baxter, Paul Di Filippo, Eric Brown and Alastair Reynolds.