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Albedo One no. 33
01/04/2008 . Source: Eamonn Murphy 
pub: Albedo One Productions, 2 Post Road, Lusk, County Dublin, Ireland. 64 page A4 magazine. Price: £ 3.95 (UK), 5.95 euros. 4 issue subscription: £19.50 (UK), 36.50 (US). Consult their website as IRCs no longer valid in Ireland. Buy Albedo One in the USA - or Buy Albedo One in the UK  check out website: www.albedo1.com
'Albedo One' features a nice mix of features, interviews, reviews and fiction. In this issue there are interviews with Geoff Ryman and Sam Millar, both with a few works under their belt but yet to make the big time. There is a good article by someone called Severian which takes a severe tone with writers who try to take short-cuts to success via the Internet or self-publishing. Severian regards this as self-delusion and says the only way to do it is to submit work to stern editors. I'm sure he is right.
The stern editors at 'Albedo One' pay three Euros per thousand words for fiction so the writers are clearly doing it for love and recognition rather than for money, though the story voted best in each issue does win a hundred Euro prize. Given this, the stories are of surprisingly good quality.
I particularly liked 'Live From The Continuing Explosion' by Simon Kewin where, by some blip of physics, a terrorist atrocity happens in a time bubble with excruciating slowness so that the world can watch the victims in a packed public place dying slowly one by one over a span of decades, with twenty-four hour news coverage. This has an effect on the world. It was original and well done.
I also enjoyed 'A Sky Full Of Constants' by Anil Menon which was about an inconstancy in physics that drove a physicist over the edge.
I disliked 'Barrelhouse' by Andrew McKenna but mostly because of the way it was written, with the narrator addressing the protagonist in the present tense. 'You rise cautiously, pain colouring the inside of your eyes, and crawl and stumble after him to the great prayer room.' I found this annoying and it detracted from a story which was otherwise worth telling. The rest of the fiction was pretty good but not outstanding.
I enjoyed the book reviews mostly because the reviewers seemed to like the books. A critic's job is to sort the wheat from the chaff but sometimes you get the impression they don't like anything. Not so here and 'The Court Of The Air' by Stephen Hunt, sponsor of this august organ, had a favourable review, too, which is nice. I might even buy it.
Overall, I would rate the non-fiction higher than the fiction but the stories were worth a look and a market for beginning writers is a good thing.
Eamonn Murphy
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