Kimota Reviews

This page is the place where published reviews of KIMOTA are to be kept. The aim to include all reviews, good and bad, here. Luckily however, and fingers crossed, we haven't had a really bad one yet.

If you have read a review of Kimota which is not included here we would be interested in having a copy to put here. And yes, that does include the bad reviews.

Kimota is a twice yearly magazine of sci-fi, fantasy and horror fiction which also includes reviews and a letters page. Kimota #15 is 68 pages long, A5 in format, and features black and white artwork by Poppy Alexander, Simon Duric, and the mysteriously named T23.

The fiction kicks off with 'Burning Angels Down' by Paul Joyce. This story back tracks through the life of a young self-harmer who, as a sensitive child, is traumatised when her beloved pet duck becomes the victim of the school bully in a horrific act of cruelty. There is horror in this bleak take on the ugly duckling theme, but it's the portrayal of psychological vulnerability that touched me most, and the idea of how one moment of nastiness in childhood can create devastating echoes in adulthood.

'The Wedding Job' by Paul McAvoy makes a neat companion for Joyce's story, as it too is a story of metamorphoses - this time, through that most traditional of horror themes, the devilish curse. With its fast-paced, anecdotal style this suburban-gothic tale of a bride and her family changed into something monstrous by a drugged chocolate cake, is both entertaining and weidly comical.

'A Totally Ordinary Young Woman' by Hugh Cook is short, sweet and very subtle. It took two readings to catch what I think was the punchline of this story, which is told in a series of related vignettes. A neat comedy noir.

In 'The Terror And The Tortoiseshell' by John Travis, Raymond Chandler meets George Orwell in this sardonic tale of a private detective who just happens to be a tortoishell cat. Our hero wakes up one morning to find the 'Sappys' have all gone insane leaving the animals to take over the running of the world. I loved this story, it is swiftly paced and there are some very amusing touches, for instance the pig and the frog that called their offspring 'a frig'. I must admit, the ending left me feeling a little bewildered, but on the whole, a very enjoyable and witty read.

The subject of Graeme Hurry's article 'Sidney H. Sine - Shades of Darkness' had his heyday in the latter years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the 20th. Sine won contemporary renown illustrating works by the likes of Arthur Machen and collaborating with Lord Dunsany (Dunsany wrote stories inspired by Sine's drawings). I especially liked the image of the poverty stricken young Sine chalking up goblins and imps on the walls of the coal mine where he laboured for 5 years. An informative and often poignant introduction to the work of this undeservedly neglected illustrator.

'The Happy Clapper' by Jonathan Taylor is a sharp and funny satire on the media's treatment of religion. It tells of the tormented Reverend Scaper, 'the Bruce Forsyth of the Evangelical movement', and is packed with many, oddly credible, observations. For instance, the game show where contestants are pitted against the deadliest sins, or the Channel 5 fly-on-the-wall documentary in which 5 curates and 5 prostitutes have to survive together for a year in the Gobi Desert! This story made me laugh out loud, and yet, I never felt I was laughing at religion but rather at mankind's desperate attempts to package and sell the panacea for all human troubles, and the media's desperation to provide what the public most desires.

'Blade' by Phil Emery is a perplexing read right from its breathtaking opening sentence. This ornately wrought tale of a forbidding future in which 'juggermobes' hurtle along 'asphaltbahns', and startled kids are 'spellsmacked', is reminiscent of Burgess's Clockwork Orange in its experimental language and its portrayal of urban anarchy. It is not the easiest read in this magazine, but the imaginative use of language is undeniable (imagine Stanley Unwin on Acid). A bleak portrayal of a futuristic world I do not want to be around long enough to see.

'Ordeal By Bistro' by Paul Finch is a re-phrasing of the much loved haunted house scenario. Two female students, eager to join the aptly named 'Doom and Gloom Society' are challenged to spend the night, and eat a meal, in an abandoned Bistro with a suitably gruesome history. Left in the literally rancid building by 2 young men, the women gradually begin to experience a mounting sense of dread. But does the horror have a genuine cause? Or is it just another student prank? Finch captures the decrepitude of the abandoned restaurant well in this haunted house tale with a twist.

'Still Lives In Motion' by Simon Woodward opens in a hectic shopping mall just before Christmas. A loner with a gun and a grudge against the world, pauses for a moment to anticipate his deed, when the world suddenly stops. He then proceeds to live what is initially his dream existence in a world devoid of people, even going as far as to enact an empty parody of a 9-5 existence spending his days alone in an office where he taps 'at a nonsense spreadsheet'. He soon meets up with an equally disturbed young woman and they indulge in a perverse kind of love affair. Have they found heaven in the unpopulated shopping mall? Or just a purgatorial suspended animation? This story is all about epiphany, the drawn out moment when everything changes, anti-heroes who find their nemesis and their salvation in the same moment.

A quote from William Blake opens 'Tiger Tiger' by Neal Asher, a mysterious and oddly profound tale. A village is apparently being terrorised by a man eating tiger and a party of villagers go off to seek out the creature and destroy it. However, it quickly transpires that all is not what it seems. There is talk of an elusive 'Agreement', and the villagers are armed with futuristic weapons which carry mythological significance: a knife fashioned from the hull of a ship, a solar powered gun. What then develops is a thoughtful exploration of the idea of God, or a godlike creature, who gives humans the power of 'immortality' on its own very specific terms. In this case God is simply the 'Owner' and the dead become part of their Owner's database, 'a very small part of an immensely powerful mind'. There is much to ponder and explore in this atmospheric and affecting story.

Kimota #15 works well as a collection, there's a nice spectrum from the comedic horror of 'The Wedding Job', through the lacerating satire of 'The Happy Clapper' to the thought provoking 'Tiger Tiger'. All offer a darkly comical, satirical, occasionally moving look at life through the eyes of the anti-hero, the troubled, or the just plain bewildered protagonist. A varied and enjoyable read.

KIMOTA 15: This is a collection of both classic and contemporary horror and fantasy fiction, a cocktail of strange, humorous, and downright morose stories. There is not one story that stands out from the rest; neither is there one that lets the rest down. There are nine of them, plus reviews, letters, some nice artwork and a fascinating article on the nineteenth century horror artist Sidney H. Sime.

Faith is the subject of two of the stories. Jonathan Tavlor's 'The Happy Clappers' is a black comedic look at religion and how it can be contested in TV's Test Your Faith, hosted by the Bruce Forsyth of the Evangelical Movement' Reverend Scaper. Having to watch, as contestants beat the test of the seven deadly sins, whilst his own faith is in tatters, leads to an addiction to the pill - VitaFaith - 'The Viagra for Christians'. In contrast to this, 'Tiger Tiger' by Neal Asher is based around 'The Owner' and 'The Agreement' in a land where the tiger hurts no man and no man hurts the tiger. This is the agreement. The owner, a God-like creature, creates a question more of blind faith than actual belief. When one of the villagers commits a terrible sin, the faith of the whole village is tested, especially that of his innocent brother who has no belief in the beginning but who is later shown his destiny.

Paul Finch's 'Ordeal by Bistro' is a good, solid horror story. A dare, two female students facing an initiation into what has always been an exclusively male group. It is the kind of horror story where the heroes run headlong into danger and then wonder why they get hurt. It follows all the rules, tells a tall tale and leaves the reader with that feeling of 'I knew that was going to happen and I'm glad it did'. Years of despair could lead to one tragic moment. But if, in that moment, something intervened, something parallel and unbiased, to take away ten years of a person's life, could that tragic moment be prevented? In ten years one could live, love and lose everything, yet have gained so much. This is the idea in Simon Woodward's 'Still Lives in Motion'. Sometimes there is a second chance. And when you walk out of that cubicle with a loaded gun in your hand and find the world completely' deserted, everything can change.

Paul McAvoy's 'The Wedding Job' is a contemporary story of a bride, sweet chocolate cake revenge and a couple of ugly dogs. The story is quite flat with little build-up, but the idea is good and the gory imagery opulent. In 'Blade' by Phil Emery time and place have lost all meaning. There is no distance, no geography. Written as though for film, with fade-ins and long shots, the characters have their own slang for one another in 'them' and 'us' fashion. It is a good attempt to diversify from the usual storytelling technique and is based more on style than plot, but the story does have a nice twist at the end. 'Burning Angels Down' by Paul Joyce is a moving story of a girl's terrible past at the hands of a sadistic bully, and the memory that won't leave her alone. Until, that is, she finally becomes that which has repulsed her. It is very well written and the main character has depth.

There are some magazines that you tend to take for granted, they're continually consistent in frequency, maintain high quality appearance and host fiction that fits into the 90"/o all good category. Kimota, I'm happy to say, has always been one of these.

So what stood out in this issue? Well, I'll have to say that Joel Lane's The House in the Woods is the first to come to mind. It's a short one and something of a tease of a tale. The genius in it is that it ends well before the big bad is about to happen, leaving your imagination to fill in the blanks, in glorious gory detail.

And talking of endings, the punchy comment at the end of Limbo Lany by Hugh Cook is pure class! In the story we get to follow the misadventures of a man who goes from being something of a bungling alcoholic to a miracle worker with certain ideas on how to do things, to the leader of a post apocalyptic cult. You end up sitting there openmouthed as you watch him remain blissfully unaware of all the side-effects of his transformation. It's great fun!

While we're floating in the lighter side of life, Chris Bauer gets thumbs up for taking the piss out of that dread department 'Human Resources' in his hilarious Downsizing. Read it and find out why!

Edging into the darker realms of storytelling is Peter Tennant's The Necromancer's Tale It's dreadfully compelling, telling of a stranger in an inn who gets pestered for his life story by an itinerant storyteller. The story he tells is one of murder and long-pursued revenge which, of course, is bound to lead to tragedy. Although the beginning is a mite on the slow side, once it gets going, it really gets going! Brilliant!

With so many short fiction zines going to the wall I am pleased to note that this SF and horror zine seems healthy and active. Graeme also talks of the dearth of pro horror markets especially for new writers. Perhaps publishers are only looking to the short term but one can hardly blame them for publishing what sells. So that support for semi-prozines such as this is essential until markets pick up. Eventually publishers will be convinced that there is a short fiction market worth exploiting.

Thirteen stories and I read most of them on Friday the Thirteenth! Far from suffering ill effects, I'm still reeling from the feel good factor. What a treat of a read this is. The sheer variety of styles and genres is entertaining, SF, fantasy, horror, time-travel, hauntings and humour, but the storytelling quality is superb. 72 pages of AS, illustrated by Dave Windett, T23 and Poppy Alexander, each in their inimitable style. There's a letters section, mainly of thanks from the previous issue's contributors, an informative critical article on Thomas Harris by David Price and a large book review section written by Whispering John Carter.

As a person who reacts strongly to the opening of a story, it either attracts or repels in the first few words, I found one or two stories hard work, but usually rewarding my perseverance in their payoff. Alexander Glass grabbed my attention within the first six words, and gains my vote for best story, as he has in several issues of TTA, though this, The Fungus Communion, has the most cynical ending. Nicola Caines' Stasis was equally compelling, as was Neal Asher's The Torbeast's Prison. Cherith Baldrys The Stranger in the Garden seemed to suggest that old literary critics never die, which is a reassuring thought. Kimota continues to bring new breadth to speculative fiction, which is even more reassuring.

On receiving my review copy of Kimota #13 I was immediately struck by its deep blue cover with 'Grim Reaper' artwork by T23... most eye-catching! Thumbing through the 72 perfect bound and neatly-typeset pages I counted 12 stories (by Neal Asher, David Price, Pamela Stuart, Cherith Baldry, Alexander Glass, Annemarie Allen, Iain Darby, John Travis, Hugh Cook, Ceri Jordan, Nicola Caines and Paul Edwards) but sadly only 3 illustrations (by T23, Poppy Alexander and Dave Windett). David Price's biography on Thomas 'Silence of the Lambs' Harris and the book reviews by Whispering John Carter both looked promising, but typically it was the contributors' biographies and readers' comments that I turned to first of all.

Now it's rare for me to enjoy every story in a magazine, but when I started reading Neal Asher's 'The Torbeast's Prison' I wondered if it might be different this time - 'Quickly then. I chopped him hard across the throat and felt his cartilage give under the edge of my hand...' unfortunately Asher's riveting description of a casual murder and robbery at the start just wasn't enough to keep me reading to the end as I struggled to comprehend the rest of this sci-fi opener...

Fortunately the next three stories I found much more accessible and enjoyable; 'Way Back When' by David Price is an entertaining yarn all about reaching someone who is lost inside their own psyche... Pamela Stuart's 'Turn On The Taps' is basically an 'ugly duckling' tale and involves a group of future colonists who're struggling to survive on a dry planet... 'The Fungus Communion' by Alexander Glass is another sci-fi tale set in a future where humans are ravaged by genetically-enhanced fungal spores...

The best of the rest, in my opinion, are: 'Despair Fish' by Iain Darby - a tale in which clinically-depressed humans are devolving into fish-like creatures and returning to their sea origins... and 'Stasis' by Nicola Cains - another tale that's set in the far, post-apocalypse future but with a more up-beat ending...

Fans of Hannibal Lecter will probably find David Price's non-fiction piece, 'The Silence of Thomas Harris', as interesting and informative as I did. There are just two things on which I disagree with Price: first, Michael Mann's Man Hunter is far from being a 'dreadful' film (although I, too, don't see why the film wasn't called 'Red Dragon' given that this is the novel which inspired it) and second, the way in which Harris chooses to end his Hannibal novel isn't disapointing - it's a brilliant and chilling twist which makes perfect sense when you consider that Starling had been badly betrayed by her employers and there was precious little in her former life to go back to. Kimota #13 readers will no doubt also appreciate Whispering John Carter's 'Whispered Reviews'; only Joel Lane's novel, From Blue to Black, was familiar to me and Carter's summation of it was spot on, in my opinion.

Edited by Graeme Hurry and published twice yearly since 1994, Kimota has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a newsletter for the Preston Speculative Fiction Group. This year Kimota was deservedly short-listed for the British Fantasy Society 'Best Small Press' Award. The magazine's track record is enviable and at just �2.50 per issue I'd recommend it to any reader who wants a mixture of horror, fantasy and speculative fiction and articles on genre-related issues.

Kimota 12 comes to our party dressed in its best red frock and a lush Cathy Burburuz ensemble that must drive the printer mad when he sees just how much black ink [not to mention Prism editors who have to reproduce it in greyscale so you can see the definition!]

The results of the Kimota '99 polls are in, with Barbara Davies tale Time's Change topping the fiction heap, and Poppy Alexander claiming the crown in the art department.

Something I've always loved about Kimota is the smart use of fonts for titles - a small thing I grant you, but it still adds up to the smooth looking style of the 'zine.

Fave tales? Well, I'm glad you asked me that, young man - it'd probably have to be the short and funky Vincent's Last Picture by Martin Owton. A nifty time exploitation tale that doesn't quite go as well as the protagonist plans but still lets the wee lad come out fairly well sorted.

Or perhaps m'lady might favour Dream Syphon by Dee Delamere, a rather subversive account of the perils of embracing the latest electronic fashions. In a world where simply everyone must be jacked into a dream machine, the hidden horrors that await a state of mass brainlessness are creeping silently up on even those few brave enough to rebel.

Fly on the Wall Documentaries by J.P. Tayler is another subversive yet insightful piece. Telling of what happens when multi channel/net TV haunts every living room and you can film yourself watching the telly for other peeps to tune in and watch. A scary yet close moving vision of the future folks. There's a nice unsettling piece in Rosemary's Afterbirth by Peter Tennant which is� well, indescribable in it's gore-ish humour.

Good Vibrations by Simon Kewin is a wonderfully, almost surreal choice nibble which explores the pursuit of music through the universe and takes the music hunter to realms not thought possible. A great issue of Kimota I think. Very cool.

52 Cadley Causeway, Preston, Lancs, PR2 3RX website

#12 of steady SF/F/H fic mag incl stories by Paul Finch, Simon Kewin, Joe Rattagan, John Travis, Martin Owton, Stuart Young, Mark Gale, Peter Tennant, more. Dee Delamere's Dream Syphon is the Kat's fave. Article: Bengali SF. Illos from Poppy Alexander, Dave Windett, Cathy Buburuz. 76 x A5, sq bd. 1 of UK's v best!

Ignoring pigeon holes, Kimota has grown into one of the most attractive and popular magazines in the independent press. Issue 11 has a grey cover, and a collection of stories that are anything but. Jason Gould's tale of a man getting someone to impersonate a long-dead sibling to drive his father over the edge is written with such fiendish relish that you almost get to like the thoroughly nasty protagonist, and Jenny Barber's tale of a girl sold to slave traders by her conniving brother is a wonderful slice of entertainment. It's certainly a contrast to Paul Finch's Lord Of The Flies type of horror story, and Steve Lockley's chilling tale of an abused wife. Presentation is attractive, with not too gaudy fonts, and some excellent artwork adds appeal to what is already a class act.

Another funky issue of the Preston SF groups journal chock full of reviews, gorgeous layout with some swinging artwork from Jamie Egerton, Dave Windett and Poppy Alexander and some totally stonking fiction - especially The Grass is Always Greener by Martin Owton. This is a real gem with a smart finish, which offers up a rather cool way to get rid of an unwanted ghost.

In What I Done for the Devil by Simon Woodward, we get a third-person brush with the supernatural as a convicted murderer gives a rare interview explaining the power behind his deeds. It�s extremely compelling. Paul Finch�s Corporeal is something of a sneaky one. It starts out telling of a lads-out holiday that, inevitably, begins to go wrong when the three lads in question decide to take a boat trip on a nearby lake. The thing about this is, just when you thing you can predict what�s coming up, the author gives you a sharp back kick of an ending.

The Angel�s Kiss by Steven Lockley is more straight-forward, with bittersweet tangs punctuating the righteous, eye for an eye, revenge an angel dishes out to a wife-beater.

Holly Day�s (sounds like a blatant psudonym to me), In a Church with no Walls doesn�t quite work for me. It could almost be unsettling but... something about this vampire-junky thing misses the mark.

Luckily, there�s the chucklesome The Fly-Dumpers by Pamela Stuart to make up the balance. This is an especially funky one. Appreciate the beauty - read and enjoy. It includes aliens and ancient Earth myth in lts delicious mix.

Going for the out and out chill factor is David Howe�s Party Girl which is heavy on the atmospherics, pleasantly creepy, and on a more sophisticated level than The Slave Game by Jenny Barber which walks a sniggering but winding road to a bit of an obvious end.

Kimota continues its long life with issue 10. As usual there's an equal mix of fiction, non-fiction and reviews, making the magazine nothing if not a well-rounded read.

The most sophisticated piece of fiction here is clearly 'His Master's Voice' by Joel Lane. It follows the theme of far right racism, a theme on which Joel has written a number of stones, all with passion and accuracy. The characters find the society in which they live increasingly hostile, with guard dogs in every house and Combat 18 stickers on every lamp post. They can fight the tide of violence, or they can admit how scared they are and get a guard dog of their own. It asks the question: how far would you take a belief?; in this case the fight against fascism. Till you are shouted at in the street? Till you are threatened? Till you are hanging from a tree? When it comes down to it, will even the most principled person ignore their heart and resort to protecting their own kith and kin? One of the most chilling images occurs when the protagonist is woken in the night to the sight of hundreds of dogs packed into the house across the street, and the house-owner standing there naked while they all mill around his legs. This will definitely have you shuddering at bedtime.

Neal Asher's 'Gurnard' is also impressive, if a shade overloaded. A satirisation on Christianity, it follows Sirus Beck as he learns about such concepts as the Wife of Ovens and the Changing Waters. Enough ideas to fill a novel, though at times I was at odds to keep up.

The main characteristic of the fiction featured in Kimota is that it always tells a good story. And there's also a sound balance between simple narratives that have little or no stylistic input, and the more complex, imaginatively written piece. In short, something for everyone.

Kimota #10. Hosting a bright green cover, this 76 page thick, spine-bound offering from the Preston SF Group boasts some smooth artwork and a professional looking layout as well as an excellent selection of fantasy, sf & horror and this is no exception.

On the non-fiction side, there's a gem of an interview with Kenny 'R2D2' Baker talking about his experiences filming The Time Bandits'. As for the stories, well my prime time fave has to be split between the short sharp 'Salem's Parking Lot' by Peter Tennant and the longer 'Stuck in the Middle' by Craig Jones. And why do I like em? Well, with 'Salem...' it's the satirical comparison on the King novel. Tennant knew exactly what to say to create the eye widening effect at the end. 'Stuck in the Middle' has more pathos to it. A chance meeting in a supermarket ends in tragedy. It has slants of Pulp Fiction and secret agent movies peppering the magnetic draw of the prose which doesn't let you look away until its too late.

On the other hand, 'Fast Food' by Stuart Young, illustrated by a rather nice Dave Windett piccie, was quite a fun read - even though you could smell the gist of the thing. It's your average bloke people-watching as he lunches in a burger bar. When the gorgeous gal he spots on the street comes in and starts making a move on him, you just know there's trouble looming... All that, plus reviews on the latest doorstop from Robin Hobb, the erotic anime guide and the BFS's own Manitou Man. Nice one!

KIMOTA Ish 9 of Preston SF club zine is hor theme special. Stories: Peter Crowther, Kim Padgett-Clarke, Ramsey Campbell, Suzanne J Barbieri, David Sutton, Stephen Bowkett, DF Lewis, Dominic Dulley, Steve Saville & others. Illos: Anthony Mercer, Poppy Alexander, Jamie Egerton. Rev'ws col, LOCs. Damn fine...BOSS (8/10)

KIMOTA 9 ( 82pp. A5.). Number 10 is due out about now. Ramsey Campbell was saying at Reconvene that the British horror fiction scene is currently at a pretty low ebb. The situation re professional publication is only slightly better in America. If you want to get your short fiction published then small press zines of this kind are one’s main hope. Though be warned even here competition is stiff. Ramsey himself has a piece herein, and there are other reprints from pro and small press publications, as well as new stories. There’s always an outside chance that small press publication may lead to stories being picked up for the occasional anthology. Otherwise if you’re looking to earn a living from your writing write something other than horror. It’s difficult to believe the market’s not out there whatever publishers claim.

KIMOTA #9. Well Kimota’s got nothing to worry about, It looks good - hey it looks great! And I think it’s got the highest quality artwork I’ve seen this time around - especially Jamie Egerton’s stuff. I particularly liked the lilo he did for Mark Gale’s ‘Preacherman’

Ramsay Campbell’s piece on fame (his own) is subtle, sly, funny and he seemed like such a shy flower at the con too.

Then, of course, we have the stories and from the top and jostling for top position are ‘The Stranger' by Trevor Mendham, ‘Kid’s Stuff’ by Kim Padgett-Clarke and ‘Different’ by Jason Conway.

All three happen to share a vampire connection and can be qualified as your average ‘What a Scream!’ type tale. Between them, and in order, they manage to cover various vampiric states from aspiring to vampirism, to trying to feed with falsies and that last one by Jason Conway has a great punchline - which I won’t spoil, but needless to say I could read all three over and over and still be in hysterics.

‘Home Comforts’ by Peter Crowther is disturbing and leaves a bad taste in the mouth but it’s well told. It’s a road-story (as opposed to a road-movie) set in the latest version of the post-apocalyptica world and is involved with the tale of a father and daughter and the sordid truth behind their desperate travels.

Quite honestly all the rest of the remaining renderings are pretty mindblowing and that’s not just me being my usual optimistic self. It’s the inescapable yet enjoyable truth.

Kimota is a solid read and despite emanating from the steering committee of the Preston SF Group is subtitled as a ‘Horror Special’. This magazine has published fine scary tales by the likes of Stephen Gallagher and Simon Clark in previous issues and #9 starts off strongly with a confidently written, sombre nearfuture piece from Peter Crowther which has a typical modern theme (child sexual abuse) but in atmosphere conjures up memories of cult 1970s film The Omega Man. No other author quite achieves Crowther’s controlled handling of his material although Stephen Bowkett’s urban nightmare ‘The Healer’ has a similarly downbeat mood, offering more hints than explanations and all the better for that. Des Lewis weighs in with an unusually linear and intelligible story but its a minor piece in his extensive canon. Also of note are Ramsey Campbell’s amusing vignettes on living the life of a famous writer and Dave Sutton’s graphic autopsy tale which is lifted by its humorous twist ending (oops, nearly revealed it!)

The rest of the fiction spans several common themes — bad deeds committed in childhood, an item bought at an old curiosity shop, the public bar monologue, Lilith the demon girlfriend, the psychopathology of a serial killer (yawn yawn) and so forth Many of the authors attempt twist in the tail endings and these are not always successful — — rushed in the case of Paul Finch’s ‘Dare Devil’ and a trifle silly as Jason Conway tries to make his story live up to its title. ‘Different’. Kimota undoubtedly offers good value for money with 15 stories in this issue but the quality is a little uneven.

I also found the reviews to be sketchy and lacking in detail although David Windett makes his point succinctly with a cartoon of him throwing an Indepen-dence Day novelisation against the walli One other criticism I would make is the placing of adverts within the text Derek Fox’s ‘Sira’, for example, was rather unfortunately broken up by a full page ad for Northern Chills which could easily have been placed elsewhere Yes, I did (briefly) think the story had come to an abrupt end. Overall, however, the magazine is well worth two-fifty of anyone’s money and is a worthwhile market for your scribblings, too.

Kimota has changed its publication schedule, so its two issues a year come out in time for the National SF Convention at Easter and the British Fantasy Convention in the Autumn. Hence #8, a Spring issue, is a sf special. That is not to say that this issue doesn�t contain horror and fantasy (it does), but the emphasis is more on sf.TheAutumn issue will lean more towards horror and fantasy I'm dubious: although the quality of any magazine is dependent on that of the material submitted to it (and of course the editor�s taste and judgement). I can t help feeling that Kimoa has always been stronger on horror than sf, despite being published by a self-described sf group.

Most of the sf stories here share the same faults: lack of originality: premises stated rather than developed, overreliance on trite twist endings slightness and so on. Cert Jordan s True Love Once Removed distinguishes itself by the quality of its writing, but most of the rest are competent but uninspired. Fantasy is represented by Cherith Baldry smoothly-written Walking the Web (which despite its title, has nothing to do with the Internet). Horror makes an appearance with Joel Lane's typically well observed The Last Train in the Station.

The best story in the issue is Wee Robbie by William Meikle. It�s far and away the best Meikle story I've read: most of the others have suffered from the faults I've levelled at this issue�s sf stories. The narrator and his heavily-pregnant wife are spending a short holiday on the Hebridean island of Jura. (As an aside, the Scottish islands have been little-exploited in sf, fantasy, horror or slipstream fiction. Nicholas Royle's Uist and Kim Stanley Robinson�s Orkney set A History of theTwentieth Century-With Illustrations notwithstanding. Shetland slipstream. anyone?) What happens is not especially original, but very well done.The story benefits from a strong sense of place and a solid structure, leading up to a suitably nasty ending.

As a physical object, Kimota is good value for money- even in a solid but essentially holding-pattern issue such as this. It�s let down by some sloppy copy-editing: Michael O�Connor�s name is misspelled on the contents page and if Hugh Cook's story really is called Concenting Adults�, I apologise.

Last time Kimota was reviewed, we gave it a bit of a hard time; firstly by criticising the proof reading, and then by getting the editor’s name wrong in the advert, so that cheques for subscriptions were written to G Murray. A double whammy, so to speak. #8 is an entirely different kettle of fish. For a start, we’ve learned to spell; and for another thing, so has he! My only question is - is there such a word as ‘concenting’; or was that some clever play on words in the title of the last story?

This issue has a strong sci-fi bias to tie in with the sf institution, Eastercon. The autumn issue will have a stronger horror content to coincide with the horror based Fantasycon in October. The quality of writing is extremely high and I can’t fault the artwork. The cover illustration is by Dave Windett who has worked on such classics as Rugrats and Count Duckula! All in all, entertaining and enjoyable.

Kimota 8 : sf special

Kimota's publishing schedule has now been rearranged; sf issue at Easter, for release at Eastercon, horror/fantasy issue in autumn to coincide with FantasyCon. As usual, there's a strong showing of horror/dystopian fiction; writing (again, as usual) of a high standard. With the qualifier that too many, perhaps, are recognisably derivative. The influences are showing - as for example, Alternative Hospital (X-Files), Where There's Life (Hammer Frankenstein) or Walking The Web (Zelazny's Amber). Personal choices? True Love Once Removed (effective time-travel paradox) and The Green Belt (could have fitted right in to Mike Ashley's The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy).

An excellent cover by Dave Windett don’t you think? After Sheherazade’s S&Sgames, what better to even things out with than an SF special and, yet again, Kimota maintains it’s cracking reputation. A perfect example of why thIs ‘zine is such hot stuff would be ‘The Queening of Proxy D’ by Mark Asheton. Hah! Very cool, It involves a quest where Proxy D, our hero, takes a walk through the seven deadly sins to find salvation. One that’ll leave

you laughing Is ‘The Green Belt. By Steve Dean. You wouldn’t believe how hard it Is to find a hero when you

really need one but, somehow, Wedgll and Poleyela have got to get hold of one. Can their strange, white pyjama clad, imported hero save the town from certain peril? Will the space-time thingy remain intact? Read it and sink into hysteria.

On a more - icky - note, ‘Alternative Hospital’ by Neal L Asher hits you with a good reason not to go

anywhere near hospital. Well, would you want to wake up in an alternate reality ward where crocodile skin grafting and portable artificial stomachs haunt you at every turn. ‘Walking the Web’ by Cherith Baldry had great potential - It’s a good story but nothing really excites the reader. It tells of the Initiation test a prince has to go through before getting crowned and although the finale is sweet enough, it’s not quite... there. Mark Gale’s ‘Breathless’ is a scarliy possible prediction of the future where there’s so much red tape that man is undone by his need for forms and regulations.

Y’know, I’m sure this ‘zine is putting on weight - it’s a lot heftier than I remember it. Ah well, Must mean it’s well worth the money then!

KIMOTA — Ish 8 of genre fic mag is SF special, incl: Peter F Hamilton i/v'd + tales by Hugh Cook, Joel Lane, Cherith Baldry, Steve Dean, Ceri Jordan. William Meikle, Neal L Asher & Paul Finch + others, Illos by Jamie Egerton, Anthony Mercer + nifty B&W watercolours by Poppy Alexander. Gd stuff, smart sq-bd chapbk sets v hi stds 4 sml pubs. Mag is 1 of the Kat's faves… COOL = 8/10

The stories in Kimota are generally of a very high standard. My favourite in issue 7 was a gruesome tale by Conrad Williams called Foreign Parts and a haunting fantasy called The Star Stallion by Katherine Roberts. The whole magazine is well produced and printed with some impressive commissioned artwork. However, I would have been more impressed if the production team had taken more time to proof read the copy and run it through the spellchecker. There were some real howlers in an otherwise commendable article on Val Lewton. Nell Bowen becomes 'incarserated' in Bedlam for example. I think that this detracts from the credibility of such pieces. If only two 72 A5 page magazines are produced a year, there should be ample time for this.

Tom Sullivan. Strix Star Rating ***

KIMOTA #7. This is a very slick looking issue with some fine tales inside.

The Book of Forbidden Knowledge by Peter Tennant is short and very misleading and don't I love it. Hil-hairy-arse.

Horizon by Caroline Dunford is smooth. It's hard to say much about it without divulging important plot points but it is another one of those where the past comes back a-haunting.

God's Children by Anthony Barker is very cool. After moving into a new flat, Claudia discovers an affinity with her new, and needless to say, strange neighbours. Who'd've thought it'd turn out like it did, anyone feel sorry for the ex-boyfriend? Nope, me neither.

The Star Stallion by Katherine Roberts stays with her usual style of thing, the remote culture with great traditions. This time, there's a lot of commotion surrounding the latest person to see the star stallion in the starpool. Usually this makes the seer a kind of celebrity with the chance of becoming ultimate ruler of the village however his girlfriend's sister knows what really happened and it's about to get her into a whole lot of trouble. Not as much as it gets the village into though. It's a very satisfying ending to a sad story.

Normally I'm not that keen on the space filling poems some 'zenes use, but The Corticle by Keith Marsland is a flash of irony on the ocean waves. You have to pay attention to get the tasty twist at the end, but it’s a beauty.

Kimota #7 is a tightly-packed issue of diverse genres and styles. Particularly outstanding is Paul Pinn's Phlon Xi, in which a lone soldier on a mission in plague-ravaged South-East Asia searches for his ancestral roots and spiritual identity. Pinn subtly conveys the landscape's ghostly beauty and insidious danger, and layers of incidental detail help to maintain the ring of authenticity that distinguishes his best work. Nicholas Royle plays with time and space in the enigmatic Simple Ballet, as a travelling salesman gets a second chance at life thanks to a mysterious stranger. Katherine Roberts's typically assured fantasy The Star Stallion is a grim account of callous betrayal and ritual murder amongst a harshly religious tribe in a frozen mountain region. By contrast, Paul Finch tells of accidental killing and paranoid guilt on a sweltering day in July, gradually coaxing a sense of morbid dread from the unlikely setting of a village cricket match. Conrad Williams's Foreign Parts, for all its turbulent psychosexual undercurrents, is a rather perfunctory variation on the 'urban lycanthrope' theme, while Peter Tennant's one-page Book of Forbidden Knowledge is essentially a cheeky joke for Lovecraftians. Steve Lockley relates a lonly boy's nightmarish ordeal on a slag heap(!); Peter Smith acquaints Lewis Carroll's Alice with computer technology; Anthony Barker's recently converted apartment complex attracts some undesirable tenants; and Caroline Dunford serves up a short, sharp 'twist in the tail' quickly.

Editor Graeme Hurry contributes some interesting speculations on the potential for Internet fiction, and an informative seven-page feature about Val Lewton. Jamie Egerton's illustrations are strikingly dramatic but tend to telegraph the stories' climaxes, which will no doubt add fuel to the pro- and anti- art debate.

Twice yearly genre mag of Preston SF Group. No. 7 incl fic by Paul Pinn, Steve Lockley, Anthony Barker, Katherine Roberts, Nicholas Royle, Peter Smith, Conrad Williams + others, illos by Jamie Egerton. Retro of Val Lewton's RKO chillers� COOL = 8/10

PRISM UK - The Newsletter of the British Fantasy Society V21 #4 July/August 1997 KIMOTA - ISSUE 6

Dig that groovy cover! This issue is so cracking it'll set you on your way to utopia, not one single detail lets it down Unbelievable? Take a squizz at 'Last Supper' by Dave O'Neill. It's a wild riot of a First Contact situation which blasts the moralistic Prime Directive into the nearest blackhole. Cosmic!!

Martin Owton's 'A Matter of Blood,' is a classic fantasy, full of fights, tavern politics and spirit world adventure. Not only that but it's got romance, humour and merchant's sons too! 'Poisoned' by Stephen Gallagher is a sneaky one, making you draw the obvious conclusions about it's hero without even thinking what you're doing 'til the end spins you into sympathy for the poor guy.

In 'The Earthly Paradise' by Peter Tennant we have another version of what happened when a bunch of aliens called the Vrell popped in to say hi and lend a hand with the planets next step up in education. Unfortunately as is always the case, their gifts were misused sending the planet into apocalypse The story follows one of the survivors on his escape from ravaging mutants and other oddities that trawl the burt out land for food and fun Grabs you like an 'Alien' face hugger.

Paul Finch's 'Eugene' is a subtle urban folk tale taking place in one of those conveniently abandoned schools that seem to crop up in any town worth reading about There's the statutory collection of stupid but 'daring' boys, ready to charge in, spooks and local history apart, to retrieve the fabled treasure which, naturally, is in the furthest room on the highest floor But, iust for a change, what haunts the school doesn't even come close to their wild imaginings.

Lastly, 'God's Favourite Creatures' by Julie Travis, which, although it ends on a slightly sad note, can be easily classed as freaky m'leaky. It opens with a complicated 'suicide', taking the heroine through heaven's rejection and two demon's loving care to a celestial battle for her soul. Very smooth. Very enticing.

Preston SF Grp's K6 has fine fic by Stephen Gallagher, Julie Travis, Peter Tennant, Kim Padgett-Clarke, Caroline Dunford, Martin Owton and others. Michael Marshall Smith iv'd. Couzen's article claims Hor "not a genre but a tone" but Venn diagram focus could also be SF! Good illos from Jamie Egerton... KIT = 7/10

In Kimota #6 (A5, 80pp, �2.50, or �9 for four, from Graeme Hurry, 52 Cadley Causeway, Preston PR2 3RX) the estimable Gary Couzens compares and contrasts genres, illustrating his points with a Venn Diagram that sees "horror" overlapping "fantasy," "science fiction", "crime" and "Mainstream" creating the likes of "dark sf, dark fantasy and dark mainstream" It's this last subset that in my opinion contains the very best kind of horror fiction, To quote Gary, it is fiction that "locates its horrors within the fabric of contemporary life and the dark side of character. It's more disturbing than scary: it's usually subtler than that" This is what I looked for in Kimota. I found that at least three stories feature children, and are told from a child's (or child- like, in the case of Stephen Gallagher's "Poisoned") viewpoint, presumably because it's so much easier to scare child protagonists than to disturb adult ones, If so, then the same rule applies to readers. In a juvenile market such stories would have the desired effect, and the flimsy moral which often comes attached to them might not be out of place, but when they appear in adult magazines like Kimota (it says "unsuitable for children" on the cover) they can so easily seem like emotionally unengaging cop-outs.

I'm generalizing to an extent, of course, and besides, there is still much here to enjoy. The sf stories, for instance, display certain charms despite a lack of sophistication, their lack of self-consciousness and irony making for quite refreshing diversions. Elsewhere, Caroline Dunford's less genre-specific "Liam Brown's Amazing Story" has a neat theory behind it - a sort of "luck vampirism" - and remains intriguing despite the fact that it's more or less entirely set in the form of a letter which reads like the author's synopsis: you've got me interested, I thought upon finishing it, now write the story (all together now: show, don't tell).

Finally, as unofficial president of the unofficial Julie Travis fan club, I must point out "God's Favourite Creatures," the opening two paragraphs of which are extremely unsettling. Picture this: a woman stands before a mirror, power drill in hand, an old Fowler phrenology head on the dressing table beside her; she guides the drill to a certain spot on her forehead, the one marked "respect" on the phrenology head, and pulls the trigger... The third paragraph requires a certain suspension of belief (and a barf bag within easy reach) as she then proceeds to destroy the parts of her brain marked "benevolence," "sociabil- ity," "love of family" and so on, until, while on "timidity" the drill slips down a couple of centimetres and buries itself in the spot marked by Fowler as "extermination." Yes, I thought, this is definitely some kind of horror - and then suddenly Miss Julie was whisking me off on a tour of just about every other circle on Gary Couzens's Venn Diagram, without once restricting the flow of amazing imagery, ambitious narrative and faultless prose. An outstanding story. For adults.

Kimota�s looking great for the time of year, dear, holding up its new look, bound cover, with this issue�s bonus addition of a tastefully printed spine. Must be Christmas. This one I like. A lot. I blame it on the first story myself � Steve Dean�s The Idiot Stick. It walks along in the tradition of the student outdoing the teacher (this time a powerful and, apparently, well respected magician) and then ... oh YES. Take the bugger and give it the top prize. (Sorry, can someone throw a bucket of water over me? ... thanks.)

Moving swiftly on, Andy by Jason Conway�Il make you kick back your heels with hilarity. Honest. Little people, drunken nights out and showbusiness all feature rather heavily in this rib-tickling tale of strange growths and evolved hangovers.

Trouble Dolls by Suzanne J Barbien is story of dark humour with the slightest twist of tnumpant irony. It�s another revenge tale, but, hey, who�s counting.

Although it�s a overlong and a tad irritating, Mark Chadboum�s Cold Comfort still manages to be chilling and just ripe to feed on the neurocracies of the new parent but the worst casualty here is Hobyahs by Stephen Bowkett. This could be sooooo good, but instead it�s a just mild and boring story about a failed tycoon and the weird happenings in his crumbling building. A wasted opportunity.

Thought you knew your aliens? Try reading Mary Talbot�s an examination of Octavia Butler�s Xenogenisis Trilogy. It�ll send your mind to pondering at any rate.

Published twice yearly by The Preston Speculative Fiction Group, Kitmota is a magazine that seems to have grown in size and stature with each successive issue. With #5 it has swelled to a substantial 76 pages, containing eleven stories by writers both old and new, a review column, a Dave Windett cartoon strip and an article on Octavia Butler�s Xenogenests trilogy by academic Mary Talbot.

From the very start editor Graeme Hurry has made a virtue out of eschewing genre niches, presenting a bill of fare that has included science fiction, fantasy, horror and other stuff for which they haven�t thought up a convenient brand name yet. Obviously, given such a broad catchment, not everything in the magazine is going to meet with universal approval, but even the most picky of readers should be able to find some pieces that will appeal.

For my money in the latest issue the long stories are better than the shorts and the horror has the edge over the other genres. Probably the best story is Cold Comfort by Mark Chadbourn, an atmospheric ghost story, rich in detail and with strong characterisation, in which the deteriorating relationship between the two main characters is just as unnerving as the supernatural element. In Hobyah Stephen Bowkett tells us all about an unusual infestation, while Jason Conway�s Andy gives a new and macabre twist to the old idea of the ventriloquist�s dummy that takes on a life of its own. Davina Marsland�s first published story On the Edge of Reality is a torrent of words that creates a chilling picture of mental disintegration. Not so impressive is another debut story. The Idiot Stick by Steve Dean, your standard fantasy in which an evil magician is outsmarted by his put upon apprentice, while Joel Lane�s �Breaking the Surface�, although un-dernably well written, didn�t quite work for me. A cover picture by Brian Talbot and some striking illustrations by Jamie Egerton round out another excellent issue.

No.5 of Preston SF grp's genre mag. Stories: Mark Chadbourn, Stephen Bowkett, Joel Lane, Anthony Cawood + Peter Tennant & others. Nonfic: exams Octavia Butler's 'Xenogenisis'. Illos: Jamie Egerton. 76 A5 neal layout pgs, sq bd 2 make signifisco zine pac. Nifty read & maintains hi std of prev issues... KIT (7/10)

KIMOTA, that wicked Preston SF Group child is back with one of those selections of stories that just make you want to sit back and go woah�

Let me tell you about The Fortune Teller by Peter Tennant. Although slightly predictable (pun unintended. Honest.), it blows you away. Let�s face it, with so many exquisite details, even the slowest among you could make a fairly accurate stab at what the protagonist of the story was going to do. Admittedly, the sharp ending did come as a bit of shock. The illustration by Jamie Egerton is rather nifty as well.

Expressed from the Wood by Simon Clark feels remarkably James Herbert-esque with folk-lore and weird rituals in a backward village. It�s very reminiscent of The Ghosts of Sleath except the danger isn�t as explainable in this story. The villagers are quite blatant about what�s going on, (filming previous victims� demise? Lurve-ly�) and the ending is somewhat darker than that of Mr Herbert�s book, but otherwise, thrilling stuff I

There�s an interview with Steve Bell, who is also to blame for a cracking comic strip ,The Legend of Bigfoot, which was originally drawn as a four-page comic after he quit teaching, brave lad. Other terrific tales include The Pond in the Woods by Martin Owton, and The Closing Hand by Chris Kenworthy, which is a futuristic peace/love in the midst of eco-disaster sort of thing.

What can I say, Kimota is still as excellent as always.

Finally we come to Klmota. The cover price of the Preston SF Group�s mag has gone up to �2.50 with issue 4, but for the extra money you get 64 well-packed pages and production values which have improved on an already high standard. The cover is designed along Peeping Tom lines, a black and single colour heavy paper jobbie, adequately illustrated and titled. However, instead of the usual fold-and-stitch construction, Kimota has moved on to a relatively professional perfect-hound format - nice.

Inside, things have also been given a polish. The text is printed much more clearly than last issue�s, and the layout has been generally tidied up. The overall look is very neat and easy to read. As before, the typeface is small, and you really do get a lot for your money.

The usual variety of content is in evidence, and once again I would have to single out the comic strip aspect as being the weakest. The strip comes from Guardian regular Steve Bell, and to be honest I found his �The Legend of Bigfoot poorly drawn and lacking in humour. The interview with him which precedes the strip is far more enjoyable. The fiction includes contributions from some big names as well as from a number of small press regulars and newcomers. Again it is the professional element that lets the side down: Garry Kilworth�s weak SF offering reads like very early Asimov, and is all the more disappointing when one considers the excellence of Kilworth�s professionally published work. Big Name number two is Simon Clark, who acquits himself rather better than his colleague. Anyone familiar with Simon�s work will know what to expect. While not highbrow literature, �Expressed from the Wood� is reliable and readable. Linda Markley�s �Oggy� is a rather tired tale with little to offer beyond a competent use of language, and Paul Finch�s �Command Performance� suffers from a similar lack of distinction. More entertaining items are provided by Peter Tennartt and Martin Owton, while the two strongest pieces come from Chris Kenworthy and Caroline Dunford, the two writers who try the least to fit into a specific genre cat-egory.

Editor Graeme Hurry has, as always, done a fine job. The improvements in this issue make up for the odd weak contribution, and overall Kimota earns my recommendation.

Ish 4 of Preston SF Grp. Fine fiction: Garry Kilworth, Simon Clark, Chris Kenworthy + 5 others. Legend of Bigfoot c'strip by Steve Bell, who's also iv'd (Bell not Bigfoot!). Illos by Dave Windett, Martin McKenna, Jamie Egerton, Alwyn Talbot &c help 2 make KIMOTA 1 1st class cross-genre mag... KIT (7/10)

Kimota is a labour of love. The magazine of the Preston SF Group just gets better and better. Graeme Hurry�s neat A5 zine is only on its third issue (going by my review copy), but already the editor�s commitment to producing a high quality publica-tion is evident. The first thing that struck me about Kimota this time was the cover. The illustration by Bryan Talbot is an excellent fantasy picture of a Hawkwind-album-coverish nature. However, by a bit of tidy trickery involving a transparent plastic overlay, a good cover has been transformed into a memorable conversation-piece.

The contents themselves cater to a wide range of needs and tastes. Horror and fantasy stories rub shoulders with interviews, poems and comic strips. As far as the fiction goes, quality varies from okay to very good indeed. Well known writers, both professional and small press, contribute to Kimota, their offerings too numerous to examine individually here. Stephen Gallagher, Kim Padgett-Clarke, Pete Crowther, Caroline Dunford and Peter Tennant are among the familiar names, their contributions of the quality we have come to expect from them, which is probably indication enough of this zine�s pedigree.

Not surprisingly for an SF club magazine, Kimota features non-fiction in the form of interviews (Jeff Noon of Vurt fame this time) and a humorous article by Stephen Gallagher. What is perhaps a little more unexpected is the status given to comics. The Preston SF Group often has guests from the comics world, and this interest is reflected in the fact that this issue features no fewer than four strips of varying lengths. The comic element is perhaps the weakest aspect of the mag this time, with the notable exception of Kurt Vile and Bryan Talbot�s �The Nativity on Ice�. An absolute gem of graphic irreverence. Kimota is fan publishing at its best: enjoyable and recommended.

Ultra-nifty 2-part cover on 3rd ish of this up'n'com'g genre mag wins the Kat's pajamas award this month 4 its clever use of trannie wrap. Content not nearly as smart, but still good read. Fiction by Suzanne J Barbieri, Peter Tennant, Caroline Dunford, William Meikle, Peter Crowther & Others. B&W art by Jamie Egerton, Alwyn Talbot, Jason Hurst + comicstrips from Dave Windett, Ben Hunt & Alan Moore. Verse by Steve Bowkett. New Brit SF/F superstar author Jeff Noon (Vurt, Pollen) in'd while Stephen Gallagher contribs couple of infotainm't bits. Despite some areas of faint print, K3 is neat pac of stories features & art, w' 1 or 2 standout pieces. Recommended... KIT (7/10)

Graeme Hurry�s Kimota contains one outstanding story Animal, Vegetable or Mineral by William Meikle. We are presented with the ultimate bully deterrent when a young boy calls on some rather special help to warn off his tormentors. The telling is punchy and the ending is what you are only just suspecting. A truly excellent tale!

Also enjoyable is Video Nasty by Caroline Dunford which slowly builds to an almost inevitable climax. Presenting ... one �back of beyond� town where the arrival of a new video shop causes the townies one heck of a reality check. The local youth gang help the owner sort the shop out in return for being able to watch videos there. However, after watching so many videos, one of the gang starts believing in �the story� and this means disaster when the rest of the gang try to play a trick on her. This is hot stuff.

Other fiction is from Suzanne J. Barbieri (Johnny Never) and Mark Morris (Against the Skin). There are also some brilliant cartoon strips in this issue such as The Mighty Morphine Power Rangers by Ben Hunt or Last Refuge by Bryan Talbot and Graerne Hurry which shows that your average man-eating monster is human too!

H/F/SF mag No.2 incl stories from William Meikle, DF Lewis, Mark Morris, Suzanne J. Barbieri & Caroline Dunford. Verse by John Carter. Graham Masterton profile. Ben Hunt,Dave Taylor & Bryan Talbot furnish comicstrips. Michael Moorcock iv'd by Colin Greenland. Clean DTP copy & nifty mix of contents, but ambitious zine yet 2 find its fandom niche... RATING: Mutant (6/10)

KIMOTA Issue 1, Edited by Graeme Hurry.

The first issue of this Preston SF Group �zine is excellent and features a very high standard of contents, kicking off with the fantastic Deep Blue by Stephen Laws and, in short, we are talking WOW here, It�s about Buddy Holly�s rave from the grave - a suicidal song with disastrously epic proportions.

What else can top that? Well, maybe Mick by Caroline Dunford which is a spookily outstanding story. Although the ending is a little unclear, it is nevertheless a truly engrossing tale of experimental possession� which inevitably goes wrong. This one really swallows you up from the very first page.

A Room of My Own by Kevin K Rattan is fabulous. It gives you just enough line then pulls you in completely by displaying sibling rivalry which develops into the low case loathing of a potato-like granny who is unfortunate enough to move into the house of the main character.

There are some inspiring comic strips here as well, such as Doctor Hocen and the Aliens by Ben and Sonla which gives you the great perspective on reality in which the doctor finds himself on an alien planet and systematically makes various aliens disappear because of their unrealisticness (such as ET and alien) but.., a stoned skeleton appears on the scene and totally disbelieves in the doctor�s existence (Hurrah!!) resulting in a brilliant ending.

A flat story in this issue is Conrad Williams� The Bone Garden which tries very hard to present an after the grave type yarn but fails as the story crawls along like a dying Skoda.

Kimota is magnificent, giving an extensive range of exquisite stories splattered with first class illustrations.

Preston SF Grp zine covers SF/F/H thru'out fandom. No.1 incl new notable short stories by Stephen Laws, Caroline Dunford, Conrad Williams, others. Com'strips by likes o'Dave Windett. Nonfiction: Stephen Gallagher on work of John Farris & how 2 sell scripts. EasterCon report. Illos from Jim Pitts, Graham Higgins, Bryan Talbot. Makes v strong debut. Ed. Graeme Hurry promises twice-yr schedule. Hope 4 best... RATING: Mutant(6/10)

Kimota sounds like it could be a Japanese monster movie, but is in fact the title of a new biannual magazine launched under the auspices of the Preston Speculative Fiction Group. Editor Graeme Hurry�s brief is to publish �stories on an SF, fantasy, horror theme, comic strips or articles on genre related issues�. Something for everybody.

No.1 makes an impressive debut, with a cardboard cover and high quality paper, easy on the eye print and few typos. Award winning artist Jim Pitts contributes a striking cover, while interior artwork is in the capable hands of people like Martin McKenna and Bryan Talbot.

The magazine has three comic strips, two of them light hearted one-pagers and a third longer piece in a more serious vein. This department was Kimota�s weak point I felt. The funny strips simply didn�t amuse me while I couldn�t make much sense of the third strip, though the drawing was excellent. The again, should you trust the judgement of someone who collects Batman?

Much more satisfying is the magazine�s prose content. Leading off the fiction is Deep Blue by Stephen Laws, a strongly plotted story about the last song ever written by Buddy Holly that�s better than 90% of the stuff you see in the small press. Fellow professional Stephen Gallagher chips in a couple of articles, one an overview of the work by John Farris and another about the pitfalls involved in selling a screenplay. Both are informed and lucid. Not so good was Sarta Marsland�s report on EasterCon, which kept harping back to the merits of Real Ale with a persistence I found irritating. The three other stories don�t measure up to the Laws but are rewarding in their own right. Caroline Dunford�s Mick was about the true identity of a mysterious inmate at an asylum, which becomes obvious before the end, but the story is well written and satisfying. Redoubtable grandmothers from Hell surface in both A Room of My Own by Kevin Rattan and The Bone Garden by Conrad Williams, but there any resemblance ends and in each case the subtlety of the storytelling more than compensates for any lack of originality.

Kimota has made a good start and looks set to do well.

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