Early on the morning of her seventieth birthday, Magden coiled the rope that moments before had tethered her canal boat to a mooring post, and said, to no-one, “How I ache!” The plan of the day’s cruise was clear in her mind, and would start with a right turn at the junction that lay half a kilometre away. She always turned right there. Right, to the periphery; left, to Lock Rise, to the city, to …
Q: Can beautiful things be funny?
A: Rarely. Marilyn Monroe was both; Cameron Diaz, and Sandra Bullock have had their moments. Rowan Atkinson is not, by most standards, beautiful, but the laughter and joy he induces in me when I listen to old Not The Nine O’clock News tapes is… beautiful.
Phil Berry’s story “Lock Rise” was published on Friday, 20 October 2017.
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Phil Berry lives and works in London. He began to write short speculative fiction three years ago, having been inspired during his mission to read the sci-fi classics that he overlooked earlier in life. His story ‘Sheer’ appeared in a 2016 edition of Metaphorosis. Others have appeared in Headstuff, Nebula Rift, Liars’ League, 365 Tomorrows, and Daily Science Fiction. Philip also writes on medical ethics, his day job being a hospital doctor.
www.philberrycreative.wordpress.com
Phil Berry’s story “Lock Rise” was published on Friday, 20 October 2017.
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Table of Contents
Cover art by Kathryn Hammond.
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Phil Berry’s story “Sheer” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 10 June 2016. Sheer – the eponymous and seemingly limitless vertical tower of rock, came from a desire to create a distinct ‘secondary’ world. I wanted to show how men and women would adapt to conditions that seem unbearable. Imagine never being able to sit or rest on a solid, horizontal structure. ‘Flat’ becomes myth, and those who tire of life spent on hessian ropes …
Resten Light woke up, pushed the fibre blanket away, and pulled apart the two wings that formed the doors of his nest. He took in the immense sky, its colour and its shapes. Clouds coalesced around the upper reaches of the Far Tower. No-one in his community had seen the top or knew what shape it took. Some said it was flat – truly horizontal – but few believed that myth. Horizontal was unobtainable. He …
