REVIEW SUMMARY: A sampling of the relatively new Eclipse Online, edited by Jonathan Strahan, featuring accompanying artwork by Kathleen Jennings.

MY RATING:

SYNOPSIS: The four stories featured here offer pulp nostalgia with a disturbing undertone, Martian visitors, friendship, forgetfulness and the joys of gardening.

MY REVIEW
PROS: Four well-told stories filled with imagination; each has its own sense of weight; thought-provoking; all currently available free online and linked for your convenience.
CONS: You may not thank me for the way you feel after reading one of the featured stories; not available in convenient e-reader format like some online magazines.
BOTTOM LINE: When Jonathan Strahan announced that his Eclipse series would no longer be coming out in an annual print edition I was bitterly disappointed. I still am. I had joined in with him at the start of his vision and looked forward to a time years later when I could tell young SFF fans, “I was there when it all began”. Alas, this was not to be. I had not read any of the offered stories before deciding to feature Eclipse Online here in large part because I am less enthused with reading on the computer than I am on a Kindle, and the format does not work quite as well that way. However I am glad I took the time because while Eclipse may have lost its print identity, it has not ceased to be populated by stories culled by an editor I have really grown to trust and admire over the last several years. This small sampling of the output of Eclipse Online will hopefully convince you, as it has me, that it needs to be a staple of your non-print reading.

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