A couple weeks ago, I read the 16 page Murky Depths #0, published by Terry Martin out of the UK. This was a promo issue, a teaser, a sneak peek, a PG-13 spread of Murky Depths magazine.

Based on what I saw and read in those 16 pages, the magazine certainly has charm. According to their submission guidelines, Terry is looking to print dark speculative fiction. A bit similar to Apex, they read, but I think they're (Terry and his editors) not as big of assholes as we are about the SF bit. :) If Murky Depths turns out to become the European analog of Apex, that'd be pretty cool.

The preview issue featured two stories. The first was a solid selection from one of Martin's editors (and an Apex #8 contributor), Matt Wallace. In the past, Mr. Wallace has shown me a broad range of styles that speaks of an innate writing talent. His Apex story was a wicked dark fantasy piece that has received nice reviews. Another of his stories printed at an online magazine (whose name has slipped from my mind) was a fun, fast-paced horror/action piece.

Wallace's Murky Depths story, "The Dead Man and the Berserk" is a wild one. One part Philip K. Dick, and two parts 50's horror pulp, it's an interesting mish-mash of action, characters, and setting. That's a tough trio to mix effectively in such a short story (it's maybe 2000-3000 words), but he pulls it off with panache. It's an effective story in a preview issue where you're hoping to reel in some future readers.

The ubiquitous Lavie Tidhar has the other short titled "Submit Now." It's only a page long, but it's formatted as thought it's a web page displaying submission guidelines. The guidelines aren't quite what you'd expect, however. As a writer, I got a nice chuckle from the piece, but I have to wonder if regular readers will not appreciate the "writer guidelines" layout and thus lose a bit of its charm.

There are two "comic" stories. Story-wise, neither left me with much of an impression. However, the artwork and layout were top notch. I'm not a much of a serialized comic guy, so you might want to take my evaluation here with a nice pinch of seasoned salt.

There's a neat bit of poetry inspired by a wicked work of art. The poem "A Time..." by Sylvanus Moxley. The artwork by Garry Brown.

Finally, a non-fiction article rounds out the issue. It's about podcasting and written by Matt Wallace. Mr. Wallace tones down his colorful language and writes a sensible article about the surging podcasting culture. Only two pages are given to this broad topic, and I hope Terry sees fit to give Matt a full feature in an upcoming issue about this most involving and germane of topics to the spec-fic world. It felt like I was reading a synopsis to what should be a larger article.

Overall, I'm impressed with the presentation and layout of the preview issue. Aside from a few copy edit errors (it is just issue #0, I cringe every time I look through the first issue of Apex), Terry Martin and gang appear to have their act together.

I say check it out: Murky Depths

And because I know Terry Martin has always wanted some...here's some alien head.



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