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Flurb#13 is an online magazine with stories by Rudy Rucker, James Worrad, Seth Kallan Deitch, Leslie What, William Highsmith, Ian Watson and Roberto Quaglia, Madeleine Ashby, Martin Hayes, A.S. Salinas, Wongoon Cha, Andy Albrecht, and Rudy Ch. Garcia along with some poems by Brian Garrison.

Flurb, an online magazine published and edited by Rudy Rucker. Issue #13 is the current issue and is reviewed below. The stories are seriously strange and not all of them may be to your liking. But they are worth checking out.You can find the issue at http://www.flurb.net. You can also find the contents of the previous twelve issues.

The issue begins with "Jane and the Roadspider" by Rudy Rucker. Morton Plant has grown up with Jane Roller and finally realized he was in love with her. He is an artist who uses a nurb-based paint. Nurbs are "wetware-programmed plants and animals" that have come into fashion. The roadspider is an unusual vehicle. Telling more of the story would not serve much purpose. I'd just say that it was quite a good read and another example of Rucker's unique talents.

"Eye-High" by James Worrad is another of those future-druggie stories which usually don't interest me, but this does have a different twist. Zama is in his apartment when his friend Moonman drops by. He seems a bit stressed but he also has a wooden box. Wood is very rare and that is a curiosity in itself. What's in the box causes the mind to go on a trip stranger than any drug could induce. A thug chasing Moonman shows up and then the police followed by a television news crew. You can probably figure out what happens next. Not bad but not that great either.

"The Gaon of Chozzerai" by Seth Kallan Deitch features Travis Mackanc, who has a Pd.D. in Pseudoxenology. That's the study of false xenolites. Xenolites are artifacts that look like they belong to our world but have properties of a parallel universe. False xenolites are caused by malfunctions in "parallel field equipment" and there are only twenty-three that are known to exist in the world. One day, he gets a strange object from his friend Rocky, an "obsidian black polished stone" with something inscribed on it. He finds that it is a catalogued real xenolite. It may be stolen and more trouble than it's worth, so he flings it against a wall, opening a portal to another universe. He, unthinkingly, steps into a xenocontinuum. What he finds is so wondrous and fun that you will probably read it more than once.

In "Counter" by Leslie What, a soldier returned from overseas service struggles through a unique form of PTSD: a sad, poignant tale.

"Journey to the Center of the Flat Earth" by William Highsmith is something of a retelling of the Jules Verne novel of a similar title. It has the same characters and locale. It starts off with the finding of a manuscript of the characters' ancestors making a similar trip but into a round earth rather than a cylindrical one. This one gets seriously strange at the end and was quite amusing.

Next up is "The Invention of Beloved Money" by Ian Watson and Roberto Quaglia. In a not-too-distant future, our narrator and his beloved Gina, must get to Geneva for the World Economic Forum and are forced by circumstances to take a plane. This means a nine-hour wait for truly invasive security measures. On the way they discuss the theory of magiconomics. The value of money must be an article of faith as devout as any religion. At the Forum, a man named Dragos (pronounced Dragosh) Ætherius Magorius, who invented magiconomics says that they need some sort of system to tell them what their "imaginary money" stands for. Many systems are proposed, including Gina's (which I won't spoil). This was filled with imaginative satire of everything and was one wild ride.

In "Give Granny a Kiss" by Madeleine Ashby, Jack is in a marriage-like relationship with Carlotte, a von Neumann-type humanoid (a vN) which is described as a "self-replicating humanoid". They have a daughter named Amy, also vN, who seems to be a clone of her mother. There are problems because vNs have powers which make them dangerous to humans. Another part of the story is that Charlotte's mother had abandoned her shortly after she was iterated. All this is prelude to what I assume is the novel version of this story, one which does seem interesting.

"A Bigger Piece of Nothing" by Martin Hayes focuses on Bill, who lost his wife and son a few years ago and joins a group that thinks it's going to be taken up into space by aliens. He just wants to find a way to die. He's in for a surprise in a pretty good tale.

"Lohengrin & Tannhauser" by A.S. Salinas is set on some far future Ganymede and stars Carlos and Ricky, who seem to be some sort of investigators. An acquaintance of theirs, a sentient robot named Hunka Junk has got himself into some trouble with an arms dealer named Bronsky and has one of Bronsky's goons out to terminate him. This sets up a lot running around as they figure out what is actually going on. Lots of little throwaway references affords us a look at the culture and it all makes for a pretty good read, but not something I haven't read before.

In "Procrastination" by Wongoon Cha, Tarek needs to earn some quick money and decides to go out to collect the shells of dead space beetles. What happens when he finds a live one? Read this good little story and find out.

"Sea Change" by Andy Albrecht alternates between two jerk teenage boys, a woman recovering from a serious injury and, apparently quotes from an old book by Peter Benchley. Somehow, the author thinks this combines into a story. I disagree.

The issue ends with "Last Call for Ice Cream" by Rudy Ch. Garcia, a rambling piece about a guy trying to write a vidscript. It has so much slang that it becomes tiresome very quickly.

Like I said before, not your average stories. If you want something different, I recommend that you check out their web site at http://www.flurb.net. You have nothing to lose. It's free.