Polluto 3: Sex in the Time of VHS [Special Edition] [Paperback]

Verrata is the first gem of the issue...this reads like vintage John Shirley c-punk but its intense evocation of the sleazy swampland slum that used to be New Orleans drops the reader into the heart of the story...Jacobs s harsh exploration of identity and free will is one of the longest stories here and deservedly so. It also has a heart. Marshall Payne s Dharma and Bert concerns itself with one of the goddesses who s at home and feeling lonely. The rest of the sisters are elsewhere in the cosmos, and she is starting to feel horny. She is sure she can sense a man somewhere in the heavenly palace, but that would involve a betrayal of the sisterhood, which is showing stress fractures anyway. It s witty and fun in a men are from Mars, women are Venus sort of way. Rhys Hughes s knowingly filthy pastiche of monetary fraud has a character called Peter the Tenant who finds that someone has emptied his lifetime supply of seminal fluid. It s probably just a coincidence that the main character s name is very similar to TTA Press columnist and proofreader Peter Tennant. Of course it is. The Groin Snatcher is another of the highlights here, and, while it may not be Hughes at his best, it s fun. Janett L. Grady s Faux Pas, Doc is the short and effective story of an aging sex-bot in an age of moral repression that doesn t seem too far away from the fundamentalist right wing of present-day America. When the robot runs across his creator, he sees that there may be an opportunity for survival. Or maybe not. The Highway Girl in Robert Lamb s even shorter story has revenge (or entrapment) on her mind, and she unpleasantly turns the tables on the man who attempts to rape her. He then finds that he has to deal with all of the consequences. After a brutal start, the story then moves on to a much more interesting place. Steve Redwood s sober Damaged is a bleak look at the way men view women. When Maria 8 (the name deliberately evoking in the reader an image of the robot from Metropolis) starts to show signs of wear and tear, John Smith thinks of taking her back to the library for a service. This will mean, however, that her memories will be wiped. She will no longer remember their time together. Worse still, she could be returned to the previous user who had treated her shoddily and inflicted damage on her. But she needs a service the silver paint is starting to peel off, revealing the pink layer beneath. What to do? This frank and searching story has an excellent chance of making it into some of the Year s Best anthologies. Michael R. Colangelo s punky Steel Teeth and Synthetics is set in a violent, postapocalyptic city... This issue of Polluto is again a fine-looking magazine and...a pleasure to read. --Jim Steel, The Fix Online

Discusses the theme of 'Sex in the Time of VHS'.

Adam Lowe is author of Troglodyte Rose. Rhys Hughes is author of A Universal History of Infamy. Steve Redwood is author of Who Needs Cleopatra?. Deb Hoag is author of Crashin' the Real. Marshall Payne is reviewer for The Fix.