Review Archive

Dawn of the Algorithm – Yann Rousselot

After reviewing Gary Whitta’s Abomination for Inkshares, I stayed in touch with them, hoping that they’d send some more awesome work my way. Inkshares’ own Angela Melamud fired back almost immediately, asking if I’d be interested in reviewing a book of poetry. I clicked the link to the book’s page, read a little about the book, and watched the short promotional video thereupon. Spliced clips from Akira — one of my all-time favorite films — with the poet reading his own Akira-inspired piece over them. Even though I felt (and still feel) unprepared to review a book of poetry, I accepted Angela’s offer, and started reading Yann Rousselot’s Dawn of the Algorithm that evening. That was four months ago. I finished the last poem today, standing in an overpacked train car, in a tunnel under the bay, as it hurtled along the tracks on its way to San Francisco. I am an

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Out of the Mouth of the Dragon – Mark S. Geston

In the weeks leading up to my departure from Seattle, I made a habit of stopping by Opheila’s Books, which was about a 10 minute walk from my apartment, almost every day. It smelled of old books, and was staffed by a funky, lovely lady and her friendly cat, which would loudly meow if you stopped rubbing him behind the ears. It dealt primarily in used books, so there ended up being a relatively regular rotation of titles coming through. One day, giddy with excitement, the lady informed me that she scored a great collection of old pulp sci-fi novels from the late 60s through the late 70s. Based on the covers alone, I selected three. Among these was Mark S. Geston’s Out of the Mouth of the Dragon, predominantly because its cover reminded me of a darker version of Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. The

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