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Category: Science Fiction
Description: Issue 4 begins with the end of the world and moves on from there. From the unromantically magical take on Ragnarok in the lead story "Unbound" to the curious history of squid in "A Man of Kiri Maru", this issue is steeped in mythos, making use of the old familiar tales and some new ones, mixing cosmologies from around the world--and from other worlds as well. But the focus, be it of prose, poetry, or art, is always on the human--on the clashes between imagination and reality, on choices and redemption, on what the Other can tell us about ourselves. And like any GUD magazine, this one's eclectic; browse around between the covers and you're sure to come upon some things you'll like, whether you're a genre junkie or a generalist. We hope you'll find some beauty, something uncommon, and that, for just a moment, the angle of the light will seem a little bit different.
eBook Publisher: Greatest Uncommon Denominator Publishing, 2009 2009
eBookwise Release Date: October 2009

6 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [508 KB]
Words: 69724
Reading time: 199-278 min.

Anne Brudevold for Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene: "GUD will wake up your sensibilities, will challenge the things most precious, most sacred to you (your pet cat, your love, your belief in order) and turn them upside down, inside out, splay them and return them to you, intact, and glowing with new possibilities. Read GUD and you'll never be the same."

Rod MacDonald for SF Crowsnest: "such a wide variety there seems to be something to please everyone"

Isaac Espriu: "Issue 4 delivers first-rate fiction, poetry and art of almost every genre and those in between, and some not yet invented."

Frank Burton for Dogmatika: "Regardless of form or genre, GUD publishes original, thoughtful, subversive and entertaining work by writers who deserve the exposure."

Charles Tan for Bibliophile Stalker: Overall this was a meaty issue with a diverse selection of fiction, art, and poetry. If you're looking for something beyond the norm but with a closer relation to literary writing (as opposed to genre writing), this is a good place to start.

Rich Horton for Locus SF: The Spring issue of Greatest Uncommon Denominator, or GUD, is a strong mix of SF, fantasy, slipstream, mainstream, artwork, poetry, and nonfiction.

Flip Lady (1986) by Ladee Hubbard

I.

History.

Ray Ray hears the sound of laughter, puts down the book, and peeks out the window.

Here they come now, children of the ancient ones--the hewers of wood, the cutters of cane--barreling down the sidewalk on their Huffys and Schwinns. Little legs pumping over fat rubber tires, brakes squealing as they pull into the drive, standing on tiptoes as they straddle their bikes and stare up at the house with their mouths hanging open.

Just like before. Some of them he still remembers: he made out with that girl's sister in the seventh grade, played basketball with that boy's uncle in high school. This one was all right until his brother joined the army, that one was okay until her daddy went to jail.

And you see that girl in the back? The chubby girl standing by the curb, next to the brand-new Schwinn? She hasn't been the same since the Invasion of Grenada three years ago, in 1983.

The spice island. When the Marines landed she was living in St. George near the medical center with her mother, the doctor, and Aunt Ruby, the nurse. The power went off, hospital plunging into a blue tide pool of sirens while machine-gun fire cackled in the distance like a bag of Jiffy Pop. Oh no, Aunt Ruby said. Just like before.

It's all there in his book: colonizers fanning out across the Atlantic like a hurricane, not exactly hungry, but looking for spice. They cultivated cane, they built the mills, they filled the islands up with slaves. Sugar kept the workers happy; it distracted them from grief. And four hundred years later you had your military invasions and McDonald's Happy Meals, your Ho Hos and preemptive strikes. Your Oreos and Reaganomics, your Cap'n Crunch.

And Kool-Aid. They can't get enough of it. They sit in the driveway, they shift in their seats, they grip the plastic streamers affixed to their handlebars. One of them kicks his kickstand and steps forward, fingers curled into a small, tight fist as he raps on the kitchen door.

"Flip Lady? You in there?"