The Writers of the Future contest has been helping new writers and illustrators publish their stories and illustrations in the annual anthology that was founded by the late author L. Ron Hubbard. Galaxy Press sent me an advanced copy of Volume XXIX, which contains of thirteen stories from the 2012 quarterly contests along with illustrations for each story, free of charge in exchange for my honest review.
This volume has an introduction by Dave Wolverton, a writing essay by Nnedi Okorafor, an essay on illustrating by Larry Elmore, and an essay titled "The Manuscript Factory" by L. Ron Hubbard.
The thirteen stories are:
War Hero
Written by Brian Trent
Illustrated by Jon Eno
Planetary Scouts
Written by Stephen Sot tong
Illustrated by Joshua Meehan
Twelve Seconds
Written by Tina Gower
Illustrated by Luis Menacho
The Grande Complication
Written by Christopher Reynosa
Illustrated by Olivia Nu
Cop For a Day
Written by Chrome Oxide
Illustrated by Jon Eno
Gonna Reach Out and Grab Ya
Written by Eric Cline
Illustrated by Daniel Reneau
Vestigial Girl
Written by Alex Wilson
Illustrated by Jackie Albano
Holy Days
Written by Kodiak Julian
Illustrated by Aldo Katayangi
The Ghost Wife of Arlington
Written by Marylyn Guttridge
Illustrated by Sida Chen
Everything You Have Seen
Written by Alisa Alering
Illustrated by Karsen Slater
Scavengers
Written by Shannon Peavey
Illustrated by James J. Eads
Dreameater
Written by Andrea Stewart
Illustrated by Lucas Durham
Master Belladino's Mask
Written by Marina J. Lostetter
Illustrated by Tiffany England
Reviewing an anthology with thirteen tales is completely different than reviewing a novel; therefore I'm not going to summarize each story individually. I read the previous volume a few months back, which for me contained a mixed of great to average stories, but volume XXIX has a wider range of stories, from fantasy to dark science fiction. All the stories were nicely written with amazing illustrations.
My favorites are:
War Hero - An exciting futuristic Avatar-like tale set on Mars. I love the ending twist.
Planetary Scouts - Another off-Earth tale that gave me that Twilight Zone feeling while reading it.
Gonna Reach Out And Grab Ya - Dr. Molly Boyle (aka - Mole) is a medical examiner who has a strange encounter while preforming an autopsy on a John Doe at night. The author is from my home state of Missouri!
Overall, I enjoyed reading every story in Volume XXIX and I recommend it to other readers.
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