Review: Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense: Vol. 2 No. 1 (Spring 2019)
Enter the jungle...meet new heroes and ancient horrors....
Ready for a dash of the macabre, a flood of the supernatural, and a sweeping view of various damned souls? Then strap in, because this issue of Cirsova has it all!
The story
“The Mysterious She” kicks off the issue. It is a tale woven from the fragment of an Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan story by Michael Tierney, and it lives up to the hype. The cover image shows how young Tarzan dreams of a mysterious woman as word comes that a white woman such as himself has been spotted in the jungle! But is she real, a figment of rumor, or something more sinister?
Kenneth R. Gower’s “The Idol in the Sewers” follows a thief in the sewers as he escapes from his latest heist. But the claustrophobic labyrinth is not only almost impossible for the city guards to navigate, it contains threats even they cannot fathom. Soon, the hero finds himself on a quest to steal a valuable idol for the creatures who capture him during his escape. If he fails in this task, he will be on the menu!
“The Book Hunter’s Apprentice” finds a young woman roped into helping an elderly book hunter in her efforts to break a curse on a noble house. Those who live in the house are fated to live as their bodies decay and fall apart. Only by finding the book from which the curse came can they end this terrible ordeal, but all is not as it seems in this Chinese fantasy….
Xavier Lastra’s “The Elephant Idol” follows a blind thief into a theater as he sets out to steal an idol sent to a famous actress by a scorned lover. Unable to see, he nonetheless feels something is wrong when opening the idol’s box unleashes a despicable curse on the entire building. Trapped in a hellish world that once made dreams and magic seem real, he has to find his way out. But will he be able to escape and end the curse? Or will he find himself caught in this hellscape he can see only by touch, sound, and smell?
These are just the highlights of the issue. Every story brings with it a bone-chilling sense of horror and dread as darkness rises and the heroes – or villains – must either find a way out or encounter their ultimate fate. The only way to escape is through and up, but some people prefer the darkness in hell to the light of heaven….
The characters
The characters are as varied as their worlds. From Nazis determined to find relics that will secure their victory over the allies to adventurers seeking their next big score, from thieves who steal more than they bargained on to a young Tarzan trying to find another like himself, Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense: Vol. 2 No. 1 (Spring 2019) has either a hero to cheer or a villain to boo. One will certainly find tales to remember in this issue of premiere pulp fiction!
The world
The worlds are well realized and stay with a reader long after he has finished the magazine. Even a distance of a year or more will leave them vivid in a reader’s mind, causing spine-tingling shudders or quiet reflection, depending on the tale. Whether in the sewers, the halls of a prestigious theater, or the secret passages of a noble’s house, the horror creeps closer with each story and leaves one gasping for more.
The politics
None. This is an adventure magazine, and the tales in this issue focus on horror. Politics would only get in the way.
Content warning
Most of the stories fit the horror genre, so younger readers might find some of the tales more graphic than others. “The Mysterious She” and “The Idol in the Sewers” are two of the entries most friendly to young readers, along with the Mongoose and Meerkat adventure. For the rest, reader discretion is advised.
Who is it for?
Anyone who wants a good adventure story and a sweet, terrifying dose of horror. Cirsova specializes in delivering thrills and chills along with the adventure, and this issue is no exception. Horror enthusiasts and action-adventure readers will both find this issue has plenty to offer them, taking them from an alternate World War II to realms undreamed of and only lightly explored. It has something for everyone, but readers who like these genres will find the stories in this issue particularly juicy!
Why read it?
Why not? It is fun, it is full of adventure and horror, and it has Tarzan in it. What’s not to like?