Visiting Maze

How much of what we perceive is real and how much is imagined? ‘Altar! Altar!’ and ‘All Aftermath’ give credence to the idea that what we see is not necessarily what exists. For much of it is simply perception, like a hypnotic dream. Signs of a haunted past factor into ‘Infestations,’ ‘Learn to Kill,’ and ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Death Squad.’ The characters in these stories find no comfort in a past they cannot outrun, resigned to a future that already exhibits the scars of reprisal. Feel the claustrophobic miasma of commuter life in ‘Modern Cities Exist Only to be Destroyed.’ You will feel trapped in ‘Rot Ark’ where the voices pile up in your head, blocking all rational thought or any attempt to flee a body that never obliges. Love can be a labyrinth with many pathways and many wrong turns. Enter the title story’s ‘Visiting Maze’ and bear the albatross that may bring you closer to your partner but further from love. And if closeness is still what you’re missing, ‘The Tumor is Speaking’ will burden you with that internal ‘friend.’ Though, for all the perspective it offers, you may also be bound to its every whim. The stories in Michael Cisco’s Visiting Maze and Other Quandaries will make you feel like you’re floating through the banks of a murky river, winding through dense fog where there’s no shoreline to dock. Venture far enough and you won’t be able to look back and see around the bend. Cisco pushes into a void where escape is futile unless you’re prepared to go all the way.