Yay! Stuart Barrow, the editor of Issue 20 of Andromeda Spaceways (featuring Beans and Marbles), notified “his” authors that another review of the issue appeared online. The whole review is here, but this is what the reviewer had to say about my story:

“Amusing. Yes, amusing is the world I’d use to describe the next story of the issue: Floris M. Kleijne’s “Beans and Marbles.” Now, why do I find the slow descent into madness of one of the two waking members of a long range colony ship amusing? Well, it’s all in how matter-of-fact and reasonable the tone is in comparison to what is really going on. Now, admittedly, it’s a rather dark thing to be amused by, but I’ve acknowledged many a time that my sense of humor has long since transcended dark and is hovering somewhere in the middle of inky. Still, I think it would be worth a read even for those whose senses of humor haven’t descended quite as far as mine.”

Now is it just me or is the word “amusing” rather like a kiss of death, similar to that really cute girl starting a sentence with “You’re nice…”? (Seriously though, it’s tempting to nitpick about the reviewer’s choice of words, but truth to tell I’m thrilled that there’s another review online that says nice things about one of my stories. And kind of a relief that this reviewer was actually amused by the story…)