Started in 1997, The Barcelona Review is an online multi-lingual review of contemporary international fiction. The newest issue (107) includes their regular quiz feature, this time on “A.I. in Literature.” Readers can test their knowledge of cyberpunk – 21st-century AI that has appeared in literature and compete for an Amazon gift card. The issue also includes “Pandemonium” by Bandi, the pseudonym of an anonymous North Korean dissident, who managed to smuggle seven short stories into South Korea; “Sink Rate” by English writer David Frankel, which begins with a horrific event, then moves inward as the protagonist tries to absorb what has happened. Offering some humor is Diggory Dunn’s “Nosedive on Eagle’s Nest Ridge,” a dispute concerning an incident on the slopes with a deluded “defendant’” brashly attempting to argue his case, and from Scotland comes a debut story by Garry Vass, “The Pig Was Finally Dead,” recounting the time of year for slaughter. Jim Daniel’s personal essay “Drought” collects the random thoughts of an American as he pedals through the countryside of France. The Barcelona Review also includes some “Picks from Back Issues,” a nice way to catch something you might have missed, as well as a book review, this time Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino, reviewed by editor Jill Adams, who notes, “I had the pleasure to see [Tarantino] speak in Barcelona last April where he was welcomed like a rock star.”
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