The personal, the societal, and the global all collide in this issue’s stories, with views of the deindustrial future both sweeping and intimate. In a future England, the fight over precious tin shapes the destinies of nations and their leaders. On the Mediterranean, the tall ships sail again, but bring tricky new situations to traders in Beirut. Flash stories of common people tell of the meteoric rise of Joaquín I, Preziden of Texas — woven together with stories from the past two issues. A man low on hope struggles with a drug that promises pure happiness — but at what cost to him and his world? And the fragile balance at a home for cast-off people is threatened when conditions shift and an unexpected guest appears. This spring the Circuit Rider’s ride also comes to a finish, and columns for deindustrial tinkers and tailors round out a grand new issue.

Contents

Introduction		iv
Letters		1
Essays & Reviews
Cheap Thrills: The Downwardly Mobile Dandy and the Trailer Park Quaintrelle	Justin Patrick Moore	5
Editor’s Soapbox: No User-Serviceable Parts Inside (A Tinker’s Damn)	Nathanael Bonnell	13
Sundries & Episodes
The Circuit Rider, Ep. 3: Bad Seed	David Littlehale	21
Stories
Of Tin and Tintagel	Daniel Stride	27
Merrily, Merrily, Merrily	Aldrian Estepa	42
The Middle Sea	Daniel Crawford	54
Cobbage	Wesley Stine	77
Broken Home	Clint Spivey	87

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