I just picked up issue 2 of GUD magazine, in PDF form, figuring that if the sample I got for signing up made a pretty smooth conversion to .prc (mobipocket) format, I can probably convert the whole PDF that way too. But I didn’t wait to check out The Salivary Reflex by my friend Tina Connolly, whom I met at Clarion West.

Oddly, Tina said she didn’t think this story was all that disturbing shocking in response to someone’s comment that it was “written to disturb shock.” For me, however, it was quite unsettling. Probably not for the same reasons some people might think so, however. It’s not so much the intersection of sex and gustation that shocked me, really, but rather the way that the aliens were at once very cute, but also all too similar to the Mormons I see wandering around in Korea sometimes — very polite, very clean-cut, speaking the language too well, but as aliens. And the idea of aliens coming to Earth to convert us to their religion — as if we don’t have enough of that going on here on Earth already! — disturbed the hell out of me. I could go on, but I’ll just say that the ending warped my mind.

Anyway, the story’s very much worth your while. I’ll comment later when I’ve read more of the magazine, but I encourage you, dear readers, to go and check out this story (and the whole mag, if you’re in an adventurous mood).