Quick Sips - Fireside Fiction March 2017

It’s a rather full month from Fireside Fiction as their publishing model has moved a bit away from issues and toward more regular, weekly content. It’s not exactly the most conducive to reviewing, as it means waiting and wondering if more stories will be coming out, but that particular blow is one probably more unique to me and the blow is softened by a month packed with great SFF. Weighing in well above the 10K in stories they shoot for, the four stories out explore a multitude of worlds and situations, from a Rome that never fell to a Chicago shadowed by a giant alien psychic mushroom. The stories explore the ways that people react to corruption and to weird situations, and how they adapt and overcome and fight for what they feel is right. And since there’s quite a bit to get to this month, I’ll get right to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceasless Skies #201

Some issues of Beneath Ceaseless Skies are all about violence and darkness. And some, like this one, are a bit more about good old fashioned adventuring. Tracking down a run-away noble. Delving into a forgotten tomb. Finding riddles in stories. Talking (and fighting) out of impossible situations. The stories here have a bit more of a "classic" feel. They're also rather hopeful tales of looking forward, of meeting adventure with a ready wit and readier sword. Time to review! 

Art by Martin Ende

THE SIPPY AWARDS - The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy for Excellent Action in Short SFF

Hello and welcome to everyone's favorite awards that no one asked for, the Sippys! So far I've managed to ship my favorite relationships, cower in fear at my favorite scares, and totally not cry over my favorite tragic and/or beautiful stories of 2015. And there's still two more categories of Sippys to go! This week is all about the stories that get the heart pumping, that made me lean forward in my seat and read a little faster. Because fourth up is--

The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy 

for Excellent Action! in Short SFF

There are those who complain that short SFF these days are, well, boring. Too luminous, too poetic, too metaphorical. There are those who pine for the days of the pulp science fictions that prioritized action and plot over subtlety or meaning. To those people I ask: what the fuck are you reading? I have seen zero indication that stories now are any less intense or visceral than those written at any point in the past (that these people who complain about the decline of compelling short SFF often identify as fans of Lovecraft...confuses me). And stories today use action in subtle and profound ways, to entertain of course but also to challenge and to goad, to complicate and to reveal some ugly truths. And today I'm focusing on stories that bring the action, the battles big and small, that manage to take a breakneck pace and a visual flare and craft something deeply personal. And the winners are...

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #180

This issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies is something of a strange read for me, in part because it takes on a bit more of a violent edge. Of course, violence is not something I shy away from in fantasy, and I think that the stories use violence quite well to get across what they're trying to say. I think, however, that they might be trying to say very different things. They are both about resistance, about power and changing how people are oppressed. The first story, though, seems to advocate more for everyone being equal while the second...does not. But perhaps I should just get the reviews already.

Art by Tyler Edlin