Quick Sips - Lightspeed #127

Art by Grandeduc / Adobe Stock Image

So this issue of Lightspeed Magazine begins my December coverage here at Quick Sip Reviews. As 2021 is bringing changes to the way I review, this is the final issue of Lightspeed that I will be reviewing with this amount of depth. I will still be reading the issues and engaging with the works, reflecting on them and my readings. But it’s still a somewhat emotional moment for me, after six years of continuous full coverage of the original stories, to reach this moment. Luckily, it’s a powerful issue to close on, looking at the nature of dreams and reality, stories and lies, and the truth in all of the above. The works are interesting and present a range of worlds where people are struggling against violence, corruption, and the threat of being consumed. These aren’t by and large happy stories, but they are provocative and rich in meaning and artistry. So, without further delay, my last (for now at least) full review of an issue of Lightspeed Magazine!

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #119

Art by grandfailure / fotolia

Only short stories means April's Lightpseed Magazine is a little lighter than normal, but the stories certainly hit above their weight class in many ways. The works tackle choices of all sorts, mostly by characters who are facing either accepting the dominant lean of society or rejected it. And in rejected it taking a chance of being crushed. The works show different outcomes for this, from standing in defiance to giving in to learning how to dance in the face of expectations and pressures to be small and quiet. It's an eclectic issue, and one with a lot of different speculative visions, to let's get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Terraform December 2018

Well, Terraform got one of its stories in just under the wire, meaning I'm a little late in posting this today because of the holiday and everything. But the month certainly brought a rather...apocalyptic bunch of stories forward, focusing on dramas both personal and global and keeping the tone dark and foreboding. From the ways that devices can be used to gather data on consumers (for both good and ill) to ways that the planet has to be completely re-imagined if it's to survive humanity, the pieces are perhaps a little doom-and-gloom, though not without some heart and some hope for the future. Fitting, for the final works of the year. To the reviews!