The Monthly Round is up!!!

Head over to Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together to find my favorite SFF short fiction from April 2017 paired with thematically appropriate booze and reviewed! I call it my Taster's Guide to Speculative Short Fiction, and it's a lot of fun.

For those just wanting to know what I picked, the list is below. Cheers!

Tasting Flight - April 2017

"Underworld 101" by Mame Bougouma Diene (Omenana)

"Champollion's Foot" by Haris A Durrani (Mithila Review)

“And in That Sheltered Sea, a Colossus” by Michael Matheson (Shimmer)

"Some Remarks on the Reproductive Strategy of the Common Octopus" by Bogi Takács (Clarkesworld)

"It Happened To Me: I Was Brought Back to Avenge My Death, But Chose Justice Instead" by Nino Cipri (Fireside Fiction)

"And Then There Were (N-One)" by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny)

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #224

The last April issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies provides looks into worlds alive with shadows. With talking animals and talking vegetables. Both stories feature characters seeking to overcome things. For one, it’s an injury he suffered that requires him to change how he operates. For the other, it’s a pair of deaths that leave her completely alone. Where the first is able to make bargains with magical beings in order to help his situation, though, the second faces entirely different prospects. The stories are about protection and judgement, about trades that don’t necessarily go as expected. They are rich in fantasy and deep in characters, and I should really just get to the reviews!

Art by Ashley Dotson

Quick Sips - Tor dot com April 2017

It's another fairly full month from Tor dot com, but still nowhere near as busy as last month. There are five stories to explore, one novelette and four shorts, and the pieces all center science and study. These are pieces that look at the role that humans can play in researching other species as well as humanity itself. They look at how medical science can be used to ease burdens and to create them, how studying and interacting with other species can teach us more about ourselves and more about the universe. These are stories about pain and disease and exploration, and people coming to terms with a universe that is vast and sometimes very cruel. And they are at turns beautiful and ugly, affirming and devastating. So let's get to the reviews!

Art by Micah Epstein

Quick Sips - Fireside Fiction April 2017

It's another rather full month from Fireside Fiction with four original short stories. Most of them weigh in as flash fiction, but that doesn't mean that they aren't dense and complex. What strikes me most about the stories, though, is their sense of fun (well, for most of the pieces). With one exception, the stories hold a flare for the mischievous, for the sly, for the sarcastic. The characters are wise in their own ways and certainly wiseasses, by and large, but also endearing and sincere in their ways. And the stories feature a range of setting and situations, from corporate time travel to magic schools and resurrections. There's a touch of tragedy to many of the stories as well, but a breath of hope and resilience in the face of destruction. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Omenana #9

It’s a new issue of Omenana! The first of 2017, it boasts six original stories that show stunning and often horrifying visions of SFF. These are pieces that largely lean toward speculative horror, toward the way that people can hurt each other and deceive each other and prey upon each other. The ways that humans can be made into vessels for their own destruction. The way that people seem to circle abuse and injustice like courting a mate. It’s not an entirely bleak issue, though many of the pieces are quite grim. There’s also a sense of hope to some of the pieces, that maybe we can find a better way, that maybe we can fly instead of impacting on the rocks of destruction. And before I give any more away here, let’s just dive into the reviews!

Art by Sunny Efemena

Quick Sips - Terraform April 2017

I can honestly say that I'm not sure what's going on with the posting schedule for Terraform. I'm paranoid at the moment that I've missed something vital but it's possible that there is only the one release this month, a new chapter in the Highwayman graphic story. If that's the case, then okay then, though I will admit I've missed something done by Terraform in the past because I wasn't looking in the right place. What's here under the Terraform banner, however, is a rather revealing chapter of the ongoing story in a series that I can read a lot into. It's a fascinating read and while I'm not always sure how to feel about it, the time for reviewing has come!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 04/17/2017 & 04/24/2017

There's another two weeks of content from Strange Horizons and it's...actually rather manageable. One new story (and a flash fiction at that) and two new poems make for a fairly quick read, but the content is still in keeping with the high quality expected from the publication. The fiction is heavy with the weight of tragedy and hope and scarcity and hunger, and the poetry is reaching toward different worlds, toward things that seem and perhaps are out of reach. These are pieces about the distance between pain and numbness, between hope and despair, and the pieces all explore how people can keep going despite bitter circumstances. So let's get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Shimmer #36 [April stuff]

The two stories from Shimmer’s April offerings are heavy with grief and the weight of the past. The weight of expectations. The weight of the family business. These are stories of people finding themselves swept away by the tides of other people’s lives and deeds. Subject to them and wounded by them, unsure if they can set those old hurts aside, unsure how to escape the hooks of the past and the obligations heaped on them by the generations that came before. For both main characters a time has come to both face the past and the future, and these stories do a wonderful job of capturing that moment with hope and despair, magic and possibilities. To the reviews!

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - Uncanny #15 [April stuff]

It’s another full month of SFF from Uncanny, and another month full of pieces that look rather specifically at resistance. At least, the three nonfiction pieces all revolve around the idea of resistance and how SFF can be an invaluable tool to bridge between cultures, people, and experiences. There’s a bit of a surprise novella in among the fiction, paired with a flash work, and both look at the profound impact that loss can have, that disaster can have, on a person and their life. How it can make an ambivalent person dedicated. How it can make a peaceful person a killer. And the people it equally beautiful, exploring the boundaries between religion and consent, history and human folly. It’s a well rounded issue, and I’m going to get right to the reviews!

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - Apex #95

It’s a special guest-edited issue of Apex Magazine this month, with Maurice Broaddus in the driver’s seat. And people, poetry is back for this special occasion! It’s a full issue with four stories (three shorts and a novelette) and two poems. And the pieces all seem to center on narrative and voice. These are stories that look at how we pass along roles and expectations. How we prepare people to accept being abused and tortured, and how people still manage to find ways to stand up and take back their names and their voices and their skins. These are stories that center acts of violence and pain and fear, and seek for ways to bring justice and healing and hope back to people who have little reason to feel them. It’s a wonderful and challenging issue of dark fiction and poetry, and I’ll get right to the reviews!

Art by Angelique Shelley

Quick Sips - Nightmare #55

The April stories in Nightmare Magazine do a great job of capturing a sense of darkness and magic in settings that don’t seem too different from our own. Where, for all the violence and all the strangeness and all the eerie beauty, there are links too to the mundane and the common, to the chore of visiting a sick relative and the insecurity of being in a new relationship. The stories reveal characters being confronted by strangers and making decisions they might have reason to regret. But these are also stories where, for all their violence and betrayal and weirdness, also hold on to a lifting hope. And before I spoil anything more, to the reviews!

Art by Dusan Kostic / Adobe Stock

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #223

The stories in this issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies both have an almost video game appeal to me. In one, the conventions of gaming and fantasy are definitely in full swing, revealing a world where Fate is capitalized and an adventuring party are nearly at the end of their mission. In the second, a person travels a blasted landscape killing gods with a special weapon. From these beginnings, though, the stories branch into newer territory to tell stories of people made into victims and reacting to that. Finding that they are unwilling to stay down and accept what’s happening. In both there is a sense of community and broken promises, and in both there is a moment when the main character has to face a sudden revelation. The pair is nicely matched and creates a moving, magical experience. So to the reviews!

Art by Ward Lindhout

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus April 2017

It’s a longer piece this month at GigaNotoSaurus, though still very firmly in the novelette category. Things get a bit historical as the piece pulls the reader back into the age when opera houses were huge draws and ghosts roamed the land. Wait, that didn’t actually happen? Well in this world it did, and exorcists are in high demand. It’s a historical paranormal fantasy with an interesting take on the time period and history and general, keeping things moving and fun even when touching on some decidedly dark and complex themes. It’s another great month of long-ish SFF from GigaNotoSaurus, so let’s get to that review!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 04/03/2017 & 04/10/2017

It's a strong opening to April with these two weeks of content from Strange Horizons. With two short stories, three poems, and an amazing essay in the offing, there's a lot of content and a lot of good. And there's also an editorial change going on, fyi, so it's doubly impressive that the publication hasn't slowed a step and is meeting this month head on. The fiction is a nice mix of strange landscapes and nearly-alien sights and sounds that get under the skin and into the minds of the main characters. These are stories of being lost, of losing oneself. The poems are at turns fun and wrenching and wonderful, building a number of different people on missions, people bound for something over the long term having a single moment of feeling and hope. And the essay…is about Star Trek and you all need to read it. And before I say anymore, let's just jump into the reviews!

Art by Emily Ettlinger

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #127

It’s another month of Clarkesworld Magazine that focuses (at least in the original fiction) entirely on science fiction. But more than that, this issue looks at what makes people human, and what makes people not human, and how all of that ties together into something shocking, beautiful, and complex. The stories focus on different people who either have drifted from humanity or never were human. For some, that not being human is a lack that they feel, and for some it is a source of strength and identity. For all the stories, though, there is a focus on how people can bridge the gap between where they are and humanity, and reach for something like justice, like compassion, like cooperation. These are some great stories, including a surprise novella and another interesting (and really weird) translated piece, so let’s get right to the reviews!

Art by Eddie Mendoza

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online April 2017

Where last month’s Flash Fiction Online was all about scares and horror, this month turns things around quite sharply, offering up three original stories that are weird, fun, and full of whimsy. WHIMSY I SAY! These are stories that explode with charm and cuteness, with worlds that are bent in strange ways. Discarded clothes that want to be adopted into new homes, luck that runs bad or good according to a set formula, and beauty pageants where the contestants are all plants—the premises are refreshingly and a bit ridiculously speculative, and offer an invigorating breath of levity into the mix. So without further delay, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #83

This issue of Lightspeed Magazine definitely skews a bit more science fiction than fantasy, even in the stories that appear in the fantasy section. Exploring the space where magic meets science, the stories show just how…energetic SFF can be, and just how subdued and ponderous. The stories are balanced well, from a piece that takes a screaming look at the possible end of the world on the eyeball of a giant god to a heartwarming story about the allure of time travel and the problem of being too caught on the question of "what if?" These are stories that look at people reaching back to try and find some way to fix things that might not be broken. That feature characters trying to find, amidst their own hesitation and fear and regret, some way forward. And before I give too much away, let's get to the reviews!

Art by Odera Igbokwe

Quick Sips - Fiyah #2 Spilling Tea

It's the second issue of Fiyah and the theme this issue is Spilling Tea. Actual tea does feature in a number of the stories, but more than that is a sense of conversation and community. There are stories about families and about bridging distances. In space, yes, but also in ideology and culture. In perspective and time. About creating connections between people that might act as lifelines to keep people from plummeting to their doom. The stories capture a sense of awe and wonder, as well, revealing distant worlds and magic right under our noses. There's action and there is humor and there is also a lot of heart, an emotional weight that stayed with me long after I put the issue down. These are seven short stories that deliver one hell of an SFF roller coaster so keep your arms and legs inside the blog at all times and let the reviews begin!

Art by Geneva Benton

Quick Sips - The Dark #23

For the original fiction in this issue of The Dark Magazine, I might say that the theme is hauntings. At the very least, the two new stories look very closely at the ways that people can haunt and be haunted. The way that places and situations and especially relationships can link people, tie them together, and not always in a very good or healthy way. These stories explore how the dysfunction and abuse between people can create a story of haunting, a situation where people become trapped in a place, or near a person, and lose the ability to escape. There is a gravity to pain and torment, lies and longing, and the issue does a great job complicating that. But before I ramble on too long, to the reviews!

Art by Aleksandra Grahovac