Quick Sips - Terraform August 2015

This is a particularly full month at Terraform, because of their contest that makes up the first three stories here. Luckily, it's also a very good month of Terraform, which makes the extra work worth it because the stories are disturbing and challenging and as a whole quite provocative. Six stories in all, and a whole lot to unpack, really, with stories firmly fixed on the future and what it will mean to live there. It's not a particularly happy picture being painted, many of the stories getting fairly dark and bleak, but the points raised are ones that must be addressed if we are to hope for anything better. So to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Tor.com August 2015

Providing nothing comes out in the next few days, there are four stories this month from Tor. Things lean a bit more fantasy than science fiction this month, with an alt-historical fantasy leading things off and leading into two stories that blend genres quite well, part science fiction, part fantasy, and ending with a story of witches and magic and birthday parties. There are certainly some fine stories in the bunch, most of them about seeking for something without quite knowing what it is. Seeking a miracle, perhaps, or seeking the truth about one's heritage, or seeking to stop an injustice from being committed. What is found, though, is normally something more than expected, something that opens up for the characters whole new worlds of possibilities. A fine month of stories that I should just review already.

Art by Chris Buzelli

Quick Sips - Urban Fantasy #10

Two stories this month from Urban Fantasy Magazine, and both are about loss, though in vastly different ways. In the first story, the loss is of a wife, the main character dealing with the death of his love and seeking to find some way to fill that lack in his life. In the second, the loss is of a mother, and the situation is very different, the mother a sort of curse that is following around her son, her death a thing haunting him. In both, though, there is hope of recovery, of moving on, and perhaps of a lifting of the isolation the loss has caused. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Book Smugglers August 2015

The last of the First Contact stories is now out from Book Smugglers, and it's a good way to wrap up the theme. So far, we've seen stories about contact with aliens and demons and stars, but this one changes things up a bit, offering up a historical fantasy about a woman meeting choice for the first time. It's an interesting take on the theme and a fine story which I should just get to reviewing!

Art by M Sereno

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

Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #8

Wow, this issue of Fantasy Scroll is stuffed full of fiction. Honestly, I was not expecting there to be this much original fiction, and only one flash story in the mix. The good news is that it's another solid issue, with a nice mix of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Plus another installment of Shamrock, and I think that more places should feature graphic stories as well. But with so many stories I'm not sure I can find a central theme of this issue. Or perhaps I can, because a good number of them deal with people facing the idea of willful ignorance. How it is incredibly dangerous and harmful and how it can be overcome. So onward with the reviews!

Art by Chris Drysdale

Quick Sips - Nightmare #35

Another month of scary stories from Nightmare Magazine, where the theme of the original fiction seems to be the monsters we can become. In both stories the characters are monsters, or becoming monsters, and in both their is a danger in losing yourself too wholly to the monster inside. In the first, all is not lost, not yet, though in the second the same cannot necessarily be said. It's a nice pair of tales, full of tension and the promise of destruction. And it's time to review them!

Art by Carlos Fabián Villa

Quick Sips - Apex #75

Breaking a bit from the light July, the August Apex Magazine is rather full, having four original short stories and four poems. That's...quite a lot to get through, but the good news is that the issue is filled with great talent and great stories, fine pieces that capture a sinking darkness with a pinprick of light to be found, to be grasped like a brass ring, to be used to pierce the darkness and emerge from the other side. The stories are about identity, about pain and difference, and about finding a way to find comfort in that difference. It's a fine issue, and I'm going to review it...now!

Art by Billy Norrby

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #63

This month Lightspeed Magazine delivers an incredibly solid issue ripe with brilliance and emotion. Leaning a bit more toward the fantasy side of things, even the science fiction seems a bit touched by the fantastic, providing a stirring series of stories that move from nostalgic to biting. Two of the stories touch on the broken promises of the past, the broken ideals that people working hard are rewarded. Instead they look at how working hard is often exploited and even resented, and how to make a difference sometimes you have to break the agreements that have failed, have to forsake the bonds which time has rendered abusive. It's a strong issue, and I should just get to reviewing it.

Art by Reiko Murakami

Quick Sips - Crossed Genres #32 - Portals

The theme for this month's Crossed Genres is Portals. And the stories do a great job exploring that idea, that theme. For portals are openings, are possibilities. They lead somewhere, and not always to places that are expected or what they seem. In each of these stories there are portals, be they food or rifts in space or boxes that can shift reality. To step through that portal is to take a chance, to find something wholly new. These stories are strong and they are powerful. So I'm going to get to reviewing, okay?

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 08/03/2015 and 08/10/2015

Two new weeks of Strange Horizons means two new short stories and two new poems. In a rare show of restraint (more because work is kicking my ass) I will be skipping over reviewing the nonfiction. I still recommend everyone go and check it out, but as both of the columns dealt with texts that I'm not familiar with, I'm not the best of judges on how well they succeed. They're interesting reads and make me want to do more, but as it is I did look at the fiction and poetry and it's a great collection of interesting characters and ideas, strong images and haunting messages (sometimes literally). So before I go on too long about it all, to the reviews!

Art by Geneva Benton

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #107

Today I'm looking at the latest issue of Clarkesworld, which continues to be one of the most impressive publications month to month, especially with its commitment to translated stories. It also manages to have a fairly nice mix of stories and themes despite the original fiction being entirely science fiction. Due to some time constraints, I'm not reviewing the nonfiction, but still encourage everyone to go read, because it does provide a lot of food for thought. The fiction, though, is a nice mix of science fictional ideas and themes. Exploring virtual war crimes, collaborative AI, the nature of sentience, and the philosophy of security, the stories all show visions of the future through various lenses of intent and critique. All manage, though, to tell moving stories, fun stories, and provide a very nice picture when considered as a whole. So on to the reviews!

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - Shimmer #26 (August Stuff)

The August offerings from Shimmer Magazine are in and they both take on realities that are a little bit twisty (or, the case of the second story, VERY twisty). The second story won't be available for free for almost another week, but together the stories do provide an interesting look at loss and about not quite fitting in, of being in a different state than the rest of the world. In the first, a woman deals with the loss of her sister and her sister deals with not really being at home in her own skin. In the second, a paranoid man travels the country, spreading madness as he goes. So to the reviews!

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #179

The stories from Beneath Ceaseless Skies this issue embody a sort of beginning and an end. An end because the first is the last (I think) in a series that have been appearing at BCS for a while now. Beginning, because the second story feels like just the opposite, the start of something that could be a series in its own right. Both stories are strong, examining how far people are willing to go to be true to themselves. In both their is a price for honor and integrity, and in both that price is paid. Now, to the reviews!

Art by Tyler Edlin

Quick Sips - Uncanny #5 (August stuff)

Another month of Uncanny Magazine brings a mix of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. The stories are a bit extreme in that some are on the longer side of short and one is perhaps the shortest that I've reviewed on the site so far. But all of them deliver strong ideas and a nice vein of darkness that makes this month a little unsettling. In some ways the issue (or this half of it) seems to revolve around the idea of the hidden coming to light, or perhaps seeing something often ignored in a whole new way. It's a strong installment, and I should get to reviewing it!

Art by Antonio Javier Caparo

Quick Sips - The Dark #9

This month's The Dark Magazine certain lives up to the name, featuring four stories all with aspects steeped in darkness. From a town with a dark secret to a world where spiders lurk under every tongue to misunderstood man to a story people tell themselves to feel better about their situation, the stories all manage to weave the darkness into something beautiful, something almost luminous. So onward to the reviews!

Art by Michael MacRae

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online August 2015

This month's Flash Fiction Online features three stories, all of which focus on twisted visions of the future. The editorial calls these summer stories, and I can't really disagree, as the stories show humid swamps of form cities, bugs that eat light, and birds devouring groves of apples. Climate change, mad science, and horror all mingle in these stories, which provide a nice, if mostly science fictional, reading experience. But perhaps I should just get to the reviews!

Art by Dario Bijelac