Quick Sips 12/24/2021

For those keeping score, yes, I’m still on my slowdown. And, given the next two weeks will have holidays and etc, it might continue to be slow for a while. But I’m still going. And I even have an early holiday present, because I’m covering Baffling Magazine a little bit early! Adding to that is my looks at the December Lightspeed and Fantasy, which means that numbers-wise I’m about where I have been recently. More than that, I’m starting to tick off more magazines that I’ve been covering forever that I won’t be covering in the same way anymore. Which makes me a little sad, even as it’s extremely necessary. Anyway, onward!

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - 10/22/2021

So when you all read this, I’ll technically be on vacation. Technically, because let’s face it, I suck at taking vacations, so you’re still reading this. But that aside, I’ve been very much pushing myself to get “ahead” far enough in my reading to take a week off from most reviewing activities. Most, because again, I suck. But I do plan on relaxing, spending time with my husband, and trying to maybe have fun. We’ll see how it goes, seeing as how covid hasn’t really…stopped. But I’ve packed in another full week of reviews. Perhaps not so many as last week, but I’m still covering the monthly Clarkesworld, Fireside, GigaNotoSaurus, and The Dark content, as well as quarterly Baffling, irregular Constelación, biweekly Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and two weeks of Strange Horizons. Be impressed! It’s a lot to get to, so buckle up for some serious short SFF coverage!

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 07/23/2021

So a new week brings a bunch of reviews, and some special coverage. Namely, I’m looking at a spinoff of Reckoning, a special anthology of poetry and nonfiction (with one story) all about creativity and the coronavirus. It’s a timely thing, and while I’m not looking at the nonfiction, there’s a lot of poetry to look at in it as well. Kaleidotrope has a new quarterly issue, and The Future Fire put out their third issue of the year. Baffling Magazine also had a quarterly issue full of queer short SFF, and I tried to quick catch up on Strange Horizons, as well as the latest from Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Mostly short stories and poetry aside from the BCS issue, which was two novelettes. And just rather busy for me.

Next week I’ll try to catch up on the various Escape Artist podcasts, and probably try to get Diabolical Plots, The Deadlands, Mermaids Monthly, and another else I can think of. I’m running on empty but I’m still running on.

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 04/09/2021

March is dead. Long live April! Or something like that. This week I am hoping to close out my March reads, at least (unless I have completely missed something, which happens). There was a bit of activity late in the month what with the release of a special issue from Strange Horizons, but mostly now I’m moving into stuff from April. Now that we’re entering into the second quarter of the year, it means that all the quarterly publications I’ve been following (many of them new to my coverage this year) will be putting out new issues. Luckily they seem spread out enough that I shouldn’t be too buried, but we’ll see how this goes. Yay. Anyway, I expect to stay busy, and I’m glad that I got to cover Baffling, because it’s fairly large and always amazing, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the month is going to bring!

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Baffling Magazine December 2020

Two more original stories round out the early access stories from Baffling Magazine for the year. Except, actually, I’m thinking that they’re (as well as those I’ve covered since October) technically going to be 2021 releases. At least, the issue is being released on the first day of the year instead of the last, so despite being up on Patreon, I think that makes them 2021 originals. Probably? Whatever the case, the stories are a wonderful (if rather difficult and complex) way to move into the new year. These are stories about bargains, about grim deals. Marrying the Devil. Embracing the illusions of a necromancer. It’s wrenching work, but also just excellent short SFF. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Baffling Magazine November 2020

November brings three early stories to the Baffling Magazine Patreon, examines family and loss. Death and the way people have to process it, have to face it, given the worlds they live in, the relationships they have. The characters are all dealing with complicated relationships. Two of the stories focus on people who haven’t really gotten along with parental figures. For one, it’s the parents of his boyfriend. For the other, it’s their own father. The third story deals not with a strained relationship but an absent one, a person bereft because of the violence of an empire taking up the cause of their dead lover and finding strength in poetry. And all told it’s a wonderful mix of stories, featuring fantasy, science fiction, and touches of horror. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Baffling Magazine October 2020

October brings the single largest amount of stories to date for Baffling Magazine’s early access Patreon, which means three new stories just in time for PSL season. And while the stories aren’t exactly spooky, they do feel a nice fit for the season, for autumn and its lengthening shadows, it’s creeping chill, and its mix of monsters and magic. The stories blend romance and horror, love and death and betrayal. Each of the stories finds characters apt to hurt each other, characters who might be preying on one another. Hungry magics and mad sciences. But wrapped in that is the messy reality of affection, love, and heartbreak. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Baffling Magazine September 2020

This month at Baffling Magazine there’s just one story to check out, but as it’s a new story by Nino Cipri, I’m pretty sure we can all agree that’s more than enough. And it’s a beautifully rendered portrait of suburbia. The façade of the pristine--the lawns, the cars, the “perfect” families. The bliss of quiet mornings and drives through the empty streets. But under that, something perhaps rotting. Something off. Something wrong. And the story might not find words for it but it provides a stirring and unsettling picture of it, of a boy finding something he doesn’t quite understand, but that he feels with his whole self. It’s strange and more than a little creepy but also powerful, like something is about to break through the shell that he’s been living on the surface of. And what’s coming through...well, perhaps I should just get to the review!

Quick Sips - Baffling Magazine August 2020

The second month of Baffling Magazine brings two (very short) short stories for your enjoyment! Both are fairly dense, fairly sinking works, about characters dealing with a kind of relentless pressure, both figurative and, it seems, physical. They are dealing with loss and erasure, with grief and destruction. They straddle genres, the first more of an underwater science fiction and the second a dream-like piece of weird. It’s a bold second salvo from the new publication, but it works for me, showing definite lean toward short, sharp, and strange. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Baffling Magazine July 2020

Well I am looking at a brand new publication today. Baffling Magazine comes courtesy of Neon Hemlock press and promises a new home for short SFF. By short I mean flash fiction, mostly, but that might just be to start. The publication will release quarterly issues of content for free, but patreon supporters will be able to access stories early. As that includes me, I’m going to be reviewing the content monthly (to make it a bit easier on myself). The very first release is also something of a Big Deal, at least for fans of queer SFF, because...it’s a new Gilda story! Set in the same world (and featuring the titular character) of The Gilda Stories, it spins out a new tale set right near the end of that novel/collection. And yes, you should definitely read it! To the review!