THE SIPPY AWARDS 2017! The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy for Excellent Action!!! in SFF

Welcome back to the Third Annual Sippy Awards! Some part of you might be wondering, “why?” The answer: to celebrate short SFF across different styles that make excellent use of various elements to shine as examples of why I love this field. There’s no panel of judges or voting population, just me and my inflated ego and love of short SFF. Given how most short SFF awards focus on length, I wanted to look instead at how stories use different elements to stand out and be powerful. This year I’ve already shipped some excellent relationship, cowered before some excellent horror, and bawled from the some emotionally devastating reads. Which means today it’s time to put the pedal to the metal with...

The “Time to Run Some Red Lights” Sippy Awards 

for Excellent Action! in Short SFF

The name comes courtesy of the outrage that followed the original release of The Fast and The Furious. No joke, I remember a bunch of articles about how, upon leaving the movie, people were basically much more likely to speed and engage in...not good decisions. Likewise, I’ve seen studies about how listening to music effects how we drive. So I wanted to find the stories that left me feeling amped up. That made me to go fast and take chances. In a weird sort of surprise, most of them are from the very beginning of 2017. Not sure what that means, but there you are. In any event, please make sure your seat belts are securely buckled and that your tray tables are in their full and upright position. In 3...2...1...GO!!!!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #217

In the second issue of the 2017 Beneath Ceaseless Skies inches up the story lengths while also turning up the action a bit. These two stories are well paired, both of them fast-paced tales that weave magic and transformation, betrayal and loyalty. The settings for the stories are quite different, one much more historically based and the other a world where airships and storms of the damned share the same skies. But for all that they unfold in much different places, both also develop a similar danger—that of the twisted unknown. The familiar made strange and monstrous. The mind or the dead made into a sort of weapon, a sort of maze, that must be navigated quickly and successfully to survive. These are some thrilling tales that I'm just going to review! 

Art by Jinxu Du