Regular Sip - "The Little Homo Sapiens Scientist" by S.L. Huang [Book Smugglers]...Plus Giveaway!!!

This comes a little late as my last review from 2016 (probably), but I really didn't want to miss out on reviewing this novelette from The Book Smugglers. I'm all about fairy tale retellings, especially ones that complicate (and queerify) classic tropes and ideas. Here the story of "The Little Mermaid" becomes something quite different. If you're looking for something that conforms to the Disney version, look elsewhere (though I love this version of Ursula, fwiw). If you're looking for a layered narrative that is dark, emotional, and imaginative as fuck, then sit down as I get to this review!

This is also the very first time that I'm running a giveaway for a story (I'm really stretching my blogger wings now). So definitely check out the link below the review because FREE BOOK! Seriously, the book looks beautiful and the prose itself more than lives up to it. Do it!

Art by Kristina Tsenova

The Monthly Round is Up!

Hey all, get ye to a nerdery and check out my December picks for The Monthly Round. Speculative short fiction reviews paired with booze and up RIGHT NOW at Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together.

For those who just want the picks, I've included them below. But seriously, you know you want to know what booze to drink while reading these amazing stories...

Tasting Flight - December 2016
"The Venus Effect" by Violet Allen (Lightspeed)
"Hurricane Heels" by Isabel Yap (Book Smugglers)
"Black, Their Regalia" by Darcie Little Badger (Fantasy)
"Das Steingeschöp" by G. V. Anderson (Strange Horizons)
"The Jeweled Nawab Jungle Retreat" by Priya Sridhar (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
"A World Alone" by Lauren Rudin (GigaNotoSaurus)

Shots (flash fiction):
"Spirit Tasting List for Ridley House, April 2016" by Alex (Rachael) Acks (Shimmer)
"Can't Beat 'Em" by Nalo Hopkinson (Uncanny)
"A Menagerie of Grief" by Kelly Sandoval (Flash Fiction Online)

Cheers!

Quick Sips - Tor dot com December 2016

The offerings from Tor dot com this December all hover around the long short story/short novelette line in terms of length, and start in the distant fantastical past before drawing closer and closer to the fantastical present. Things kick off in ancient China with a judge and a unicorn (well, a kind of unicorn) and a personal crisis, then move to the Manifest Destiny of American colonialism, then finally end in a New York much like our own…but with some superpowers involved. These are story that are at turns fun and fast and brooding and dark. There's a lot to see and feel, though, and as the stories draw nearer to the present they seem to me to grow a bit more hopeful about the new year approaching. So yeah, to the reviews!

Art by Ashley Mackenzie

Quick Sips - Terraform December 2016

It's something of a short month of fiction at Motherboard's Terraform, with only two fiction pieces and a new chapter in the Highwayman graphic story. And the future looks…well, bleak as fuck in these visions of what might happen. I suspect that given how 2016 has gone, hope is going to be rather difficult to find, especially in near future SF, and these stories certain capture a certain darkness and a certain pessimism when looking forward. Which makes sense, especially given recent events, but these are not easy stories. These are stories that expose the ugliness that humans are capable of, and probably not for the squeamish. But yeah, to the reviews! 

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #215

Both the stories in this issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies look at loss. At how people approach and react to it. At how people seek to undo it. And how, ultimately, they face the facts that what has been lost cannot be regained. That they must find a way forward or else wither and decay. And I love the roads that these stories pave for their main characters, both of which are hardened, wry people who think that they've finally reached their breaking point. Who think that they're set in their ways, done changing. And who find that they have some growing yet to do. They also mix a nice amount of ass-kicking action in with some heavier, emotional moments, both to good effect. So yeah, I'll stop yammering and get to reviewing!

Art by Jinxu Du

Quick Sips - Shimmer #34 (December Stuff)

Winter has come in truth to Shimmer Magazine, as December's releases shows a mix of horror and despair, pain and the lingering traces of loss. The stories both structure themselves around strong premises—the loss of a great war, the tasting of spirits—and complicate them, flesh them out with characters that exist in broad strokes but still impart a subtle complexity. There are some dark flavors at work here, notes of blood and hunger, but there's also a certain tenderness as well. There is despair, yes, but there is also resolve. To live. To survive. The stories approach these ideas from very, very different places, but they're well paired all the same. So yeah, to the reviews! 

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #214

This issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies focuses in many ways on movement and transformations. On knowledge and ignorance. And, above all, on respect. Both stories feature women who have to navigate worlds that are not open to them. In one, the sexual aggression of men that is societally upheld becomes net that can only be slipped through by transforming into something safer. In the other, the stalking force is colonialism as well as misogyny. And in both the main conflict, and their ultimate salvation, arises from refusing to sacrifice themselves, refusing to give in to the societal pressures pushing them toward victimization and death. It's a very strong pair of stories that I should get to reviewing! 

Art by Jinxu Du

Quick Sips - Apex #91

All of the fiction in this issue of Apex Magazine turns back the clock to reveal historical takes on horror. Most of them are fantasy, as well, and look at the magic that might have existed in the past, the magic that always pales in its darkness next to the actual history of the times visited. What is a monster next to the way that people with mental health issues and developmental disorders were treated in the past? What is the grainy pulp of a noir detective next to the loss of millions of lives? These stories build worlds that might have been but that also reveal very real horrors that were and are visited on people. The horrors of societies that don't value certain people, that allow them to become victims, that even push them along that path. It's an uncomfortable month, and a dark one, which means that the publication is doing something right. To the reviews! 

Art by Billy Nuñez

Quick Sips - Fantasy #60 People of Colo(u)r Destroy Fantasy!

Fantasy Magazine lives in this issue thanks to the support behind Lightspeed Magazine's People of Colo(u)r Destroy SF! It's time to destroy fantasy and this issue does a marvelous job of that, showcasing four original stories that feature themes of resistance and injustice, struggle and hope. These are stories to inspire, that look to the idea that change is possible, that those living under the burdens of injustice can get out, can help each other, and even if they can't destroy the unjust systems on their own, they can work to undermine their power. Chip away at the damage that they do. These stories are full of amazing characters and lots of magic, from a story of plague and dancing to one of bargains and marching. It's an incredible issue and I should just get to those reviews! 

Art by Emily Osborne

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 12/05/2016 & 12/12/2016

These two weeks of content from Strange Horizons are a little light on nonfiction, but definitely plenty heavy when it comes to stories and poems with depth, grace, and stunning SFF elements. From self-destructing sentient starships that die across fields of stars to quieter pieces about love, loss, and transformation, these pieces definitely had me on the brink of tears more than once. These are pieces that show the heart of SFF, and the loneliness of it as well, the vast spaces between worlds that mirrors the vast spaces between people, everyone reaching out and only a precious few finding some connection to withstand the forces of creation and destruction. So let's get to the reviews! 

Art by Mahendra Singh

Quick Sips - Uncanny #13 (December Stuff)

This issue of Uncanny Magazine features a lot of pieces that examine the idea of knights. Of men and their blades and their games. People who are sworn to serve and protect, even if they call themself a plumber instead of a knight errant. Even if they wear a cape. It's a full month, too, with three stories, a poem, and two pieces of nonfiction that I'm looking at. These are pieces that complicate what it means to be a knight, what it means to fight and what it means to have control of the story. And they also look at what happens when the knight might lose control of the story, and something unexpected might break the cycle of chivalry and misogyny that permeates many a knightly tale. So yeah, to the reviews! 

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus December 2016

The story that makes up December's GigaNotoSaurus is one of the shorter offerings of the year but packs one of the biggest emotional punches. Circling around themes of humanity, personhood, and loss, it managed to slowly and expertly build a relationship that became its own world. And when that relationship is ended, when one person suddenly finds themself without that core presence to ground them, the world seems to end with it. It's a story that looks at what it means to lose a person and, more importantly, what happens after the story is over. It's an amazing piece and I'm going to jump right in to the review! 

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #123

In many ways I feel like this issue of Clarkesworld is about the constructs that we find around us that are little more than fictions we tell to make sense of the world. And sometimes the fictions that we tell, the ways that structure our lives and our realities, don't quite work. We see separation when we could see union. We see estrangement when we could see growth. We see lies when we could see dreams of something better. These are stories that beg us to reconsider the comfort of our held beliefs, to examine how we might be closing ourselves off to the boundless possibilities around us. How we might be missing out on opportunities to grow and heal and know ourselves better. So let's get to the reviews! 

Art by Maciej Rebisz

Quick Sips - Nightmare #51

The two stories in the December Nightmare Magazine certainly show what makes speculative horror so captivating—revealing the uncomfortable truths and darkness that exists all around us, giving it physical form, and then making us face it. These are both stories that lean more fantasy than science fiction, pulling on some older traditions, of werewolves and Lovecraftian horror. While both are in some ways monster stories, though, they are also both stories that deal with youth, that feature main characters on the verge of adulthood, and reveal how quickly roles can be reversed when adults try to control the next generation. These are viscerally dark and violent stories but also deep insights into people and fears. And it's time to get to the reviews! 

Art by James T. Robb

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online December 2016

It's the last 2016 issue of Flash Fiction Online and the publication is definitely sending the year off with an interesting mix of SFF short fiction. There's Robert Redford and physical grief and a generation ship with some seriously sketchy policies. These are tales that bring to mind endings and new beginnings. Whether the ending is a death or a destination, the stories all look to how people react to their world being changed in some important way, even if that only means being visited by the phantom of a celebrity. It's a bit of a strange issue, but 2016 was a strange year. So yeah, let's get to the reviews! 

Art by Dario Bijelac

Quick Sips - The Dark #19

This issue of The Dark Magazine seems to me to focus on quiet desperation. Loneliness. Loss. Of two men who find themselves haunted by the dead. By those they have outlived. And who find their lives lacking something. Hope, perhaps. Or purpose. Both are looking for ways to escape the places they find themselves. Are seeking in some ways to exorcise their ghosts and find a way to move on. With…mixed results. There's a lot to like about these stories and a nice creeping dread that permeates both. So yeah, to the reviews! 

Art by Susanafh

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #79

Hey, it's one of my favorite moments this month at Lightspeed—I have made less work for myself by actually selling a story, so instead of the full slate of four pieces I'm only looking at those not written by me. It's not exactly a happy issue. The pieces all deal with a stifling darkness. With an oppressive violence and threat. With a situation that is bad and might just get worse, except for the power of people choosing to change. Or, at least, to change their actions. To change the story. To shift it away from being about war, about corruption, and about victimization. These stories all offer uncomfortable and striking looks into love and hate and the sea in between the two. So yeah, time to review! 

Art by Lovely Creatures Studio