Quick Sips - Mithila Review #12 [part 3]

Art by Theobald Carreras

It's time to finish up my look at the latest issue of Mithila Review, this time covering a short story, a novelette, and four poems. The pieces get a bit weird here, looking at different cities that carry inside them different rules and different dangers. In both of the stories, characters seek to navigate these spaces looking for answers, looking for safety, and find instead hungry jaws snapping at them. The poetry delivers a slew of speculative ideas and feelings that show why this publication is one to watch, offering up resonating SFF from all over the world.

Quick Sips - Mithila Review #12 [part 2]

Art by Theobald Carreras

I’m back diving into the latest issue of Mithila Review, which is still rolling out content for free on their website. These are all technically 2019 releases, but as some of them didn’t come out online until this year, it puts me in a weird position for where to place them. But we’ll burn that bridge when we get there. As for the content, there are some strong pieces, and a nice running sense of continuity as the works explore people who have done wrong. The fiction, at least, features three different people facing their own kinds of trials. Having to defend themselves or give into the voices calling for justice. And they work well together, exploring the way that violence acts as a toxic presence, corrupting everything that builds out of it. And there’s a lot to get to with three short stories and three poems, so I’ll get right to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Augur #2.3

Art by Lorna Antoniazzi

A new Augur is out! And while I would normally break up the issue into two parts to spread out my reviews, I don’t want to push off 2019 reviews deeper into 2020. So I’m just looking at the whole thing today (and then taking tomorrow off)! And it is a dense and at times harrowing read, full of hurt and hope, beauty and pain. It features people trying to make sense of grief, and loss, trying to figure out where they went wrong, even when there was no way they could have done better. The stories loop around relationships, around characters trying to connect to one another and finding that at times an impossible task. But sometimes managing it all the same. It’s a wonderful issue, and a great way to cap off my 2019 reviews, so let’s get right to it!

Quick Sips - Fireside Magazine #74

Art by Stephanie Singleton

Fireside wins the award for having the last story out of the year from all the venues that I cover (at least, I’m pretty sure), with the final one dropping of New Years Eve. And it is another full month from the publication, with five stories and a poem to close out 2019. That said, it’s not quite my final review post covering 2019 material (which will drop on Monday), and so with this penultimate 2019 review post, I look at a wide range of SFF, from an ode to a YouTuber who inspires resistance and survival in a dystopian (or maybe just realistic) future to a ghost story about immigration and the pressures to make money. The works are deep and careful, powerful and resonating, and I’ll get right to my reviews!

Quick Sips - Terraform December 2019

Vice’s Terraform closes out the year with two near-future SF stories about technology and injustice. In one, the epidemic of mass shootings in America is addressed and the cause identified, the infectious agent confronted…or perhaps misdiagnosed. In the other, a chilling look at the future is revealed through the rather innocuous lens of a holiday gift guide. Both stories look at the ways the future must wrestle with personal liberties versus institutional corruption, and especially with “free” capitalism versus human lives and suffering. It’s an on brand way for the publication to close out the year, and I’ll get right to my reviews!

Quick Sips - PodCastle #604 & #606

Closing out the year with two stories, PodCastle shows the depth of fantasy as a genre with one contemporary supervillain story full of grief and loss and betrayal and one second world fantasy that manages to build a heartwarming and holiday-appropriate feel and punch with only the lightest touch of grimness. The pieces are incredibly different, and yet both of them deal with protagonists trying to bring something back. For one of them, it's a person, and their mode of choice is necromancy. For the other, it's a holiday, and their mode of choice is a sort of innocent honesty and earnest joy. Both find what they're looking for, in some ways, though the results are very different. Without giving too much away, though, let's get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Tor dot com December 2019

Art by Audrey Benjaminsen

I'm actually surprised that Tor had two stories out in December, as in at least some years past they've taken the month largely off. Not that I'm complaining. The two stories here are interesting and find people coming up against some strange and perhaps-unexplainable things. One woman is facing a broken mirror that has effected all of time, that has rewritten reality itself. Another finds herself working for a government she knows better than to trust in a strange place that will push her to her physical and mental limits. Both deal with alternate realities, with dimensions, and both are haunting and cold, well suited for the winter. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Escape Pod #710 & #711

The two stories from Escape Pod's December both deal with space, and isolation, and loneliness, and cooperation. Given, they do so in two very different ways, one unfolding on a station that is (now) devoid of human life, but which has also seen the "birth" of something new. The second is very much filled with humans. Too many, perhaps, for the colony they're on, given the series of accidents that threatens everyone. Both find people reaching out to people, though, despite the risk and despite the people involved largely being people who sought a kind of solitude. And the works are at turns heartwarming and wrenching, with a great holiday touch for at least one of them that makes them very appropriate for the season. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 12/16/2019 & 12/23/2019

I'm not actually sure if Strange Horizons is done for the year with this short story and two poems, or if there's a surprise waiting for me on Monday (*puts head in hands, weeps*). Maybe there will be a new Samovar! Or a special issue! Or maybe this is it. Whatever the case, the works are wonderful and focus on conflict and division, at governments and change and devastation. The works find characters dealing with their worlds being torn apart and (maybe) put back together again. But always with a price, a cost in human lives. These are some bleak-at-times works, but they reveal the beauty of the human spirit, and hope, in the face of even the worst situations. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #293

Art by Alexey Shugurov

At first blush the two stories in the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies don’t share too much in common(a rarity for the publication). But digging a little deeper, though, finds stories featuring characters dealing with some systemic problems. Very different ones, but ones that still seek to make them complicit in evil and corruption. And that almost succeed. They’re both quiet at first but rather quickly ramp up, and their ends are both rather bloody, rather messy affairs. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Anathema #9

Art by Grace P. Fong

December is full of presents, it seems, with Anathema giving the gift of more SFF short fiction and poetry to all the nice (or naughty, bc yolo) people of the world. The stories and poems are solidly strange and haunting, the mood rather appropriate for winter, which is where I’m reading them. They are cold, distant, and dominated by isolation and loneliness. They deal with ghosts, with gods, with loss, with transformations, and with hope. The characters here are dealing with feeling silent, with feeling cut off from needed support. From being able to truly inhabit and express themselves. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Diabolical Plots #58

Art by Joey Jordan

Two stories round out the SFF offerings from Diabolical Plots this month, and they cover some interesting speculative ground. Both pieces establish themselves in a rather clear literary tradition. The first looks at the idea of utopia through a statistical lens, tracing the ways “good intentions” might curve into some decidedly unjust shapes. The second takes a more noir approach, using a speculative flourish to flesh out a situation involving a domestic dispute, aliens, and rapid aging. And both offer interesting takes on these more classic elements, building two solid worlds readers can sink their teeth into. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Nightmare #87

Art by Rodjulian / Adobe Stock Footage

The two stories in the December issue of Nightmare Magazine focus on the relationships that men or boys have with other men or boys. In one, two brothers are the focus on the piece. In the other, it’s two best friends. In both, the characters have secrets they are keeping from one another, jealousies and angers that have warped their relationships. That threaten to make them something poisoning them rather than enriching their lives or helping them to deal with their problems. In one of the stories, the boys are young enough that there might yet be time to change things, to understand each other and grow. In the other, it’s possible too much time and bitterness exists for the men to ever come back from where they’ve gone. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Mithila Review #12 [part 1]

Art by Theobald Carreras

Despite a rather length pause between the last two issues of Mithila Review, the latest comes right on the heels of the previous, and it’s even bigger! Eep! Well, for me that means breaking it up into smaller, more managable chunks. As the issue will be releasing for free through February, I’ll be doing three parts of my review, start with two short stories and four poems. The works definitely look at loss and vulnerability, the fiction featuring women who have lost a lot already and stand to lose more, both of them willing to trade their own safety for that of those they care about. So yeah, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #159

Art by Derek Stenning

The December Clarkesworld closes out the year with some rather long short SFF (the shortest piece being over 6500 words). And the stories are rather melancholy, are rather full of longing and loss. Not that there aren’t moments of joy, moments of victory over despair and oppression. But that the moods of the story are decidedly dense, thick, at times like walking through a fog of difficulty. It’s a fitting feel for where I live, where the month is already cold and snowy and heavy. And there’s a glimmer of something like hope to reach for, however dim it might seem. Some future where maybe things won’t be as harsh, even if it’s a future that requires a lot of work to get to. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Uncanny #31 [December stuff]

Art by John Picacio

December brings three short stories and two poems to Uncanny Magazine, including two flash fictions. The pieces do a great job of mixing fun with some much darker elements. From superhero academies where a young girl is struggling with an enormous power to a market where the people going in are not always quite the same people who come out, to a very interesting kind of cosmic horror detective tale, the works blend fear, desperation, and vulnerability to amazing effect. Add into the mix the poetry, which looks at grief and monsters, expectations and fear, and the issue as a whole hits hard. And the main balm is that the works are also a joy to read, at turns wrenching and funny, sexy and tense. So let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 12/02/2019 & 12/09/2019

Art by Arturo Lauria

Two issues of Strange Horizons bring two short stories and two poems to kick off December's content. Tonally, the issues cover a lot of ground, from a slow, wrenching examination of oppression and expression, family and safety, to a more action-oriented adventure in deep space featuring twisted gods. The poetry adds to the diversity of the works and the moods, painting pictures both creepy and resilient. All in all, it's a wonderful look at just how different short SFF can be, building fascinating new worlds peppered with classic touches. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #292

Art by Alexey Shugurov

It’s no surprise that the two stories in this issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies are incredibly well paired—it’s just sort of what I expect from the publication. And they are, both dealing intimately with names, and with flowers, and with violence and expectation. With ignorance, and characters dealing with that ignorance. Because without knowledge they can’t make informed decisions, can’t give informed consent. Being asked to take everything on faith, they see how that system allows for their exploitation and unhappiness, their marginalization and, ultimately, their death. It’s not an easy issue, and both stories deal with gaslighting and abuse in some visceral ways. So definitely be mindful the content warnings. But there’s also a power and a beauty to them that’s worth sitting down with. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus December 2019

Don’t let the fact that it’s December trick you into thinking all the best fiction of the year has already come out. Because people, the new short story from GigaNotoSaurus is probably going to end up on a number of my lists. It’s bold and kind and completely out of fucks and I love it so much. But then, a story about a punk rock band and the end of the world via alien invasion is probably going to be hard for me to dislike. And this story has an amazing cast, a sort of gallows humor that is charming and poignant all at once, and you should just read it already. For me, it’s time I got to the review!

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online December 2019

It’s not an overly speculative issue of Flash Fiction Online for December, with only one science fiction piece and two literary ones, but the stories are all solid and explore themes of family, relationships, power, freedom, and success. The characters are often stuck in situations that feel oppressive, their desperate wish just to be released from the constant pressure on them. To ignore the issues in their marriage. to accept the stifling atmosphere of their father’s home. To churn out content for fans that might turn on them at any moment. It’s a great handful of flash stories, and I’ll get right to the reviews!