Regular Sip - A Fledgling Abiba by Dilman Dila (Guardbridge Books)

Today I’m back looking a new novella, this one from Guardbridge Books, which I’m not super familiar with but who looks like they do some great work. I’m a bit more familiar with the work of Dilman Dila, who, on top of making some fantastic SFF films, has put out some great SFF short fiction over the years (most recently in the Dominion anthology I just reviewed last week). This story takes the somewhat familiar trope of the magical child entering into a whole larger magical world that most people aren’t aware of, but instead of a boy with a scar in a wealthy boarding school there’s a girl who farts fire in a city plagued by illness, violence, and magical conspiracies. To the review!

Quick Sips - Omenana #13

Art by Sunny Efemena

A new issue of Omenana is out now, with six new short stories (plus nonfiction and art!). It’s an issue devoted to urban legends, exploring stories of magic and gods, monsters and family. There’s a bit of a feel of storms to the stories, too, of the natural world and all its power and rage being channeled into magic, into people and situations that can’t be stopped. That must be weathered. Or not. And it’s something of a bittersweet issue as well, marking as it does the exit of editor Chinelo Onwualu, who has given the world some truly amazing issues of a fantastic publication. I can only hope that the publication itself might continuing its publishing, and I very much look forward to the future of Omenana. To the reviews!

THE SIPPY AWARDS 2016! The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy for Excellent Action!!! in SFF

Welcome back to the Second Annual Sippy Awards! The short SFF awards that no one wanted is still going on for some reason! I've shipped my favorite relationships. I've shivered in fear of my favorite horror. I've bawled until I was nothing but a husk of raw feels. And now I'm back again. I'm better than ever! Because it's time to get exicted!

SFF has the power to tug at our hearts, but it also has the ability to get our heart pounding. To get our blood hot and our fists clenched. There's a lot of SFF that tends toward the cerebral side of things, but there's also SFF out there that sweeps everything onto the floor, tips over the table, and uses it for cover in a sudden blaster battle. And today I want to look at the stories that shoot first. That jump out into the open air without a parachute. That drive a hundred miles an hour in heavy traffic because there are cyborg-ninjas on motorbikes who will destroy the future unless you get the enchanted chinchilla back to his home dimension.

Ahem, well maybe not exactly that last one. Still, these are stories that do that cool slow walking away as the explosion happens. That tell the others to go on ahead and then ready their shotgun, waiting for the enemy to round the corner. It's time for…

The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy 

for Excellent Action! in Short SFF

Quick Sips - Mithila Review #1

I'm pleased to look at the debut issue of the Mithila Review today, which is a home for fiction and poetry from the margins, from the borderlands of imagination, experience, and justice. The issue is a mix of original stories and poetry with reprints of both as well, and as such I have to make a decision about what I'm going to be looking at (my normal policy is to not look at reprints because of time restraints). But as I seem to have a moment and this is the debut issue I'm going to be looking at the reprint fiction and poetry (except the one I already reviewed last year) as well. And, after all, it's all quite good, moving and deep and dense, about resistance and place and violence and resolve. It's all worth checking out, and so that's what I'm going to do. So hold on tight, it's time for some reviews!

Art by Steve McDonald