Quick Sips - People of Color Take Over Fantastic Stories of the Imagination

It’s a bittersweet moment to announce that with this special People of Color Take Over Fantastic Stories! issue, the publication is closing down. It’s certainly a sad moment to see FSI closing down, but this is one hell of a way to go out. There are four original stories that I will be looking at, but I very much encourage everyone to check out the reprints and the nonfiction, because it’s all amazing and you should do yourself the favor of reading it. The stories themselves seem to focus on the tenuous nature of safety and space. Many of the characters find themselves relatively happy despite being marginalized, despite being at risk of violence and bigotry. They find jobs that they like, and people who accept them, and a place to be, only to find that all of it can be taken from them, and that sometimes the only thing they have left is the power to lose the rest, to gamble it away in the hopes that everything is not completely lost. And I love how the stories work together and flow and I guess I should just get to the reviews!

Art by Victo Ngai

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #238

Fresh off a successful Kickstarter campaign that will allow the publication to do some interesting and exciting things, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination opens 2017 with a pair of short but sweet SFF stories. These are pieces that look at family and relationships, trauma and effort. They show characters given the opportunity to walk away from some important part of their pasts. To put it down and maybe remake themselves. But these stories are about the choice to go back, to stay, to fight on even in the face of rejection, even in the face of overwhelming cruelty. The stories are at turns disturbing and fun, magical and wrenching, and they do an excellent job of exploring the worlds and characters they introduce. To the reviews! 

[Note. I am saddened to hear that Fantastic Stories will be closing after their next issue. Fuck.]

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #237

Dear readers, prepare your comfiest of sweaters and get ready for a good cry, because this issue of Fantastic Stories of the Imagination really knows how to play with emotions. It's an effective one-two punch of heart breaking and heart warming and you should just know that going in because fuck, yeah, emotionally raw would be a good way to describe things at the moment. These are stories about loving someone and then losing them. In two very, very different ways. They are harrowing and they are inspiring and they have left me a bit wrung out. So yeah, without further warnings, to the reviews! 

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #236

The two fiction works in this issue of Fantastic Stories of the Imagination are solidly urban fantasy, exploring how the creatures of myth and legend live among "normal" humans. These are, to me, stories about abuse and about struggling to overcome abuse, to stop it where it is or at least try to stop being a part of it. The worlds presented are mirrors to our own, where the magical elements are hidden but for those who know to see, and it mirrors the way that abuse in our world is often invisible, lurking. Both stories do an amazing job of creating compelling plots and characters and complicating the traditional folklore. It's an excellent issue that I should just shut up and review! 

Quick Sip - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #235

I almost thought that Fantastic Stories of the Imagination wouldn't manage to get this issue out in July, but here we are at the end of the month with a pair of stories about absences and choice. About the distance between people and how, sometimes, there is no closing that distance. About taking control and about seeking happiness and about the ways that we get trapped by relationships. In unhappiness. And the stories show different glimpses of people realizing that they do have a choice. That they do have a recourse. That they don't have to live in a stifling relationship just because their partners want them to. The stories complement each other quite well, and I'm going to get to reviewing them! 

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #234

The May/June Fantastic Stories of the Imagination is out and, as always, provides a pair of punchy stories that provoke and challenge. Both stories this issue represent somewhat new directions for the publication. One is a solidly science fictional story but with a healthy dose of the bizarre and is definitely not for the faint of heart, and the second story is interesting both because it's about the shortest story I've noticed from the publication and because it's solidly fantasy. Both stories manage to do a lot with the space they have, though.

And I want to mention that FSI is running a Kickstarter right now for the first of a series of planned Take Over issues, this one called Queers Take Over FSI.  It looks like an interesting idea and I can certainly say that since they've relaunched I've quite enjoyed the content that FSI puts out and hope they continue for a good long while. But okay, to those reviews!

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #233

Spring has officially sprung and at Fantastic Stories of the Imagination it means it's time for tales that bend reality a bit. New perspectives, from a woman brushing against a world dark and alluring to a man recoiling from an experience trading away his past. Plus there's an excellent, amazing crash course in SFF history that I'm super excited about diving into. The stories are interesting and complex, the nonfiction invigorating, and the issue has a feel of springtime to it. So let's get to those reviews!

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #232

Kicking off the new year right, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination is back with two very short stories that still manage some weight, some punch, and so depth. The stories both fall into the fantasy side of thing, but more than that both feature characters dealing things things a bit out of the ordinary, magical events that, at first, they weren't really ready to deal with and now have become...well, not used to them, but they are now able to act. To face the strangeness and the powers that seem aligned against them and to take moral action. The stories pair well and I should just get to reviewing them.

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #231

The longest name in short SFF is back this month and Fantastic Stories of the Imagination offers up a pair of stories, one about as long as they publish and the other about as short. The two tales are quite different in tone, in message, but both do present science fictional looks at space travel and both are, admittedly, quite good. There is a feeling in both of feelings just below the surface, of characters facing situations they didn't exactly expect when venturing into space. Both in some ways also explore the idea of people who leave Earth behind still being connected to it, and in that it's a rather thematically tight issue of the publication, at least where original work is concerned. But enough of my ramblings. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #230

Two flash works fill up this issue's original work from Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. Thematically, the stories are both dealing with mortality, at least in my opinion. In both there is a sense that what is truly beautiful cannot last forever. That there is something in the nature of beauty that is tied to time. We see a woman traveling the galaxy, exploring all kinds of things, capturing her memories to save, and yet the true beauty of her past is in her, is never bound in the memory boxes. In the second story a person encased in glass and water and wire finds that they long for the sight of a flower, that for all that the world has given her immortality, it pales before the fleeting beauty of a bloom. An interesting theme to tie the stories together, and one I should get more into in the reviews...

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination July/August 2015

Back with their new publishing schedule, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination provides two new stories this month. One flash and one short story, and both interesting. There is definitely a tendency for the publication to spotlight a bit darker of stories in their original works, which is A-okay for me. The stories are short but typically revolve around a kernel of emotion, of loss or tragedy. This month the stories both feature death and communication with the other side, but in two completely different ways. Thematically the stories build on one another, one a more humorous take on speaking with the dead and the other a more wrenching tale, but both focus on communication, or perhaps a failure to communicate, with the dead. Good stuff, so let's get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination May 2015

Normally I don't think of flash fiction as anything under 3,000 words, but that's how Fantastic Stories of the Imagination defines the form and so here are two more "flash" fiction pieces. Really I'm just teasing (though really, the first story is not flash), because both stories are once again good and both science fictional looks at the future, at two young women who are trying to figure out their place in the scheme of things. The stories offer two different views of the future, two different dilemmas, but they both share some common things. Mostly, they're about being open to change, about not being stuck with tunnel vision. One story shows the protagonist finding this out, the other shows the protagonist with maybe some more learning to do. But both are interesting and I guess I should just get to it!

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination April 2015

Another month's Fantastic Stories of the Imagination is what I'm looking at today. Two stories, are is usual, and these two once again rather strongly thematically linked. Both are science fiction stories, though the second has some definite fantasy elements. Both deal with leaving Earth behind, deal with raising children, deal with loss, deal with generations. They're both rather sad, but there is a hope to them as well, a indomitable will to them that gives them an optimistic feel. But you don't have to take my word for it; to the reviews!

Stories:

"All That We Carry, All That We Hold" by Damien Agelica Walters (2095 words)

A rather touching and tragic story with a hopeful end, this one focuses on a woman as she grows up around giant ships that ferry humans to the stars. At first, as a young girl, the ships are monsters and she fears them. Slowly her perception changes, but the ships never really become something she likes. They are vessels that take away those she cares about. Her first love. Her husband. It's only with her daughter that the ships become something different, because to her daughter the ships are wonderful, are full of possibilities and freedom from the sorrow and trouble of Earth. And when that daughter gets cancer and dies, the ships become the one thing that the mother clings to in order to keep going. To her they are still monsters, but she also sees them in the reflection of her daughter's eyes. As freedom. As escape. And so she goes out on a ship to a distant planet in order to begin something there. And to end something, as she takes her daughter's ashes and spreads them on the wind. As I said, a bit of a tragic story, but the focus is on the healing, on the possibility and freedom that space brings. So while the story might be a bit of a downer (few stories featuring childhood cancer are light), it's still got a nugget of hope and yearning that makes the story a solid read.

"Molten Heart" by Alexis A. Hunter (725 words)

In this story a sort of golem, created of clay, helps to raise a young girl to her thirteenth year. A mix of fantasy and science fiction, the golem is magic but the story takes place on a terraformed world. The golem is made to help raise a child, but is made imperfect in hopes that the child won't bond with it too closely. It lakes eyes and a mouth. Lacks a voice. But still the golem loves the child, and child loves it. This is another story about loss and about generations, but this one is a bit different, showing that when the child grows up and has a child of her own, that the golem is revived. So that it's not really gone, just dormant, and that it can still love and share its love across the generations. It's still a bit of a sad story, because the golem can never stay, because there is that limit of thirteen years even if everyone wants it to be longer. But at the same time, there is progress, and this time the golem is given a voice. And maybe, the implication seems to be, there will be a time when it can stay. At the very least, it's continued presence from generation to generation means that it's never really dead, that its love keeps it going, and that it can share it always. A very short story, this one, but with a nice sad loveliness to it that made it impact just right.

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination March 2015

Looking at the newest from Fantastic Stories of the Imagination today. Two new stories, both flash fiction. And this month the two are very closely thematically linked. Ghosts and the living. Papers could  be written about the way these stories interact. A fine job of providing two parallels views of ghost stories. So to the stories!

Stories:


"Red String" by Cassandra Khaw (958 words)

I love the wound and death imagery of this story, which centers around a mortician seeking love. IT makes sense that his world would become somewhat inundated by such thoughts, by swaths of red being wounds, and dark clouds bruises. This is also something of a funny story, albeit one that is horribly sad at the same time. It takes a skill to make that work, but here it is. The mortician is just so mellow, so persistent, and Mrs. Ong so determined in her own way. I want to say that the story is about grief, about how holding onto someone after they are gone becomes something of a cage. The story seems to hint that the cage is not just for the person left alive, though, but for the dead. That by holding on so tightly to them we refuse to really let them pass on. And that is an interesting idea, something that blends souls and memories while evoking the image of the red string of destiny. Though perhaps I think that the mortician goes a bit far in what he's willing to do for the departed, it's still a fun story with some wicked imagery and a strong finish. Very well done.


"One for Every Year" by Dawn Vogel (850 words)

Another story about ghosts, this one also focuses on the relationship between one of the dead and one of the living. Here, though, the situation is a bit reversed. Here it is the living person who asks something of the ghost, in this case to trade another year of ghost-ness for a human soul the ghost extracts from a living person. This soul keeps the ghost's lady forever young. Only it's not quite so straightforward as that, and the on the hundred and seventeenth year of their arrangement the ghost finally finds a way to break the cycle. It's unclear exactly what might come next, whether or not the ghost will end or replace the lady, but the story is rather creepy either way. More than that, it builds a nice mythology in a very limited space and presents the a rather strong conflict, the ghost continuing in a sort of fugue state, not willing to move on until she remembers how she happened to become a ghost. And that realization snaps her out of her long idleness and gets her to act. A very nice contrast to the last story, because both show how the living can abuse the dead. Of course, in this story the ghost is a bit more magical and "real," but there's nothing wrong with that. Another fine story.

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination February 2015

Today I'm looking at the latest from Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, home of the longest email address for sending story submissions (honestly, it is storysubmissions@fantasticstoriesoftheimagination.com for all you writers out there). But the new focus on shorter stories means there are once again two original pieces for me to look at today. So let's jump right in!

Stories:

"Weight of the World" by José Pablo Iriarte (1553 words)

This one is definitely an emotional wallop for being so short. A family from off-world (did I miss where? Mars? Someplace with lower gravity at least) are returning to Earth for treatment for their son's treatment. The stay is tough on them, in part because the increased gravity makes moving difficult. The father stubbornly refuses to take assistance, and puts himself through the pain of walking around in what seems to be an advanced bargaining mode. If he can survive, he seems to ask the universe, surely his son can. Only his posturing is slightly worrisome because his son's survival really isn't up to him. Isn't up to anyone. It's not based on how much his son wants to live or how tough he is. And so the parents worry that they are setting their son up for failure, that they might make their son feel like he's failing them by dying. And that's the interesting thing, because there are layers of trying to be strong, and the story plays around with what is strong and what is weak. Because when the news comes and the father finally lets himself be weak, or let's the world see his weakness. Like acknowledging it before would have ruined something. It's an interesting story that circles around masculinity but seems more about trying to be strong in the face of tragedy. Solid work.

"She Opened Her Arms" by Amanda C. Davis (982 words)

Another interesting story about family. In this one, the young sister of an even younger disabled brother is told by a strange woman that her brother's condition is due to the fact that her "real" brother was stolen and replaced, that the brother she was supposed to have can be returned. Thinking that she wants the brother she "should" have had, a more normal, handsome brother, she tries to reclaim him. She interrupts a procession of Fae in order to get him back but in the midst of it she realizes that if she succeeds she won't just gain a brother who she doesn't know, but will lose the brother she loves. Disgusted, she breaks the ritual and returns home. It's a nice story with a powerful message, that people with mental or physical disabilities are not broken. They are not lesser for their differences. And in choosing the brother she knew, the brother she cared about, instead of the prettier one she might have had, she affirms her brother's right to be himself. She affirms her love for him, not for what he might have been. A lovely read.

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination January 2015

So today I'm looking at the original short story releases from Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. Up to now they've been doing only one original story a month, but with this issue (and thanks to limiting word counts to under 3k, though there is one a little longer as the policy was just implemented) they have two. So let's dive right in.

Stories:

"Heartless" by  Krystal Claxton (2773 words)

A creepy little story about a place where words have power and magic and where one woman hopes to save a man that has been attacked and nearly killed by a Shebeast. The set up is interesting, the woman running from her own past and legacy, the man a wounded thing that she tries to heal, that she sort of falls for. It's a little standard in its message, the transformative power of love, but I think it was done fairly well, that it wasn't the man who made the woman strong but rather that she made herself strong and realized that she wanted something. The fight between the woman and the Shebeast was interesting, visceral. I loved the idea of the kind of fight they were having. Not so sure on the whole Shebeast thing, but it was still a nice story that I enjoyed. And ripe for further exploration of the setting, the idea of the words having power. I'd read more.

"Underworld" by Katherine Mankiller (3521 words)

There's a lot to enjoy about this story, though I feel it suffers a little for being quite short (though longer than the new length restriction at FSotI). I mean, I liked the casual way that magic just works in the story, the way that Dion just does it and it does generally what he wants it to. I like the relationship between him and his mom, where he's the more responsible one, looking out for her. Families are great things to story and this family has its issues. I felt that the main focus, that Dion is finding out about his family, was all right but very rushed. This feels more like the opening to a novel, where he would learn more about who he is and would get pulled into some weird stuff. Again, I think I'd read more of this, but I don't think this one worked as well for me as a short story. I was left a little confused and wanting, and though I like a lot of things about it I just wasn't completely convinced by it. Still, I don't regret reading it. It just makes me hungry, which is not the worst thing a story can do.