The Monthly Round is Up!

Go over to Nerds of a Feather and check out my favorite stories of July 2016 paired with alcoholic beverages and reviewed for your amusement and enlightenment. Or, if that's too much work, just a list is below. Cheers!

Tasting Flight - July 2016
"The Sound a Raven Makes" by Mathew Scaletta (GigaNotoSaurus)
"Postcards from Natalie" by Carrie Laben (The Dark #14)
"Her Sacred Spirit Soars" by S. Qiouyi Lu (Strange Horizons)
"The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles" by Rachael K. Jones (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #203)
"The Automatic Prime Ministers" by Kate Heartfield (Lackington's #10)
"Painted Grassy Mire" by Nicasio Andres Reed (Shimmer #32)

Shots:
"Love Out of Season" by Caroline M. Yoachim (Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #235)
"War Profiteering" by M. Darusha Wehm (Mothership Zeta #4)
"Old Customs" by Rajiv Moté (Unlikely Story #12.5)

Quick Sips - Mothership Zeta #4

With this, its fourth issue, Mothership Zeta celebrates its first year of publication. And it's quite a celebration, though also in some ways more restrained than some of its other issues. These stories are fun, yes, and hopeful yes, but more than that I think they show a bit more emotion, a bit more reaching toward compassion and understand. Many of the tales are romantic, showing two people coming together through difficult circumstances. Showing people starting new chapters in their lives, ready for some change, ready for something new and beautiful. That even in the dark of space or the sunless night there is some trace of warmth to be had, some hope to share in. So without further delay, to the reviews! 

Art by Wendy Xu

Quick Sips - Terraform July 2016

Politics are dominating the news of late, but the July Terraform stories take a bit of a step back from that. Sort of. These are glimpses of possible futures and they're definitely not bright, from a report on how humanity might be viewed through archeology to the nightmare of the future of online privacy to blood and chaos at the Olympic Village to a world where things are definitely not Okay. These are not overtly political pieces, in that they don't feature any political candidates, but at the same time they are deeply ideological, about what is at stake with the current conversations about privacy, against individual versus corporate rights, and about where we're steering our planet. It's a fascinating bunch of stories that I'm going to get to reviewing! 

Quick Sips - Tor dot com July 2016

Four stories anchor Tor dot com’s SFF short fiction offerings this month, and if I had to find a commonality between them I think I would choose a sort of wandering feeling. Or maybe wandering with a purpose. All four tales are a bit on the slower side, pacing-wise, making for some cerebral and rather philosophical stories. About loneliness and desperation. About purpose and meaning and the direction of life. About finding something to be happy with and something to struggle against. The stories all excel at place, at revealing a strange world. The inside of Abraham Lincoln’s head. An abyss that might be an alien portal. A distant world and a town by a haunted city. A busy hotel next to one of the world’s busiest airports. And in these worlds the readers are invited to learn something, to see something, and to take something with them when they go. So to the reviews! 

Art by Chris Buzelli

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 07/18/2016 & 07/25/2016

I think Strange Horizons is trying to kill my feels with Our Queer Planet, which keeps right on rolling along with double the poetry, double the nonfiction, and some excellent, amazing fiction. Seriously, I'm pretty sure these works have reduced me to a small puddle of feels that has sunk into the earth, become one with the stone, and then risen as some sort of Geodude of resolve. AND GEODUDES DON'T CRY! <breaks down weeping> Okay, I might not have recovered so well as I implied. But keep a box of tissues nearby and prepare for some reviews!

Art by Slimm Fabert

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 - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #204

The second issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies this month features a pair of stories that look at quests and stagnation, hope and transformation. In both stories characters confront the trajectories of their lives, the directions that seem inevitable but which are made by their choices. And both face regrets and face a future that is full of possibilities and yet defined by duty and care for others. There is a balancing of the selfish desires of life and knowledge that sometimes environments are kinds of prisons. Systems oppress. But belonging is not impossible. These are some complex and moving stories and I'm going to jump right into those reviews!

Art by Martin Ende

Quick Sips - The Book Smugglers July 2016

The Year of the Superhero continues at The Book Smugglers with a story that complicates the idea of the superhero. That looks at invulnerability and pairs it with a very aching sense of vulnerability. Both of the physical sense, because the main character is not unable to be very injured, and the emotional kind, which is even more complex and moving. The story weaves together the ways we think of strength and provides a touching and great narrative about a failed super soldier and love and family. Time to review! 

Art by Melanie Cook

Quick Sips - Nightmare #46

The two stories in this month's Nightmare Magazine both seem to look at the effects of trauma. The ways that people can react to extreme emotions and situations, the ways that people can fracture. These are both sorts of ghost stories, or maybe stories of hauntings. Not necessarily literally but both stories question whether a thing must be literally true to be real. To have a deep and meaningful impact. These are rather shocking stories, and ones that are difficult to face. Because the situations are terrible, violent, and tragic. And because these things happen, because these tragedies do happen in literal ways, in the real world, these are important stories to face and examine, and I will waste no more time in getting to the reviews!

Art by Rod Julian

Quick Sips - Apex #86

The stories in this month's Apex Magazine deal with superpowers. Certainly not in the most standard or typical of ways, but both look at what happens when young men realize that they have powers beyond those of normal people. The stories also are about rage and privilege. About responsibility. And about art. They are two incredibly paired stories for the issue, and make for some great reading. The poety is also tight, looking at departures, looking across space, looking across cultures. It's fascinating to see how all these works play off each other, and I guess I should stop talking about it and get right to the reviews! 

Art by Sunny Ray

Quick Sips - Harlot Media July 2016

I must say, Harlot continues to be a delight when it comes to finding speculative stories that don't shy away from sex or sexuality and that paint moving and gripping portraits of characters in conflict. From science fiction to fantasy to this piece, which is a metafictional experience that I would probably describe as a contemporary alt-history memoir, the stories show the power of speculative fiction to open up spaces between the "real world" and the infinite worlds beyond. So, without further hesitation, let's jump right into the review! 

Quick Sips - Shimmer #32 (July Stuff)

After taking a trip among the stars with science fictional tales last issue, Shimmer is back to its roots rather literally with two contemporary fantasies about family, abuse, and magic. Both of these stories look at how family shapes people, about how daughters are pressured to become vessels, how sometimes there is no option for them to prevent pain. Sometimes, though, as these stories show, it is possible to escape being the one sacrificed. The one stuck. There is a price for this, because there is always something hungry lurking, and the stories show the dark paths that sometimes are the only ones to freedom. To the reviews! 

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - Uncanny #11 (July Stuff)

A new issue of Uncanny Magazine is out and for July it means three new stories and a new poem, as well as some nonfiction and a reprint story that I won’t be looking at but which I encourage everyone to check out. And this month the stories seem linked to me be a focus on fate. About fighting against the circumstances of birth that these characters can’t control. Being born into a dangerous family, or being born a ship without the ability to travel through space, or being born to parents who can write attributes into your skin. These tales look at the injustice of birth and the ways that people seek to change their fates and, perhaps failing that, how they hope to save others from the same cycle, from the same damning force. So let’s get to those reviews!

Art by Javier Caparo

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #203

The two stories in this issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies are about transformations. From man to woman. From woman to asp. They both circle similar ideas of freedom, though they reveal two very different worlds. Both are alive with magic, though, and characters yearning for change, for escape, for some reflection of themselves they can be at peace with. These are stories of revolution, even if it's only of a single person refusing to give into the inevitable course their life seems on. To the reviews!

Art by Martin Ende

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 06/27/2016, 07/04/2016, & 07/11/2016

It's probably no real surprise that in the pieces for the first half of Strange Horizon's Our Queer Planet there is a sense of longing. A hunger. To see and be seen, to comfort and be comforted. To reach out and act on desires that are dangerous, to fly in the face of convention and doubt. These stories and poems and works of nonfiction are affirming and powerful. Beautiful and refined and raw and bleeding and staunched and just so good. These are stories that I as a reader am hungry for, poems that I want to see more of, nonfiction that helps me both think about my reading and writing and also about my queerness. There's so much good here and I'm going to get to those reviews! 

Art by Alex Araiza

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #118

This issue of Clarkesworld takes things to the future and the future is...weird. From far-off worlds where people are perhaps bred to be food to an Earth where people might be made into sentient rosary beads, there's a lot of high concepts zipping along. A lot of violence, too, and conflict. Wars both personal and galactic. There are quests and transformation, small moments of personal discovery and loss. And through it all a nice vision of technology and science and progress, even if it's happening in reverse. It's a great issue that I'm going to review...NOW!

Art by Lasse Perala

Quick Sips - Lackington's #10 - Governments

There are few enough themed publications left, but Lackington's continues to put out issues of stories linked to a central idea. This issue it is governments that is being looked at. Full disclosure: I have a story in this issue, which I will of course not be looking at but which you can check out if you wish. But the stories are, by and large, deconstructions of government, of ways of governing. They examine the abuses and excesses, yes—the violence and the corruption, certainly. But they also look for hope, for ways of governing better, for fighting against tyranny, and for seeking love in the midst of turmoil. So time to review! 

Art by Likhain

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus July 2016

The story in this month's GigaNotoSaurus is on the short side for the publication when it comes to word count, but it certainly reads like a longer piece with a great mood, complex world, and amazing characters. It's often difficult to find hope in apocalyptic stories, and especially ones that involve climate change, and I think that's something this story both recognizes and complicates, infusing a bit of magic and human fucked-upness into a world on the decline. But before I spoil everything, I should just start my review! 

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online July 2016

Dishing up a rather dark and disturbing and beautiful trio of stories about parents and children, the July issue of Flash Fiction Online is probably the most intense I've seen from the publication. Trigger Warnings abound [mostly loss of a child, so be warned]. These are stories that dare the reader to watch, to experience, to feel what it is to suffer and to lose and to grieve. These stories hit and they don't stop hitting, their power coming from the well of sadness and tragedy that human life can be. A reminder that there are things that so alter the world that there is no real going back. No erasing certain pains or wounds. So before I lose my nerve, it's time to review! 

Art by Dario Bijelac

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #74

Rarely do I find an issue of Lightspeed Magazine as thematically linked as I do with this month's original fiction. The stories are mostly about cycles, about progress, about comfort and change and perspective. The stories are also about stories, about the narratives we use to change the world and the narratives we tell about the world that keep us stuck in destructive patterns. There are AI and science summer camps and gods and stones. The issue shows a hunger for change, and many different ways that it can be achieved. It's a compelling collection of stories that I'm going to get to reviewing! 

Art by Galen Dara