NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!
Short(ish) Reviews of Speculative Short Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction. Word counts are approximate. Opinions are my own. (also, probably SPOILERS ABOUND!)
Showing posts with label Kaleidotrope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kaleidotrope. Show all posts
Friday, October 15, 2021
Quick Sips 10/15/2021
A new week brings me desperately trying to get ahead on reviews ahead of a planned vacation (of sorts). Taking time off has always been somewhat challenging for me not just because I couldn't afford to for a long time, but because short fiction never stops, and taking a whole week off of reviewing can mean the pile of work to catch up on is...intense. Given that I'm already behind on novellas and anthologies, I'm hoping that taking the time won't leave me absolutely buried. But we'll see. What I can say is that I got to a decent amount this week, finishing up September's work with the latest Mermaids Monthly. After that it's solidly October releases, and some large ones. Kaleidotrope had 14 works, and Fusion Fragment had 8. Fiyah had 7. The special Apex had 6. The only smaller release I'm looking at this week is Flash Fiction Online. And even with all that, October looks like it will be a doozy. But I will celebrate the work I did get done, even as I'll need to do at least as well next week to be in good shape for the month. Onward.
Friday, July 23, 2021
Quick Sips 07/23/2021
So a new week brings a bunch of reviews, and some special coverage. Namely, I’m looking at a spinoff of Reckoning, a special anthology of poetry and nonfiction (with one story) all about creativity and the coronavirus. It’s a timely thing, and while I’m not looking at the nonfiction, there’s a lot of poetry to look at in it as well. Kaleidotrope has a new quarterly issue, and The Future Fire put out their third issue of the year. Baffling Magazine also had a quarterly issue full of queer short SFF, and I tried to quick catch up on Strange Horizons, as well as the latest from Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Mostly short stories and poetry aside from the BCS issue, which was two novelettes. And just rather busy for me.
Next week I’ll try to catch up on the various Escape Artist podcasts, and probably try to get Diabolical Plots, The Deadlands, Mermaids Monthly, and another else I can think of. I’m running on empty but I’m still running on.
NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!
Friday, April 16, 2021
Quick Sips 04/16/2021
Well I’m now into entirely April publications, and looking a lot of interesting works this week. I think I can start to pin down some trends, though, for the year. And I mean keep in mind that I’m not reading everything, that I’m not seeing all works being put out, but I have been noticing a big return of stories focused on the act of survival and the different ways that people can resist, and the ways that can be effective, and the ways that sometimes there’s no win, no real way to fight back except in personal, often self-destructive acts. And I feel that it’s probably reflecting a lot but especially the pandemic and the lingering effects that authoritarian movements have made a bad situation so much worse globally, where almost every authoritarian/conservative government has fucked up their response and let their people die. And just…the weight of that. Mixed in to how some governments are going further right, using this as a chance to consolidate power, to the further detriment of their people. Though through a speculative lens, I am noticing that there are a lot of really heavy stories dealing with corrupt regimes, the desire to push back, and the enormous toll that takes on a person.
But anyway, that’s just one thing. I’m sure I’ll notice other things as the year moves on even more. For now, I’ll just keep my eyes open.
NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!
Friday, January 22, 2021
Quick Sips 01/22/2021
Hi and welcome back! Today I’m doing a quick look at 7 recent publications/issues, including the latest Kaleidotrope, which is relatively new-to-me (I did review an issue in late 2015 but didn't add the publication to my regular schedule). Part of my decision to shorten my reviews, after all, has been so that I could widen what I read and cover. So far, the balance is actually working out quite well, I’d say. We’ll see if I get myself into trouble adding too much (more on that at the end of this post), but I am very happy to be able to look at publications outside of the list of those I fully reviewed (it was always a time limitation that prevented me from adding more).
Now, I’m hopeful that these very short reviews are still helpful. It’s very hard to give an idea of what a story is about in such a small space, which is part of why I stayed away from this kind of format. Trying to balance giving readers tools necessary to guide their reading with trying not to immediately default back to my lengthy reviews is rough for me, especially after having spent so long doing longer reviews. I’m managing at the moment, and apologies if the reviews are less useful in guiding reading or provoking further thought. I’m not going back to what I did, but apologies all the same.
Anyway, maybe some people like these even more than what I was doing! To you, you’re welcome! Also, you’re in luck, because here’s another round of quick sips!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Quick Sips - Kaleidotrope Winter 2015
Today I'm looking at Kaleidotrope, a magazine that I don't have an awful lot of experience with. It puts out a mix of genres, but this issue is mostly fantasy with some alt-history (maybe sci fi?) thrown in for good measure. And they are now accepting submissions, so maybe go check that out too. In any event, onward!
Stories:
"The Salt Wedding" by Gemma Files (15696 words)
I wasn't expecting to find so long a story here, and yet this one has some legs, giving a moving account of some very strange happenings at sea. Told part in dialect, the story centers around Tante Ankolee as she is tasked by the King of England to investigate a report of ghost ships. More at the center, though, are Ankolee's cousin Solomon Rusk and Jerusalem Parry, two men who share a very sordid history and a very complicated relationship. It's really interesting to see that relationship, where Solomon is obviously infatuated with Parry, and as flawed as Solomon is he thinks that's enough, despite the fact that Parry is not comfortable with the part of himself that does want to be with Solomon. And Solomon doesn't wait, and that's no good, and I'm a little uncomfortable with that because it's sort of a trope that the forced party "learns to like it" but I think the story does a good enough job complicating things that I'm comfortable enjoying the plot and the characters and the voice. Because the voice is great, capturing the story being told and the spirits of the characters involved. I could feel that Solomon seemed to regret what he did and that he was tired of the long arguments, and that Parry didn't know how to feel, but needed space and release from being linked to Solomon. Perhaps smoothing things out is that they never get a happily-ever-after ending, as they are both dead, and that death can be seen as a way of clearing away some of the badness between them while not leaving real room for them to be together. It cancels their debts instead so that they can part. They enter into a new relationship where they cling a bit to their old excuses but can be more open about their feelings, but even that doesn't really last, and in the end they are able to let go and move on, and find their own ways. So in the end I liked the story, liked how it let everyone go and how it resolved the issues. A very nice, if very long, read, this story is well worth checking out.
"Bread of Life" by Cynthia McGean (2379 words)
A story within a story, this layered piece takes the side of the outsider, the abused and oppressed. The story is of a woman telling a story to a group of villagers. The story is picked out for one in particular, a girl who lives under the violent thumb of her father, a girl who is mocked by the rest of the village. So the story that is told is about a woman who is similarly looked down on, and who makes herself a child out of bread only to have her village turn their dislike into enough hatred to kill the child. It's a stark tale, shifting between the way the storyteller weaves her tale and the drama of the woman and her magic bread. There's certainly a sense of magic to it all, especially when the story seems to have some real-world consequences. And then the two stories are linked in the end, though one can only hope it's implied that things will go better than everyone dying. Artfully told, this story was a fun read, sad but with an uplifting spirit that is captured powerfully and emotionally.
"Atomic Missions" by Michael Andre-Driussi (4593 words)
A surreal alt-history where nuclear warfare became much more widespread but didn't outright target civilian centers, this story is something of a strange one. I'm pretty sure it's looking at what might have been, as in the alternate history nukes are used in Korea, in the Cuban Missile Crisis, in Vietnam. There's the feel from the bomber, who acts as the main character, that this is somehow cleaner, and yet it results in so much more death, in so much more damage to the globe. But I'm not sure that what's saying is that it's better the way we did it. I'm don't think, I guess, that the story really wants to make the point that things are better this way. I think instead that it wants to show that things might have been much worse, or different, or that without dropping the nukes as we did on civilians that the US might not have had the guilt to restrain itself from using them again. It's an interesting story, reminding me of the alt-history a-bomb stories of Kim Stanley Robinson, though perhaps a bit weirder. Worth checking out at least.
"Necessary Evil" by Stephen J. Barringer (9456 words)
In this long novelette, a wizard's apprentice seeks to cure a mysterious ailment suffered by his brother's beloved. Setting up a second world fantasy that seems to have a lot of similarities with our own world (the main character being from the Scotland-analogy and there at least being a German-analogy out there as well) but where magic is real and rather complicated. It's an interesting enough story, hitting all the plot points and bringing the main character to the conclusion that sometimes one must be manipulative to do right. Only I don't really like that as a message, because the idea of "necessary evil" is one where...well, even in the "Atomic Missions" story that idea is challenged. There's even a bomber plane in "Atomic Missions" named Necessary Evil. So having these two stories side by side is rather interesting, because I feel I come more on the "Atomic Missions" side where the right and wrong are rather muddied and cannot be judged based on the outcome. In this story, I find Mycroft's manipulating of Caitryn to be...well, it didn't feel wholly necessary nor...good. She should have had the right to make her own decision free of anyone trying to guilt or bully here. There are some pretty unpleasant analogies to real-world situations where people (especially men) think they know better than the woman about what to do with the woman's body (especially, like here, when it regards pregnancy). And while it doesn't seem the intent of the story at all, it gave me a bad feeling all the same. I just don't particularly like the idea that some people manipulating other people is "for their own good" and in this story it's somehow right, somehow moral for the manipulator. The greater good argument is not one that can be used with any certainty. It's...well, I was left feeling a bit conflicted about this story. The writing is well done and Mycroft seems an interesting enough character, capable of growth and introspection. For me, though, he falls into some traps that made me like him a lot less than I could have.
 |
| Art by Bridget Wilde |
Stories:
"The Salt Wedding" by Gemma Files (15696 words)
I wasn't expecting to find so long a story here, and yet this one has some legs, giving a moving account of some very strange happenings at sea. Told part in dialect, the story centers around Tante Ankolee as she is tasked by the King of England to investigate a report of ghost ships. More at the center, though, are Ankolee's cousin Solomon Rusk and Jerusalem Parry, two men who share a very sordid history and a very complicated relationship. It's really interesting to see that relationship, where Solomon is obviously infatuated with Parry, and as flawed as Solomon is he thinks that's enough, despite the fact that Parry is not comfortable with the part of himself that does want to be with Solomon. And Solomon doesn't wait, and that's no good, and I'm a little uncomfortable with that because it's sort of a trope that the forced party "learns to like it" but I think the story does a good enough job complicating things that I'm comfortable enjoying the plot and the characters and the voice. Because the voice is great, capturing the story being told and the spirits of the characters involved. I could feel that Solomon seemed to regret what he did and that he was tired of the long arguments, and that Parry didn't know how to feel, but needed space and release from being linked to Solomon. Perhaps smoothing things out is that they never get a happily-ever-after ending, as they are both dead, and that death can be seen as a way of clearing away some of the badness between them while not leaving real room for them to be together. It cancels their debts instead so that they can part. They enter into a new relationship where they cling a bit to their old excuses but can be more open about their feelings, but even that doesn't really last, and in the end they are able to let go and move on, and find their own ways. So in the end I liked the story, liked how it let everyone go and how it resolved the issues. A very nice, if very long, read, this story is well worth checking out.
"Bread of Life" by Cynthia McGean (2379 words)
A story within a story, this layered piece takes the side of the outsider, the abused and oppressed. The story is of a woman telling a story to a group of villagers. The story is picked out for one in particular, a girl who lives under the violent thumb of her father, a girl who is mocked by the rest of the village. So the story that is told is about a woman who is similarly looked down on, and who makes herself a child out of bread only to have her village turn their dislike into enough hatred to kill the child. It's a stark tale, shifting between the way the storyteller weaves her tale and the drama of the woman and her magic bread. There's certainly a sense of magic to it all, especially when the story seems to have some real-world consequences. And then the two stories are linked in the end, though one can only hope it's implied that things will go better than everyone dying. Artfully told, this story was a fun read, sad but with an uplifting spirit that is captured powerfully and emotionally.
"Atomic Missions" by Michael Andre-Driussi (4593 words)
A surreal alt-history where nuclear warfare became much more widespread but didn't outright target civilian centers, this story is something of a strange one. I'm pretty sure it's looking at what might have been, as in the alternate history nukes are used in Korea, in the Cuban Missile Crisis, in Vietnam. There's the feel from the bomber, who acts as the main character, that this is somehow cleaner, and yet it results in so much more death, in so much more damage to the globe. But I'm not sure that what's saying is that it's better the way we did it. I'm don't think, I guess, that the story really wants to make the point that things are better this way. I think instead that it wants to show that things might have been much worse, or different, or that without dropping the nukes as we did on civilians that the US might not have had the guilt to restrain itself from using them again. It's an interesting story, reminding me of the alt-history a-bomb stories of Kim Stanley Robinson, though perhaps a bit weirder. Worth checking out at least.
"Necessary Evil" by Stephen J. Barringer (9456 words)
In this long novelette, a wizard's apprentice seeks to cure a mysterious ailment suffered by his brother's beloved. Setting up a second world fantasy that seems to have a lot of similarities with our own world (the main character being from the Scotland-analogy and there at least being a German-analogy out there as well) but where magic is real and rather complicated. It's an interesting enough story, hitting all the plot points and bringing the main character to the conclusion that sometimes one must be manipulative to do right. Only I don't really like that as a message, because the idea of "necessary evil" is one where...well, even in the "Atomic Missions" story that idea is challenged. There's even a bomber plane in "Atomic Missions" named Necessary Evil. So having these two stories side by side is rather interesting, because I feel I come more on the "Atomic Missions" side where the right and wrong are rather muddied and cannot be judged based on the outcome. In this story, I find Mycroft's manipulating of Caitryn to be...well, it didn't feel wholly necessary nor...good. She should have had the right to make her own decision free of anyone trying to guilt or bully here. There are some pretty unpleasant analogies to real-world situations where people (especially men) think they know better than the woman about what to do with the woman's body (especially, like here, when it regards pregnancy). And while it doesn't seem the intent of the story at all, it gave me a bad feeling all the same. I just don't particularly like the idea that some people manipulating other people is "for their own good" and in this story it's somehow right, somehow moral for the manipulator. The greater good argument is not one that can be used with any certainty. It's...well, I was left feeling a bit conflicted about this story. The writing is well done and Mycroft seems an interesting enough character, capable of growth and introspection. For me, though, he falls into some traps that made me like him a lot less than I could have.
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