Quick Sips - Terraform August 2018

Motherboard's Terraform seems to be going through a new transformation of sorts. Not in its schedule or really even in the themes and genres it publishes, but rather in the length of works it focuses on. For a little while now, the bulk of the work it's been publishing has been ranging less into the flash fiction length and more solidly into short stories. Which means a bit of extra space to explore the futures these authors imagine—which can be both a good and a not-so-good thing, given how dark and gritty a lot of those future are. This month five short stories reveal futures full of slavery and corruption, drugs and borders. They star characters trying to heal the fissures they've opened up in their lives, or falling headlong into them. So yeah, let's get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Terraform June 2017

It's another month of content from Motherboard's Terraform and I continue to not be sure what's going on with the release schedule. There's only one new piece out this month, but as it's the last chapter in the long-running Highwayman series, there's still a lot to digest. Now, this series has had some ups and downs for me personally, but it's continually told a captivating story with some interesting visuals and a great style. The ending certainly comes with a bang, leaving me to wonder that now that it has wrapped up, what might be on the horizons for the publication. But enough speculating—time to review!

Quick Sips - Terraform April 2017

I can honestly say that I'm not sure what's going on with the posting schedule for Terraform. I'm paranoid at the moment that I've missed something vital but it's possible that there is only the one release this month, a new chapter in the Highwayman graphic story. If that's the case, then okay then, though I will admit I've missed something done by Terraform in the past because I wasn't looking in the right place. What's here under the Terraform banner, however, is a rather revealing chapter of the ongoing story in a series that I can read a lot into. It's a fascinating read and while I'm not always sure how to feel about it, the time for reviewing has come!

Quick Sips - Terraform February 2017

It's something of a short month from Motherboard's Terraform, though there's still quite a bit to see and experience. It's no surprise that with things the way they are that the first story is about immigration and acceptability and beauty. About how we value people and how we exploit people. About how the world as we're organizing it blames victims and glories tyrants. A bit more of a surprise is the story on the (possible) apocalyptic future of porn. Which...well, Terraform has always had something of an eye on the future of sex, and why should the future of self-sex be excluded? And then a new chapter in the Highwayman series rounds things out. All in all, it's a month of very different pieces unified by a common disillusioned gaze at the future. So yeah, to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Terraform December 2016

It's something of a short month of fiction at Motherboard's Terraform, with only two fiction pieces and a new chapter in the Highwayman graphic story. And the future looks…well, bleak as fuck in these visions of what might happen. I suspect that given how 2016 has gone, hope is going to be rather difficult to find, especially in near future SF, and these stories certain capture a certain darkness and a certain pessimism when looking forward. Which makes sense, especially given recent events, but these are not easy stories. These are stories that expose the ugliness that humans are capable of, and probably not for the squeamish. But yeah, to the reviews! 

Quick Sips - Terraform November 2016

It's interesting in many ways to see where Terraform will go now that Trump is the president-elect. For quite some time a good number of the stories have dealt with possible outcomes from the election and now…well, and now that it's happened I wonder what line the publication will take. Certainly there aren't any quite so scathing as some of the stories that came out when Trump was only one Republican candidate of many. The stories this month offer much more…subtle critiques about what might be coming. Stories about the loss of the environment. About corruption. About hopelessness. They're quite appropriate stories, really, and certainly not the cheeriest bunch of SF tales. They're definitely stories worth spending time with though, and I plan on doing just that with some reviews! 

Quick Sips - Terraform September 2016

This month marks another one of experiments for Terraform's short SFF. Not only is there a story told as a series of documents making up a packet of information that still manages to tell a compelling story, but there's also a continuation of the running graphic story and two rather formally daring pieces of fiction. There's a lot weird in this month's offerings, but also a lot of good. Most of the risks taken pay off, are exceptional for their innovation as well as their hitting content. And it mixes a jaded look at the future with a spot of hope as well, that even in the worst of futures there's something worth fighting for. To the reviews! 

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!