Quick Sips - Lightspeed #122

Art by Galen Dara

I’m starting my July reviews with a look at the latest Lightspeed Magazine, which lands with four short stories (the lack of novelettes is cut by the fact that three of the four stories are over 6000 words, though, so there’s still a lot of original fiction). The works themselves show a wide range of speculative visions, from a very interesting kind of alien visitation to new takes on Baba Yaga and the Peter Pan story. The works recontextualize all these things through the lens of now, reshaping science fiction and fantasy alike by challenging the tropes and traditions of the genres. The result is often delightful, occasionally devastating, and very much worth checking out. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #118

Art by Elizabeth Leggett

March brings three short stories and a novelette to Lightspeed Magazine, with perhaps a focus on characters facing worlds/situations/lives that they want to escape from. Relationships that have began to feel like prisons. Systems that offer them no room to reach for what they really want, or where making the decision to reach for change carries a rather high cost. The pieces explore how these characters push on regardless, hoping that they can find a balance that will work for them, not sure of it and afraid that it might be a mistake after all. For some, there is a brighter future ahead. For others...not so much. But it's an interesting issue, and I'll get right to my reviews!