Today I'm catching up a bit with Strange Horizons, with three weeks of excellent fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. The fiction seems to be rather...familial in theme, exploring the relationships between mothers and children, especially, and challenging parental expectations and childhood autonomy. It's some complex reading, to be sure, paired with poetry that looks to the stars as well as inward, that speaks of creation and gives a few meta comments on poetry and art. Plus a piece of nonfiction that's very interesting, especially in light of the fiction that's featured here. But before I ruin everything, to the reviews!
Beneath Ceaseless Skies does not always make life easy for a reviewer. Releasing an issue on the last day of the month is sort of a low blow, especially in a month that has seen two larger-than-normal releases. As always, though, the quality of the stories means that I can't exactly be upset. Really, more great stories to read? I guess I'm okay with that. Seriously, the stories of this issue are all about losing power and living in the aftermath. Balancing the crushing loss with hope for the future. Tending to your own mental health with care and with compassion and finding that you still have something to give, still have love and still have dreams. The stories are about life, and getting old, and are sweet and very good. To the reviews!
A new issue of Omenana is officially up! It's been a little while since the last issue launched in October 2015 and this issue marks a return to the more regular format, with a mix of flash fiction and longer works and even a piece of nonfiction to chew on. The stories are vivid, expertly crafted, and carry with them a splash of humor even in some very dark circumstances. And amid the intolerance and the brutality that is sometimes present in the stories is a hope, a resistance, and a rebellion. A push to do better and to be better and to create a future worth living in. And I'm going to get to reviewing this fine issue!
I said recently that I wanted to review more erotica, so when I saw this story I immediately thought it was about time to put my money where my mouth is. Because it's a stand-alone story published for free at an online venue, the time commitment is rather low and the quality of the writing and the presentation (lots of non-erotic artwork and a slick website design) is quite high. Indeed, Harlot is filled with a lot of great nonfiction work, and if this first venture into fiction is anything to go by, I'll gladly be tuning back in to see what they serve up. There's nothing specifically spec about the site, or its goals, but the story itself is decidedly near-future SF with a great aesthetic and I should probably just get to my review. Here we go!
After a breakneck pace during the first two months of the year, March slows things down only marginally for Tor.com, which still released five original fiction stories. The second half of the month has been dominated by clever twists on genre classics and a sense of loss and hope. In each of the stories there has been great pain, great loss, both personal and more sweeping. Wars and catastrophes and paradigm shifts. But there is something that remains, something aching and human and hopeful, something that stares into the heart and feels empathy, a bond that cannot be broken. It makes for a rather sad but beautiful set of stories that I should just review already.
Uh...well this is awkward. I've been waiting to post this review of Terraform SF's March offerings because...well, I was hoping there was going to be more than one. Especially after last month's amazing array of stories I was quite looking forward to seeing what was next, but it seems like output has been slightly down. But hey, a story's a story and this one is certainly rather entertaining and fun and well conceived and executed. And hopefully next month there will be more to look. To the review!
I'm back looking at the first issue of Plasma Frequency Magazine's triumphant return. Last month I featured the first seven stories of the quarterly issue, and this month I'm cleaning up the final six. And I must say that I think I like the second half of the issue even more than the first half. Most of the stories are fairly short, but there's a nice balance to them, some flash fiction and some a bit longer. There's a good balance to the tone and mood of the pieces, as well, from much darker and more psychological stories to ones that bring the fun and left me smiling. Above all, these are well-crafted speculative stories. There's murky contemporary fantasies and political science fictions and it all comes together nicely, making Plasma Frequency's return a happy thing indeed. To the reviews!
The month of Science Fantasy continues with another extra-large issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. These stories take things in a slightly different direction. They're about land and about family, about growing up and digging in and trying to find a better way, even if it doesn't always mean an end to violence. The stories are complex and haunted—by ghosts, by intentions, by the land itself. The past returns in these stories and helps to inform a future that might be brighter, that has the hope of changing things, ending or at least easing oppression. It's another great issue, and I'm just going to jump into the reviews!
So something a bit different today, as I'm looking at a not-really-spec publications called The Sun Magazine. Or, rather, I'm looking at the piece of fiction it released in its March issue. Why? Well, a few reasons. First, I was asked by the author, whose Terraform SF story I was a big fan of last year. And because I'm in that time of the month where publications are all holding onto one or two stories yet so it's either let a Thursday go with no new review or else pick something new. And I'm quite glad I decided to read this story, as it's challenging and deep and really rather uncomfortable. It's fantasy, or maybe science fiction, but whatever it is the story is a great meta-fictional experience worth checking out. The story is excerpted online and available for free in the digital edition of the magazine. Definitely go read it. For now, though, the review!
It's March and spring is upon us! At Strange Horizons that means stories of water melting and things awakening. Of fairy tales and danger and loneliness. Of the resolve to do something. From a far future where the world has been irrevocably changed to a time much closer to our own when the weight of living might open doors best left closed, the stories are dark and layered, about human interconnections and separation, responsibility and the will to life and death. The poetry takes on almost mythic overtones, setting a few creepy and unsettling scenes, and I apparently have a lot to say on the piece of nonfiction. So yeah, lots to review. Let's get to it!
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!
Spring is in the air, but at Nightmare Magazine that seems to mean people being torn apart by voices external and internal. It means correspondence dominated by hate and rage and hurt. It means people struggling under the weight of enormous pain and pressure and not always finding a good way out of it. The stories are unsettling and provocative and strange, but right at home at Nightmare, and without further procrastination I'm going to review them!
This issue of Apex Magazine definitely takes some chances. From a story about leaning heavily on Philip K. Dick to a prose poem about a woman rising from the ground to a dark science fiction piece about death and memory, the issue is filled with pieces that carry with them a certain pervasive strangeness, and darkness. And while most of them I think pay off, with so many ambitious steps it was perhaps inevitable that there was...one, really, that I personally didn't much care for. Still, this is an issue that goes bold, and so I will attempt to be equally bold in reviewing it!
I'm changing my plans a bit today and looking at the first two Tor.com stories released so far this month. Because of the downturn in a few key publications, I'm a bit short on things to review and adding anything more is not the best of ideas (because certain publications are coming back full force soon enough). Luckily for me there's still plenty to read and I can let some of these reviews breath a little more. The first half of March sees two stories from Tor, both of which highlight difference and hurt and loneliness. They are not happy stories. They are stories about wounds that are never really whole, about losses that can't really be erased. And they're very, very good. So let's get to it!
March has arrived at Uncanny Magazine and with it comes an interesting look at love and history and oppression and labels. People stuck in bad situations and people in some ways responsible for sticking people there. It's a nice mix of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, and there's definitely a lot to read through and enjoy. Much of pairs quite well, too, echoing themes of men as products of their times and places (and how inadequate an excuse that is when it comes to causing harm) to escaping harmful patterns and oppression and labels. As I said, there's a lot to read, so I'm going to jump right into the reviews!
 |
| Art by Katy Shuttleworth |
March marks Science Fantasy Month 3 at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which means an extra story in this issue and a "You got chocolate in my peanut butter" convergence of two things that I quite enjoy. The stories pop with a unique feel and blend and with an energy that is infectious. There's a movement to all of the stories, a pursuit to them, a purpose. But just as these three stories all show characters running toward something, they are also stories about running away. About being afraid and fleeing to some perceived safety. And the stories work, are at turns hopeful and happy and tragic and doomed. It's a special month and it hits its mark beautifully. To the reviews!
Wow, sometimes I forget just how much content Strange Horizons comes out with in a month. I'm only looking at three weeks, but there are two stories, four poems, and a few nonfiction pieces that are definitely all worth checking out. Both fiction pieces look firmly to the stars to tell their tales while the poetry brings things back home in very powerful ways, and the nonfiction looks at things from a truly global perspective. Lots to enjoy, lots to review!
It's the start of spring (not really here in Wisconsin, but it's the start of meteorological spring at least), and at Shimmer Magazine that means a time for stories about death and rebirth. About oppression and devastation leading to something...well, perhaps not entirely better, but new at least. A chance and a hope of doing something good, of right wrongs and healing old wounds. Of fighting. The stories are deep and dark and strange (delightfully so) and we worth sinking into. It's review time!
This month's Lightspeed Magazine comes hot out the gate and doesn't really let up. The four stories are on the slim side for a typical month of the publication but it gives them a faster feel, a breath of energy and life. The stories are not, by and large, the happiest of things, but they have an energy and a punch to them, an electricity that sizzles and a power that lasts well after the last word is read. A nice mix of science fiction and fantasy, these stories are mirrors to our own world, showing things that are not always comfortable but that need to be examined. Now, to the reviews!
Spring might be in the air, but at Clarkesworld this month things aren't quite jubilantly hopeful. Not that the stories are incredibly gloomy, but there is a certain loneliness to the stories this month. A longing and a loss and an isolation that is cut a bit by family and care, but often the losses in these stories are not ones that are recovered or recovered from. The characters in these stories are all alone and trying to figure out what to do with that, trying to figure out how to go on. Their answers are all different, all interesting, and all worth checking out. To the reviews!
