The March 2017 Monthly Round is Live!

Head over and check out my March 2017 Monthly Round now at Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together.

There have been some changes, and I go over them in brief detail there, but the main thing is that I'm moving to do just the 6-story Tasting Flight and dropping the Shots. As fun as they were, they were a lot of work and I wanted to further refine the column so it is what it is. Plus I got a new graphic! Anyway, as always, just the picks are included below:

Tasting Flight - March 2017

"The Cold, Lonely Waters" by Aimee Ogden (Shimmer)
"It Happened To Me: I Melded My Consciousness With the Giant Alien Mushroom Floating Above Chicago" by Nino Cipri (Fireside Fiction)
"You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych" by Kathleen Kayembe (Nightmare)
"Terra Nullius" by Hanuš Seiner, translated by Julie Nováková (Strange Horizons)
"If We Survive the Night" by Carlie St. George (The Dark)
"Suddenwall" by Sara Saab (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)

There you have it! If you want the full reviews, notes, and booze pairings, go over and check out the full piece. Otherwise, Cheers!

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Quick Sips - Motherboard's Terraform March 2017

There are only two stories (that I found) from Motherboard's Terraform this month, but they pack a nice one-two punch of near-future worries. In one, art and artificial intelligence meet in a mesmerizing tale of gaze and intent. And in the second, masculinity is indeed so fragile, and apparently needs to enforce a gun culture that requires compliance or death. The pieces look at characters struggling with their environments, with the artifacts of a culture that is harmful. And things in both…don't really go as expected. It's a pair of interesting stories that I'm just going to jump right into reviewing!

Quick Sips - Fireside Fiction March 2017

It’s a rather full month from Fireside Fiction as their publishing model has moved a bit away from issues and toward more regular, weekly content. It’s not exactly the most conducive to reviewing, as it means waiting and wondering if more stories will be coming out, but that particular blow is one probably more unique to me and the blow is softened by a month packed with great SFF. Weighing in well above the 10K in stories they shoot for, the four stories out explore a multitude of worlds and situations, from a Rome that never fell to a Chicago shadowed by a giant alien psychic mushroom. The stories explore the ways that people react to corruption and to weird situations, and how they adapt and overcome and fight for what they feel is right. And since there’s quite a bit to get to this month, I’ll get right to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #222

There’s not exactly the strongest of thematic links that I could tease out with the two stories in the latest Beneath Ceaseless Skies, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t excellent windows into fantastical worlds. The stories look at the weight of place, at long conflicts that seem unwinnable, and in how hope often comes with the newer generations. Both stories do feature people, parents, fighting for a better world for their children and at the same time needing their children to carry on the fight, and to bring the fight to a close. These are stories about sacrifices and bargains and difficult decisions, and the idea that only when everyone is free can anyone be free. So yeah, to the reviews!

Art by Ward Lindhout

Quick Sips - Tor dot com March 2017

First I guess I have to talk about Tor dot com's March project, Nevertheless, She Persisted, which features eleven pieces of flash fiction all centered around that idea, that quote. These are stories that hit and hit hard, some of them blisteringly defiant and some of them steeped in despair. The stories (and poem) show the many facets of the idea of persistence. The power of it and also the crushing nature of having to persist, and persist, and persist, ever and always. The stories run across a wide range of speculative genres and it's wonderful to see the authors taking this central idea and being inspired by it. Using it to say something new and interesting. Making a statement on our current situation and refusing to look away from the uncomfortable truths of it. So yes, it's a wonderful project and makes for a some surprising start to Tor's March.

That's not all that the publication got up to, though. Oh no. This would have been a full month even without the eleven flash stories, as there are also three short stories and two novelettes to look at. And wow. These are some gorgeous pieces that take on some deeply uncomfortable themes and manage to find glimmers of hope even in the most devastating of loss and corruption. They are stories of ghosts and magic, bodies and wars. And before I get too lost in describing them, why don't I just get to the reviews!

Art by Scott Bakal

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 03/20/2017 & 03/27/2017

Strange Horizons has a treat to close out March. That's right, Samovar has officially arrived, and with it a pair of translated stories and a translated poem. Plus, you know, the other outstanding work from the regular issue (which also includes a translated story). Sadly, for time reasons, I am skipping the reprint, but I do encourage everyone to go and check that out. What's here is gorgeous, though, at times bleak but with an unrelenting current of hope and empathy and reaching out. These are pieces that ask us not only to survive but to stand up. To preach. To inspire. And what results are some amazing pieces of SFF. So yeah, without further ado, the reviews!

Art by Sishir Bommakanti

Quick Sips - Glittership March 2017

I'm looking at two stories from this month's Glittership. There were three originally on the schedule (I think), but the third story (which doesn't seem out yet) they're running is a reprint of a story that I've already reviewed, R.B. Lemberg's "How to Remember to Forget to Remember the Old War." It is still amazing. If you want to check out my original review, it can be found here. That still leaves an original story and a different reprint to tackle, though, and they are delightful, filled with monsters and villains and humanity, food and taste and hunger. These are stories that offer nicely complex flavors that deepen the more you peel away their layers. They're fun and it's powerful and I should just review them already!

Quick Sips - Orthogonal #3: Criminal Variations

There’s a new issue of Orthogonal out and this time the theme is crime. The way that the stories take on the theme are varied and, largely, very strange. There’s corrupt and abusive pastors, a number of conversations concealing pain and death and damage, and a number of people seemingly broken by their experiences and lives. The stories are not the happiest of pieces, either, which might be because of how they look at crime and criminals. The perversion of law and justice. These stories are bleak and they are uncomfortable, featuring characters making difficult decisions or trying to avoid making difficult decisions. So, before I ramble on any more, to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Apex #94

It’s March and the new Apex Magazine has arrived with one short story and one novelette. I have to say—I miss the poetry. But what fiction is here is definitely in keeping with the feel of the publication. These stories are certainly dark. And they look at loyalty in an interesting way, showing how people make connections. How people are willing to do nearly anything for those that they care about, those that they have claimed as their own. These stories explore how people care for each other, even when they suspect that it might make them into monsters, even when the entire rest of the world seems to agree. These are tales of plans and danger and hope, that develop slowly to reveal characters driven by their hungers, for security or justice or blood. So yeah, to the reviews!

[On a quick note, the Apex subscription drive just happens to be starting TODAY. I'm probably going to be renewing my subscription, and you should definitely consider supporting this wonderful publication.]

Art by Caroline Jamhour

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #221

The two pieces from this issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies explore the boundaries of childhood and adolescence. They introduce us to young characters just coming into themselves and their bodies and their desires. Who are learning how to act with one another and how to move through their worlds. And yet the worlds that they move through are filled with dangers, holes that they might tumble down if they’re not careful. And the stories take very different approaches to these holes, showing in turns the tragedy that can come from childhood folly and the power that can be pulled from being free of the ingrained practices and beliefs of adults. These are stories that deal with darkness and with death, decay and destiny. And before I give any more away, to the reviews!

Art by Ward Lindhout

Quick Sips - Uncanny #15 [March stuff]

March seems to be particularly concerned this year with two things. Horror and resistance. Probably not surprising, given everything. But these are certainly themes that run strong through Uncanny’s March offerings. With three stories, two poems, and two nonfiction pieces, many of the works linger on darkness and fighting back against adversity. Against oppression. Against wrongs both personal and societal. These are works that are very aware of our current moment but also reach beyond it, also capture something to bring forward, something hopeful and resilient and defiant. There’s something beautiful about the way the works all push us toward confronting loss and building communities. It’s a wonderful issue and it’s time to review it!

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - Shimmer #36 [March stuff]

The March offerings from Shimmer Magazine certainly aren't the brightest of stories. Delving into human and non-human desperation and loneliness, the pieces show the lengths that people will go for hope. For the desire to get out of a bad situation. For the chance to start fresh. These are stories that build up some interesting worlds, some very close to our own, some…very not. But both have a taste of the sea to them, the sound of crashing waves and the spray of mist. Both show people pushing through hardship and catastrophe to find something beautiful and to pass it along to future generations. These are some shocking and lovely stories that I should just review already!

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus March 2017

March is here and for GigaNotoSaurus that means another excellent piece of SFF that ranges a bit on the long side. It’s a novelette this month, long enough to sink your teeth into but not so long that it drags. No, this story is a dense story that takes place in the American Southwest and tastes like country music, sugar, and rot. It’s a piece that explores a relationship in all its complexity and messiness. That looks at bargains and death and recrimination. And it’s just another fine example of what makes GigaNotoSaurus worth returning to, month after month—a SFF tale of magic, tenderness, and most of all, humanity. So yeah, to the review!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 03/06/2017 & 03/13/2017

It's another dense two weeks from Strange Horizons, with a novelette cut into two parts, two poems, and a nonfiction piece from the videogame-centric Metagames. Which means that there's a lot to see and experience. The publication doesn't often do multi-part stories, but I'm certainly glad it's made that decision here, presenting a tale that's wrenching and bleak but with a vein of hope and faith. The poetry is all about scope and perspective, about what is hidden, and how we can reveal it. And the nonfiction takes a look at the different reasons people have for playing video games. The different ways that people can engage with the idea of challenge and flow. It's a great pair of issues and I'm going to jump right into my reviews!

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #126

It's a pretty standard month from Clarkesworld Magazine for March, with five original stories including a great novelette in translation. Indeed, the four short stories all come in within about 500 words of each other and all of them are science fiction pieces. More connective than length, though, these pieces are concerned with new forms of intelligence and with the end of the world. Or maybe just with the end of certain aspects of it. But at least two of the stories are more specifically apocalyptic, and many besides are about doubt and depression, anxiety and seclusion. These stories show people closing themselves off from the rest of the world—out of fear or hurt—and then having to decide whether to open up again. It's a wonderful issue and it's time to review!

Art by Sergei Sarichev

Quick Sips - Nightmare #54

The March issue of Nightmare Magazine certainly doesn’t skimp on the stories. Though it’s only the usual pair of tales, the lengths are rather impressive (the shorter is still over 7000 words) and the complexity is amazing. These are stories that don’t really follow the conventional slasher-style tropes of horror. No, instead what we find are familial tragedies, stories of sons betrayed by their fathers, of young people trying to find some way forward even when their lives and their worlds have been poisoned against them. These are stories about old wounds that won’t seem to heal, and about the power necessary to go forward when everything seems broken, ugly, and dark. These are pieces that made me think and made me feel, and I’m just going to get to my reviews.

Art by ilonareny

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #220

Sometimes an issue comes along that really focuses on a central theme, and the first March issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies does an amazing job of exploring the devastation of war. Not just the costs in human life but in human conscience. Because the characters in these stories are war criminals, responsible for things that cross the line from murder into atrocity. And the stories dig into the minds of these characters not to sympathize with them (in my opinion) but to show what is left afterward. To show the empty guilt and shame and doubt. To show the lingering harm that has been done, that they have done, and show that there are some things you cannot heal from, should not be healed of. It’s a difficult and excellent pair of stories that I’m going to get right to reviewing!

Art by Ward Lindhout

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online March 2017

The March issue of Flash Fiction Online breaks a little from the regularly scheduled programs to bring us a dive into the inky realms of horror. And indeed the three stories that make up the original fiction all take the ins and outs, the dos and don'ts, of horror quite directly, calling out the excesses of the genre while exploring what makes horror effective. What lets it in under our skin to crawl around and unsettle us. The stories here all look at tropes and at clichés. But instead of stopping at the surface, they delve down into why horror works and how it fails. Who it harms and who it seeks to destroy. It's a powerful and creepy issue and I'm just going to get to those reviews!

Art by Dario Bijelac

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #82

The March issue of Lightspeed Magazine certainly isn’t the cheeriest of reads. Though spring is showing signs of wanting to arrive these are stories still heavy with the chill touch of winter. Death and loss pervade, revealing a universe that is often cruel, that is often unfair. Characters move through situations made more and more unbearable because of intolerance, fear, apathy, and despair. And yet for all that these stories feature some heavy themes and sinking situations, they are also very much about hope and about taking something from the jaws of grief. Of finding the strength that can only really be honed by strife and stress. Of perhaps escaping the pain and the isolation and finding some peace, community, and freedom. So yeah, to the reviews!

Art by Reiko Murakami

Quick Sips - The Dark #22

The two stories from The Dark Magazine's March issue offer up some blood and gore, yes, but also something a bit deeper than that. To me at least, the stories examine the power and limitations of belief, especially to create a world bent to an ideology. For society at large, how we frame our world has very real consequences, can trap people in tropes and stereotypes, can push us to blame victims for the violence done to them. Believe can create a break from reality, a place that is stuck in the cycles of rot and decay, violence and erasure. These stories take very different approaches to the core idea of belief, but both seek to shatter the hold that conviction in harmful ideals can create. These are some nicely visceral stories, and I'm going to jump right into my reviews!

Art by breakermaximus