Quick Sips - Lightspeed #90

The November issue of Lightspeed Magazine is full of twists and turns, adventures and magic, dark bargains and chance encounters. And, for me, the issue is all about connections. About strangers and family. The pieces as weave around the bonds made between people who might not be related by blood. Who are drawn to each other by care and by shared memory and by the mutual desire for something different. The story is about finding friends in odd places and having that bond, that friendship, become something transforming and affirming and amazing. The stories are not exactly romantic so much as they show how powerful human connections can be, how trust and love go beyond the romantic or sexual and unite people trying to create better worlds, even when it seems impossible. To the reviews!

Art by Galen Dara

Quick Sips - Terraform August 2015

This is a particularly full month at Terraform, because of their contest that makes up the first three stories here. Luckily, it's also a very good month of Terraform, which makes the extra work worth it because the stories are disturbing and challenging and as a whole quite provocative. Six stories in all, and a whole lot to unpack, really, with stories firmly fixed on the future and what it will mean to live there. It's not a particularly happy picture being painted, many of the stories getting fairly dark and bleak, but the points raised are ones that must be addressed if we are to hope for anything better. So to the reviews!