Quick Sips - Fiyah Literary Magazine #15

Art by Cyan Daly

Fiyah is back with a new issue and four original stories and three new poems! It’s also the third non-themed issue in a row, and gathers up stories that feature science fiction, fantasy, and touches of horror. And there are some things that run throughout the works, most prominent to me the theme of memory. The stories tie into memory and history, showing the weight that the characters carry because of their pasts, because of the systems that have been built over time, that carry with them memories codified into traditions and rituals. Some of the characters are running from those memories, some trying their best to hold onto them. Whatever the case, though, the works explore what it means to remember, what it means to engage with a world that itself can seem alive and not always concerned about the lives of the people living inside it. It’s a wonderful issue, and I’ll get right to my reviews!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 01/15/2018 & 01/22/2018

The new year keeps rolling on with two more weeks from Strange Horizons, featuring a story and two poems. There’s a very nice global feel to the pieces overall, a sense of violence and flight, a yearning reach toward freedom and the difficulties and fragility of that reach. Featuring characters pushed to make choices that they hope will lead to something better, to something freer. But that don’t always. Not when the world is not organized to allow and encourage justice. Not when it acts as a giant mill wheel grinding people into money and power for those in charge. It’s a great two weeks of content that I’m going to get to reviewing...now!

Art by Sam Guay