Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online July 2017

It’s solidly summer time now and the July issue of Flash Fiction Online brings with it a mix of stories that burst with life and possibility even as they don’t overlook the grief and hurt that walk hand in hand with the brightness of summer. There’s magic that pulses through these stories, in the visions and hopes of the characters—a wish for a different world, the magic of wings, the consuming darkness. In all of the stories the characters must face that what they want, that where they want, might not fix all their problems, but most of the characters are determined to go anyway, to find whatever is waiting there, be it family or love or freedom. So let’s get to the reviews!

Art by Dario Bijelac

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 06/05/2017 & 06/12/2017

Strange Horizons kicks off their first two weeks of June with a pair of stories and a pair of poems. I have to say, the stories probably couldn't be more tonally different if they tried, but both broach on some heavy themes of loss, hope, and movement. The first, however, does so with a frenetic, almost saccharine cheeriness, and the second with a stark bluntness that drips with grief and pain. Both are beautiful in their own ways, but be prepared for perhaps some fictional whiplash. The poems resonate as well with feelings of having power wrested away, of being subject to another's whims only to perhaps take back some measure of control. Or at least expose the damage done. It's a challenging two weeks of content but, as always from Strange Horizons, very rewarding. So yeah, to the reviews!

Art by Rachel Khan