Quick Sips - The Dark #51

Art by grandfailure

The two stories from The Dark Magazine this month follow characters who are in some ways trapped. By a curse. By a haunting. By guilt. By fear. They each seem to be waiting, and luckily (or not) for them, their wait seems to be over with the arrivals of mysterious women. With these new companions, the main characters are sent into a confrontation with what has been holding them back, and are given a change to change the context of their chains. They are strange, sometimes sensual, and very much worth spending some time with. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Nightmare #81

Art by Alexandra Petruk /Fotolia

It’s a tightly paired issue at Nightmare Magazine, with two short stories looking at the power of storytelling itself. Which is always an interesting metatextual choice, using the form itself to examine the methods and strengths of stories to inspire and distract, to explain and to obfuscate. The piece shows a woman using stories as a sort of promise and prayer, and another using stories as confession, as a final explanation at the end of the world. Both stories are layered, revealing both a world that has becoming increasingly bleak and one where maybe things…aren’t okay exactly, but where relief is possible, and a laying down of burdens. It’s a difficult issue, and I’ll get right to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #263

The anniversary issues might be over but the great stories continue at Beneath Ceaseless Skies with a pair of pieces that look at nobility, conflict, and the future. That find two very different characters deals with their worlds falling part. In one, a woman blessed and cursed to see the future must find a way to keep going when everything seems futile. And in the other, a woman who often hears the voices of the past must navigate a world unlike anything anyone has ever experienced. In both, the characters don’t really choose the disasters that find them, but both have to find ways to wrest what agency they can from the situations in order to save what they can, and to still work for a better future. To the reviews!

Art by Veli Nyström

Quick Sips - Glittership Autumn 2017/Winter 2018 (part 4/4)

I’m closing out my look of Glittership’s Autumn 2017/Winter 2018 issue today with reviews of an original story, two reprints, and an original poem. And…and I think for these stories there’s a general weirdness that pervades. They’re queer not only in the identities of the characters involved, but in the way they bend genres and expectations. From a vampire dating story to gay space cowboys and beyond, the pieces have a way of being original and very memorable. They also carry with them some heavy darkness. From loss, from fear, from the various systems that have let the characters down, and that they are determined to fight back against. And ultimately the stories mix tragedy and hope, survival and joy, and make for a great way to close out what has been a great issue for the publication. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Glittership Spring 2017, part 1

People, Glittership now has POETRY!!! Rejoice! Queer speculative poetry is like the best so I am ALL ABOUT this decision, and especially with poetry being discontinued at Apex I love that a venue has re-upped on the form. Plus, you know, awesome SFF short fiction. Today I'm looking at half of the most recent issue, some of which is available online for free right now and some that will be available soon. I do recommend that if you like the publication you go and either buy the issue or become a Patron, which will also get you access to the back issues of the ebook as well. The stories are largely about challenge and about the strength it takes to keep going in the face of pain and loss and adversity. These are stories of people overcoming the tragedies in their lives and finding people who make going on easier. And along with the poetry the issue is one about hope in darkness, and the coming of light. It's an amazing issue that I will review presently!

Quick Sips - Shimmer #29

I was told a while ago to expect Shimmer to run a few "heavier" Shimmer issues, and I think I finally get what was meant, because the stories this month both weigh in at over or near 5k a piece. But hey, more great stories = fine by me! Both stories available this month are dark and nebulous, ambiguous and mysterious, about the power of loss. In some ways both also look at how gender and gender expectations can become cages and vehicles for pain and damage. They are soft story, horrifying in how they hint at the borders of humanity and...something else, but also in how they distance themselves from the horror they brush against. They are dark water whose bottoms are concealed, that could be any depth at all. And I should get to reviewing them.

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - The Dark #10

This latest issue of The Dark Magazine certainly doesn't shy away from tackling some very dark and disturbing themes. Trigger warnings include: sexual assault of a minor, incest, murder, rape culture, murder, cats, and murder. And while at times the extreme content of the issue can seem a bit much, I believe that most of the stories do a very good job of justifying the use of such heavy tools to do their work. The stories are shocking as well as moving, questioning the institutional ways in which women are targeted for violence. There's a lot to cringe at, yes, but also a lot to think about. So let's get to reviewing!

Art by NKMandic

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #64

September brings a rather interesting issue of Lightspeed, one that features a healthy mix of loss and change and love and moving on. Most of the stories take a rather sad path, weaving together time and loss, progress and sorrow. In the first three there is a definite sense that the characters all stand poised at the start of something, and also the end of something. There is a sense that they are all witnesses to a trauma, to something large and frightening. They are all, in ways, victims of these changes, but also contributors to them, and the future for all of them is still open, still to be decided. And then there's the last story which does an excellent job of releasing all that despair and uncertainty and embracing what's there, what can be held to, and provides a fun and funny ending to the issue. So I'm just going to get the reviews already...

Art by Craig Shields

Quick Sips - Nightmare #35

Another month of scary stories from Nightmare Magazine, where the theme of the original fiction seems to be the monsters we can become. In both stories the characters are monsters, or becoming monsters, and in both their is a danger in losing yourself too wholly to the monster inside. In the first, all is not lost, not yet, though in the second the same cannot necessarily be said. It's a nice pair of tales, full of tension and the promise of destruction. And it's time to review them!

Art by Carlos Fabián Villa