Quick Sips - Lackington's #22

Art by Kat Weaver

The latest issue of Lackington’s is out now and the theme for the issue is Archives. Now, like all themes at Lackington’s, things are often straightforward. Yes, some of the stories feature literal archives and collections. Museums and academic centers. Tomes and texts and all the things you might expect to find on dusty shelves preserved in time. But there are archives here that go beyond those, that jump out of the neglected shelves. Archives of people, of languages both living and dead, of refuges from hungry gods, of whole worlds and people finding ways to catalog and preserve themselves through time and space. The works are often deep and heavy, touched by poetry and more than a bit of tragedy. But there is hope to be found as well, and occasionally a spot of fun. The works cover an array of genres and styles, framing devices and voices, and they themselves represent an archive. An archive of archives, in a meta turn as only this publication can give. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #289

Art by Ferdinand Dumago Ladera

Well I think that Beneath Ceaseless Skies is starting to get in the Halloween mood, as this issues stories do kind of lean toward the spooky side. Full of darkness and difficulty, the stories find characters who are pushed into violent situations. For one of them, it’s an opportunity to repay a debt and maybe break his isolation. For the other, though, the violence is part of a control being exerted over his life, and is very much causing his isolation and pain. But both characters need to work through it in order to try and find what’s on the other side. Community perhaps. Forgiveness? Well, you’ll just have to see. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Lackington's #17 [Gothics]

It’s a huge issue of Lackington’s out this month, focusing on the Gothic. And from literal Ostrogoths to exquisite corpses, there’s a lot to see and a lot of amazing interpretations of the theme. There are eight original stories (and a reprint that you should definitely check out but that I’m not reviewing this time) and each of them feature themes and settings that embrace the Gothic aesthetic. Haunted houses, neglected estates, and isolated villages all make the stories ripe with shadows that just might swallow up the unwary traveler. These are pieces about facing the strange and the dangerous, the supernatural and the all-too-human. And, well, not always coming out the other side. There’s a great mood to these stories that really gets at the heart of the theme, and it’s a fantastic way to explore what is one of the oldest kinds of SFF stories. So let’s get to it!

Art by Richard Wagner

Quick Sips - Lackington's #8 - Dreams

So this technically came out a few months ago (very definitely in 2015), but the latest Lackington's just became available for free online and that means now is the time I'm reviewing it. The theme for this issue is Dreams and that combined with Lackington's emphasis on poetic style means the issue as a whole is surreal, strange, and quite good. Alien landscapes, creatures pulled from the deeps, an entire universe of dreams: the stories range far and wide but they keep the idea of dreaming, both in a literal and symbolic sense, in sharp focus. So without further ado, time to review!
 

Art by Gregory St. John

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #190

Beneath Ceaseless Skies is officially into 2016 and it's first issue of the new year is full of tales of blood and loss, of lives cut short before their time only to be given a second chance. Both stories feature charactesr who experience loss and violence and the threat of violence. And both, ultimately, are about justice and what it means to pay for one's sins. For all that, I'd hesitate to call these stories of revenge. There's something deeper to them, not just an eye for an eye but more an atonement, a balancing of scales, and both stories end with a sort of righteous hope and a promise that while some things can never be made right, they can at least be moved on from. I love the way these stories show characters defined by loss who find a way through that, who shake off such simple definitions and embrace realities more complex. But I should stop pontificating and just get to those pesky reviews!

Art by Xiao Ran