Quick Sips - Translunar Travelers Lounge #3 [part 4: Charon Blend (Dark Chocolate Rooibos)]

I’m back yet again to finish up my look at the third issue of Translunar Travelers Lounge! This final section is title Charon Blend (Dark Chocolate Rooibos) and is described as “velvet-smooth, with a rich, complex flavor that lingers on the palate.” And the works definitely have depth, taking on the idea of stories and the shapes of traditional narratives, and challenging them. And they deal with characters who kind of thought they had things figured out...and then something happens that shatters them. That makes them re-examine the shape and trajectory of their lives. And prompts them to reach for change and affirmation. It’s a fantastic way to close what has been an amazing issue, and I’ll get right to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Anathema #9

Art by Grace P. Fong

December is full of presents, it seems, with Anathema giving the gift of more SFF short fiction and poetry to all the nice (or naughty, bc yolo) people of the world. The stories and poems are solidly strange and haunting, the mood rather appropriate for winter, which is where I’m reading them. They are cold, distant, and dominated by isolation and loneliness. They deal with ghosts, with gods, with loss, with transformations, and with hope. The characters here are dealing with feeling silent, with feeling cut off from needed support. From being able to truly inhabit and express themselves. To the reviews!