Quick Sips - Terraform October 2020

Oops! It has been a while since the last original story from Terraform, so when one dropped at the very end of October, I missed covering it. Well, I’m making up for it now. And while Halloween might be come and gone, this story definitely keeps the blood-chilling atmosphere of the season alive and well. Looking at contagion, at bodies in revolt, and at the failure of humans to regulate and moderate themselves, to deadly and disastrous effect. It’s grim, and it’s rather terrifying, and I’ll get right to my review!

Quick Sips - Escape Pod #754-756

Three original stories make for a pretty full month this October at Escape Pod. The works as always interrogate and celebrate science fiction. Here, there are post-disaster dystopias and far off-world military adventures (and horrors). The pieces examine empathy and cruelty amidst corruption, slavery, and colonization. To the backdrop of exploitation, betrayal, and genocide. These are not overwhelmingly happy stories. The characters are caught in places they cannot easily or perhaps ever escape from. But that doesn’t mean they can’t find ways to reach out in kindness, understanding, and love—doesn’t mean they can’t try to find those things for themselves, either. So let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Tor dot com October 2020

Art by Jon Foster

While Tor already had a large release in October in collaboration with Fiyah Magazine for Breathe Fiyah, there’s still the matter of Tor’s regular releases to get to, which include one short story and two novelettes. These stories definitely lean on the spooky side, I think, and seem rather appropriate for the season. There’s a ghost story, a nested narrative about erasure, reclamation, and the nature of storytelling. And there’s a heartwarming story about witches. All in all, it’s a powerful collection of mostly fantasy, and fantasy with some grim ornamentation. So let’s dive right into the reviews!

Quick Sips - Fireside Magazine #84

Art by Anna Dittmann

October brings four short stories to Fireside Magazine, and the works deal a lot with bodies, with control, with violation. As such, there are some rather important content warnings to heed, but also a very driving sense of exploration of what it means to be embodied, to have skin, to be perceived. Characters struggle with and against the cultural forces that keep them at odds with the meat they carry themselves in, or the code, or both. Sometimes able to pull free, sometimes not. But always still left with the concept of self as observed versus self-observing. Always still left in this messy space of trauma, desire, and anxiety. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 10/19/2020 & Samovar 10/26/2020

Well, the month managed to bring a little bit of a curveball at Strange Horizons, as I wasn’t expecting a new Samovar. But here we are, and I’m certainly not complaining about the three stories and two poems that round out the two issues. As they come from essentially two different publications, there’s not a huge amount of thematic links between the issues, but they still all embody the kind of strange that both publications do so well. A complex and yearning weirdness that kinds people struggling to find their place in broken worlds. Clinging to rationalism or absurdity to make sense of it all or to reject that sense can exist at all. Add in some wonderful poetry and it makes for a great mix of short SFF. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #315

Art by Vladimir Manyukhin

The latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies brings two novelettes about invasion, about resistance (or lack of). About two queer characters dealing with the prospect of their home being conquered. Of having to make hard decisions between what their heart wants and what’s expected of them. In both cases, what’s expected might win out, but the two stories have two very different takes on what that means. In one, that means a character submitting to the need to sacrifice for a cause, for justice, for the hope of a future. In the other, that means a character submitting to corruption, to lies, to a betrayal of what and who they are. It’s some emotionally powerful and devastating work, and I’ll get right to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Baffling Magazine October 2020

October brings the single largest amount of stories to date for Baffling Magazine’s early access Patreon, which means three new stories just in time for PSL season. And while the stories aren’t exactly spooky, they do feel a nice fit for the season, for autumn and its lengthening shadows, it’s creeping chill, and its mix of monsters and magic. The stories blend romance and horror, love and death and betrayal. Each of the stories finds characters apt to hurt each other, characters who might be preying on one another. Hungry magics and mad sciences. But wrapped in that is the messy reality of affection, love, and heartbreak. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Breathe Fiyah

Art by Eli Minaya

A collaboration between Tor and Fiyah Magazine, this special Breathe Fiyah issue features eight short stories (entirely flash fiction) by Black writers exploring race, oppression, resistance, and revolution through a speculative lens. The stories are largely (though not completely) contemporary, both fantasy and science fiction (with some horror elements thrown in as well at times), and they create a framework, one that ends up resembling perhaps a structure of kindling. Each piece a small addition that, when put together and struck, sets off a blaze. The stories are about resisting, about surviving a world that is actively trying to erase, exploit, and exterminate you. And the works do indeed spark and smolder, ending with a bang that, hopefully, will shake things up, weakening the racist and white supremacist structures that marginalize Black writers. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Diabolical Plots #68

Art by Joey Jordan

The October Diabolical Plots brings two new short stories with a nice twist of horror, perfect for the season. First up, a transcript of a video channel that’s…not quite right. That shows a certain enthusiasm but not so much a…certain wholesomeness. The second story delves into the horror of shopping, and the horror of shopping culture. It’s a sharp look at consumerism and corruption, and manages a nice creepy atmosphere throughout. Both of the stories mix a bit of spookiness, a healthy dose of strangeness, and enough awkward adorableness amidst pervasive terror that they complement each other well. And if you need more convincing, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Nightmare #97

Art by Andrey Kiselev / Adobe Stock Image

The October issue of Nightmare Magazine doesn’t really go full-on spooky, though that doesn’t mean it skimps on the horror. Rather, the horror here is...quiet. Slow. Careful. Methodical, even. And it looks at aspects of the human experience that can sort of sink into something grim and terrifying. Marriage, especially when it rots. Academia, especially when the pursuits turn out to be sinkholes, traps. The stories show people who are on the cusp of something shadowed and deep, something there’s no turning back from after a certain point. One of the characters thinks to try and escape. The other plunges right in. It makes for an interesting and well balanced issue. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Uncanny #36 [October stuff]

Art by Christopher Jones

October doesn’t really bring a great deal of spooky material to Uncanny Magazine, but it does bring some stories that are very aware of isolation, of oppression, and of transformation. Of characters caught under the weight of their trauma, their wounds, their fears and hurts. Seeking ways to escape, to slip free, to get out from under the crush of historical abuses and more contemporary and intimate ones. Finding the power of moving in unexpected ways, of reaching for affirmation and comfort in the midst of conflict, war, and strife. It’s a difficult month of fiction and poetry, but it’s also a lovely selection of works that flow wonderfully together. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 10/05/2020 & 10/12/2020

Art by Helen Mask

The first two issues of October Strange Horizons bring the regular two short stories and two poems, but (as always) it’s rather difficult to call them “regular.” Except that (as always) the quality is high, the emotions are shook, and the experience is, well, strange. From extra eyeballs growing all over a person’s body to time travel that’s not really time travel, from surveys about being a dragon to the pitfalls of recommendations, the works cover a lot of ground. Fantasy. Science fiction. Some breathtaking poetry. There’s a lot to get to, a lot to enjoy, and probably a lot to kinda low key cry about, so I’ll get right to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #169

Art by Francesca Resta

It’s another Big issue of Clarkesworld Magazine, with four short stories and three novelettes. And there’s perhaps a theme that runs throughout the pieces, that of family. Explored in some interesting ways, the pieces all seem to circle around what makes a family and what might tear it apart. The stories are not always incredibly happy, many of them unfolding in post-disaster scenarios, but that’s not unusual for the publication, nor is the fact that this is once more an entirely-science-fiction issue. It makes for a lot of possible worlds, a lot of future we’d probably do best to avoid. And it’s just a lot of strong work, so I’ll get right to my reviews!

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus October 2020

I’m no stranger to stories taking on Lovecraftian mythos and ideas, and this month’s GigaNotoSaurus short story joins the conversation with a work that crafts an alternate history where the Old Ones rose in the early 1900s and have been in power ever since. That doesn’t mean there aren’t humans left, though, and in the warped reality that Dublin has become, one human finds themself facing a string of dangers and conflicts when a chance to earn a lot of coins drops into their lap. Unfortunately, though, that opportunity comes with the promise of adventure of the eldritch sort, and ends up pitting the narrator against friends, lovers, and the maybe even a death cult or two. So yeah, let’s get to the review!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #314

Art by Vladimir Manyukhin

The two stories in the latest Beneath Ceaseless Skies feature gods and people just sort of trying to get by despite them. The characters in both stories are searching for answers to questions they don’t quite know how to ask yet. Concerning pasts they can’t remember, and futures they hope to reach. They feature strange partnerships and large casts of memorable characters. And there are discussions in both stories about the nature of gods, and magic, and how it all works together. So yeah, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online October 2020

October brings a seasonably creepy slew of stories to Flash Fiction Online. Stories that deal with some of the classics in horrifying SFF--ghosts, werewolves, and monsters (oh my!). Now, not all of the stories deal with these elements in...particularly horrifying ways. Rather, the stories offer up an array of different approaches to the tropes. Complications and twists on the classics that make for some fascinating and (as always) quick reads. It’s certainly appropriate for the month, and I’ll jump right into those reviews!

Quick Sips - Fiyah #16 [Joy]

Art by Odera Igbokwe

The theme for the latest issue of Fiyah Literary Magazine is Joy. Which, I mean, is needed right about now. The five stories and three poems do not disappoint, weaving together genres and visions that bring the reader to a great many joys. Some tinged with heartache, some won only through bitter pain. But the joys on display are beautiful, transcendent, transforming. They are healing, and they imagine futures where there is hope, where there is relief, where the hardships that seem so insurmountable are memories. And it’s just a wonderful issue that shines with care, compassion, and yes, joy. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - The Dark #65

Art by chainat

October brings a special treat to The Dark Magazine--an extra original story! And all three of the works in this issue are wonderful, are full of characters pushing back against the oppressive worlds they find themselves in. Not always able to do much. Sometimes able lto escape. Sometimes able to create change. Rarely able to avoid loss, though. Never able to avoid grief. The works offer complex views of delicate situations, and people hoping to get by or else willing to bring it all down around their head. But before I give too much away, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #125

Art by Grandeduc / Adobe Stock Image

Three short stories and a novelette round out the original content in October’s Lightspeed Magazine. And it’s not exactly a spooky month of offerings, though there is a vampire for those interested. Rather, the stories deal a lot with stories. Stories people tell that help to define the world they move through. Of good and evil. Of hero and monsters. And the stories end up dealing with the ways those stories can be affirming and healing, and the ways those stories can be cages, devices of erasure, pain, and destruction. And the works cover a lot of ground, from post-disaster Chicago to a romance far far away, from a small village in Hungary to an online reality that can be more real than real. To the reviews!