Quick Sips - Lightspeed #91

December finds Lightspeed Magazine wondering about what ifs. Because the four original stories all seem to circle around the idea of what if? The characters feel the pull to embrace something that is in some ways against the very core of their beings. A cyborg chef, a religious woman tempted with a dark cure, a young woman trying to break her (literal) programming, and a person faced with doors into other words. For some, they can embrace this pull, can travel boldly into other worlds or find the obsessive joys of cooking meat. For others, they define themselves by how they resist, how they refuse to take the easy road, even if I seems the entire reason they exist. For all of them, though, the stories unfold as they confront their roles and seek to find ways to retain who they are in the face of a world, or worlds, that want to change them. Some are more successful than others, but all make for great reading. To the reviews!

Art by Christopher Park

Quick Sips - Lackington's #13

It’s a new issue of Lackington’s and this time the theme is Births. Which can seem like a scary theme (at least for me) but I love what the issue did with it, examining all sorts of births and all sorts of families and really providing some heart-rending and heart-warming stories about people searching for meaning and purpose often in very hostile situations, often in places where it might not seem worth it to try. And I love that these stories seek out a better way, even when they don’t find one. They reach, and in that reaching they are profound and beautiful and I should just get to the reviews!

Art by Random Dreaming

THE SIPPY AWARDS 2016! The "I'd Ship That" Sippy for Excellent Relationships in Short SFF

Welcome to 2017! Quick Sip Reviews is officially two years old! And what better way to celebrate than by kicking off the SECOND ANNUAL SIPPY AWARDS!!!

For those who might be new to QSR or missed last year's awards, the Sippys exist primarily because I wanted to give some special love to my favorite SFF. Wait, though, don't I already do that? YES I DO! But where The Monthly Round is my monthly recommendation column, I really wanted to do something annually. And wait, don't I sort-of already to that, too? YES I DO! But not here, on Quick Sip Reviews, and so I wanted to make something EXTRA SPECIAL. Enter THE SIPPY AWARDS, the SFF awards that no one asked for or really cares about!

These aren't just my favorite stories of 2016, though. The Sippys have categories, five in all, celebrating different aspects of SFF. From stories that made me afraid to go to sleep or left me a ball of tears and feelings huddled in the corner, I want to look at the different ways that SFF can be effective. And my categories might seem a little…odd, but that's just part of the fun. Each category has five picks, four Sippy Award winners and one Big Sip Award winner. So yes, without further ramblings on my part, let's kick things off with…

The "I'd Ship That" Sippy 

for Excellent Relationships in Short SFF

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #203

The two stories in this issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies are about transformations. From man to woman. From woman to asp. They both circle similar ideas of freedom, though they reveal two very different worlds. Both are alive with magic, though, and characters yearning for change, for escape, for some reflection of themselves they can be at peace with. These are stories of revolution, even if it's only of a single person refusing to give into the inevitable course their life seems on. To the reviews!

Art by Martin Ende

Quick Sips - Shimmer #30 (April Stuff)

It's stories like those that appear in this issue of Shimmer Magazine that remind me why I love the publication. There's such a depth and a darkness, a weight to these tales, that make them linger like bruises. They impact. From the science fictional vision of the first story to the fairy tale stylings of the second, these stories are linked by an atmosphere of oppression and magic, exhaustion and hope. The characters are dealing with situations beyond their control, really, bound by circumstance, and yet both refuse to give up, to give in. Both find ways of fighting on and, in some ways, fighting back. Finding hope and pulling it screaming with them through the world. The stories are haunting and powerful and I should just get to those reviews. 

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #69

The February Lightspeed Magazine is here and it's quite an impressive array of stories. Four tales, as usual, two science fiction and two fantasy. The science fiction takes a look at visions of the possible future. Dystopic, some might say, but more about finding humanity in isolation. More and more people are little islands, and the science fiction explores that, in some literal and metaphoric ways. The fantasy is all magic realism this month, a pair of quasi-portal fantasies that touch on the need and the want to get away, to escape. Plus I get to rant a bit more on my ongoing thoughts concerning "Millennial fiction." So to the reviews!
 

Art by Elizabeth Leggett

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online February 2016

February at Flash Fiction Online means a focus on love. And loss. And redemption. All three stories are somewhat bittersweet, about knowing the value of something after it is gone. In some, it's not too late to do something, to fight against the tides of loss and darkness and doubt. But there is a sense of choice that runs strong and true throughout the stories, a great message for a holiday that can sometimes tout the often fraught concept of "true love." Here the love is true where it is given freely and without coercion, or it is lost because it is taken from granted. A fine way to get into the spirit of the month. Now to the reviews! 
 

Art by Dario Bijelac

Quick Sips - Shimmer #27 (October Stuff)

I have some mixed emotions about Shimmer this month. Firstly, it's good. Damn good. Secondly, it's short. Damn short. Which fills me with both immense joy and immense sorrow. Joy because this month is slowly (or not so slowly) killing me with all the fiction out. But sorrow because I want to read more of this. I want more stories like these. Dark and unsettling and yet focused on relationships that shine, that make me all warm inside. About the redemptive power of relationships in the face of loss, these stories to a great job hitting hard despite their short lengths. So to the reviews!

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - Crossed Genres #34 - Sport

So the theme for this month is sport over at Crossed Genres, and wow do these stories take that in some interesting directions. From uplifting to shattering to funny as hell, there are some very different moods from story to story. But all of them work, and all of them are fun and show people at their best and worst, straining for greatness while plagued by the possibility of defeat. This month's issue is all about overcoming hardship, and I'm going to follow suit by overcoming the enormous pile of things I have to review this month. Onward!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons February 9, 2015

Quite the short week from Strange Horizons, with only one flash fiction and one poem. And again I wonder if I should just do one massive Strange Horizons review at the end of the month. I don't think I will yet, because 1.) I'm at about my limit of what I can review a month and having more days to fill would mean less time I get for everything else (like writing, because I do that, too), 2.) I like balancing longer reviews like Clarkesworld or Apex with short ones like these, and 3.) the end of the month would be way too crowded if I tried to save everything until then (with Terraform, the second Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tor.com, etc.). So still doing Strange Horizons every week for now. Onward!

Story:

"Traveling Mercies" by Rachael K. Jones (1030 words)

Short but very sweet, this story follows an old vampire as they travel around the world seeking places to stay out of the sunlight. It's an interesting story, and a hopeful one, as the vampire has never been let down, has always been invited in some place to wait out the day. It's a message that people are always willing to help, that there is home and comfort in fraternity and good will, and that those forces can redeem, can make a friend from a monster. It's a very cool idea, too, using the lore of vampires, that they always have to be invited in, and this way the thirst is slaked not with blood but with friendship. Perhaps that sounds a little saccharine, but it works. It's optimistic, yes, and sweet, but I didn't find the story sappy. Instead, there is a darkness and a danger there, because the narrator will die if they can't find a shelter from the sun, and because they are something of a monster, defined by rules, by the curse of what they are. And yet for all those who believe that hospitality is dead, it's affirming to see a story that still believes in the generosity of the host, of the bonds that can be formed between friends, and on the power of those things. It's a great story, powerfully told.

Poem:

"Once the Dream Lionesses" by Alexandra Seidel

I will admit that I don't know if there is a word for this kind of poem, for one that uses the first lines of its stanzas in echoes in the last stanza. It's a good effect, though, the thoughts echoing back with the voices of the lionesses. To me, the story is of loss, of age. The riddle of the Sphinx is mentioned, the four legs to two to three, which evokes the idea of aging, echoed in the words of the lionesses, that they are tired, that they are diminished. The hunter has taken their bones, their voices, and where the hunter walks now they are silent but also gathering themselves. Beneath the hunter there is no drum, or the drum is silenced, but I got the feeling that it was waiting, that it was building to something, holding itself back when the hunter stepped. Still, the story screams loss to me. The loss of the natural, mostly, taken for profit, taken for sport, just taken. And there is a weariness in dealing with it, the lionesses feeling their age, but also calling on forces deeper, deeper. I enjoyed the poem, though I'm still trying to decide what I think of the stillness at the end. I'm leaning toward it being that waiting, that when the hunter steps the lionesses pause, waiting, knowing that they have to wait for the right moment. That, rather than the hunter stilling their drum, because I want to believe that the beat goes on. But maybe that's just what I want to read. Either way, it's a nice poem, with a strong form and interesting imagery.