Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #232

Kicking off the new year right, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination is back with two very short stories that still manage some weight, some punch, and so depth. The stories both fall into the fantasy side of thing, but more than that both feature characters dealing things things a bit out of the ordinary, magical events that, at first, they weren't really ready to deal with and now have become...well, not used to them, but they are now able to act. To face the strangeness and the powers that seem aligned against them and to take moral action. The stories pair well and I should just get to reviewing them.

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #230

Two flash works fill up this issue's original work from Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. Thematically, the stories are both dealing with mortality, at least in my opinion. In both there is a sense that what is truly beautiful cannot last forever. That there is something in the nature of beauty that is tied to time. We see a woman traveling the galaxy, exploring all kinds of things, capturing her memories to save, and yet the true beauty of her past is in her, is never bound in the memory boxes. In the second story a person encased in glass and water and wire finds that they long for the sight of a flower, that for all that the world has given her immortality, it pales before the fleeting beauty of a bloom. An interesting theme to tie the stories together, and one I should get more into in the reviews...

Quick Sips - Book Smugglers June 2015

The new Book Smugglers story is up and saves me from having to really scramble to find something to review today. More than that, it takes a trope (alien lawyer SF) and makes it something that I want to read, that I want to read more about. Boasting a great sense of humor and very realized characters, the story manages to do something I wasn't expecting and keep me smiling throughout. To the review!

Art by Melanie Cook

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online June 2015

Another three stories from Flash Fiction Online, and this time there's even a waffle recipe to go wtih the third story. Which is great. I always enjoy pairing things with stories. For me, it's normally drinks, but having an actual recipe to go along with a story is a nice touch. All in all, the stories here are about loneliness. For most of them they feature characters unable or unwilling to reach out, though in the case of the first story this is overcome (though not by choice). It's a solid collection of flash fiction, so let's get started!

Art by Dario Bijelac