Quick Sips - Fantasy #61

Art by Alexandra Petruk/Adobe Stock Image

It’s been a while since there’s been a regular Fantasy Magazine. After combining with Lightspeed (and retaining that name), the publication has only returned for special Destroy issues (of which I reviewed the ones that came out in 2015 & 2016), but hasn’t been ongoing. That changes with this issue. Now, things are a bit different now, as the publication will be putting out flash fiction and poetry on top of the regular-length fiction, but like Lightspeed, Fantasy will be releasing content for free online slowly throughout the month (though you can always buy an issue to get it all right away). And the first issue seems to me like a statement of intent. A way of showing what fantasy as a genre has to offer, and what Fantasy the publication might be focusing on. Stories that combine magic and resilience. Poems that mix hope and joy. A whole experience that is challenging, provocative, and entertaining as h*ck. Let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #238

Fresh off a successful Kickstarter campaign that will allow the publication to do some interesting and exciting things, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination opens 2017 with a pair of short but sweet SFF stories. These are pieces that look at family and relationships, trauma and effort. They show characters given the opportunity to walk away from some important part of their pasts. To put it down and maybe remake themselves. But these stories are about the choice to go back, to stay, to fight on even in the face of rejection, even in the face of overwhelming cruelty. The stories are at turns disturbing and fun, magical and wrenching, and they do an excellent job of exploring the worlds and characters they introduce. To the reviews! 

[Note. I am saddened to hear that Fantastic Stories will be closing after their next issue. Fuck.]