Regular Sip - Girl Reporter by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Returning to a beloved setting and checking in with its characters and world is always a treat, and one of my favorite speculative worlds from the past few years has been revealed in the Australian superhero stories of Tansy Rayner Roberts (starting with “Cookie Cutter Superhero” and further expanded in “Kid Dark Against the Machine). Now, the setting has a new(ish) novella thanks to The Book Smugglers’ novella initiative and I could not be more excited to dive back into the world of superheroes and villains and people young and old whose lives have been impacted and shaped by the machines from space with the power to give people powers. To make superheroes. So without further ado, the review!

Art by Emma Glaze

Quick Sips - Uncanny #19 [December stuff]

The holidays come a bit early this year with an extra-big issue of Uncanny Magazine, stuffed with four short stories and four poems. Of course, perhaps because we are finally in winter’s talons, the work has a decidedly complex and not-exactly-happy feel to it, the pieces confronting some very heavy issues and finding characters not always able to escape the harsh realities of their situations. From new gods born from misery and exploitation to an android finding their future grim indeed, from a young girl dealing with trauma and stress to a hero who knows that heroes are anything but always heroic, the stories are tinted windows into humanity, revealing us not always through contemporary humans but through our stories, our creations, and our works. It’s not the brightest of pictures, but it does create for some captivating and compelling short fiction, with a whole slew of poetry that ranges from sweet to brash and back again. To the reviews!

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - Uncanny #14 (February Stuff)

The pieces in the February content from Uncanny do a great job of giving a wide ranging view of what makes up short SFF. From stories about love and immigration and Poe to a poem about being hot for Mars to nonfiction that educates and challenges, the issue provides a stunning arrangement of SFF that pushes the boundaries on narrative form and style. Plus there's a story just in time for a certain romantic holiday that is incredibly appropriate and rather fun. The story brings the laughter and the tears and the raw silences and does it in a way that is inspiring and imaginative. So yeah, let's get to the reviews! 

Art by John Picacio

Quick Sips - Uncanny #13 (December Stuff)

This issue of Uncanny Magazine features a lot of pieces that examine the idea of knights. Of men and their blades and their games. People who are sworn to serve and protect, even if they call themself a plumber instead of a knight errant. Even if they wear a cape. It's a full month, too, with three stories, a poem, and two pieces of nonfiction that I'm looking at. These are pieces that complicate what it means to be a knight, what it means to fight and what it means to have control of the story. And they also look at what happens when the knight might lose control of the story, and something unexpected might break the cycle of chivalry and misogyny that permeates many a knightly tale. So yeah, to the reviews! 

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - The Book Smugglers June 2016

The Year of the Superhero continues at The Book Smugglers with two stories that combine a nice sense of fun with more touching and serious messages about age, choice, trauma, and  hope. One of the stories acts a bit like a meta-narrative about how superheroes and origin stories and sidekicks don't quite translate out of comic books into the real world. How giving young people powers and telling them to fight crime isn't exactly the most responsible of things. And there's some saying about power and responsibility in comic books that…well, you get the idea. And the other bridges the gap between two novels with a heartwarming story about falling from the sky...and getting back up again. To the reviews! 

Art by Jade Liebes

Quick Sips - Uncanny #7 (December Stuff)

So Uncanny Magazine is closing out it's first full year of publication, and what a year it has been. It definitely produces a very bright and shiny issue every two months, and free content spread over each and every month, and it's definitely something I look forward to whenever it comes around. This month sees three stories, a single poem, and two pieces of nonfiction out, and while it might not be the most holiday-themed, it does a nice job of giving a wide tour of SFF, from devils to sentient spaceships to vast conspiracies involving dead writers, this issue is bound to have something for everyone. To the reviews!

Art by Julie Dillon