Quick Sips 01/07/2022

Well the slowdown is still in effect, as this week was cut short due to the New Year’s holiday week. Still, I feel that I’m getting a bit more into the swing of things and did manage to get through a few publications. The largest of them is the December Apex, which is a special international issue. On that same note, Samovar is back with an issue to close out 2021. That plus regular releases from Strange Horizons, Diabolical Plots, Flash Fiction Online, and The Deadlands mean I got around despite being a bit crunched for time. Good times!

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 11/26/2021

Still kinda struggling to catch up here, but that’s not to say I’m not getting to a lot. This week I’m mostly in November releases, though I do dip back to pick up an October issue I missed (October was really fucking full). First it’s two weeks of Strange Horizons, then the November Clarkesworld. Then back to pick up October’s The Future Fire. Then November’s The Deadlands, a Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Diabolical Plots. Alas, I’m not caught up on either Strange Horizons or Beneath Ceaseless Skies, to say nothing of the Escape Artist releases, but I’m trying. Well and truly. I’ll get there eventually.

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 11/05/2021

So I’m back from vacation but I’m not exactly back up to speed yet. And my brain is apparently all over the place, because I jumped into November reads before realizing that there’s still a bunch of October stuff that I haven’t gotten to yet. Shit! But so it goes, I guess. This week I’ll be covering the October The Deadlands and Shoreline of Infinity and then jumping ahead to November’s Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine. If I had been clever I would have done October’s Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Escape Artist podcasts like I had planned, but alas, I did not. Those will have to wait as I scramble to locate my brain going forward. Good times!

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 10/01/2021

And the reviews just keep on coming. At the time this is posting publicly, October will have officially begun and there will only be a quarter of the year to go! Which…scary! But also, light at the end of the tunnel! This week I’m getting kind of all over, catching up on a bunch of smaller issues, mainly, as well as some novellas that came out a little while ago. Yay! That means I’m still in September (or earlier) territory, checking out this month’s The Deadlands and Clarkesworld. Plus the latest Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Strange Horizons. Plus all the Escape Artist episodes I’ve been behind on. So yeah, an eventful week hopping around, and lost of great short SFF to cover!

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 08/27/2021

So I am still playing catchup by and large, but I think that I’ll be in a bit better shape after this week than after last week, so progress! The big release that I’m looking at today is the new Translunar Travelers Lounge, which dropped its second issue of the year. It’s packed and it’s amazing! Aside from that, I’m looking at regular releases from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Deadlands, Strange Horizons, Diabolical Plots, and Fireside Magazine. It means there hopefully won’t be too much to clean up next week to get through the August releases, but we’ll see. I’m hoping to get to new Fusion Fragment, Mermaids Monthly, Tor dot com, Strange Horizons, and more. Maybe I’ll even get into September stuff already! We’ll see. First, though, more August reviews.

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 07/30/2021

Well I knew that this was going to be a bit of a smaller week for reviews compared to last week, though that doesn’t mean much given last week. I think I did end up slightly under average, but I did still get to quite a bit, rounding up a lot of the month’s releases. Luckily for my schedule, it seems like the Escape Artists aren’t doing many originals lately at PodCastle or Escape Pod, so that helped me catch up on Cast of Wonders and Pseudopod, as well as making sure I got to this month’s GigaNotoSaurus, which I would normally have read sooner. I also got to check out the new Diabolical Plots, The Deadlands, Fireside Magazine, and Omenana, as well at the latest week’s Strange Horizons, so a lot of ground I covered, all told, even if the total number of pieces covered isn’t huge. It leaves only a few things (I hope) to catch up on for next week (namely Mermaids Monthly, Tor, and another issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies). I am sort of catching up on reading, but also not. So it goes.

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 07/02/2021

Despite the tick over into July, I’m still very much on June publications, looking at six different issues today that cover over thirty SFF works. It’s only the second time I’m reading The Deadlands and Prismatica, and both deliver some powerful fiction and poetry. Mermaids Monthly also packs a punch, and is entirely queer authored and edited this month (though I mean the edited part is every month). Strange Horizons Diabolical Plots both put out strong issues as well. And once against I’m adding new things, this time with Zooscape. And…yeah, I mean, I’m probably already overbooked this month with things to read. I have Pride Decoded to get to now that I’ve ironed out actually accessing the stories, and I’m a little behind in general because of how much I choose to read and review. But.

I do care about trying to get to as much as I can in short SFF. And as wide a coverage as I can give. And that means stepping outside what most consider the “core” of short SFF in part of question what the core really is. Or, more likely, to try and destroy the idea that there is a core at all. Short SFF is vast, yes, and subject to far too many people trying to narrow it because they want to feel that it should be “manageable.” Which in some ways I understand. As someone with a collecting urge, there’s certainly a part of me that wants to be comprehensive. That wants to read Everything. And I know I can’t, so it might be tempting to say that something doesn’t count as a way to claim that actually I do read Everything. But that’s bullshit.

The short SFF I do not read or review still exists, and I’d likely enjoy a whole lot of it. It’s my loss that I don’t read it. But I do have limited time, and I have to decide what I read. There’s no real “fair” way to do it, but I try my best to be inclusive and eager. I’m not saying that the stories I don’t read aren’t worthy of my time or attention, just that I have to make the call what to cover, and I’ll own that. I’m adding Zooscape because I like furry media, and because I do think it often gets overlooked and pushed out of SFF because people are embarrassed about it. I’m excited that the publication is looking to raise its payrates to become an SFWA qualifying market, and I wish them all the best in that. And I’m happy to add them to my short SFF coverage. Onward!

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips 05/28/2021

Today I’m continuing my May coverage with looks at nine different publications. Most of the Escape Artists pods have new work out, as well as regular releases from Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Diabolical Plots. I add The Deadlands to my rotation, and am very excited about the project and what it will be putting out, and relatively new khōréō magazine is back with a second wonderful issue. I’m taking a bit of a risk trying to review Tor before the end of the month (I’m writing this before the 26th), but if there’s another release I’ll just cover that next week. So yeah, lots to get to!

NOTE: This will be a recurring note that will run with every Quick Sips. First, please note that I don’t necessarily mention every story or poem out in an issue. I am giving myself permission to either DNF stories, or else finish and just not comment on them. Please don’t assume it’s because I disliked the work! There are many reasons I might chose not to comment on a piece, and I reserve the right to do just that. Second, you might notice the notations at the end of the micro reviews and wonder what the [c# t#] is. These are for the Scales of Relative Grimness and a full explanation of them can be found through the tab at the top of the page or through this link. With that said, let’s get to the reviews!