Quick Sips - Terraform November 2015

I'm actually rather surprised at Terraform this month, because for once it actually mostly stuck to its guidelines and all the stories are at least under 3K. The stories are quite different this month, ranging from a humorous string of inter-office emails detailing a crisis with a microwave to a very serious examination of art over time and the rise of AI and immortality. Most of the stories are fun, though, even as they examine future that it's probably best to avoid. And mixing the commentary with humor makes them a little easier to swallow. All in all, it's a fine collection of very short stories, which I will get to reviewing now!

Quick Thoughts - Thankful

It's Thanksgiving here in the U.S. Or it will have been by the time that this appears on the blog. As I write this it's still a day away. I was going to write up something on the "morally complex YA" thing going on right now but there are better minds doing that and so I thought I would step back and concentrate instead on things I am thankful for. Because while a lot about the holiday is pretty side-eye, I do think that it's important to reflect every now and then on what's good.

First off, I am thankful to my partner, for putting up with me. In about two weeks it will have been nine years since our first date, and when I think about how much we have changed in that time I am filled with hope and joy. It is my greatest pleasure and honor to be able to share my life with someone so amazing, and though I don't often talk about nem in this space (for a variety of reasons), ne is first in my mind and in my heart. And without nem I would not be doing what I am doing. 

I am also thankful for great stories, which should come as no surprise. To both the writers writing and the publications publishing them, many thanks! I have said it often enough but this is an amazing time to be a reader. A scary time, because there is a feeling that it is fragile, that things might at any moment be taken away, but it is also invigorating, challenging, and rewarding. My thanks as well go out to other readers and reviewers, who provide something equally vital, which is engagement. It's sort of my core mission with Quick Sip Reviews to engage with short SFF fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, but without others I'd just be shouting into an abyss. And while it can feel at times like that's all I'm doing, seeing other people out there reviewing is heartening. It's what gave me courage to stop reviewing for a place I couldn't feel comfortable at and make a space of my own. So for everyone out there, from Goodreads reviewers to the biggest names in SFF reviews, thanks! 

Of course I am thankful to my readers! This blog started pretty small and has picked up steam pretty much every month it's been around. Which is a great feeling personally as I hope it means people out there are reading and liking what I'm doing. So thank you, everyone who checks in and everyone who spreads the word. My sincerest thanks for finding my thoughts on stories and such worthy of your time (I know how precious that can be, often). An especial thanks to any and all who have offered up words of encouragement as I struggle onward, to everyone who said what I am doing is worth something. It means an awful lot to hear that every now and then. Sorry that I seem to whine an awful lot. 

I am thankful for craft breweries, good bookstores, and the internet. I am thankful that there's a place for me to be me even if it's only within the walls of my home and in the boundless reaches of digital space. I'm thankful to all the people who have bought my stories, and for all those who read them and enjoyed them (not quite so thankful if you read them and hated them, but thankful at least you didn't feel the need to tell me about it). I'm thankful for my pets, who are adorable and furry and make life interesting. For all this and much more, I am thankful. Thanks for reading! 

All the best, 

Charles Payseur

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #187

Beneath Ceaseless Skies must really care about my sanity, because they came out with their latest issue a whole two days early (at least, I think they normally drop on Thursday and this was out on Tuesday) so that I could get ahead on reviewing before Thanksgiving. I'm sure that was the reason. Yeah. Anyway, this issue features two stories, one featuring a returning storyline and one all new. They are quite different. The first features a more traditional fantasy plot, breaking into a prison to commit a crime. The other looks at the nature of history and conflict. The stories scratch two very different itches, but both are interesting and well written, and while my personal tastes run a bit more toward the later, I enjoyed myself throughout. So to the reviews!

Art by Feliks Grzesiczek

Quick Sips - The Book Smugglers November 2015

This month The Books Smugglers offer up a double-helping of fairy tales mixed with noir mysteries. And the stories are delightful! I'm not incredibly into noir stories most of the time because they tend to be rather full of some...not-that-great tropes and cliches, but these stories subvert in the best of ways while providing fast action and excellent world-building. 

Art by Melanie Cook

 

Quick Sips - Mothership Zeta #1

Amid some more somber news of publications closing, there are still some rays of sunshine, and Mothership Zeta is certainly one. Coming in as an ezine, the Mothership is the home for fun. Mostly, at least. The stories do have a flare of the fun, voices that roll from the tongue, a wry sense of humor and healthy amount of sarcasm. But stuck in here too are stories that slow things down. That break the humor in favor of topics that are much more serious. The issue manages to balance itself quite well, starting and ending with flash and moving between those two points from humor to sweet to dark and back again. There's also nonfiction and a reprint to enjoy that I will not be talking about here, but below are reviews of all eight of the original fiction stories. Here we go!

Art by Frank Wu

Quick Sips - Urban Fantasy Magazine V2, #1

Two pieces of fiction round out the November issue of Urban Fantasy Magazine, though sadly only one of them is original. In order to make more of a review of this issue, I'm looking at both stories, and I don't think you could really ask for more different tales, though at their heart I see two stories about a deep dissatisfaction with "the way things are." In both stories there are characters faced with reality and their own unhappiness, and in both those characters chose to make a change, chose to drop the security of their own misery and try something new. It's an interesting contrast to look at them together, but worth doing. Time to do just that!

Quick Sips - Nightmare #38

This is perhaps my favorite issue of Nightmare Magazine so far this year. Two stories, as always, but two stories that really bring the dark. These stories reveal damaged characters, characters haunted by their pasts, by the hurt they caused others. By their mistakes and by their inability to really change what they've done. Stories about reaching out and about being selfish and about pain and pain and pain. Really this is an amazing pair of stories that you should read immediately. Time to review them!

Art by Bruno Wagner