Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online February 2020

February might be a month for romance but as Flash Fiction Online...well...it’s maybe a bit more a month for lost love. Which still involves love! But, well, the love is rather bittersweet here, as each of the original stories features characters to have lost and who aren’t willing to accept that. Who want to push back against the pain they are feeling. Who want to reconnect and who would do almost anything to have what they have had taken from them. And how they deal with that defines their arcs, their trajectories and these aren’t necessarily the happiest of reads, but they are about love, and that’s still kinda in the spirit of the season! To the reviews!

Quick Sips - The Dark #57

Art by Vincent Chong

The second The Dark Magazine of the year brings two new stories that explore, among other things, the messy dynamics between parents and children. Both find children trying to distance themselves from their parents, trying to live in a way that they find free and beautiful. Their individual visions of what they want are very different, but (given the nature of the publication) both of them find that there are monsters without and within waiting to stand in their way. These aren’t exactly easy stories, but they carry their own sense of beauty and resilience, and they’re both rather shattering. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #117

Art by grandfailure / fotolia

February brings the normal amount of fiction to Lightspeed Magazine, without too much of a unifying theme. The stories are stark, often featuring people or beings dealing with complex systems that have been built. The main characters tend to be those set outside of these systems, not centered, their desires and needs expected to be suppressed for the good of the dominant. How they handle that, and how their struggle ends up impacting those systems, varies by piece but gives an overall feeling of defiance even in the face of certain defeat and death. Not the brightest of issues, but some provocative works. To the reviews!

Regular Sip - Conversation Pieces #72 (Aqueduct Press)

I’m back looking today at a new Conversation Pieces long novelette from Aqueduct Press. I’m a big fan of the series, which has been coming out for quite some time, and especially like that it takes chances. This is a story that does not hold back, that embraces its themes and characters and isn’t here for any of our cis nonsense. It’s careful and measured and compassionate but also angry and so very tired. It takes a sharp look at the ways that society seeks to cut people off from their true selves and deny their own realities, and it gives hope that maybe some toxic systems can die mad. Anyway, let’s get to the review!

Quick Sips - Escape Pod #716 & #717

Escape Pod kicks off the new year with a pair of original stories that explore futures were...elements of our world that are perceived as increasing productivity (but which also might lead to rampant burnout and misery) are embraced at a governmental level and expanded. Making sciences more (yes, moar!) competitive, making listening to people's issues a job where compassion isn't allowed. These stories reveal times and places where people are ignoring the toxic costs of their corrupt systems and instead push forward because it's what "get results." Only the end results might be much different than the hoped-for outcomes. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - PodCastle #611

Just a single story this month from PodCastle, and it’s a fun take on fairy tales. The mood and the tone are a mix of brash sarcasm and genuine desire for a kind of freedom that has nothing to do with knights coming to the rescue. It takes the tropes of the genre and twists them, embracing some (talking cat dragon! Time Wizard!) and dashing others (what it means to have a HEA). It’s a vibrant, refreshing read, and I’ll get right to my review!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #296

Art by Rytis Sabaliauskas

Two stories of queer romance, guilt, and redemption round out the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. The characters here find themselves in difficult situations, forced out of love to contemplate betraying everything they stand for and believe in. Tempted into thinking that maybe it could be right to do something they know is wrong. And both end up rejecting that idea (at least in part), embracing instead the idea that through resilience and cooperation and love they can resist the corrupt systems pushing them toward betraying those they care about and maybe save them instead. To the reviews!