THE SIPPY AWARDS - The "Where We're Going We Won't Need Categories" Sippy for Excellent I'm Not Sure What in Short SFF

This is it, my friends. You've stood by as I've shipped my favorite relationships. And while I've shivered under the covers waiting desperate for dawn thanks to my favorite horror. And while I've wept enough rivers of tears to sail an armada on because of my favorite emotional stories. And even while I've revved my engine and worn my sunglasses at night in honor of my favorite ACTION! of 2015. But now we come to the final Sippy category, a category so mysterious that it defies the very nature of definitions...I think... Because the final Sippy category is--

The "Where We're Going We Won't Need Categories" Sippy

for Excellent I'm Not Sure What in Short SFF

Sometimes there are stories that just refuse to be placed into a specific box. Stories that, when looking back on them, I can't quite pick out one element that made them memorable. Not that the stories from previous categories were at all simple, but these ones feature cakes made from dead people and were-helecopters and fox spirits and just so many things that made me want to honor them for being...well, strange. And amazing. So instead of thinking of myself as lazy, I will try to think of this category as the wide net to make sure I don't let any really weird tales slip away. And the winners are...

Quick Thoughts - My Favorite Longer Reads of 2015

So I've been loving running the Sippys. Want to know my favorite stories of 2015? Check out the Sippys (which sadly end tomorrow with the fifth and final category). But what about longer works? Novels and graphic novels and poetry chapbooks and…uh…other things? I figured today I would go through my favorite reads of 2015, which is to say my five-star rated reads that made it to my Goodreads (if you want to see all my 2015 reads, feel free).

DISCLAIMER! These are not things that necessarily came out in 2015. Some of these are older but new-to-me. Keeping up on new releases while also catching up on the near-infinite number of books I haven't read is a delicate game, and one that's a bit fraught thanks to ideas of canon and all. But I have a fair balance this year of things that are brand new and things that are contemporary but not new and things that are definitely not new. Anyway anyway, to the list!

MAUS (volume 1) by ART SPIEGELMAN
I actually feel rather bad I hadn't read this one sooner, because I had intended to any number of times but…well, never did. And what the fuck was I thinking, because it is amazing. Deep and intense and troubling and this look at both a period of time in general but more than that the story of family and people and the relationship between father and son and between both men with the conspicuously absent mother/wife. And yeah, so glad that I've read this and definitely looking forward to tracking down the second volume.

RADIANCE by CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
I love the structure of this novel, the way that it's not linear and is basically a collection of texts. It's constructed with such care and mystery and power and the setting is amazing, a taste of a solar system from the dreams of the past, where each world is an unspoiled land for humans to exploit—I mean explore. The voices shine here and the different texts combine and complicate each other in an amazing and delightful fashion. One of the many books out in 2015 that I absolutely loved.

KAREN MEMORY by ELIZABETH BEAR
Speaking of 2015 books that I loved, this one came out fairly early in the year and it is amazingly fun, a bit of steam western with characters that feel real and alive and a setting that breathes a history that was and wasn't. It's great because it blends fantasy and research and it's quite surprising to find out which elements from the story are fabricated and which are pulled relatively whole from the actual past. And the plot is tight and the action amazing and it all just works.

LINE AND ORBIT by SUNNY MORAINE and LISA SOEM
I've been meaning to read this for a while and oh my GLOB! I was not disappointed. I'm a sucker for m/m romantic plots and this books weaves one into an epic science fiction with expert skill. The two leads are complex and the setting is amazing. The plot is sufficiently huge and brings up eugenics and diasporas and reconciliation and war and the supporting characters are great, too, the whole package a brilliant mix of science fiction action with character-driven moral and romantic complications. So good. I can't wait to get to the other books in the series (hopefully later this year).

THE DISPOSSESSED by URSULA K. LE GUIN
This book is amazing and the setting and the complexity and fuck I just want to read this over and over again. The way that it plays with how language shapes culture and perception and how language can be used to try and be better is just great. And yes, there are still problems but that idea that being better is a process that's never over but that things can get better, can be more just and fair, is just yes, all the yes. The story touches on politics and sexuality and a sort of socialism and I just sort of love this book for the hope inside it, and also the sense of continual revolution and resistance.

THE SUMMER PRINCE by ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON
Post apocalyptic dystopia with kickass bisexual characters sex in Brazil? Yes please! I don't think it's a surprise that some of the books on this list are typically lumped into YA, because YA is actually amazing at showing that dissatisfaction with the way things are, with being content with imperfect systems. And this novel is all about resistance and art and voice and age. It's about love and about sex and about growing up. And I love it with an unashamed passion. The setting is vibrant and the characters are great and I CRIED SO MUCH!!! Ahem. Sorry. Yes, definitely read this one.

SHADOWSHAPER by DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER
So I liked Half-Resurrection Blues but I LOVED this book. It is amazing and comes out swinging and is basically a huge middle fiction to appropriation wrapped up in a bow of generational change and just basically everything that makes YA such fun and so valuable. There's just so many amazing characters and the magic flows into the setting into the art into everything and it's a great read, combining heritage and superheroics and magic and music and art and does it all with style.

And there you have it! Most of these I have actually reviewed (sometimes multiple times) and you can find my reviews by clicking on the author's tag either on the side bar or at the bottom of this post (added bonus is you can see my reviews of their other words that I've read recently as well). Anyway, there you have it, my favorite reads of 2015! Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Charles Payseur

Quick Sips - Tor.com Late January 2016

This was certainly a full month of Tor.com, with most weeks seeing double releases of original fiction. And the second half of the month sees a nice mix of material, stories that border on funny at times but that mostly stick to the shadows. Whether that means small creatures living in the shadows of bigger things or assassins prowling the shadows in search of their target, the stories all carry a certain weight and darkness that makes them interesting and dense reads. The fantasies also range from solidly second world skulduggery to urban fantasy catering, so there's a nice range in there as well. And all in all the stories might not always be the most fun, but they do shine a light on the darkness. So let me get to reviewing!
 

Art by Rovina Cai

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 01/18/2016 and 01/25/2016

It's the end of the month, which means at Strange Horizons there's something of a break when it comes to original fiction but there's definitely no shortage of poetry and even a bit of nonfiction to keep readers coming back. And it might fall rather on the surreal, creepy, and unsettling side of things, but there's also a subtle joy and hope in these works that make them compelling instead of depressing, that call for action instead of apathy. From a story about a skinless god to an article about the energy of science fiction, the reads are dense and complex but also quite good. To the reviews!

Art by Patricio Betteo

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #191

The new Beneath Ceaseless Skies is out and features two stories that surprised me. I don't really mean that they twist, exactly, but rather that they played with my expectations on what was going on. On what I thought was going on and where I thought the stories were going. By challenging and complicating tropes, by some nice and layered characterization. By refusing to be as simple or straightforward as I had thought. So color me pleasantly surprised and impressed at these tales of "classic" fantasy. And now, to the reviews!
 

Art by Xiao Ran

Quick Sips - Terraform January 2016

So I've been reviewing Terraform for a year now, and I must say that I think it does a nice job of collecting science fiction stories that provide a mix of social commentary and tech idolatry. Not that these stories are especially different or necessarily more innovative than anything else being published in short SFF, but as a publication Terraform has a vision and does a good job of delivering on it. Not so much on sticking to its published guidelines (namely the under 2k bit), and I might personally not care for the practices of any place that doesn't actually respond to all submissions with at least a form rejection, but I'm here to look at the stories and I continue to find myself digging the directions these visions of the future take. So yeah, here's to another year of looking forward!

THE SIPPY AWARDS - The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy for Excellent Action in Short SFF

Hello and welcome to everyone's favorite awards that no one asked for, the Sippys! So far I've managed to ship my favorite relationships, cower in fear at my favorite scares, and totally not cry over my favorite tragic and/or beautiful stories of 2015. And there's still two more categories of Sippys to go! This week is all about the stories that get the heart pumping, that made me lean forward in my seat and read a little faster. Because fourth up is--

The "Time to Run Some Red Lights" Sippy 

for Excellent Action! in Short SFF

There are those who complain that short SFF these days are, well, boring. Too luminous, too poetic, too metaphorical. There are those who pine for the days of the pulp science fictions that prioritized action and plot over subtlety or meaning. To those people I ask: what the fuck are you reading? I have seen zero indication that stories now are any less intense or visceral than those written at any point in the past (that these people who complain about the decline of compelling short SFF often identify as fans of Lovecraft...confuses me). And stories today use action in subtle and profound ways, to entertain of course but also to challenge and to goad, to complicate and to reveal some ugly truths. And today I'm focusing on stories that bring the action, the battles big and small, that manage to take a breakneck pace and a visual flare and craft something deeply personal. And the winners are...