Quick Sips - Fireside Magazine #83

Art by Melody Newcomb

The latest Fireside Magazine comes with five new short stories, making it large for the publications (but that’s kinda what happens on months with five Tuesdays). More, it tours SFF, moving from future superheroes to past uploaded consciousnesses. From sentient 3D printers to sentient ritual blades. From daring dos in space to a much more terrestrial look at homes and monsters. The works are at turns entertaining and touching, fun and challenging, chilling and inspiring. They cover a lot of thematic ground and make for some great reading, so I’ll get right to my reviews!

Quick Sips - Augur #3.1 [part 3]

Art by Lorna Antoniazzi

And here I am a day later finishing up my reviews of the latest (really big) issue of Augur Magazine. This one has something of a treat, too, because on top of the two short stories and two poems, there’s a graphic story as well, which brings some vivid colors and imagery to look at in all it’s pretty while maintaining that feeling of complex and careful work within SFF. The stories are strong, atmospheric, moody, and creepy at times. The poems are alive with movement and defiance. And the graphic story brings it all home, closing out the issue with a thought on cycles, a fitting end for a publication that will, after all, be out with a new issue in due time. So there is no real end, no real beginning, but it’s all pretty great all the same. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Augur #3.1 [part 2]

Art by Lorna Antoniazzi

More Augur Magazine! Having tackled six SFF works last time, my next installments will cover 5 each. This one takes on two new short stories and three new poems, for works that take on some unsettling and difficult themes but still know how to inspire, challenge, and entertain. The stories tend toward the grimmer side of the works, drawing situations of familial loss, where women are put in situations of having to face old injustices, old wounds, all the while opening news ones. For all the works tend toward bleak, though, I think both do leave room for hope, but a hope that needs to be worked for, that isn’t necessarily going to be easy. And the poetry is a lovely mix of moods and tunes, forms and patterns. But it makes for a continuation on a wonderful issue, and I’ll get right to my reviews!

Quick Sips - Diabolical Plots #67

Art by Joey Jordan

The two new stories in the latest issue of Diabolical Plots are quite well paired, and find people clinging to ghosts. In the first, that’s rather literal, with a character and their ghost dog, and the relationship that has so fulfilled them both coming to a close. In the second, it’s a bit more figurative, but the characters are still clinging to the ghosts of humanity and all the things that humanity destroyed--the way of life that has been lost, replaced with something much more efficient but not quite as comforting. Both stories are emotional and challenging, presenting readers with situations where there no stopping loss. But also showing characters moving forward regardless, picking themselves up and looking towards the future, even if they’re still also looking to the past. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Nightmare #96

Art by Melkor3D / Adobe Stock Image

The September Nightmare Magazine brings a pair of stories that show a quieter side of horror. Both feature settings as part of the cast, though their characters are very different—rural farm versus urban decay. Both very much focus on the violence found in these places, though, the ways that a person can be lost. One story, though, focuses on the monsters that live among us and the ways America shelters and shields them. The ways it allows them. Where the other story is much more about the tragedy of loss and the deep sense of haunting that comes from so many places, where the dead and their potential loom large, and possess a solid weight. Despite the slower pacing, both stories are intense and intimate, and it’s a great issue that I’ll get right to reviewing!

Quick Sips - Baffling Magazine September 2020

This month at Baffling Magazine there’s just one story to check out, but as it’s a new story by Nino Cipri, I’m pretty sure we can all agree that’s more than enough. And it’s a beautifully rendered portrait of suburbia. The façade of the pristine--the lawns, the cars, the “perfect” families. The bliss of quiet mornings and drives through the empty streets. But under that, something perhaps rotting. Something off. Something wrong. And the story might not find words for it but it provides a stirring and unsettling picture of it, of a boy finding something he doesn’t quite understand, but that he feels with his whole self. It’s strange and more than a little creepy but also powerful, like something is about to break through the shell that he’s been living on the surface of. And what’s coming through...well, perhaps I should just get to the review!

Quick Sips - Uncanny #36 [September stuff]

Art by Christopher Jones

The latest from Uncanny includes three new short stories and two new poems that speak of space, of people finding themselves in a new place, unsure of the rules, hurting from the baggage and scars they bring with them, trying to find a way forward. A way to stop being hungry--for food, or experiences, for closure, for revenge. The works lean a bit more towards the science fictional side of things (or well, the fiction does), with a slight divergence to a work that...seems to blend science and fantasy. The works are well built, vividly imagined, and have a bit of aching need at their core, and I should stop being vague and get right to my reviews!