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 09/03/2021

So August is over but that doesn’t mean that I’m through all of its short SFF. I am getting to a number of August releases this week, and even getting to some September issues, but I am still a bit underwater when it comes to getting to things, so apologies that anthologies and novellas are something I’m really struggling to get to at the moment. Phew. Anyway, there’s a new Fusion Fragment out, which is cool, as well as a new khōréō magazine and Strange Horizons for me to look at from August. In September stuff, I’m looking at Fantasy and F&SF. I thought about doing Lightspeed and Nightmare instead of F&SF, but given the weirdness with dates for that publication, I opted to just get to that this week. So yeah, it’s roughly average in terms of number of works covered (slightly above where I’ve been at for the last few weeks, yay), so let’s rock.

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 07/09/2021

So turns out I’ve probably bitten off more than I can chew when it comes to reviews. Sigh. But given the fact that I’m just getting to July reviews now and given just how many I have to get to this month, it’s possible that I’ll have to make some adjustments in the future. Maybe not. It’s possible that some venues are closing, or will go off output for a while, but that’s always something of a gamble, and given all I want to cover…well, we’ll see. For now, I’ll do my best to keep up and just hope that I don’t fall apart too thoroughly. Like I said, this month is still a bit of June, with Tor and Strange Horizons, and then lots of July with F&SF (never sure when to count these as they release a month before the cover says?), Lightspeed, Nightmare, Fantasy, and the latest Beneath Ceaseless Skies. No rest for weary short SFF reviewers, I guess.

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 04/30/2021

So after a fairly large week last week, this one shaped out to be a bit lighter, though that’s not to say there’s not a lot to cover. The largest release I’m looking at today is the May/June F&SF, while also picking up April’s Diabolical Plots and new issues from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, and Cast of Wonders. There’s actually a decent number of novelettes here, (3) as well as a novella. Throw in a decent amount of poetry and while the week might be below average for total works for me, it’s doing just fine in terms of words covered. And it lets me get more of a taste for the newer-to-me publications of F&SF and Cast of Wonders. And really there’s a lot of great stuff here, from haunted furniture to people with planets that orbit them. From a wrenching piece about losing a name to a person trapped in a dreamscape because of a bargain they didn’t make. Just lots of neat works!

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 03/05/2021

Apparently I just keep adding new publications to what I’m covering. Case in point, I’ve got two new ones this week, with a slightly belated review of the inaugural Constelación and a review of the latest Fantasy & Science Fiction. I also finally remembered that Diabolical Plots exists (sorry!) and got myself caught up there. It’s still a mix of months, with works from January, February, and March all represented here, but hopefully you can keep it all straight. Next week should be all stuff from March, though, so I’m hopefully more or less caught up on what I’m doing. And there’s a lot to get to, so I’ll cut my intro there!

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!