Quick Sips - Lackington's #7 - Skins

Seven stories make the latest issue of Lackington's a rather weighty experience, especially with how each challenges and provokes, providing visions tinged with equal parts darkness and hope. Which, of course, means that I quite enjoyed myself while reading, exploring some of the depths the stories had to offer. The theme this issue was Skins, and I think most of the stories do make good use of the idea, the theme. Many feature changing skins, changing form, and it's a powerful metaphor and image. So let's get to the reviews!

Art by Kat Weaver

Quick Sips - Tor.com July 2015

Tor.com this month certain tends toward the dark, with pretty much all but of its five stories inky and disturbing. Of course, there's really nothing wrong with that, and the stories do provide a wide range of approaches to darkness, to suffering. And there is a much lighter superhero story thrown in to bring a bit of lightness and fun into the mix. Really these stories seem to be about dealing with the past, with past trauma in most of the stories but the past more generally. A dance unfinished, the looming ghosts of past experiments, the forgotten nightmares of a time before humans, the origin of a superhero steeped in loss, and the tragic childhood of a woman from a very messed up family, the past refuses to stay buried in these stories. So let's get to the reviews!

Art by Jeffrey Alan Love

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #178

As always, two stories anchor another issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Both take the second world push of the publication to rather satisfying extremes, showing in both reflections of our own world distorted in interesting ways. In the first, the world is explained as being like our own but grown on the leaf opposite us, like a branch with opposite leaf structure. In the second, the setting involves time travel of a sort and an examination of insurrection and love. Both are interesting, building worlds that live and breath, but I should just get to the reviews already!

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 07/20/2015 and 7/27/2015

Two more weeks of Strange Horizons means one story, two poems, and one article that I'm looking at today. As always, there are things that I'm not getting to review for various reasons but definitely go check out all the offerings. For what's here, there's a nice mix of science fictional pieces with poems that evoke much more a natural fantasy, a sense of nurture and humanity. These two aspects of the weeks' offering makes for a nice balance, a serious examination of life and wonder but also an optimism about the future, about the universe. So I should just get to it!

Art by Sishir Bommakanti

Quick Sips - Terraform July 2015

Well Terraform is certainly branching out a bit this month, including not only a piece of nonfiction but also an excerpt from a novel. The nonfiction I will be checking out, but I'm skipping over the novel excerpt for now. Aside from those newer offerings, there is also a humorous fictional nonfiction piece and a slew of mostly humorous stories, with a large exception being the first story which is decidedly not very funny. But there's a fair balance of different speculative stories, even if some are purposefully ridiculous. So to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Urban Fantasy #9

This month's Urban Fantasy Magazine is all about guilt and the weight of actions. In the first story, the weight comes in the form of a child, half-mer, who is never really allowed to be her own person. In the second the weight comes from a dead friend, one who is never really allowed to pass on. Both are interesting and sad and do a good job at showing how actions can lead to these weights, how people construct mental walls that keep them alone and suffering, and both give small hints at how those walls might come crumbling down. So let's get to it!

Quick Sips - Book Smugglers July 2015

The 2015 publishing schedule of Book Smugglers continues with this novelette. As it is the only thing I'm looking at today, the review might have grown a bit. Of course, some of the review is full of spoilers, so beware I guess. Oh, and I suppose I should mention that this is a First Contact story, and as that it does work, a human woman meeting a man who was literally a star. The story is fun and romantic and I'm just going to get to the review, okay?

Art by Yasmin Khudari

Quick Sips - Apex #74

July brings what might be considered a light month to Apex Magazine, what with only one poem to look at and three stories. The works all have a weight to them, though, that this issue can definitely not be accused of being light. It is dark and heavy and gripping, a mix of sex and creation and rebellion. The stories are a mix of science fiction and fantasy and the poem is amazing. Seriously, I love longer poems and this one is very much a must-read. For those who normally skip the poetry, don't. But I should just get the reviews already.

Art by Carly Sorge

Quick Sips - Farrago's Wainscot #15

Well the newest issue of Farrago's Wainscot is finally here! I apologize for the dramatic exclamation point, but I was a little nervous that it wouldn't arrive in time for me to have time to review it. And it has carved out a nice place for itself as a nice source for weird stories and poems. It offers up a nice variety of each this month, with four stories and four poems. The fiction moves from pumpkins to pennies to chickens to cocksucking and is a very strong issue, and the poems provides four glimpses into some strange places. So let's get to the reviews.

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #177

This month has really been good at providing issues with strong unifying themes, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies is no exception. The two stories are on the short side, and for once I was rather bummed about that, because this is a very story issue that tackles war and language and the pursuit of peace. In both their are mothers trying to do right by their children, though the stories take very different tracks when it comes to this. The stories are about finding the language of peace and finding it not in the way that's expected. That war cannot exactly be overcome by peace in the abstract but only with the full weight of death and dread. It's a stunning issue which I recommend very highly. So to the stories!

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - Nightmare #34

Horror takes a look inward in this month's Nightmare Magazine. Two stories, as always, and two that are linked by the shared theme of the inside leaking out. Of the repressed finding its way to the surface. The first is a story of people lost physically, the second the story of a man lost emotionally. In both situations, the added stress the situation brings leads them to breaking down their barriers, their controls, and transforming. So let's get to it!

Art by Dennis Carlsson

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 06/29/2015, 07/06/2015, and 07/13/2015

Three weeks to catch up on with Strange Horizons today. Because of the time restrictions, I am not looking at the reprint from late June, but I do recommend everyone go and read it. The stories this month revolves around grief and tragedy. The first story is more with a legal system that has sprung up to protect people against the criminal consequences of their actions but not the emotional ones and the second story is about the way tragedy is handled by those close to it and farther away. The poetry ranges from short to long and is all interesting and worth checking out, though I will admit that a few gave me a little more trouble with interpretation. And the nonfiction. Excellent nonfiction this go-round that might have provoked the Quick Thoughts that will be up tomorrow. Because I have opinions on canon and on privilege and ahem, definitely don't miss the nonfiction. For now, to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Lightspeed #62

So three stories this month from Lightspeed, but all of them on the longer side, with two novelettes and one short story that almost qualifies as well. I like the way the stories build off each other, how they each take very different routes when building setting. There are no second world stories this time, all the action taking place on Earth, but there is a historical fantasy set shortly after American Independence and a historical science fiction set during Prohibition. Seeing how those stories build up the past is fascinating, and then to see how the third story moves things to the future, taking no less care in setting the scene, makes for an issue that satisfies and challenges and provides some great reading. To the reviews!

Art by Euclase

Quick Sips - Shimmer #26

The two stories that make up the July offerings from Shimmer Magazine are very well paired. Both are stories of girls growing into women, and the relationship they share with their grandmothers. In each there is a sense of magic, a sense that the grandmother is the guardian of some old secret, some old practice that is leaving the world, but that the granddaughter can and does keep alive, a candle to honor what has passed, to celebrate a woman who was indomitable, who was beautiful and kind and captured something that was vital for the women becoming who they are. It's a great pair of stories, and I should just get to the reviews already.

Art by Sandro Castelli

Quick Sips - Fantastic Stories of the Imagination July/August 2015

Back with their new publishing schedule, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination provides two new stories this month. One flash and one short story, and both interesting. There is definitely a tendency for the publication to spotlight a bit darker of stories in their original works, which is A-okay for me. The stories are short but typically revolve around a kernel of emotion, of loss or tragedy. This month the stories both feature death and communication with the other side, but in two completely different ways. Thematically the stories build on one another, one a more humorous take on speaking with the dead and the other a more wrenching tale, but both focus on communication, or perhaps a failure to communicate, with the dead. Good stuff, so let's get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Uncanny #5 (July Stuff)

Back again to review this month's offering from Uncanny Magazine, which once more has a nice mix of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. I must say, the more I read the publication the more I feel I get the title, get the vision that unites it. I really dislike that people would see a publication like Uncanny and not see a unified whole. That some people might say "Oh, look, they publish different genres which means there can be NO other way to organize a magazine" is...disappointing to me. Because I do see that Uncanny really does stick to the idea of the Uncanny, of the unexplained and the magical, of the living metaphor, of the slightly twist on the expected. The stories are indeed uncanny, unable to be easily categorized, and I quite like them for that. Anyway, I should probably stop rambling and get to the stories. Onward!

Art by Antonio Javier Caparo

Quick Sips - Crossed Genres #31 Novelette

The theme for this month's Crossed Genres is Novelette. Which isn't really a theme as it is a style. A length. But hey, it's all good, as the stories still live up to the quality that people expect from the publication. All three are interest, two of them science fictional and one a contemporary fantasy/magic realism piece (gah, I dislike genre differentiating). All meet the word requirements for novelette, but all are also rather contemplative stories. Though there is a bit of death and dismemberment, there really isn't too much pressing violence. These stories use the higher word count to draw things out, to slowly build the tension. It's an interesting collection of stories (and three of them when I was only expecting two), so hurrah! To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Three Stories from One Throne Magazine (Winter 2014/Summer 2015)

So this is a bit odd for me. One Throne Magazine actually contacted me with an invitation to read/review a few of their stories. Now, not all of these are recent. Not all of these are even from this year, but then I saw the names and I was a little too tempted to resist. Chikodili Emelumadu and Tendai Huchu have both appeared in my Monthly Round series (three times between them) and I know I've read something from Nikki Vogel before (though I cannot for the life of me remember what). So while I normally try to look at only issues that have been out this month, I'm making an exception to look at these three stories. Anyway, onward to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #106

Ah, Clarkesworld. I can definitely say that there are few publications that put out such a daring array of science fiction and fantasy. Most of the stories this month are science fictional in nature, but each takes a quite different approach to the genre. And, of course, the one fantasy story was such that it more than makes up for being the only fantasy story. Both on Earth and far, far away from it, the stories do a great job of capturing a dark truth about bonds, about groups. These stories are about surviving, are about what binds us together. Many deal with families, with falling apart and holding on, and some deal with societies both small (in the case of a group of tourists stranded on a hostile world) or large (in the case of the city with its suppression of the pain it creates). But all are good and there's even a new translated story to enjoy. So let's get to it!

Art by Julie Dillon

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online

A new month means first stop: Flash Fiction Online! I swear I normally start here in part because it's less a huge commitment and the beginning of the month is always full. But also because I know that I will probably very much enjoy at least one story. Usually I like more than that, but one normally stands out to me as more "my thing." And this month is no exception. Three stories, on the shorter side even for flash, but still a nice mix of things. So let's get to the reviews!

Art by Dario Bijelac