Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #278

Art by Victoriya "Anda" Shamykina

The second May issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies features two stories very much about the abuses of monarchies and the hard work of pushing for systemic change in authoritarian situations. Because change is dependent on one person seeing other humans as people, as worthy of consideration. For those who have been raised in affluence, that’s not always an easy thing. So we find two stories where two very different characters have to face how they will deal with a future that could be full of blood and loss, and how they might minimize the damage. It’s an issue of sacrifice and blood, and it resonates with power, death, and hope. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Fireside Magazine #65

Art by Bernard Lee

March brings a four short stories and a poem to Fireside Magazine, each of them full of darkness and light in warring measures. In each piece, people grow up hoping to find a place to belong. A world that matches the hope and brightness of their dreams and the stories they are told. But as they grow they find other fates waiting for them, trying to claim them. Trying to make them victims of the hunger darkness around them. Without the protection of a just system, these shadows do try to take many of the characters. But not all of them fall into the dark. Some of them are able to rise up, to join with others to fight back and seek to build a space to be true to themselves. It’s a defiant, inspiring issue of fiction and poetry that acts as a sort of extended hand to the weary, urging them up and forward to further the fight. So let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Uncanny #27 [March stuff]

Art by Christopher Jones

Three short stories and two poems usher Uncanny Magazine’s March offerings in with style, revolution, and heartbreak. The pieces move around survivors. Not people who have outlasted others, but those who are surviving their own personal hells and oppressions, their own personal griefs and losses. They are survivors by necessity, their worlds condensing in a squeeze of despair that makes everything seem impossible. And yet at the same time, these stories work to show people helping people. Showing main characters able to move to more active resistance and freedom because they are not alone, because they have the support they need to make their stories about more than just enduring the hardships they face, but rather excelling in the face of them to find healing and hope for the future. So yeah, let’s get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #263

The anniversary issues might be over but the great stories continue at Beneath Ceaseless Skies with a pair of pieces that look at nobility, conflict, and the future. That find two very different characters deals with their worlds falling part. In one, a woman blessed and cursed to see the future must find a way to keep going when everything seems futile. And in the other, a woman who often hears the voices of the past must navigate a world unlike anything anyone has ever experienced. In both, the characters don’t really choose the disasters that find them, but both have to find ways to wrest what agency they can from the situations in order to save what they can, and to still work for a better future. To the reviews!

Art by Veli Nyström