Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 09/21/2015 and 09/28/2015

So I was not really expecting there to be so much out from Strange Horizons these last two weeks. Normally, there's only a piece of fiction, a poem, and maybe a nonfiction per week. Towards the end of the month, like now, there tends to be even less. But there is a fund drive going on. So first, maybe go and check that out. Then realize with growing apprehension that there are three pieces of fiction to look at, five poems, and two pieces of nonfiction. That's a busy two weeks. Luckily it's all quite good, rather dark, and incredibly helpful as far as the nonfiction is concerned. If this is the content that Strange Horizons keeps offering up, then I definitely want to make sure they keep up and running, and I'm sure I'll donate again this year. Plus, there are prize drawings. Amazing, amazing prize drawings. So yeah, get on that while I get to these reviews.

Quick Sips - Terraform September 2015

So I think that the publishing schedule has changed at Terraform. Instead of stories coming out on Monday, they seem to be coming out later in the week. It's strange because I can't check every day to see, but I'm thinking they've been coming out closer to Friday most weeks. Whatever the case, the stories this month are good. Mostly dark visions of the future, and getting into some non-science fictional waters perhaps with a few of them, but definitely a nice mix of stories and styles. And some that really hit hard. Even an excerpt from a longer work that I decided to look at. So to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Book Smugglers September 2015

Hey, and here I thought Book Smugglers was done with original fiction. Apparently not! Just done with the First Contact stories. So here is a sequel story to "Hunting Monsters," which was released way way back in...oh, last year. So for those hankering for a fresh installment of that story, the wait is over! I quite enjoyed the first story and this sequel is equally good. So yeah, to the review!

Art by Kristina Tsenova

Quick Links - 09/25/15

Okay, so finally doing this before a ton of time has elapsed. Of course, that means that I don't have quite so many books to highlight, but that's fine by me. Makes it a bit more manageable.

Making Wolf by Tade Thompson - (Nerds of a Feather, my score 8/10) Whoa. This one was intense. Easily the most unsettling book I've read in a long, long time. Perhaps ever. It easily outdoes No Country for Old Men in terms of complicating morality. Very good.

Fantastic Erotica: The Best of Circlet Press 2008-2012 eds. Cecilia Tan and Bethany Zaiatz - (Nerds of a Feather, my score 9/10) Easily my favorite erotic anthology I've read. so much good here and so many pairings, genres, styles. Lots of yes to this one.

Line and Orbit by Sunny Moraine and Lisa Soem - (Goodreads, my score 5/5) This book is great. Romantic and sweeping in its science fiction. Just the kind of thing I love. Definitely going to be picking up the sequels and tie-ins. So good!

And that's...it? Really? Huh. I guess I really do need to get to some more reviews. I have a few things that I just haven't had time to write up for Goodreads, or been tipsy enough to review for my Not For the Faint of Heart series. I have been on a streak lately of quite liking most of the things I've read. And I've actually been reading a decent amount, which is nice. But more! I will have more soon. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Quick Thoughts - King Arthur, Spreadsheets, and Headcanon

I was going to write up something about negative reviews this week, but I'm not sure I'm in a place to think about that in a coherent fashion, so instead I'm going to talk about King Arthur. And perhaps the joy of liking problematic things. I think I've gone over some of this, vaguely, when I wrote about fanfiction way back in the day (so like two months ago?), but here I am again because I've just been through my probably tenth reading of Le Morte d'Arthur and polished up a nice spreadsheet of it and I'm left wondering why I spent so much time on this. It's a question I find myself asking more and more, especially when it feels like I don't have time, when all I can manage to do is keep up my reviews and maybe squeeze in a story or two of writing a month.

So time. There really isn't a lot of it. I will never be able to read all the things I want to read, that I'd love to read. I will die with so much unread. So why am I spending time on something that is, admittedly, kind of bad? I have no illusions about it being some great work of literature. It's entertaining at times but it's also very misogynist, very Eurocentric, Christian, and white. And…I wonder at times why I find myself drawn back to the idea of King Arthur, why I have this elaborate headcanon about it. Because I do. I have this entire world of things in my head about "my" King Arthur, from knights who are women crossdressing to pass as men to a whole lot of queer stuff to an entire altered timeline whereby most of the court was rendered immortal by drinking from the grail.

I also have no illusions. All of this is fanfiction. But as I think I've said before, I think fanfiction plays a vital role for a great many people. Because, when done right, it erases many of the problematic elements of a work. It creates something that is good. The main problem is that there isn't a King Arthur interpretation that's already as queer and as weird and as robust as I want it to be (unless I'm missing it). There's Le Morte d'Arthur, which appeals to the spreadsheet part of my brain. Yes, I know the win-loss-tie outcome for every battle in that book, have them recorded and compiled. I do power rankings and I have my favorites. And I have a novel that I'm nearly dying to write that I just won't let myself pull the trigger on because if I try and fail I don't know what I'd do.

But the thing about all of this is that it's not really the source material that I'm in love with. It's the source material in the context of my headcanon that I love. The world of King Arthur as I wish it had been written. But it wasn't. It's not the best of stories. Perhaps not even a good story at all. And perhaps I'm spending way too much time trying to make it good when I should be doing things brand new. I know that's a thing leveled at many who write fanfiction. But there is something about taking something that could be better, that should be better, and making that happen. I understand not wanting to let it go. I have a similar relationship with The Wheel of Time. It's like I want to share in other people's enjoyment of a thing but can't entirely because it's pushing me out so I make it mine by writing it different.

So yes, I am rather obsessed with Le Morte d'Arthur. Rather a lot obsessed. Do I have an erotic Arthurian story maybe going to get published at some point? Yes. Do I have unpublished erotic fanfiction featuring some versions of my headcanon? Yes. Do I see a problem with that? Mostly not. It's something that gets my fingers to the keys, something that I love, and that's important and vital. Look at comic books. What is any mainstream comic if not fanfiction of some original idea? And now we are finally getting more diverse heroes and a more diverse comic landscape. So yeah, just a friendly reminder that I'm super into headcanon and fanfiction. Rant over. Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Charles Payseur

Quick Sips - Capricious #1

I'm looking at Capricious today, a brand spanking new New Zealand-centered magazine. Why? I will be honest and say because September has been a very slow month and because I saw the link on Twitter from someone whose story I wanted to read. Shallow, perhaps, but the publication looks like an interesting one, and pays at least a cent a word, and it's not incredibly long. Four stories is just about right for me, and so all of these things conspired to get me to review the issue. Will I pick up the next one? Probably that depends on how full that month is, but I will say that I did enjoy these stories. There is a definite sense that genres are being traversed, mixed, and subverted. Most of the stories blend science fiction and fantasy elements, and I'm quite a fan of those kinds of stories. And really, the stories accomplish their blends in unique ways, none of them really the same or even similar except in their ambition and skill.

I'm not one who goes into a publication hoping for some strict adherence to a theme. Color me the wrong kind of SFF reader, but I like to be surprised and I like to be challenged. Like the alien in the third story, sometimes what we go looking for isn't what we need to learn. And I think that this issue does a good job of justifying its place in the field. It does a nice job of presenting stories that are fresh and unique, that weave genres and themes in interesting ways. So yeah, I should really get to the reviews...

Art by Anastasia (Mircha) Astasheva

Quick Sips - Tor.com September 2015 (Part 1)

So normally I would be waiting to post my Tor.com review until later in the month when all the stories are out (I'm guessing there might still be two this month to go), but I'm really hurting for things to review right now and I suspect there might be a story out here as late as the last day of the month, so I'm just breaking the September publications into two groups. Two original stories and one graphic story that's technically a reprint. I'm looking at it though because it's only really been up at the artist's blog, so this is the first time it's being not self-published. And it's cute. The stories themselves this month are about not giving up, about loneliness and isolation and despair, but also about wanting to help people and not giving up on them. In ways that run both uplifting and disturbing. Some good stuff, though, that I'm just going to get to reviewing.

Art by Wesley Allsbrook