Quick Sips - Translunar Travelers Lounge #1 [part 2: With a Twist]

I’m back looking at the inaugural issue of Translunar Travelers Lounge, this time taking a taste from their With a Twist offerings. The section promises new takes on classic tropes (at least as I read it) and I can definitely say that it delivers. A ghost story with a musical (and romantic) embellishment. A post-disaster story with a badass librarian and a few overdue books. A fairy tale with its own defiant happily ever after. A kaiju story with a human heart. A time travel story with a meta filter. There’s lots of interesting ideas to explore, and I’ll happily do just that with my reviews!

Quick Sips - Augur #2.2 [part 2]

I finish up my look at the latest issue of Augur Magazine today, which includes another story, a graphic story, and two more poems. And because of the kind of weird way I organize things, the story (which appears first) was actually the last piece in the issue, while everything else ran in the order it’s listed. And it’s a rather wonderful collection of work, definitely dark and definitely playing with structure and form in some interesting ways. The story and graphic story also evoke fairy tales and resonate quite well together, and throughout there is just this emphasis I feel is put on twisting out of restrictive expectations and roles, and breaking restrictive narrative forms and tropes. These are careful and not always about an unqualified happily ever after, but still feature people freeing themselves from heavy burdens, if only imperfectly. To the reviews!

Quick Sips - Diabolical Plots #56

Art by Joey Jordan

The two stories that round out the latest issue of Diabolical Plots look at futures both bleak and bright. Or, well, mostly bleak, but with their moments of warmth and hope brought about by an awareness of the power of humanity to inspire each other (and maybe some pandas?). It features characters who in some ways are agents of the status quo. Someone responsible for enforcing a system that exploits originality. Someone responsible for getting pandas to follow through on their supposed biological imperatives. And it finds these characters pushed to examine their own methods and beliefs, to doubt that their way is the only way. It's a mix of styles and voices, but two rather neat stories that I'll get right to reviewing!

Quick Sips - Nightmare #85

Art by Elena Schweitzer / Adobe Stock Image

The stories in October’s Nightmare Magazine a quite different, though both are definitely horrifying in their own way. In one, a woman deals with being the final girl, the one left to the end of the massacres. The one who has survived twice but is now considered cursed, and has to figure out where to go from there. The other story looks a different kind of random horror, though not the kind that stalks or targets its victims specifically. This one lies in wait for a person to pass along and open themselves unknowingly to…something. It’s an interesting one-two punch, and I’ll get right to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Strange Horizons 10/07/2019 & 10/14/2019

It's always nice when I can make a little less work for myself, and having a new story up at Strange Horizons means that I'll only be looking at the other story and two poems from last two issues. I will still hope that maybe people check out my story, "The Sloppy Mathematics of Half-Ghosts," but otherwise the issues focus on magic and revenge, the afterlife and how we tell stories. There is a great edge to the pieces, and especially to the fiction, that twists expectations when it comes to how a person can seek and accomplish vengeance. One that recognizes and actually utilizes the cyclical nature of harm and violence. So buckle up, and let's get to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #288

Art by Ferdinand Dumago Ladera

Well the anniversary issue is over and it’s back to business as usual at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which in this case means back to two stories about distance and isolation, memory and transformation. In one, a man looks back on his life and especially his youth, preparing himself for a new kind of adventure. In the other, a boy finds that he can’t remember his life, and that as a ghost he only gets to interact with the living world one day a year. Both are slow and winding stories, serene but ruled by sadness and yearning. Both find characters who are looking to move on, and might finally have found a way to do just that. It’s a somewhat sorrowful issue, and I’ll get right to reviewing it!

Quick Sips - Disabled People Destroy Fantasy! part 2 (Uncanny #30 [October stuff])

Art by Julie Dillon

Disabled People Destroy Fantasy! wraps up with these three short stories and three poems from Uncanny Magazine. Once again it’s a very eclectic mix of stories and styles, from a romantic fairy tale (with a great twist) to a dream-like piece featuring someone continually burying the dead. From a very different kind of portal fantasy to a slew of poems about disease, body image, and safety. There’s a lot to read and experience, and it’s been a phenomenal special issue that you do not want to miss. To the reviews!