Quick Sips - Uncanny #11 (August Stuff)

The August content of Uncanny Magazine certainly doesn't pull its punches, with two stories, two poems, and two pieces of nonfiction that all hit with a power that leaves a lasting impact. Oh, and if you didn't realize, they're funding Year Three RIGHT NOW! IT IS THE LAST DAY GO!!! Ahem, but anyway...the fiction and poetry especially seem to come from places of hurt and hope. From a world that has failed in a rather fundamental way, that has let people down. That only works for some and for others not at all. Where people struggle to find some plan, some frame that makes it make sense only to have the rug pulled out from under them. These are uncomfortable pieces, mainly, but ones that don't allow the reader to look away, that confront them with the knowledge and the feeling of those hurt. So yeah, to the reviews! 

Art by Javier Caparo

Strange Horizons 08/01/2016 & 08/08/2016

Well, I'll try not to be too sad that Our Queer Planet is done with and instead focus on the fact that Strange Horizons continues with two more weeks of SFF fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. There's a return of the multi-part story (and a nicely subverted fairy tale, at that) which clocks in just into novelette range (by my count), two poems that really don't pull their punches, and two nicely paired nonfiction pieces that examine popular art and what to do when certain aspects of a text don't seem to work quite as well as others. All in all it's a great two weeks of content and helps to relieve a bit of the sting left by Our Queer Planet only having lasted a month. To the reviews! 

Art by Melissa Pagluica

Quick Thoughts - 500 Strong

So those math-inclined out there, you may have noticed that Quick Sip Reviews is now over 500 posts old. I'm not even sure what to call this. Not exactly an anniversary (though this moment comes I think almost exactly one year and seven months after QSR first lanched) or a birthday or anything like that. More like…a milestone. At the very least, it seems like an excuse to take a break from heavier thoughts and just sort of…check in.

Sometimes I wonder what I would think if I looked back at my earliest reviews and compared them to what I'm doing now. Note: I do not often look back at my reviews outside about a month (because they help me pick my favorite stories for the Monthly Round). And I know that so much has changed since I changed that QSR now is…well, considerably different from how I started out. The reviews are certainly longer. And maybe more intelligent? Or more thoughtful? Or…something? It's hard to say because when I started doing these reviews I thought that they'd be shorter than my Monthly Round reviews and now…well, if anything they tend to be longer. I also tend to do more reviews per post now. And I review more publications.

I sort of went through my stats for the first seven months of the year. I have reviewed (through July) 440 short stories, 105 poems, and 24 nonfiction works. For comparison, in 2015 I reviewed 742 short stories. Which means that I've reviewed 1182 short stories since I've begun, and with nonfiction and poetry probably close to 1500 individual works of SFF. Which, hey, not bad I hope. Probably I'll sound like a broken record because I tend to return time after time to say basically the same thing but with new numbers. Probably to help me stay sane. I'm still here. I'm still reviewing. And I still love it. SFF still inspires me and I continue to believe that the absolute best SFF ever produced is coming out now. In terms of representation and complexity and fun? Yeah, right now. I tend to be in the camp of thinking things get better over time, which means we're always on the cusp of something amazing. And I really do see that reflected in short SFF.

When I think about what I'm doing now in reviewing SFF I'm…actually fairly okay at the moment. I mean, there are projects that I want to do. There are other publications that I'd like to review. And maybe at some point I'll be looking into what I review and might have to make some decisions there. But for now…well, I'm busy. I'm writing over 30k of reviews a month and have been since sometime in 2015. It's been…well, as I said, busy. I'm not even sure that I thought I'd last this long when I started. I still worry about burnout, but I've been doing this for so long that I don't think I could stop. Not with things as they stand. I just like doing it too much.

So let me just say thank you. For all who read and enjoy these reviews, thank you. For any who have helped signal boost or pointed others in my direction, thank you. I hope that people enjoy what I do here, and I hope that I'll be doing it for quite some time to come. Thanks for reading!

All the best,

Charles

The Monthly Round is Up!

Go over to Nerds of a Feather and check out my favorite stories of July 2016 paired with alcoholic beverages and reviewed for your amusement and enlightenment. Or, if that's too much work, just a list is below. Cheers!

Tasting Flight - July 2016
"The Sound a Raven Makes" by Mathew Scaletta (GigaNotoSaurus)
"Postcards from Natalie" by Carrie Laben (The Dark #14)
"Her Sacred Spirit Soars" by S. Qiouyi Lu (Strange Horizons)
"The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles" by Rachael K. Jones (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #203)
"The Automatic Prime Ministers" by Kate Heartfield (Lackington's #10)
"Painted Grassy Mire" by Nicasio Andres Reed (Shimmer #32)

Shots:
"Love Out of Season" by Caroline M. Yoachim (Fantastic Stories of the Imagination #235)
"War Profiteering" by M. Darusha Wehm (Mothership Zeta #4)
"Old Customs" by Rajiv Moté (Unlikely Story #12.5)

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #119

It's a month of surprises at Clarkesworld this August, as there is an extra original story plus a story in translation from German instead of the usual Chinese translation. So there's definitely a lot to see with four short stories and two longer novelettes. The good news is that it's all weird. Seriously, these are stories that push at the boundaries of the imagination. That conjure up strange worlds and uncertain realities and the vastness and power of both space and violence. Stories that set aliens next to 50's greasers and mix time travel, tragedy, and immigration. And through it all there's a sense of yearning that pervades. For a brighter future, a peaceful cooperation, and the comfort of another presence. To the reviews! 

Art by Jaroslaw Marcinek

Quick Sips - GigaNotoSaurus August 2016

This month's offering from GigaNotoSaurus is probably the least speculative story I've read from the publication so far, but is still solidly a historical fantasy that blends adventure, intrigue, and just a hint of magic. In many ways it reminds me more of early weird fiction, set in a past where things seem historical but with just a bit of a twist. Some dark corner of the world that you can almost believe exists, though this story foregoes trying to frame itself as a found text. What it does, though, is fun and well paced, a mystery in a musty manor complete with hungry hours, suspicious servants, and creepy crawlers (some of whom walk about on two legs and are complete assholes). So yeah, to the review!

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online August 2016

This month's stories at Flash Fiction Online do a nice job of capturing in bite-sized servings the charm and potential of SFF. Both in how they handle classic tropes like time travel and the Fae and how they innovate through novel uses of narrative, plot structure, and voice. The stories manage to do a lot in the short confines of their flash lengths, and they provide compelling tastes of these various settings, these various genres. What results are three stories that are at turns tragic and touching, hellish and hopeful. So yeah, let's get to the reviews! 

Art by Dario Bijelac