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“Mother Tongues,” S. Qiouyi Lu; Escape Pod, July 12, 2018
http://escapepod.org/2018/07/12/escape-pod-636-mother-tongues/

The lengths a mother will go to, to give her daughter the best future possible.


“Birthday Girl,” Rachel Swirsky; Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2018, https://uncannymagazine.com/article/birthday-girl/

A vision of life where neurodiversity is accepted and supported, and the reality of what can be lost when it’s not. Deeply moving.


“Light and Death on the Indian Battle Station,” Keyan Bowes; Fireside Fiction, October 2018, https://firesidefiction.com/light-and-death-on-the-indian-battle-station

On a battle station in some future war, where telepaths engage in mortal combat and live or die for their country, a young woman makes a daring journey to save her fallen sister. Lovely reworking of the legend of Princess Savriti.


“Compulsory,’ Martha Wells; Wired, December 17, 2018.
https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-compulsory-martha-wells/

A prequel to the Murderbot Diaries, this serves as welcome, if not precisely essential, background to understanding Murderbot and its world.

“STET,” Sarah Gailey; Fireside Magazine, October 2018
https://firesidefiction.com/stet

Gailey employs an unusual format to explore ethical questions in the programming of Als. The work, however, has a broader and more encompassing scope. A different sort of narrative, but profoundly thought-provoking.
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Catherynne Valente, "Down and Out in R'lyeh"; Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2017
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/down-and-out-in-rlyeh/

This is not your average Cthulhu mythos story. In a style reminiscent of its other literary inspirations - Orwell's Down and out in Paris and London, Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - it's a travelogue, a drug-fueled expletive-filled exploration of the fetid underbelly of a city where that most fetid of all things, dead, lies dreaming. The narrator is an inconsequential 'eerie' named Moloch - not "the" Moloch, of course, just one of the thousand children of Shub-Niggurath, out for a night of tripping on the fumes of Cthulhu's farts. It's one wild ride, and it's worth it.


Allison Mills, "If a Bird Can Be a Ghost"; Apex Magazine, August 1, 2017
https://www.apex-magazine.com/if-a-bird-can-be-a-ghost/

Shelly's Grandmother is a Ghostbuster. Shelly has the gift as well, to see and communicate with ghosts, to send them on. Her grandmother has a lot to teach her, about when to send a ghost on, and when to let them be. About treating them like the people they were. But when Shelly's mother dies, she has to learn the hardest lessons on her own. Very strong story, it starts out sweet and turns powerful and full of meaning. By the end I was near tears.


Cassandra Khaw, "Don't Turn On the Lights"; Nightmare Magazine, October 2017
http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/dont-turn-lights/

Oh, this is a dark little piece of horror indeed. Or, considering that it consists of multiple variations on a simple horror trope, a series of dark little pieces, each one successively darker and taking its motivations from deeper in the human psyche. Khaw turns the screws sublimely.


Mary Robinette Kowal, "The Worshipful Society of Glovers"; Uncanny Magazine, July/August 2017
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/worshipful-society-glovers/

Kowal's novelette, a historical fantasy set in Tudor times, features a journeyman glovemaker in a world where the crafting guilds have arrangements with the queen of fairies to produce enchanted goods - all properly licensed, of course, and the penalties for making unlicensed ensorcelled goods can be grave indeed. But laws intended to protect can also trap a good but desperate person in a maze of deceit and worse, with no way out. A story that is, ultimately, about the cruelty of class, the desperation of poverty, and the callousness of a system that makes no allowances for circumstance or simple human necessity.


Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali, "Concessions"; Strange Horizons, published in two parts, March 6 and 13, 2017
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/concessions-part-1-of-2/

In a world where religious strife has led to wars and a suppression of faiths of all kinds, where religious exiles live in small communities in barren lands becoming increasingly less habitable, a muslimah doctor and scientist struggles to balance both her callings, and find a way to atone for her part in the devastation. A thoughtful, moving story about healing, responsibility, science and faith.


Vina Jie-Min Prasad, "A Series of Steaks"; Clarkesworld, January 2017
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasad_01_17/

A delightful sf caper about a prime beef forger and her assistant threatened by a nasty client with blackmail on his mind. The details of the forged food business - and its cousin, the printed replacement organ business - are actually fascinating, and the way the women turn the tables and ride off into the sunset is delightful.


Kathleen Kayembe, "The Faerie Tree"; Lightspeed Magazine, November 2017
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-faerie-tree/

Striking a bargain with the faeries is never something done lightly, but when the need is great enough, some are willing to pay the price. But the sacrifice can be even worse than you thought it would be. A well-told tale with a bitter lesson.


Rachel Swirsky, "The Day The Wizards Came"; Lightspeed Magazine, November 2017
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/day-wizards-came/

A short but many-layered story. What if wizards - mere schoolchildren, on brooms, not unlike the wizards everyone has been reading about - suddenly appeared and stopped a terrible thing from happening. And what if the mundanes, who the young wizards didn't have much respect for anyway, instead if being suitable grateful, wondered why now, why, if they had such power, they hadn't stopped other terrible things before then. And what if... But as I said, there are many levels to this unsettling tale, having to do with responsibility, and power, and expectations, and wanting things to be better without having to do it yourself, and other tricky questions.


Theodora Goss, "Come See the Living Dryad"; tor.com, March 9, 2017

Goss' novelette deals with an issue that I feel rather strongly about - the treatment of people who have visible differences and disabilities, by society, by those close to them, by institutions and media. Set in 19th century England (and thus evoking echoes of the life of a similar medical curiosity, Joseph Merrick, the famous Elephant Man), this is the story of the life and murder of Daphne Merwin, the Living Dryad. There is a real, and very rare, genetic condition known as Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia, in which damaged skin develops into hardened tissue and forms papules that resemble treebark, and branches. It is this condition that the fictional Daphne suffers from, and the reason that her husband - the man who found her alone and starving in the streets of London - exhibits her under the name of the Living Dryad.

The story is told through Daphne's journals, the internal narrative of her great-great-granddaughter, also named Daphne, who has inherited her condition, and various documents - handbills, news reports, excerpts from the younger Daphne's book on Victorian Freak Shows. The younger Daphne, reading the journal for her research, becomes suspicious about the official version of the murder, and seeks to resolve the questions she has. Daphne's journals provide clues. But what lies beneath the murder mystery - which is interesting in itself - is the tragedy of two woman turned into objects for display, for the financial benefit of the man who wooed and used them both, and the voyeuristic pleasure of others.


Carlie St. George, “If We Survive the Night”; The Dark Magazine, March 2017
http://thedarkmagazine.com/if-we-survive-the-night/

There’s a house in the woods where the girls who die in horror films go. Every day there’s an angel who calls on them to repent their sins, and every night they are murdered again. Because everyone knows it’s the bad girls who die. But who decides what’s good and what’s bad? And who determined that the appropriate punishment for any sin that a teenaged girl could commit is to be horrifically murdered?

In an interesting literary coincidence, shortly after reading this story, I encountered the following passage in Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life: “You can be made responsible whether or not you have modified your behavior in accordance, because gender fatalism has already explained the violence directed against you as forgivable and inevitable.”


Kirsten Valdez Quade, “Christina the Astonishing (1150 - 1224); The New Yorker, July 31, 2017
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/31/christina-the-astonishing-1150-1224

More mainstream/literary fiction. A thought-provoking story recounting the life of a late Medieval female saint from the perspective of her sister. Reading with a modern eye, one is unable to discern sanctity from madness. Did Christina really return from death, or from a paralytic fit that seemed like death to the uneducated villagers and barely educated priest? Her sisters suffer greatly from her ranting, accusations and erratic, sometimes violent behaviour - is it the wrath of God or schizophrenia? What tears at the heart is the anguish of a sister torn between love, resentment, anger and reverence.

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"Harvestfruit," J. Y. Yang, july 2014, Crossed Genres
http://crossedgenres.com/magazine/019--harvestfruit/

In this chilling piece of flash fiction, Yang explores the responses of people traumatised by capture and forced integration into a society where they live only to satisfy the needs of others.



"So, You Must Talk to the Woman Who Is Wearing Headphones," Alexandra Petri, August 30, 2016, The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2016/08/30/so-you-must-talk-to-the-woman-who-is-wearing-headphones/?utm_term=.608e14c2aac8

A powerful and very pertinent piece 'inspired' by the public conversation about the inappropriate demands for attention men make on women who clearly do not want to be disturbed.


"The Lady Astronaut of Mars," Mary Robinette Kowal, electronic publication September 11, 2013, Tor.com
http://www.tor.com/2013/09/11/the-lady-astronaut-of-mars/

A moving novelette about an aging former astronaut called back in for a final mission that she is uniquely suited to perform, and the emotional costs of deciding between the desire to return to space and the responsibilities that arise from love.


"The Curse of Giants," Jose Pablo Iriarte, March 7, 2016, Daily Science Fiction
http://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/magic-realism/jose-pablo-iriarte/the-curse-of-giants

Some stories give you all the clues you need to figure out what's happening, but nevertheless kick you in the gut at the final reveal. This is one of those stories. Some people might debate whether it's really science fiction, or magic realism, or something else, but it's powerful and it's both comment and critique on the world we live in, and the nature of courage.


"Between Dragons and Their Wrath," An Owomoyela and Rachel Swirsky, February 2016, Clarkesworld
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/owomoyela_swirsky_02_16/

Domei and hir friend Hano live in a country that lies between two nations at war, a country ravaged and poisoned by dragons used as weapons of destruction. This story focuses on how the terrible aftermath of war and global exploitation affects innocent people trying to live their lives in the midst of destruction they neither caused nor understand. It is a story of despair, resignation, and faint, distorted hope, and it wracks the soul.

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Short Stories #2

"If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love," Rachel Swirsky, Mar 5, 2013, Apex Magazine
http://www.apex-magazine.com/if-you-were-a-dinosaur-my-love/

And yes, this is the first time I've read the short story that all the Sad Puppies hated. And it is a beautiful, and harrowing piece of fiction. To convey so very much, such complex feelings and so much backstory so compellingly in so few words, leaving the reader watching in growing horror and sorrow as the terrible truth unveils itself and the protagonist's thoughts, motives and state of mind become clear and understandable, is the height of the storyteller's art and craft.

I know that there have been endless discussions about whether this story belonged on an sf award ballot. I agree that it is neither classic science fiction nor classic fantasy, but more and more sf is taken to mean speculative fiction, and indeed, the whole of the story is a science fictional speculation in response to an act of horror - which also fits under the umbrella of sf - following which the protagonist can only drift into fantasy to find a way to express herself. The story is about a person thinking, surviving, through sfnal tropes and images. That's good enough for me.


"Even the Mountains Are Not Forever," Laurie Tom, Mar 2 2015, Strange Horizons
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2015/20150302/mountains-f.shtml

"Every child knew the story of Kunchen and how she had led her people millennia ago to a snowy world so cold that it was only possible to live in the mountainous equator. They named it Dunxu, and here they could live apart from others, to be their own people. They brought with them their prayer flags and their sheep and their yaks, and dotted the white mountains with color."

In an sfnal take on the Tibetan concept of perpetually reincarnating lamas who guide the people from their accumulated store of wisdom, the people of Dunxu have their Kunchen, who is wakened from cryosleep every ten years to walk among her people and advise its leaders. Only the most senior among them know that even with living only a few months out of every decade, eventually the Kunchen grows old and a new one must take her place. The story concerns itself with an aging Kunchen seeking her successor, and a young woman who proposes something new in this process. I enjoyed the "feel" and setting of the story, and the elements of spirituality and destiny woven into the reality and the myth of the Kunchen.

"Vacui Magia," L. S. Johnson, Jan 5, 2015, Strange Horizons
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2015/20150105/VacuiMagia-f.shtml

The title of this story can be translated as "the magic of emptiness" or "the magic of loss." It takes the form of a grimoire entry, a lesson in the making of and dealing with realistic-looking child golems, but embedded in the instructions - both practical and theoretical - is the story of a middle-aged childless witch caring for her dying mother, who sorrows that she will never see a granddaughter. The protagonist uses the magic to create for her mother the illusion of a granddaughter, a magic that is essentially empty because the golem child does not, and can not, be a true person. However, this is not just a story about grief and loss, but also about how living through that loss can bring healing, freedom, and new directions - the magic of loss that also refills the soul. I found this story to be both moving and full of meaning.


"Wind," Naomi Kritzer, April 7, 2015, Apex Magazine
http://www.apex-magazine.com/wind/

Two young girls make a covenant to each other, one that they believe will give both the futures they have always longed for, never suspecting that the consequences will destroy their dreams - and their friendship. In the end, only one of them will find a way to the future she hoped for as a child, thanks to an unexpected gift. A well-written and enjoyable story.

"Cat Pictures Please," Naomi Kritzer, Jan 2015, Clarkesworld Magazine
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_01_15/

A quite delightful story about an AI who likes cat pictures and wants to be useful in ways that go beyond its original programming. Beneath the simple narrative lies an exploration of the ways in which humans often act against their own interests, which raises questions about whether it is better for people to continue muddling in their imperfect and illogical fashion, or to allow a beneficent entity with access to all our personal information to make choices for us.

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