Another month’s gone by, full of amazing short fiction. I gathered up 10 of my favourites at B&N’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:
And here are 10 more stories from around the web. Gorgeous, haunting, wonderful creatures each and every one.
Dustdaughter,
by Inda Lauryn in Uncanny Magazine
“They made us fear our own power, like we had no right to it. Made us believe
we were better off without it. That’s how they keep winning. We do it to
ourselves, strip away the pieces they don’t like ’til they none left. Then tell
us we not whole, so not good enough.”
Dust knows she is different than other people, than other kids. She knows
people find her strange. She also knows she can do things, and
when something happens at her Big Gram’s funeral, things are brought to a head.
This is a deep and subtle story, about a child who knows she is different from
what people expect her to be, and who finally might have found a place, and
people, who allow her to be what she is. There is magic here, and cruelty, and
love, and hope that things can get better.
Adrianna in Pomegranate, by Sam Mills in Beneath
Ceaseless Skies
“It is far better to teach by speaking, to practice by doing. Wise magicians
maintain an oral tradition and leave the textbooks for historical storytelling.
Wise magicians know that writing changes the world.”
This fantasy store is so exquisitely crafted I could read it for the rhythm
and melody of its prose alone. It’s about a place where words written
down are the magic, and the choice of ink and paper and
writing implement affects that magic. In this world, a man crushed by grief and
regret is trying to bring back what he lost. It is a wonderfully moving and
darkly luminous story that is the kind of story I will keep coming back to more
than once.
The Crafter at the Web’s Heart, by Izzy Wasserstein
in Apex Magazine
“When I was little, I’d lay in Ma’s arms and listen to her stories. Beneath us,
the web swayed so gently, you could almost forget it was there. Now Ma’s tongue
is a tangle of vines, and I’m the one telling the stories, but the web still
vibrates, still speaks, if you know how to listen.”
The city of Traverse, the place where Izzy Wasserstein’s story takes
place, is located on top of an ancient web of fantastical proportions, and
the magic used here slowly transforms the magic users over
time. Wasserstein’s story follows Danae, one of the city’s inhabitants, as
she is tasked with delivering a package, and it’s the kind of nuanced fantasy
tale I love to delve into. I love the depth and detail of this world, and it
made me wish for a whole book set in the same place.
58 Ways to Ensure Your Husband Loves You Forever, by
Rafeeat Aliyu in Nightmare
“I’m okay.” Outside the bungalow, Iman paced. “. . . but I’m not sure about
Kevin. He tried to eat me this morning again. It’s like he’s a zombie.”
Oh wow. I’m not even going to try to describe this story too much, except
to say that it is an absolute TRIP. It perfectly blends advice-column-type tips
with the disturbing reality of what our protagonist has done in order to ensure
her husband does love her forever. Visceral, gut-wrenching, chilling, and with
a sly, dark sense of humour, this is excellent horror.
Rust and Bone,
by Mary Robinette Kowal in Shimmer
“Grandmother’s rocking chair is made of iron. It is rust and death and blood.
Grandmother’s rocking chair sits in the middle of the porch so that she can
watch me and pet her turtle. Tortoise, really. It is as old as Grandmother and
waits patiently by the chair like an end-table of shell.”
The last issue of Shimmer is a treasure trove of excellent fiction,
including this dark and twisting tale of magic, family, and finding out who to
trust, and where you are safe in a dangerous world. The magic in Kowal’s
story isn’t glossy and sparkly. Instead, the tale has a gritty, grimy
fairy-tale vibe that is both unsettling and compelling. And, like in many
fairy-tales, a child encounters terrible dangers here, and has to figure out
how to navigate the world and save herself.
Safebuoys,
by Wes Smiderle in Flash Fiction Online
“For 247 sleep cycles, the safebuoy has been drifting. The only window is a
round, pillow-shaped patch of transparent steel. Loocha tells her son, Corvey,
there’s nothing to see, and he believes her. Until the giant ice cream cone
appears.”
I love flash stories that manage to do serious world-building and give you
characters you care about, and also pack in a whole lot of emotional power –
all in less than 1,000 words. Wes Smiderle does all that in this quietly
devastating science fiction story about hard choices, survival, and a very
small family.
Quilting With the Rejects, by Megan Lee Beals in Flash
Fiction Online
“All used fabric had vibe, and even Goodwill discards knew love once. A
SeaWorld tee-shirt with a hint of nausea in the seams, a handknit sweater
turned to felt in the washing machine, a Halloween costume torn when its wearer
was caught TP-ing a neighbor’s house.”
This is a highly original, uniquely imagined flash story about the magic of
fabrics (scrap fabric to be exact), and the skill and craft you can employ in
order to make an impression and affect yourself and others. I love the idea of
this story, that scrap fabrics carry a certain emotional content, the vibe, of
the clothes and items they were used in before.
Mean Streak, by L’Erin Ogle in Metaphorosis
“I hear the softest voice that night, lying in bed. It’s her, talking to
herself, but I can’t make out what she’s saying. There’s a sound accompanying
it, something that could be mistaken for crying, if I didn’t know that witches
don’t cry.”
In “Mean Streak”, L’Erin Ogle tells the story about a society where people hunt
down and hang witches. When Winnie’s family finds a woman beaten and almost
dead, her dad takes the woman in and helps her, even though they all know she’s
likely a witch. What follows is a deeply unsettling, gripping story, told from Winnie’s
point of view, and her point of view is uncomfortable because she has so much
anger and pain and, yes, meanness inside her. The result is a powerful and dark
story, and Ogle’s writing keeps you hooked even as you squirm.
The Soul Farmer’s Daughter, by Kyle Kirrin in Metaphorosis
“Thirteen souls flit about in mason jars on the mantle above my workbench.
They’re bright—luminescent, even—but they’re not potent enough for the Duke.”
Kyle Kirrin’s story about a father and a daughter and the quest for souls
with greater power, is a harrowing read. Kirrin fits a whole lot of deft
world-building into this short story, crafting a world of machinery and pain,
terror and deception. There are automatons, souls in mason jars,
dirigibles, and a father who sends his daughter on a terrible quest, knowing
full well what it will cost her, and him.
The Boy
From the War, by Perrin Lu in The Future Fire
“In the end, all she said was, “Mother, I’m back.”
Kuroba Yuu, three years dead and buried, could not reply. Unspoken, in the
silence between them, lay two unmarked graves in the faraway east, for a father
and brother gone to war and never returned. Three years ago, when she’d made
her last offerings, she had not believed she would live to come back.”
This whole issue of The Future Fire is a treat, including
this novelette by Perrin Lu. It’s a quiet, subtle secondary world fantasy story
that doesn’t come at you with a lot of flash and bang, magic and spells.
Instead, it’s about what happens when someone comes back home after the war and
finds that they can no longer be who they once were, but aren’t quite sure how
to fit into a new life in an old place. Beautifully written, this story stayed
with me long after reading.
