13 most excellent speculative fiction short stories

 

This month, like every month, I read a lot of amazing speculative short fiction. This is also the month when I’ve decided to switch from calling the stories I list “fantasy and science fiction”, to calling them “speculative fiction”. Quite simply because I include stories that are horror, magical realism, and, well… whatever other kind of beautiful weirdness I can find. “Speculative fiction” works nicely as a catch-all in my opinion, so here goes: here are 13 excellent speculative fiction short stories I read this past month:

So, You’re In an Alternate Universe, by Jeremy Packert Burke in Metaphorosis. “Dylan is from the real universe. It’s not alternate, not like your universe. This is what he’s told you just now, although you’ve known him for years.” I fell in love with this exquisitely told story as I read it. Something about it, or maybe everything about it, struck a deep and resonant chord inside me, because in many ways, this is what I remember that my adolescence felt like. Not that I was in an alternate universe (perhaps), but that feeling of not quite knowing what you are and what you will become, or where you belong… those friends and friendships that feel comfortingly familiar, yet in flux and strange at the same time… all of that. I love the language here, the fluid vibe of the story, and the characters. It’s an amazing story that takes a familiar place and tweaks it so you’re not quite sure what reality is anymore.

Homesick, by Sarah Gailey at Fireside Fiction. “She’s staring back at me with those ancient iridescent bug-eyes of hers. They’re starting to frost over — her eyelashes are limned with white and it’s spreading. She’s grinning at me.” Crab-like, fortune-telling aliens that freeze as they tell your fortune. Humanity at home on an alien planet. Earth abandoned. One desperate woman. This story by Gailey is awesomely weird. It twists the whole “alien invasion” trope inside out AND tips it on its head. Fantastic stuff.

War Dog, by Mike Barretta in Apex Magazine. “He had seen the Dog twice before, and they had acknowledged each other at a careful distance. As veterans, they shared the bond of war, but whereas he had emerged from conflict a respected soldier, she had come out as an illegal gene splice, a piece of dangerous biological equipment.” Barretta’s story starts out feeling like a pretty hardcore, noir-ish military scifi tale, set in a future USA ruled by religion and a fascist-like government, and haunted by a strange disease. By the end, it had me sobbing and crying. A jaded ex-military, a genetically altered human, and a society that has no time or place for those who do not obey… this one’s a gut-wrenching heartbreaker.

The Warrior Boy Who Would Not Suffer, by Abhinav Bhat in Apex Magazine. “An old baba come in from the waste, the boy almost smiled. His would be the old not of frailty, but of strength and wisdom and … cruelty. Wise, yet cruel.” This short story, written in such a way that it feels like a myth rediscovered, is profoundly moving and unsettling at the same time, and I mean unsettling in the best way: it is unpredictable and strange and wonderful. Cruelty, wisdom, pain, knowledge… this is a story that cuts deep.

My Body, Herself, by Carmen Maria Machado in Uncanny Magazine. “When the cave’s ceiling crumples, so do I. Through my body, stone kisses stone. I die.” As story-openings go, I’d rate this one a 10 out of 10. And it gets even better from there. Machado’s story is both haunting and haunted: it deals with death and ghosts and the remains (mind and body and soul) of a girl. Machado’s prose is superb – evocative and beautiful – and this story really got under my skin. According to an interview with Machado, the idea for this story came from a dream she had, and it has a dream-like, hallucinatory quality to it that I really love.

The Night Cyclist, by Stephen Graham Jones at Tor.com. “There must be no compulsion to hide the bodies. Otherwise I’d have never found them.” This is a spectacularly good, and very dark story that I might have to go back and study a few times just to get the full flavour of it. What really gets me about this tale, is how Jones manages to a) get me to care about a rather unlikable character, and b) get me to understand and sympathize with what might at first glance appear to be some rather questionable choices that character makes, as the story develops. It’s marvelously well done, firmly planted in the real and everyday, and then slipping a monster into that everyday reality.

Three Kingdoms, by Matthew Sanborn Smith in Kaleidotrope. “My name is Process Five. I’m a product of the former Shyler Military Labs, a cybernetic organism joining the elemental living kingdoms of vegetable and mineral.” This is a gripping story of transformation and unlikely friendship, playing out in a rural landscape in a war-torn world where people wield amazing technology: technology that can both harm and help. A boy and…well, something that is not quite machine, as we know it, form a bond, and then disaster strikes. I love the original world Smith creates in this story, and it’s a really fresh and original take on the “machines vs. humans” science ficion theme.

All the Mermaid Wives, by Gwendolyn Kiste at 87 Bedford. “In the ocean depths, where the water is blacker than squid ink, we’ve never seen nets, so we don’t know how to hide from them. We don’t know how to hide from men either.” Kiste’s story about mermaids, brought up from the ocean to be experimented on, and eventually also sold off as wives, is part horror story, part dark fantasy. There’s so much pain and dread here, and what struck me was how Kiste explores the terror of being separated not only from your home and your family, but also separated from who you are. It’s a harrowing story, beautifully told.

Hungry, by Shveta Thakrar in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. “…she longed to sink her sharp fangs into freshly caught flesh, how delicious a still-beating heart would taste“. Bloody and gloriously grisly, this story about a rakshasi who awakens in the present-day after centuries spent… well, let’s say “petrified”, is a lot of fun, and terribly, awfully good.

Some Breakable Things, by Cassandra Khaw in The Dark. “As though to make up for his absence in life, your father’s ghost follows you everywhere.” This evocative ghost story by Cassandra Khaw is dark and heart-wrenching. The main character is haunted by regret and grief and memories in addition to the actual ghost of her father. It’s the kind of story that made me ache inside when I read it, because the feelings it evokes are so excruciatingly real. A powerful read.

Who Binds and Looses the World with Her Hands, by Rachael K. Jones in Nightmare. “I am sorry to hide you, she would say. I do not want to lose you. The apology mollified the darkness inside me, but never quelled it completely.” This story really knocked the wind out of me. Jones creates a stark and bleak world, alive with its own magic: a magic that does not use spoken spells, but sign language. It’s also a story of complex relationships that are not what they might seem at first. There’s so much tension and suspense threaded through this story, and so much emotion coiled beneath the surface: an amazing read.

Shadow Boy, by Lora Gray in Shimmer. “My shadow seethes and I press my forehead against the rear window glass, neon lights flipping my reflection from infant to ancient. From ugly to divine. From girl to boy.” Ripping into questions of gender, identity, and the struggle to be who we really are (even when the world around us wishes we were otherwise), Gray’s story is brutal and beautiful at the same time. The main character’s desperation and loneliness are vivid and palpable, as Gray’s prose both soars and cuts. This is definitely a must-read.

Only Their Shining Beauty Was Left, by Fran Wilde in Shimmer. “What it took for Sam to turn into a laurel tree was a river dream.” People are turning into trees – in their rooms, in their offices. It just happens, and no one is sure why it’s happening, or how it’s happening. This story by Fran Wilde is wonderful, strange, and mesmerizing. It twists and turns through a world where people are haunted by strange dreams and visions, and where people grow roots and bark. As always with Fran Wilde, the world and its people feel real and vivid in the midst of the strange reality they inhabit. A gorgeous, dream-like tale.

(Originally published at mariahaskins.com)

 

10 must-read fantasy & science fiction stories

 

I read some awesome speculative short fiction this month. As always, I don’t pretend I’ve read everything out there, but here are some of my favourite things that I read in August.

I Remember Your Face, by E.K. Wagner in Apex Magazine. I do love having my heart broken by great fiction, and this short story shattered me. It’s the kind of story where you know from the start that somehow, somewhere along the line it will run you through, but the way the story twists and turns through the character’s past and present still delivered a surprising and devastating killing blow. A haunting post-apocalyptic vision and a very well-written protagonist.

My Grandmother’s Bones, by S.L. Huang at Daily Science Fiction. This is one of the most beautifully written stories I read this month. Ruminations on death, love, tradition, and family, illustrated in a finely observed, poignant, and totally unexpected way. A story that reaches into your chest and grabs you by the feels.

In Our Rags of Light, by Shira Lipkin in Strange Horizons. Teenage girls practicing witchcraft: now there’s a trope that needs to be slashed open and turned inside out, and that is exactly what Shira Lipkin does in this story. I love how the story plays around with what’s “expected”, and makes into something new and different, and I especially love how complex (strong and f0olish and clever, brittle and daring) the main character Jess is. A beautiful read that feels alive and real.

A Deeper Green, by Samantha Murray at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Murray’s thoughtful story about Juvianna, a girl who has the ability to alter people’s memories, is both deeply moving, troubling, and suspenseful. There’s a whole lot going on with world-building in this story: how would a society try to control and harness people with this power? How would they be used? How would that affect them and their community? Also, the descriptions of how Juvianna manipulates minds and memories are gripping.

Salt and Sorcery, by Raphael Ordoñez at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. “The two glassy knobs that protruded from her pale pink hair flashed with inner fire, resonating with the storm that was tossing the airship like a drifting spore.” That’s how the story starts, and from that point on, Ordoñez creates a vivid, strange, and mesmerizing world that is unlike anything I’ve read or imagined before. Add a cast of terrific characters, and a dizzying adventure that explores bravery, sacrifice, friendship, fear, and love, and you’ve got a knockout tale.

Floodwater, by Kristi DeMeester at The Dark. This tale is so very creepy, getting the goosebumps going up and down my arms before anything really “happens”. Though, of course, it’s actually “happening” the whole time, quietly and cleverly, beneath the surface of the prose. Lots of rain, lots of grey, and a full measure of delicious spookiness.

Wheatfield with Crows, by Steve Rasnic Tem at The Dark. Another wonderfully unsettling tale of sneaking, creeping horror from The Dark. Tem creates mood, atmosphere, and a sense of place so skillfully in this deceptively simple story about a lost child, and then proceeds to twist and turn the tale until it gets right in underneath your skin.

Mamihlapinatapei, by Rachael K. Jones at Flash Fiction Online. This is a brilliant flash fiction piece dealing with resurrected dinosaurs (shades of Jurassic Park, except…well…not), the weight and importance of words, translation, and how our minds and thoughts (and maybe souls) are affected by the languages we know and speak. Exquisite through and through.

“This Is the Thing”, by Chloie Piveral at Kaleidotrope. “The longer they have you, the harder it is to find the door.” A hissing respirator, a body trapped in an institution, and a mind looking for a way out… Piveral goes deep into the dreamlike, slip-sliding world of someone who isn’t all there and isn’t all gone either, and spins a chilling and suspenseful tale full.

An Ocean the Color of Bruises, by Isabel Yap in Uncanny Magazine. I love this haunting and wistful tale of a group of friends spending a few days together by the ocean. The story intertwines their loves, their lust, their friendship, their regrets and hopes, with the story of the place they are visiting – a place that is haunted by secrets and ghosts. The menacing presence of those ghosts hovers just on the edge of reality through the whole story, before finally becoming fully visible.

(Originally published at mariahaskins.com)

 

12 brilliant fantasy & science fiction short stories

 

I read a lot in July: both zine/online short fiction and books. I also discovered an important life-hack: reading short fiction when you’re traveling long distances by plane is a most excellent way to pass the time in airports and on airplanes.

Here are 12 brilliant short stories I encountered this month:

The Big Bah-Ha, by C.S.E. Cooney in Apex Magazine. It is hard for me to articulate just how awesome, unsettling, and plain breathtaking this story is. It’s a reprint of a story that is included in Cooney’s short story collection “Bone Swans”, and it is an astonishing work of fiction. There is a bottomless pit of almost unbearable darkness here (such as: all the adults in the world are dead, only children survive… for now…), and yet the prose glimmers and sparkles and skips over that darkness, like a kid playing in puddles. The language is lush and weird and gorgeous, and the story makes me shiver and smile and cry, almost all at the same time. A standout work from an amazing writer.

Painted Grassy Mire, by Nicasio Andres Reed in Shimmer. This is a stunning story from Nicasio Andres Reed. A girl has just lost her mother and everything around her seems to be permeated by her grief and loneliness, as well as a strange and unnamed magic. Reed’s prose is so vivid that I swear I could feel the humid heat pressing down on me as I was reading. And the alligators… they are the stuff of both dreams and nightmares: “A gator was a solitary monster. A young girl in the marshes will find no alligator cities, no gator nations or schools, no broad alligator avenues, no matter how long she may look.  They were strict heathens. God formed them not to kneel, and so they worshipped nothing but the sun.” Unique and magical.

Helio Music, by Mike Buckley at Clarkesworld. Brutal, harsh, bleak, grim: that’s life for the girl in this heartbreaking and darkly beautiful science fiction story. The universe around her, is one where violence and war seem to rule everyone’s lives, and where people, even children, are used as killing machines (quite literally). There’s all sorts of scifi goodies: mind-blowing tech, space battles, psychic powers…but the focus is always on the girl, who eventually becomes something other than a girl, even though she still carries the pain and memories of childhood inside her. This story will haunt me for a while.

Red House, by Gavin Pate at Nightmare Magazine. This story is trippy, mind-bending horror at its finest. Pate takes a regular horror trope – abducted girl is rescued from horrible things – and turns the story inside out and upside down,staying with the girl after she’s rescued, pulling us into her thoughts and memories and nightmares and visions. It’s labyrinthine and strange, mesmerizing, bone chilling and truly terrifying – real horror that unsettles and makes your skin crawl.

El Cantar of Rising Sun, by Sabrina Vourvoulias in Uncanny Magazine. Imagine telling the stories of lives lived here and now, on the streets and in the houses and in the towns and cities we know, in the style of an epic story-poem. That’s what Vourvoulias does in this short story, and the result is brilliant: a fast-moving, dizzying, tragic tale with magic tattoos, rhymes, love, friendship, and death. The language is powerfully alive, swaggering and moving to its own rhythm and its own beat. Original and skillfully crafted.

So This, by Chloe N. Clark in Flash Fiction Online. I’ve been away from home and from our dog for a few weeks as I’m writing this, and that might be why this quiet and altogether heartbreaking (and heart-healing) story cut me so deep. A flash fiction gem.

Postcards From Natalie, by Carrie Laben in The Dark Magazine. This seemingly simple story deepens and darkens as Laben expertly unfolds it bit by bit. There’s a twist of sorts towards the end, but this is not a story that relies on its twist to be worth reading. It holds so much more: what it’s like to grow up in a small town, the relationships between two sisters and a mother… and then, eventually, as the story tilts and skews, another world is revealed beneath the world you thought you were looking at. Brilliant storytelling.

The Last Sailing of the Henry Charles Morgan in Six Pieces of Scrimshaw (1841), by A.C. Wise in The Dark Magazine. A short story that is essentially a detailed description of six pieces of scrimshaw might not seem like it would be much of a horror story. However, that’s exactly what this story is. Wise’s carefully and skillfully crafted non-fiction-ish prose reveals a growing darkness and deepening terror with every sentence.

The Cartographer’s Price, by Suzanne J. Willis at Mythic Delirium. There’s a mysterious map that can’t be sold to just anyone, and a mysterious customer who enters the cartographer’s shop wishing to buy it: “I know it isn’t for sale. Such an object must stay put until a worthy owner comes to claim it, no?” What a delicious tale this is, easily and effortlessly weaving in so much awesome world-building and character backstory, while also making even the scents and sounds of the fictional world come to life.  Excellent fantasy, with a romantic, dark-tinged flair.

Her Sacred Spirit Soars, by S. Qiouyi Lu at Strange Horizons. I’m a bit of a sucker for tragic love stories, and if you’re looking for a story to squeeze your heart and make your soul hurt (in the best way), then this scifi/fantasy love-story (with wings and a beak) is it. A bird is captured, two souls that were joined are torn apart… and that’s just the beginning. Lu’s writing shimmers and glows while telling a story that really cut me to the quick.

Scar Tissue, by Brad Preslar in AE. I love the twisted and strange vibe of this well-written science fiction story: it has a real golden-age Twilight Zone-feel that really creeped me out (that’s a good thing, of course). Whatever relationship therapy should be…it’s probably not this.

The Last, by Premee Mohamed in Metaphorosis. I love stories that commit wholly and fully to a radically crazy idea, and then carry it through with conviction, skill, and style. That is the case here. Semi-sentient icebergs and Morse-code using volcanoes in a post-apocalyptic sort of world? Yep. And yet this tale is also so much more: it explores a boy’s grief and and fear as he is forced to grow up too son. There’s fast-paced action and complex dynamics going on between two characters who don’t like each other, but who have to cooperate in order to ensure their own survival and the survival of their community. Great stuff: excellent world-building and engaging characters.

  (Originally published at mariahaskins.com)