By Iona Datt Sharma (previously
on Diwali): “Light
and fire: five stories for Diwali (2018)”, a collection of miniature
stories for the festival.
“the now-expected upwelling of frustration tinged with hysteria”
Two short scifi stories about accommodating disability. “Metal and Flesh” by Marie Vibbert is darker: “Five stitched the cloth with a single thread in the human way.” “Fractured” by Aimee Kuzenski is more triumphant eventually, but starts: “Since the s…
Quakers… in… SPACE… (and time, and alternate realities)
The November issue of the American Quaker magazine Friends Journal is dedicated to speculative fiction and sci-fi. If you’re a fan of The Dazzle of Day, read on! Here’s the introductory essay by Quaker SFF writers Annalee Flower Horne and Hilary B. Bis…
“The music, at least, did not make me feel like an outsider.”
Three short speculative stories about love, yearning, and relationships beyond the human boundary. “Cold Wind” by Nicola Griffith: “From the park on Puget Sound I watched the sun go down on the shortest day of the year.” “Traveling Mercies” by Rachael …
“They left the sukkah standing when they fled.”
Two speculative stories in which girls and women disagree about how to cope with change, both published this year. “A Stone’s Throw from You” by Jenn Reese in Mermaids Monthly: “And then I told you I was leaving. That I’d been called to the sea.” “For …
Word-portals between worlds
Two scifi stories about literary professions in uncertain futures. “The Bookstore at the End of America” by Charlie Jane Anders, about a bookseller at the border between California and America: “Some of those screaming people were old enough to have gr…
innovation, death, sorcery and meaning
Two short, triumphant fantasy stories about well-worn prophecies and magical customs that take a left turn. “Another End of the Empire” by Tim Pratt (audio version): “The probability witches hit an impasse.” A short story by Dyce (a.k.a. Sarah Blackwel…
“Your grandpa was a lot of things in the old days”
Two short speculative stories about growing up in a powerful family. “Horangi”, fantasy by Thomas Ha (reminds me a little of Ursula Vernon’s Grandma Harken stories): “I’m sorry to hear that,” my grandfather responded politely, and he gave a smile that …
“The quiet of the aftermath pressed down on us”
Two scifi stories about people finding tendrils of human connection while confronting modern grief. “A Glut of Nothing, and Yet… Something” by Monte Lin: “”The Singularity had come, but not the one people wanted…. the Glut: a grayed-out area that e…
“the flavors you teach them to desire”
“A perfect egg is a slash of light on a gray day.” “The War of Light and Shadow, in Five Dishes” by Siobhan Carroll is a bittersweet short fantasy story about cooking, grief, beauty in the midst of war, and teaching the next generation. (Previously.) “…