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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. 142, Nos. 1 & 2, January/February 2022
NOVELLA
-- The Art of Victory When the Game is All the World by Eugie Foster
SHORT STORIES
-- Ennead in Retrospect by Christopher Mark Rose
-- Full Worm Moon by Paul Lorello
-- Proximity Games by M L Clark
-- Salt Calls to Salt by Maiga Doocy
--doe_haven . vr by Cara Mast
--The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo
-- There Won't Be Qustions by Joe Baumanns
NOVELETS
-- Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario
-- Bone Broth by Karen Heulers
-- Prison Colony Optimization by Auston Habershaw
-- The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love by J.A. Pak
-- The Art of Victory When the Game is All the World by Eugie Foster
SHORT STORIES
-- Ennead in Retrospect by Christopher Mark Rose
-- Full Worm Moon by Paul Lorello
-- Proximity Games by M L Clark
-- Salt Calls to Salt by Maiga Doocy
--doe_haven . vr by Cara Mast
--The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo
-- There Won't Be Qustions by Joe Baumanns
NOVELETS
-- Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario
-- Bone Broth by Karen Heulers
-- Prison Colony Optimization by Auston Habershaw
-- The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love by J.A. Pak
260 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
2 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Sheree Renée Thomas
77 books239 followersSheree Thomas — also credited as Sheree R. Thomas and Sheree Renée Thomas — is an American writer, book editor and publisher.
Thomas is the editor of the Dark Matter anthology (2000), in which are collected works by some of the best African-American writers in the genres of science fiction, horror and fantasy. Among the many notable authors included are Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Charles R. Saunders, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, Jewelle Gomez, Ishmael Reed, Kalamu ya Salaam, Robert Fleming, Nalo Hopkinson, George S. Schuyler and W. E. B. Du Bois. Dark Matter was honored with the 2005 and the 2001 World Fantasy Award and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Thomas is the publisher of Wanganegresse Press, and has contributed to national publications including the Washington Post "Book World", Black Issues Book Review, QBR, and Hip Mama. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Ishmael Reed's Konch, Drumvoices Revue, Obsidian III, African Voices, storySouth, and other literary journals, and has received Honorable Mention in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, 16th and 17th annual collections. A native of Memphis, she lives in New York City.
Thomas is the editor of the Dark Matter anthology (2000), in which are collected works by some of the best African-American writers in the genres of science fiction, horror and fantasy. Among the many notable authors included are Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Charles R. Saunders, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, Jewelle Gomez, Ishmael Reed, Kalamu ya Salaam, Robert Fleming, Nalo Hopkinson, George S. Schuyler and W. E. B. Du Bois. Dark Matter was honored with the 2005 and the 2001 World Fantasy Award and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Thomas is the publisher of Wanganegresse Press, and has contributed to national publications including the Washington Post "Book World", Black Issues Book Review, QBR, and Hip Mama. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Ishmael Reed's Konch, Drumvoices Revue, Obsidian III, African Voices, storySouth, and other literary journals, and has received Honorable Mention in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, 16th and 17th annual collections. A native of Memphis, she lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 9, 2022
8 • The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World • 41 pages by Eugie Foster
Very Good. Mouria is a maker technician. She's making a puer for the game, hoping it will become a champion. While all the puers are being sponsored she gets called before the Committee. Yeah, they have a great offer for her, but what's the catch? I got from the start that these people were playing god or something. Which didn't make me invest in them. Once the characters were developed that changed and it became very gripping.
49 • Ennead in Retrospect • 12 pages by Christopher Mark Rose
Poor. This story totally lost me. About all I gleaned was that Morra was the narrator's mother.
61 • Animale Dei Morti • 29 pages by Nick Dichario
Good. Tradition requires Marco's older brother to be his best man, but he dies the night before the wedding. He asks Brunilda for help. Somewhat understandable, but when that doesn't work out he doubles down, at which point (if I hadn't already) I had to disassociate myself from the character. A deal with the devil type story.
80 • Bone Broth • 25 pages by Karen Henler
Good/OK. The narrator lives in a building owned by Bill and soon starts working for him. She thinks he's into drugs or something.
122 • Prison Colony Optimization Protocols • 21 pages by Auston Habershaw
Very Good. An AI is sent to a prison on a terraforming project. She (arbitrary gender assignment) is given the assignment to make the place run better, but every improvement she proposes is turned down and is told she is being punished, too.
143 • Full Worm Moon • 13 pages by Paul Lorello
Good+. Shegger Dom participated in his first Full Worm Moon. He was affected more strongly than most and his consciousness was almost overtaken by that of dead man who the worms ate. He moved away.
156 • Proximity Games • 17 pages by M. L. Clark
Good+. Trudy’s family is on the list to go on a starship. Fifteen year old Trudy has a friend that is going. When she’s twenty-two dad thinks he may be too old. at the planet the sentient jellies completely ignore the humans and Trudy has second thoughts about humanity’s right to be there.
176 • Salt Calls to Salt • 9 pages by Maiga Doocy
Good+. Zelda has to stick to a routine or she’ll lose herself and become a, this word wasn’t used, mermaid. A woman with scales.
185 • doe_haven.vr • 13 pages by Cara Mast
Very Good. Jenny uses virtual reality to relax, so when another character comes into her area of the game it kind of freaks her out.
213 • The City and the Thing Beneath It • 9 pages by Innocent Chizaram Ilo
Poor/Fair. Something fell from the sky just outside Lagos. Some people start talking about it. The Supreme Leader will make a statement. The sections in italic made no sense to me, I couldn’t follow the dialect, and I never found out about the lights. Was is a spaceship, a comet, or do we believe the Leader that said it was nothing?
222 • There Won't Be Questions • 14 pages by Joe Baumann
Very Good/Good. Harry helps Nigel find his lost pet. Magically, and Nigel comes up with the idea of finding lost pets that have a reward.
236 • The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love • 21 pages by J. A. Pak
Excellent/Very Good. After a long and generous life Faine has decided to go to his final rest. While on his beach he feels a human curled up against his dragon body. Lark had washed up onto the beach and passed out in a spot warmer than the surroundings. The title gives away that it’s a romance.
Very Good. Mouria is a maker technician. She's making a puer for the game, hoping it will become a champion. While all the puers are being sponsored she gets called before the Committee. Yeah, they have a great offer for her, but what's the catch? I got from the start that these people were playing god or something. Which didn't make me invest in them. Once the characters were developed that changed and it became very gripping.
49 • Ennead in Retrospect • 12 pages by Christopher Mark Rose
Poor. This story totally lost me. About all I gleaned was that Morra was the narrator's mother.
61 • Animale Dei Morti • 29 pages by Nick Dichario
Good. Tradition requires Marco's older brother to be his best man, but he dies the night before the wedding. He asks Brunilda for help. Somewhat understandable, but when that doesn't work out he doubles down, at which point (if I hadn't already) I had to disassociate myself from the character. A deal with the devil type story.
80 • Bone Broth • 25 pages by Karen Henler
Good/OK. The narrator lives in a building owned by Bill and soon starts working for him. She thinks he's into drugs or something.
122 • Prison Colony Optimization Protocols • 21 pages by Auston Habershaw
Very Good. An AI is sent to a prison on a terraforming project. She (arbitrary gender assignment) is given the assignment to make the place run better, but every improvement she proposes is turned down and is told she is being punished, too.
143 • Full Worm Moon • 13 pages by Paul Lorello
Good+. Shegger Dom participated in his first Full Worm Moon. He was affected more strongly than most and his consciousness was almost overtaken by that of dead man who the worms ate. He moved away.
156 • Proximity Games • 17 pages by M. L. Clark
Good+. Trudy’s family is on the list to go on a starship. Fifteen year old Trudy has a friend that is going. When she’s twenty-two dad thinks he may be too old. at the planet the sentient jellies completely ignore the humans and Trudy has second thoughts about humanity’s right to be there.
176 • Salt Calls to Salt • 9 pages by Maiga Doocy
Good+. Zelda has to stick to a routine or she’ll lose herself and become a, this word wasn’t used, mermaid. A woman with scales.
185 • doe_haven.vr • 13 pages by Cara Mast
Very Good. Jenny uses virtual reality to relax, so when another character comes into her area of the game it kind of freaks her out.
213 • The City and the Thing Beneath It • 9 pages by Innocent Chizaram Ilo
Poor/Fair. Something fell from the sky just outside Lagos. Some people start talking about it. The Supreme Leader will make a statement. The sections in italic made no sense to me, I couldn’t follow the dialect, and I never found out about the lights. Was is a spaceship, a comet, or do we believe the Leader that said it was nothing?
222 • There Won't Be Questions • 14 pages by Joe Baumann
Very Good/Good. Harry helps Nigel find his lost pet. Magically, and Nigel comes up with the idea of finding lost pets that have a reward.
236 • The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love • 21 pages by J. A. Pak
Excellent/Very Good. After a long and generous life Faine has decided to go to his final rest. While on his beach he feels a human curled up against his dragon body. Lark had washed up onto the beach and passed out in a spot warmer than the surroundings. The title gives away that it’s a romance.
January 25, 2022
Not the best issue, but a couple of good stories.
Eugie Foster - The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World - 3 stars
- One group creates new 'people' (?) which a second, higher class group then use in competitions. If a creator is successful enough, he/she might be promoted to the higher class. The story in the story was nice, but the outer structure/setting was just too nebulous.
Christopher Mark Rose - Ennead in Retrospect - 3 stars
- There were a couple of neat ideas, such as ley lines leading to alternate(?) probabilities around a black hole, but it just didn't click with me.
Nick Dichario - Animale Dei Morti - 4 stars
- A man pays a witch to bring his brother back to life to serve his role as the all-important best man at his wedding. Nothing goes right after that.
Karen Heuler - Bone Broth - 3 stars
- Ancient aliens long ago landed on Earth and, over time, changed to become the race of man. A few people still retain evidence of the previous form (two thumbs on one hand) and a group of people are trying to change back. Okaaayyy.
Auston Habershaw - Prison Colony Optimization Protocols - 4 stars
- A well done story about an AI which is sent to act as the primary controller (secondary to the warden, of course) of a prison on a moon which is being terraformed. After a while the AI realizes that the prisoners are not serving realistic terms but are actually being permanently punished, as is the AI itself. It finds a way out, at least for the prisoners.
Paul Lorello - Full Worm Moon - 2 stars
- A ghoulish story of half-human creatures which eat worms at graves.
M. L. Clark - Proximity Games - 3 stars
- A story with multiple segments which ends up as an almost first contact story on an alien planet. Interesting.
Maiga Doocy - Salt Calls to Salt - 4 stars
- A young girl has to maintain an exactly controlled life in order to avoid turning into a mermaid like her mother did. Well written, but it feels like it should be part of a larger narrative.
Cara Mast - Doe_haven.vr - 3 stars
- Another case of a young woman who has to maintain a very controlled mental/emotional environment who spends her free time in an online game where she can totally isolate herself and relax. Unfortunately, someone else tries to escape to her little corner of the game, too. Nicely done.
Innocent Chizaram Ilo - The City and the Thing Beneath It - 2 stars
- I have no idea what this story is about.
Joe Baumann - There Won't Be Questions - 3 stars
- A young boy discovers that he has the power to transport other animals to him. He and his friend use that power to locate lost pets. An OK story.
J. A. Pak - The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love - 5 stars
- The best story of the issue. An ancient dragon is ready to die when a fair young maiden is shipwrecked on his island. He decides to help her survive and, in time, they fall in love (in his human form) and finish their lives together. A very well written story.
Eugie Foster - The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World - 3 stars
- One group creates new 'people' (?) which a second, higher class group then use in competitions. If a creator is successful enough, he/she might be promoted to the higher class. The story in the story was nice, but the outer structure/setting was just too nebulous.
Christopher Mark Rose - Ennead in Retrospect - 3 stars
- There were a couple of neat ideas, such as ley lines leading to alternate(?) probabilities around a black hole, but it just didn't click with me.
Nick Dichario - Animale Dei Morti - 4 stars
- A man pays a witch to bring his brother back to life to serve his role as the all-important best man at his wedding. Nothing goes right after that.
Karen Heuler - Bone Broth - 3 stars
- Ancient aliens long ago landed on Earth and, over time, changed to become the race of man. A few people still retain evidence of the previous form (two thumbs on one hand) and a group of people are trying to change back. Okaaayyy.
Auston Habershaw - Prison Colony Optimization Protocols - 4 stars
- A well done story about an AI which is sent to act as the primary controller (secondary to the warden, of course) of a prison on a moon which is being terraformed. After a while the AI realizes that the prisoners are not serving realistic terms but are actually being permanently punished, as is the AI itself. It finds a way out, at least for the prisoners.
Paul Lorello - Full Worm Moon - 2 stars
- A ghoulish story of half-human creatures which eat worms at graves.
M. L. Clark - Proximity Games - 3 stars
- A story with multiple segments which ends up as an almost first contact story on an alien planet. Interesting.
Maiga Doocy - Salt Calls to Salt - 4 stars
- A young girl has to maintain an exactly controlled life in order to avoid turning into a mermaid like her mother did. Well written, but it feels like it should be part of a larger narrative.
Cara Mast - Doe_haven.vr - 3 stars
- Another case of a young woman who has to maintain a very controlled mental/emotional environment who spends her free time in an online game where she can totally isolate herself and relax. Unfortunately, someone else tries to escape to her little corner of the game, too. Nicely done.
Innocent Chizaram Ilo - The City and the Thing Beneath It - 2 stars
- I have no idea what this story is about.
Joe Baumann - There Won't Be Questions - 3 stars
- A young boy discovers that he has the power to transport other animals to him. He and his friend use that power to locate lost pets. An OK story.
J. A. Pak - The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love - 5 stars
- The best story of the issue. An ancient dragon is ready to die when a fair young maiden is shipwrecked on his island. He decides to help her survive and, in time, they fall in love (in his human form) and finish their lives together. A very well written story.
March 12, 2022
Look I am not going to go super deep into each issue, but let me say how stoked to get these in the mail and you should too.
My favorite novelettes were Bone Broth by Karen Heulers and Prison Colony Optimization by Auston Habershaw. So let us start with Bone Broth, the Off-beat vibe hooked from the first moment. The story had a lived-in feel. The prose was super strong and has me looking forward to her novel mentioned in the intro. Prison Colony Optimization is a classic feeling SF tale that really made me happy, maybe that is the wrong word with such a depressing subject. This is a tale of an AI running a deep space prison. Very cool.
My two favorites of the short stories were doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast and The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo. The first of which was a VR story of future online addiction. A powerfully weird story. The City and The Thing Beneath was my favorite piece, it is a Nigerian set story that has a strong geographical feel and better experienced. That is what I liked about that story is it felt like an experience.
Also of note the opening novella The Art of Victory When the Game is All the World by Eugie Foster was pretty solid and made powerful by knowing the author dies shortly before her death and was submitted after she died from Cancer. I admit I had never heard of her or her work. Now I know she has several collections one of which I am picking up. It wasn’t my favorite thing in the collection but really glad 8 years after her death it was here.
Another great job Sheree Renée Thomas!
My favorite novelettes were Bone Broth by Karen Heulers and Prison Colony Optimization by Auston Habershaw. So let us start with Bone Broth, the Off-beat vibe hooked from the first moment. The story had a lived-in feel. The prose was super strong and has me looking forward to her novel mentioned in the intro. Prison Colony Optimization is a classic feeling SF tale that really made me happy, maybe that is the wrong word with such a depressing subject. This is a tale of an AI running a deep space prison. Very cool.
My two favorites of the short stories were doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast and The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo. The first of which was a VR story of future online addiction. A powerfully weird story. The City and The Thing Beneath was my favorite piece, it is a Nigerian set story that has a strong geographical feel and better experienced. That is what I liked about that story is it felt like an experience.
Also of note the opening novella The Art of Victory When the Game is All the World by Eugie Foster was pretty solid and made powerful by knowing the author dies shortly before her death and was submitted after she died from Cancer. I admit I had never heard of her or her work. Now I know she has several collections one of which I am picking up. It wasn’t my favorite thing in the collection but really glad 8 years after her death it was here.
Another great job Sheree Renée Thomas!
November 14, 2022
1 novella, 4 novelettes, 7 short stories and the usual articles and reviews make up for a pretty big magazine.
"The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World" by Eugie Foster is one of those discovered stories which are published after the author's death and as such it is unclear how much it may have changed had the author lived. These can be hit or miss - depending on where the story was when the author died and who got to work on it after that. In a world which does not seem to have any correlation to our own, a caste of technicians creates "champions" - constructs who are formed by careful combination of aptitudes and impediments. Another cast sponsors the creations which are considered viable - and play a game, seeing how their lives evolve. That game is the pinnacle of the society - that's what everyone else exists for. People belong to a caste based on their own aptitudes - they get assigned into them, they make their vows and they are usually stuck in them. Until one of the best technician is asked to step up and attempt a promotion. We never learn who is who in that society - is that gods and humans or humans and a different form or something totally different. But it does not really matter. We get to live the life of one of the constructs, to be part of the game - and almost as a sideline, to be part of the life of the society that plays the game. In a centuries old way, life imitates art (and vice versa) and love ends up the ingredient that noone adds but that matters the most. The whole story is a play on the choice and destiny duality - and one can make their own decision if they want to fall on either side or find their own way.
The 4 novelettes are only comparable by their length.
"Animale Dei Morti" by Nick Dichario is a modern Italian fairy tale, set nowadays but using the conventions of the old time - complete with a witch, animated corpses and misunderstandings. It is one of my favorite stories in this issue - it should sound derivative but it does not and you cannot stop laughing at how anything the main character Marco tries makes things worse - trying not to break one tradition ends up messing up others; not thinking through the witch's conditions ends up costing him everything. And for all that, the tale never gets dark (and one wonders if some of the bad things were really that bad - that bride of his was not really someone you would wish to your worst enemy).
In "Bone Broth" by Karen Heuler, a secret society believes themselves to be connected to the giants who roamed the Earth in the olden days (tying aliens into the mix as well). Then a waitress somehow stumbles into it and seems to fall for all of it. The scary part is that I am pretty sure that there are people who may really believe in this kind of things - and not just inside of this story.
The third novelette, "Prison Colony Optimization Protocols" by Auston Habershaw leaves Earth and transports us to a penal colony on a station somewhere in the galaxy. An AI had really messed up but due to UN rules, it cannot be just disabled or killed so it is sent to try to optimize the systems of the penal colony. So what happens when an AI is punished? It finds a way around its punishment of course - in the most unexpected way. I really enjoyed this story - it found that path between humor and seriousness that is hard to stay on.
And the last of the novelettes, "The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love" by J. A. Pak is the kind of tale that does not hide anything - its title tells you what you are getting. An old dragon finds love for the last time and tells us the tale. Except the gentle maiden he finds is neither a maiden, nor gentle. And yet - love conquers all and the two broken souls find happiness. I hope the authors plans to add more stories to this world - there are so many more tales to be told - both about our dragon and about everything else.
The short stories were the usual mixed bag of stories that work and ones that have some ideas but somehow do not really manage to reach me.
"Ennead in Retrospect" by Christopher Mark Rose is a far future tale of a broken space craft and a knife which can split a person in two - their dark and light side. Except that this does not really make two complete people, especially for the ones who live with them. Add a child and a secret or three (which are obvious from the beginning) and the story makes sense but something just did not click for me.
In "Full Worm Moon" by Paul Lorello, a clan of people live at the outside of society and feeds with the memories of the departed - by eating the worms that eat their remains. What they get it return is not just memories though - they almost become the other people. And when a young man eats too many too early, he starts questioning his own life. It is a tale about belonging but you better not have your lunch when you are reading it.
"Proximity Games" by M. L. Clark returns us back to space - although a very different one. Families get selected to leave Earth, to go live among the stars, to conquer new worlds. It all sounds noble and nice but things are not as green as they look and one may wonder what really is better - to be left behind or to be selected. As for the stars - we are really not a very intelligent species sometimes. It is a nice tale of exploration and choices - not all of which are what they seem to be.
In "Salt Calls to Salt" by Maiga Doocy, Zelda is not allowed any real feelings or excitement - if she ever has them, her feet get covered in scales and she turns into a mermaid. So her aunt does anything she can to make sure that she is protected, with Zelda cooperating fully, knowing her own mother's fate. At least for the time being anyway. It is a sweet tale of growing up and deciding what is important in one's life.
The next story, "doe_haven.vr" by Cara Mast, throws us into the life of a young woman who finds solace into a virtual reality - until someone disturbs her there. It is a quiet tale about being able to connect with other people.
"The City and the Thing Beneath It" by Innocent Chizaram Ilo is written by a Nigerian (Igbo) writer and is set in Lagos where the week does not go exactly as the rulers of the country want it to - something falls from the sky and they are not happy about it (and despite everyone seeing it, they still try to claim it never happened). There are soldiers and violence and a Lagos which seem to be in our times but you hope it is not. It is a confusing tale - both the way it is told and what it tries to achieve.
The last story in the issue, "There Won't Be Questions" by Joe Baumann, gets us back to the magical - a boy finds out that if he wishes something very much, it can appear - even if there is a price to pay. Noone knows how or why, noone knows if these things get transported in space or if they get recreated or come from elsewhere. Mix up some young love which appears to be one-sided and the whole mess gets even messier. It is clear where the tale is going and it does get to its logical end. Ending it where it did end may leave someone unhappy but it works - because if it was continued, it would be a different story.
The three poems were way too modern for my taste (two by Bogi Takacs and one by Gretchen Tessmer). The cartoons were mildly entertaining - none really jumped at me as hilarious.
The usual columns:
- In the science section, Jerry Oltion explains how old things are dated (a bit simplified but not a bad explanation)
- The film review section is about a series I had not watched ("Raised by Wolves"
- Paul di Filippo's "Plumage from Pegasus" imagines a writing award in 2030 unlike any other (which as usual is a commentary on our reality).
And then there are the reviews:
- The Curiosities section goes back to 1976 (which is pretty modern for that column) to take a look at Leonora Carrington's "The Hearing Trumpet". Charles de Lint manages to mention 4 books I had not read (and now I want to) - I own one, already read another ("Wayward Souls")) and Michelle West adds 4 more to my ever growing list (at least I actually had heard of 3 of these before - one of them is even home from the library). I have a suspicion that the 9 books will feature in my very near future... that's what happens when one finally get around to reading a full magazine.
Not a perfect issue and not all stories worked for me and even the ones that did work did not sparkle really but not a bad issue either. And no stories from long-running series which I had not read (no series stories at all as best as I can tell actually).
"The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World" by Eugie Foster is one of those discovered stories which are published after the author's death and as such it is unclear how much it may have changed had the author lived. These can be hit or miss - depending on where the story was when the author died and who got to work on it after that. In a world which does not seem to have any correlation to our own, a caste of technicians creates "champions" - constructs who are formed by careful combination of aptitudes and impediments. Another cast sponsors the creations which are considered viable - and play a game, seeing how their lives evolve. That game is the pinnacle of the society - that's what everyone else exists for. People belong to a caste based on their own aptitudes - they get assigned into them, they make their vows and they are usually stuck in them. Until one of the best technician is asked to step up and attempt a promotion. We never learn who is who in that society - is that gods and humans or humans and a different form or something totally different. But it does not really matter. We get to live the life of one of the constructs, to be part of the game - and almost as a sideline, to be part of the life of the society that plays the game. In a centuries old way, life imitates art (and vice versa) and love ends up the ingredient that noone adds but that matters the most. The whole story is a play on the choice and destiny duality - and one can make their own decision if they want to fall on either side or find their own way.
The 4 novelettes are only comparable by their length.
"Animale Dei Morti" by Nick Dichario is a modern Italian fairy tale, set nowadays but using the conventions of the old time - complete with a witch, animated corpses and misunderstandings. It is one of my favorite stories in this issue - it should sound derivative but it does not and you cannot stop laughing at how anything the main character Marco tries makes things worse - trying not to break one tradition ends up messing up others; not thinking through the witch's conditions ends up costing him everything. And for all that, the tale never gets dark (and one wonders if some of the bad things were really that bad - that bride of his was not really someone you would wish to your worst enemy).
In "Bone Broth" by Karen Heuler, a secret society believes themselves to be connected to the giants who roamed the Earth in the olden days (tying aliens into the mix as well). Then a waitress somehow stumbles into it and seems to fall for all of it. The scary part is that I am pretty sure that there are people who may really believe in this kind of things - and not just inside of this story.
The third novelette, "Prison Colony Optimization Protocols" by Auston Habershaw leaves Earth and transports us to a penal colony on a station somewhere in the galaxy. An AI had really messed up but due to UN rules, it cannot be just disabled or killed so it is sent to try to optimize the systems of the penal colony. So what happens when an AI is punished? It finds a way around its punishment of course - in the most unexpected way. I really enjoyed this story - it found that path between humor and seriousness that is hard to stay on.
And the last of the novelettes, "The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love" by J. A. Pak is the kind of tale that does not hide anything - its title tells you what you are getting. An old dragon finds love for the last time and tells us the tale. Except the gentle maiden he finds is neither a maiden, nor gentle. And yet - love conquers all and the two broken souls find happiness. I hope the authors plans to add more stories to this world - there are so many more tales to be told - both about our dragon and about everything else.
The short stories were the usual mixed bag of stories that work and ones that have some ideas but somehow do not really manage to reach me.
"Ennead in Retrospect" by Christopher Mark Rose is a far future tale of a broken space craft and a knife which can split a person in two - their dark and light side. Except that this does not really make two complete people, especially for the ones who live with them. Add a child and a secret or three (which are obvious from the beginning) and the story makes sense but something just did not click for me.
In "Full Worm Moon" by Paul Lorello, a clan of people live at the outside of society and feeds with the memories of the departed - by eating the worms that eat their remains. What they get it return is not just memories though - they almost become the other people. And when a young man eats too many too early, he starts questioning his own life. It is a tale about belonging but you better not have your lunch when you are reading it.
"Proximity Games" by M. L. Clark returns us back to space - although a very different one. Families get selected to leave Earth, to go live among the stars, to conquer new worlds. It all sounds noble and nice but things are not as green as they look and one may wonder what really is better - to be left behind or to be selected. As for the stars - we are really not a very intelligent species sometimes. It is a nice tale of exploration and choices - not all of which are what they seem to be.
In "Salt Calls to Salt" by Maiga Doocy, Zelda is not allowed any real feelings or excitement - if she ever has them, her feet get covered in scales and she turns into a mermaid. So her aunt does anything she can to make sure that she is protected, with Zelda cooperating fully, knowing her own mother's fate. At least for the time being anyway. It is a sweet tale of growing up and deciding what is important in one's life.
The next story, "doe_haven.vr" by Cara Mast, throws us into the life of a young woman who finds solace into a virtual reality - until someone disturbs her there. It is a quiet tale about being able to connect with other people.
"The City and the Thing Beneath It" by Innocent Chizaram Ilo is written by a Nigerian (Igbo) writer and is set in Lagos where the week does not go exactly as the rulers of the country want it to - something falls from the sky and they are not happy about it (and despite everyone seeing it, they still try to claim it never happened). There are soldiers and violence and a Lagos which seem to be in our times but you hope it is not. It is a confusing tale - both the way it is told and what it tries to achieve.
The last story in the issue, "There Won't Be Questions" by Joe Baumann, gets us back to the magical - a boy finds out that if he wishes something very much, it can appear - even if there is a price to pay. Noone knows how or why, noone knows if these things get transported in space or if they get recreated or come from elsewhere. Mix up some young love which appears to be one-sided and the whole mess gets even messier. It is clear where the tale is going and it does get to its logical end. Ending it where it did end may leave someone unhappy but it works - because if it was continued, it would be a different story.
The three poems were way too modern for my taste (two by Bogi Takacs and one by Gretchen Tessmer). The cartoons were mildly entertaining - none really jumped at me as hilarious.
The usual columns:
- In the science section, Jerry Oltion explains how old things are dated (a bit simplified but not a bad explanation)
- The film review section is about a series I had not watched ("Raised by Wolves"
- Paul di Filippo's "Plumage from Pegasus" imagines a writing award in 2030 unlike any other (which as usual is a commentary on our reality).
And then there are the reviews:
- The Curiosities section goes back to 1976 (which is pretty modern for that column) to take a look at Leonora Carrington's "The Hearing Trumpet". Charles de Lint manages to mention 4 books I had not read (and now I want to) - I own one, already read another ("Wayward Souls")) and Michelle West adds 4 more to my ever growing list (at least I actually had heard of 3 of these before - one of them is even home from the library). I have a suspicion that the 9 books will feature in my very near future... that's what happens when one finally get around to reading a full magazine.
Not a perfect issue and not all stories worked for me and even the ones that did work did not sparkle really but not a bad issue either. And no stories from long-running series which I had not read (no series stories at all as best as I can tell actually).
Read
February 4, 2022The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, #759 Jan/Feb 2022by Sheree Renée Thomas (Editor)
Contents:
NOVELLA -- The Art of Victory When the Game is All the World by Eugie Foster
SHORT STORIES
-- Ennead in Retrospect by Christopher Mark Rose
-- Full Worm Moon by Paul Lorello
-- Proximity Games by M L Clark
-- Salt Calls to Salt by Maiga Doocy
--doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast
--The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo
-- There Won't Be Questions by Joe Baumanns
NOVELETS
-- Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario
-- Bone Broth by Karen Heulers
-- Prison Colony Optimization by Auston Habershaw
-- The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love by J.A. Pak
January's issue of F&SF starts off with a welcome to the new year by editor Sheree Renée Thomas, talking about her family traditions for "watch night." I'd never heard of this and loved the idea of someone standing outside on New Year's eve watching the moon to tell when the year passes, and I enjoyed her telling of this tradition before launching into the stories, whose quality I found equal to the magazine's reputation for discerning picks, but often wondered if they belonged in the genre publication.
Reading The Art of Victory When the Game Is All The World by Eugie Foster, which is a layered and touching novella about a contest between artificers of "pueri" whose lives are wagered on by aristocrats., you find a story within a story where the pueri are humans in their reality. Whether it's virtual or real isn't explained, or important. A completion between two of the technicians tests their pueri against each other to determine if one of the technician's should change caste to become an aristocrat themselves. The pueri's tale is It's a lovely piece about overcoming, or being driven by, limitations but the framework. While this could as easily have been fantasy rather than SF, it didn't need to be either. Still, a fine piece of writing and sadly the last story Foster was working on before she succumbed to cancer in 2014.
Like Foster's story, The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo is only thinly science fiction despite its title and the appearance of a thing that fell out of the sky. Both stories use the aesthetic of science fiction as a frame for a more mundane tale. Not that the prose, in either case, is without merit, because they're both solid pieces of writing. In The City and the Thing Beneath It, ilo uses a hint of afro-futurism to tell a story about how an autocratic government controls information by suppressing social media, rounding up eyewitnesses without the good sense to keep their mouth's shut, and issuing an official truth from the mouth of the Supreme Leader. Set in Lagos (Nigeria, by assumption) it could as easily be in North Korea, or any other corrupt autocracy, but despite the brief reference to robots and the central notion that something fell out of the sky, there's little science fiction here.
It isn't until you get to Ennead in Retrospect by Christopher Mark Rose and Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario, the first science fiction, and the second fantasy, that you find stories that are comfortable in their genre's skins. Rose's tale is about an alien station where prosaic objects are anything but prosaic, interacting with stranded human explorers/scientists to offer them fundamental changes. It's thoughtful, interesting, and a bit hard to parse, the last of which isn't a bug but a feature as science fiction should be something that requires a bit of brain-stretching to encompass. DiChario on the other hand, sets up an engaging Italian folktale about a groom that must reanimate his dead brother to fulfill a wedding tradition and so seeks out the local witch. As we expect in a Sicilian fantasy things go horribly wrong and the groom pays a price far beyond what he imagined he bargained for. Though who is to say whether this is in the end a tragedy? Certainly, it's a delightful fantasy.
Bone Broth, by Karen Heulers starts as a possible urban fantasy, then quietly reveals itself as urban science fiction. "Sometimes it's hard to define where one stops and the other begins." as one of her characters points out concerning bones that belonged to humans, animals, or possibly a race of giants. Set in one of the grittier parts of Manhatten, the protagonist is a woman born with an extra thumb, which her parents had removed to let her fit in, which never works. The story leads us down a rabbit hole in wonderful fashion, about finding your true people, which has always been resonant with readers of speculative fiction.
Full Worm Moon (Paul Lorello), Prison Colony Optimization (Auston Habershaw), and Proximity Games (M L Clark) are all solidly science fiction, though the first could as easily be cast as fantasy, dealing with the "simulation" of the memories of the deceased. I especially enjoyed Habershaw's tale of an AI consigned to a prison/terraforming project for unspeakable crimes in which the author manages to take on the prison system while giving some thought to AIs and agency. Proximity Games in turn takes on ideas about starfaring and colonization.
There's also poetry, two poems by Hungarian immigrant to the US, Boci Takács, winner of both Lambda and Hugo awards, and one from Gretchen Tessmer, who hails from somewhere around the US/Canadian border. Her Le Coup de Foudre crosses a few borders as well.
Breaking thins up with a fantasy about a woman wondering what would be worth turning into a mermaid for is Salt Calls to Salt by Maiga Doocy. Who doesn't love a story about becoming (or not) a mermaid?
The last bit of science fiction shows up in a VR setting in doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast and the issue finishes up with a pair of fantasies in There Won't Be Questions by Joe Baumanns, about a boy with the magical ability to conjure up lost things, and The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love, a delightful conceit by J.A. Pak who swears that the dragon in the story pushed her aside and insisted on writing the tale of a dragon that takes a human lover on their isolated island, only to have their tranquility shattered when a stranger drops in.
There are the usual and noteworthy columns, reviews by Charles de Lint, who leans towards fantasy, and Michelle West, who leans towards sf, as well as other departments. If we're counting, I think that makes it 8 to 4 SF to F, not counting poems because who can say what poems are about. I read the magazine in Kindle format, which by the way is included in the Kindle Unlimited subscription, and my sole complaint is that the index is not linked to the stories, meaning you either have to read straight through or use search to find specific parts.
All in all, it's a good issue and I liked most of it quite a bit, and those parts that didn't grab me were not for lack of quality.
Originally posted on Being Ernest: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, #759 Jan/Feb 2022
Contents:
NOVELLA -- The Art of Victory When the Game is All the World by Eugie Foster
SHORT STORIES
-- Ennead in Retrospect by Christopher Mark Rose
-- Full Worm Moon by Paul Lorello
-- Proximity Games by M L Clark
-- Salt Calls to Salt by Maiga Doocy
--doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast
--The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo
-- There Won't Be Questions by Joe Baumanns
NOVELETS
-- Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario
-- Bone Broth by Karen Heulers
-- Prison Colony Optimization by Auston Habershaw
-- The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love by J.A. Pak
January's issue of F&SF starts off with a welcome to the new year by editor Sheree Renée Thomas, talking about her family traditions for "watch night." I'd never heard of this and loved the idea of someone standing outside on New Year's eve watching the moon to tell when the year passes, and I enjoyed her telling of this tradition before launching into the stories, whose quality I found equal to the magazine's reputation for discerning picks, but often wondered if they belonged in the genre publication.
Reading The Art of Victory When the Game Is All The World by Eugie Foster, which is a layered and touching novella about a contest between artificers of "pueri" whose lives are wagered on by aristocrats., you find a story within a story where the pueri are humans in their reality. Whether it's virtual or real isn't explained, or important. A completion between two of the technicians tests their pueri against each other to determine if one of the technician's should change caste to become an aristocrat themselves. The pueri's tale is It's a lovely piece about overcoming, or being driven by, limitations but the framework. While this could as easily have been fantasy rather than SF, it didn't need to be either. Still, a fine piece of writing and sadly the last story Foster was working on before she succumbed to cancer in 2014.
Like Foster's story, The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo is only thinly science fiction despite its title and the appearance of a thing that fell out of the sky. Both stories use the aesthetic of science fiction as a frame for a more mundane tale. Not that the prose, in either case, is without merit, because they're both solid pieces of writing. In The City and the Thing Beneath It, ilo uses a hint of afro-futurism to tell a story about how an autocratic government controls information by suppressing social media, rounding up eyewitnesses without the good sense to keep their mouth's shut, and issuing an official truth from the mouth of the Supreme Leader. Set in Lagos (Nigeria, by assumption) it could as easily be in North Korea, or any other corrupt autocracy, but despite the brief reference to robots and the central notion that something fell out of the sky, there's little science fiction here.
It isn't until you get to Ennead in Retrospect by Christopher Mark Rose and Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario, the first science fiction, and the second fantasy, that you find stories that are comfortable in their genre's skins. Rose's tale is about an alien station where prosaic objects are anything but prosaic, interacting with stranded human explorers/scientists to offer them fundamental changes. It's thoughtful, interesting, and a bit hard to parse, the last of which isn't a bug but a feature as science fiction should be something that requires a bit of brain-stretching to encompass. DiChario on the other hand, sets up an engaging Italian folktale about a groom that must reanimate his dead brother to fulfill a wedding tradition and so seeks out the local witch. As we expect in a Sicilian fantasy things go horribly wrong and the groom pays a price far beyond what he imagined he bargained for. Though who is to say whether this is in the end a tragedy? Certainly, it's a delightful fantasy.
Bone Broth, by Karen Heulers starts as a possible urban fantasy, then quietly reveals itself as urban science fiction. "Sometimes it's hard to define where one stops and the other begins." as one of her characters points out concerning bones that belonged to humans, animals, or possibly a race of giants. Set in one of the grittier parts of Manhatten, the protagonist is a woman born with an extra thumb, which her parents had removed to let her fit in, which never works. The story leads us down a rabbit hole in wonderful fashion, about finding your true people, which has always been resonant with readers of speculative fiction.
Full Worm Moon (Paul Lorello), Prison Colony Optimization (Auston Habershaw), and Proximity Games (M L Clark) are all solidly science fiction, though the first could as easily be cast as fantasy, dealing with the "simulation" of the memories of the deceased. I especially enjoyed Habershaw's tale of an AI consigned to a prison/terraforming project for unspeakable crimes in which the author manages to take on the prison system while giving some thought to AIs and agency. Proximity Games in turn takes on ideas about starfaring and colonization.
There's also poetry, two poems by Hungarian immigrant to the US, Boci Takács, winner of both Lambda and Hugo awards, and one from Gretchen Tessmer, who hails from somewhere around the US/Canadian border. Her Le Coup de Foudre crosses a few borders as well.
Breaking thins up with a fantasy about a woman wondering what would be worth turning into a mermaid for is Salt Calls to Salt by Maiga Doocy. Who doesn't love a story about becoming (or not) a mermaid?
The last bit of science fiction shows up in a VR setting in doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast and the issue finishes up with a pair of fantasies in There Won't Be Questions by Joe Baumanns, about a boy with the magical ability to conjure up lost things, and The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love, a delightful conceit by J.A. Pak who swears that the dragon in the story pushed her aside and insisted on writing the tale of a dragon that takes a human lover on their isolated island, only to have their tranquility shattered when a stranger drops in.
There are the usual and noteworthy columns, reviews by Charles de Lint, who leans towards fantasy, and Michelle West, who leans towards sf, as well as other departments. If we're counting, I think that makes it 8 to 4 SF to F, not counting poems because who can say what poems are about. I read the magazine in Kindle format, which by the way is included in the Kindle Unlimited subscription, and my sole complaint is that the index is not linked to the stories, meaning you either have to read straight through or use search to find specific parts.
All in all, it's a good issue and I liked most of it quite a bit, and those parts that didn't grab me were not for lack of quality.
Originally posted on Being Ernest: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, #759 Jan/Feb 2022
January 30, 2022
The Art of Victory When the Game is All the World by Eugie Foster was brilliant! Favorite novella/story of January. So emotional and deep.
The four novelettes were also fantastic:
Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario
Bone Broth by Karen Heuler
Prison Colony Optimization Protocols by Auston Habershaw
The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love by J.A. Pak
I also liked There Won't Be Questions by Joe Baumanns.
The four novelettes were also fantastic:
Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario
Bone Broth by Karen Heuler
Prison Colony Optimization Protocols by Auston Habershaw
The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love by J.A. Pak
I also liked There Won't Be Questions by Joe Baumanns.
January 10, 2022
Another stellar issue. Here are all the stories I enjoyed:
- The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World by Eugie Foster
Games within Games within Games. Who is the Played and who is the Player? A powerful and very sad story. And very sad that we won’t have any more tales from Eugie Foster.
- Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario
The things we do to honor tradition! Another of the author’s wonderful new ‘old’ Italian folk tales. “Death does not bring out the best in people.”
- Bone Broth by Karen Heuler
Marrow gives broth its umami. Ancient bones from the Time of the Giants has special 'umami' that produces sought-after broth. The allegorical turn at the end of this tale chilled me to my bones.
- Prison Colony Optimization Protocols by Auston Habershaw
An AI only does two nanoseconds in the terraforming work prison; the first nanosecond when they arrive and the last nanosecond when they exit. A scathing allegory of the prison industrial complex.
- The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love by J. A. Pak @JAPak A wonderful love story that brought to mind the song “Two Souls In Communion” sung by Pigpen of the #GratefulDead. https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/grate...
- Ennead in Retrospect by Christopher Mark Rose
A Grouping of the Nine: familiar objects with unfamiliar purposes and enigmatic effects. A wife/husband team investigate an alien station orbiting a black hole.
- Full Worm Moon by Paul Lorello We insist that outsiders assimilate to our society, not caring when they get trapped between two cultures. A love story of a sorts.
- Proximity Games by M L Clark
A first contact story en rond; a young girl's odyssey from a lesson learned as a child to a lesson applied as a xenobiologist.
- Salt Calls to Salt by Maiga Doocy @maigadoocy She resisted the change and call twice, but can she pull back a third time? A thoughtful tale about trying to deny the core of who you are.
- doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast
A young hikikomori carves out and mods a nice, quiet corner of the MMPORG world. Another player wanting some seclusion encroaches on her solitude and forces her to emerge from her shell, if only for just a little. This story captures the essence of why I like video games. To me, they are best enjoyed by oneself. Playing with others is like reading a book with five people crowded around the pages. I like the solitude of my own mind, if only just for a little.
- The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Chizaram
A Thing tears a hole in the sky and lands in Lagos Lagoon. Everyone saw it, but Supreme Leader says “Nothing fell into the lagoon. And that hole in the sky? Insurrectionists! So who you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”
A cautionary tale about authoritarian state power in these troubled times. I really enjoyed reading about Lagos/Nigerian history and culture while enjoying the story.
- There Won’t Be Questions by Joe Baumann
A teenager with a special power learns that you can’t put toothpaste back into the tube. A story about consequences and the importance of saying no.
- The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World by Eugie Foster
Games within Games within Games. Who is the Played and who is the Player? A powerful and very sad story. And very sad that we won’t have any more tales from Eugie Foster.
- Animale dei Morti by Nick DiChario
The things we do to honor tradition! Another of the author’s wonderful new ‘old’ Italian folk tales. “Death does not bring out the best in people.”
- Bone Broth by Karen Heuler
Marrow gives broth its umami. Ancient bones from the Time of the Giants has special 'umami' that produces sought-after broth. The allegorical turn at the end of this tale chilled me to my bones.
- Prison Colony Optimization Protocols by Auston Habershaw
An AI only does two nanoseconds in the terraforming work prison; the first nanosecond when they arrive and the last nanosecond when they exit. A scathing allegory of the prison industrial complex.
- The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love by J. A. Pak @JAPak A wonderful love story that brought to mind the song “Two Souls In Communion” sung by Pigpen of the #GratefulDead. https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/grate...
- Ennead in Retrospect by Christopher Mark Rose
A Grouping of the Nine: familiar objects with unfamiliar purposes and enigmatic effects. A wife/husband team investigate an alien station orbiting a black hole.
- Full Worm Moon by Paul Lorello We insist that outsiders assimilate to our society, not caring when they get trapped between two cultures. A love story of a sorts.
- Proximity Games by M L Clark
A first contact story en rond; a young girl's odyssey from a lesson learned as a child to a lesson applied as a xenobiologist.
- Salt Calls to Salt by Maiga Doocy @maigadoocy She resisted the change and call twice, but can she pull back a third time? A thoughtful tale about trying to deny the core of who you are.
- doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast
A young hikikomori carves out and mods a nice, quiet corner of the MMPORG world. Another player wanting some seclusion encroaches on her solitude and forces her to emerge from her shell, if only for just a little. This story captures the essence of why I like video games. To me, they are best enjoyed by oneself. Playing with others is like reading a book with five people crowded around the pages. I like the solitude of my own mind, if only just for a little.
- The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Chizaram
A Thing tears a hole in the sky and lands in Lagos Lagoon. Everyone saw it, but Supreme Leader says “Nothing fell into the lagoon. And that hole in the sky? Insurrectionists! So who you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”
A cautionary tale about authoritarian state power in these troubled times. I really enjoyed reading about Lagos/Nigerian history and culture while enjoying the story.
- There Won’t Be Questions by Joe Baumann
A teenager with a special power learns that you can’t put toothpaste back into the tube. A story about consequences and the importance of saying no.
January 28, 2022
An average issue with some interesting stories by Eugie Foster, Nick Dichario, Auston Habershaw, Maiga Doocy and J. A. Pak.
- "The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World" by Eugie Foster: in a future where sentient beings are created as mixtures of desires and handicaps to be played in an arena, two creators duel via their creations. But through their creations, they world learn desires, pain and love in unexpected ways.
- "Ennead in Retrospect" by Christopher Mark Rose: on a station in the far future, furniture and utensils may familiar, but are now capable of doing much more in the hands of their users.
- "Animale dei Morti" by Nick Dichario: an interesting take set in Italy about a family tradition that threatens to be broken. To prevent it, a man must visit a witch to raise his brother from the dead, which causes all kinds of other problems. But like other fairy tales, it eventually solves s problem the village has with the witch.
- "Bone Broth" by Karen Henler: a mildly disturbing story of a waitress who discovers her boss has been digging up exceptionally large or unusual bones. But it's what is being done with the bones that would make the story a disturbing look at a future that may not be entirely human.
- "Prison Colony Optimization Protocols" by Auston Habershaw: a story about an AI sent to operate a prison on a world for an unspeakable crime. It (later, she) tries to make it more efficient, but ends up making things worse. When she is told to solve the problem in a drastic manner, she comes up with her own solution that would solve the problem of making the prison more efficient and reveal the crime she committed.
- "Full Worm Moon" by Paul Lorello: a story about a strange family and one son who goes for his first ceremony on a Full Worm Moon, devours worms from a grave and learns things that leads him on a journey to the outside world.
- "Proximity Games" by M. L. Clark: a girl learns a lesson in patience that may help her later in life on another planet, when making possible contact with an alien life form.
- "Salt Calls to Salt" by Maiga Doocy: a girl finds a scale growing on her body, and the only way to remove it is to get rid of what has changed in her daily routine: meeting another person she likes. The years past with little change in her routine until one day she gets involved in a major routine change and has to decide whether to live with the consequences.
- "doe_haven.vr" by Cara Mast: in a quiet corner of a VR world, a girl who wants to be left alone finds an intruder. She first attempts to get rid of him, but later discovers why he too has come to her quiet corner of the world.
- "The City and the Thing Beneath It" by Innocent Chizaram Ilo: something falls from the sky over Lagos, Nigeria. The Supreme Leader says nothing happened; life goes on, but the city of no longer theirs.
- "There Won't Be Questions" by Joe Baumann: a boy reveals his 'gift' for calling back lost animals at the price of body pain. But then he declines to call back a lost girl, and realizes what he has lost and wants to call back. But he would have to deal with the consequences of his action.
- "The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love" by J. A. Pak: the story of a legendary dragon, who finds a girl one day, takes care of her, until they fall in love, and are together to the end of their days.
February 11, 2022
The Art Of Victory When The Game Is All The World - Eugie Foster ***
Animale Dei Morti - Nick DiChario ***
Bone Broth - Karen Heuler **
Prison Colony Optimization Protocols - Auston Habershaw ***
The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale Of Love - JA Pak ***
Ennead In Retrospect - Christopher Mark Rose ****
An examination of the artifacts left behind by the narrator's famous scientist/explorer parents, particularly the strange knife the father used to split himself into the two separate aspects of his personality. The parents' love and how they deal with one being whole while the other is split between two bodies is enticing, and although I wanted a step more from the story, that dynamic kept my interest piqued.
Full Worm Moon - Paul Lorello ***
Proximity Games - ML Clark ***
Salt Calls To Salt - Maiga Doocy ***
doe_haven.vr - Cara Mast **
The City And The Thing Beneath It - Innocent Chizaram Ilo **
There Won't Be Questions - Joe Baumann ***
Animale Dei Morti - Nick DiChario ***
Bone Broth - Karen Heuler **
Prison Colony Optimization Protocols - Auston Habershaw ***
The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale Of Love - JA Pak ***
Ennead In Retrospect - Christopher Mark Rose ****
An examination of the artifacts left behind by the narrator's famous scientist/explorer parents, particularly the strange knife the father used to split himself into the two separate aspects of his personality. The parents' love and how they deal with one being whole while the other is split between two bodies is enticing, and although I wanted a step more from the story, that dynamic kept my interest piqued.
Full Worm Moon - Paul Lorello ***
Proximity Games - ML Clark ***
Salt Calls To Salt - Maiga Doocy ***
doe_haven.vr - Cara Mast **
The City And The Thing Beneath It - Innocent Chizaram Ilo **
There Won't Be Questions - Joe Baumann ***
March 20, 2022
This was another great edition. One of the best decisions I have ever made was in asking my lovely wife for a subscription to this magazine for my birthday this past year. I should have done that sooner. I'm also sitting on a mountain of old editions I've inherited from an uncle so I'm set for years to come.
'The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love' by J.A. Pak was fantastic. I loved it and certainly wouldn't mind reading more about the great and magnificent Faine.
'There Won't Be Questions' by Joe Baumann was a wonderful addition to the collection and everything that a speculative fiction story should be.
'Prison Colony Optimization Protocols' by Auston Habershaw was amazing. Well worth reading.
Those three stories alone made the entire book worth reading but others weren't bad either and had the usual hit and miss mix you find in collections of short stories.
'The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love' by J.A. Pak was fantastic. I loved it and certainly wouldn't mind reading more about the great and magnificent Faine.
'There Won't Be Questions' by Joe Baumann was a wonderful addition to the collection and everything that a speculative fiction story should be.
'Prison Colony Optimization Protocols' by Auston Habershaw was amazing. Well worth reading.
Those three stories alone made the entire book worth reading but others weren't bad either and had the usual hit and miss mix you find in collections of short stories.
June 13, 2022
3.5/5, rounded down.
Favs included: The Art of Victory When the Game Was the World (what a mouthful!), Prison Colony Optimization Protocols, and doe_haven[dot]vr.
I did like the final short story until we had a biiiiiiiig age gap between the two mcs, which raises red flags for me. Lots of bizarre/wtf stories in this edition.
I think starting with a novella-length story is kinda a turnoff for me, because that's a (comparitvely) big investment to get me to read the magazine. I kept thinking, oh, I should start this now, and then see that the first story is 50+ pages (it does have section breaks btw, but I tend to prefer reading each story in its complete form). After I found the time to read the first the rest were fine like always. :)
Favs included: The Art of Victory When the Game Was the World (what a mouthful!), Prison Colony Optimization Protocols, and doe_haven[dot]vr.
I did like the final short story until we had a biiiiiiiig age gap between the two mcs, which raises red flags for me. Lots of bizarre/wtf stories in this edition.
I think starting with a novella-length story is kinda a turnoff for me, because that's a (comparitvely) big investment to get me to read the magazine. I kept thinking, oh, I should start this now, and then see that the first story is 50+ pages (it does have section breaks btw, but I tend to prefer reading each story in its complete form). After I found the time to read the first the rest were fine like always. :)
November 1, 2024
A top-notch issue, with virtually no duds and several outstanding stories. My favorites:
The opening novella, “The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World” by Eugie Foster, was beautifully told and rich with layers of meaning. I regret that I heard this author’s name only after her death.
“Ennead in Retrospect” by Christopher Mark Rose was a lovely story about duality and choices.
“Prison Colony Optimization Protocols” by Auston Habershaw is a classic AI tale, testing the bounds of what defines a person.
“The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love”, by J.A. Pak, is another one of those probing the meaning of human.
And all of the ones I most liked are really love stories.
(But all the rest of the issue is worth reading too, poetry included…)
The opening novella, “The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World” by Eugie Foster, was beautifully told and rich with layers of meaning. I regret that I heard this author’s name only after her death.
“Ennead in Retrospect” by Christopher Mark Rose was a lovely story about duality and choices.
“Prison Colony Optimization Protocols” by Auston Habershaw is a classic AI tale, testing the bounds of what defines a person.
“The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love”, by J.A. Pak, is another one of those probing the meaning of human.
And all of the ones I most liked are really love stories.
(But all the rest of the issue is worth reading too, poetry included…)
March 2, 2022
The Art of Victory... - Eugie Foster ***
Animale Dei Morti - Nick DiChario *
Bone Broth - Karen Heuler ***
Prison Colony Optimization... - Auston Habershaw **
The Gentle Dragon... - J.A. Pak **
Ennead in Retrospect - Christopher Mark Rose **
Full Worm Moon - Pau Lorello **
Proximity Games - M L Clark ***
Salt Calls to Salt - Maiga Doocy *
DOE_HAVEN.VR - Cara Mast *
The City and the Thing... - Innocent Chizaram Ilo **
There Won't be Questions - Joe Baumann ***
Animale Dei Morti - Nick DiChario *
Bone Broth - Karen Heuler ***
Prison Colony Optimization... - Auston Habershaw **
The Gentle Dragon... - J.A. Pak **
Ennead in Retrospect - Christopher Mark Rose **
Full Worm Moon - Pau Lorello **
Proximity Games - M L Clark ***
Salt Calls to Salt - Maiga Doocy *
DOE_HAVEN.VR - Cara Mast *
The City and the Thing... - Innocent Chizaram Ilo **
There Won't be Questions - Joe Baumann ***
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January 5, 20221 novella, 3 novelets, 7 short stories, plus editorials/reviews
January 26, 2022
One of the best issues in a long while. Some tremendous stories...along with the usual couple of annoying sample novels.
February 7, 2022
I only skipped one story. The rest were solid gold.
March 16, 2022
A side set of enjoyable stories. I particularly liked the novelettes and doe_haven.vr for an interesting scifi depiction of living with anxiety.
March 1, 2023
I liked "There Won’t Be Questions" by Joe Baumann
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews