The Sunday Morning Transport 12/17/23, 12/3/23, 11/19/23, 11/12/23, 11/5/23 Uncanny 11-12/23 The Dark 11/23

By the time you read this, the new year of 2024 will no longer be so new, but there’s still some short fiction from the end of 2023 to catch up on.

A laundry that washes stars? Nikki Brazie takes the unique premise of cleaning luminous celestial bodies and weaves it into a touching tale about ...Read More

Apex #141 Midnight Echo #18 Podcastle 10/3/23 Pseudopod 11/24/23

J.S. Breukelaar’s novelette “Hole World” in Apex #141 finds the world taken over by ten­tacled somethings. Justin is one of the few left alive. Though limited by a sentient manacle, he still works at Whole Foods, now under “new management,” tending to the frozen meat – guess the source – that is delivered weekly to feed the “managers.” ...Read More

Nightmare 10/23, 11/23, 12/23 Heartlines Spec #3 The Deadlands 10/23, 11/23

In Nightmare #133, I found “The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones to be notable. One of the most terrifying of modern horrors is the slaughter of school children by lone gunmen. Jones conjures a magical escape route for the innocents, but it is far from a safe haven. It’s a difficult theme to attempt, ...Read More

The Sunday Morning Transport 10/24/23, 9/10/23, 9/3/23 Apex #140 The Dark 9/23, 10/23

I know I am repeating myself, but every story The Sunday Morning Transport publishes should be read. Of the nine original stories published from the end of August through October 22, I’ll mention only my absolute favorites. Nura – in ‘‘We Will Witness’’ by Martin Cahill – is a 30th-century Witness, sent back in time ...Read More

Weird Horror Fall ’23 Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet Summer ’23 Uncanny 9-10/23

With its seventh issue, Weird Horror (Fall 2023) has finally hit its stride. All 11 stories are effective, and sever­al are laudable. Stuart Arthur’s “Devil’s Acre” builds the creep well with the tale of a cruel father who intentionally places his eldest child in supernatural jeopardy. The narrator of “Cre­tins” by Thomas Ha ...Read More

Black Static 7/23 The Deadlands 7/23 The Sunday Morning Transport 8/13/23, 8/6/23, 7/30/23, 7/16/23, 7/2/23, 6/25/23 Uncanny 7-8/23

Established by Andy Cox in December 1993, British SF/fantasy/slipstream/horror magazine The 3rd Alternative ran for 42 issues. It re-emerged in 2007 as Black Static with a tighter focus on weird fiction and horror. The magazine has always been an at­tractive publication with good black-and-white art, standout non-fiction, and consistently first-rate fiction. Combined ...Read More

The Sunday Morning Transport 5/7/23; 5/14/23; 5/18/23; 5/28/23; 6/4/23; 6/11/23; 6/18/23 Tor.com 5/10/23; 5/24/23; 6/4/23; 6/7/23; 6/11/23; 6/18/23 The Deadlands 5/23, 6/23 The Dark 5/23, 6/23

The Sunday Morning Transport contin­ues to publish excellent fiction. Victor Manibo’s “An Incomplete Catalog of the Birds of New York” is a sweet and optimistic story. A young woman, Amaya, learns how to help the birds crashing into the glass of ...Read More

Nightmare 6/23, 7/23 PodCastle 4/11/23; 5/9/23; 5/23/23 Baffling 4/23

Ozzie M. Gartrell’s “The Seconds Between Light and Sound” in Nightmare #129 centers on a horned, island-dwelling people who worship a goddess personified by an eternal storm. There are some arresting concepts, but I felt it read a bit like a preface to a longer work. A botanist journeys to Argia in “and its place remembers it ...Read More

Podcastle 4/11/23 PseudoPod 4/14/23 Weird Horror Spring ’23

“The Girl Who Never Was” by Harold R. Thompson (Podcastle 782) is an intriguing story about a daughter and a life that never existed.

Richard Dansky’s “Swing Batter Batter” (PseudoPod 861) is a twist on the old tale of a baseball player selling his soul to the devil, but it’s still a good read.

Weird Horror #6 offers ...Read More

Uncanny 3-4/23, 5-6/23 Tor.com 3/29/23, 4/26/23 Apex #137

This month, instead of covering all the stories in an issue as I usually do, I’ll only be discussing those I feel are the most notable.

My favorite stories from Uncanny #52 are ‘‘The Mausoleum’s Children’’ by Aliette de Bodard and ‘‘The Rain Remembers What the Sky Forgets’’ by Fran Wilde. In the former, Thuận Lộc, haunted ...Read More

The Deadlands 4/23 The Sunday Morning Transport Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 11/22

The standout story in The Deadlands #24 is Katie McIvor’s “Things We Did by the Wind­mill”. Even though Edith is dead, she shows up as usual to share the protagonist’s life. Edith eventually departs but she leaves something that, like Edith herself, must eventually be given up.

E.L. Chen’s “Mother’s Teeth” in ...Read More

Uncanny 1-2/23 Tor.com 2/1/23, 2/8/23, 2/22/23

The year is off to an awesome start with an abundant amount of admirable fiction! I have a few quibbles here and there, but still find everything mentioned here to be worthwhile reading.

Issue 50 of Uncanny is double-sized and probably the best one yet. Lead-off “Collaboration?” by Ken Liu & Caroline M. Yoachim is a creative collaborative effort that explores creative collaboration. Interesting ...Read More

The Sunday Morning Transport 1/8/23, 1/18/23, 1/22/23, 2/5/23, 2/12/23, 2/19/23 Apex 1/23

The Sunday Morning Transport started 2023 on January 8 with the first of a two-part novella, “Tears Waiting to Be Diamonds” by Sarah Rees Brennan. The second part was published January 28. Brennan revisits the Borderlands from her acclaimed novel In Other Lands. Set about ten years after the novel begins, the hero, Elliot ...Read More

The Deadlands 11/22, 12/22 PodCastle 12/20/22 Dark Matter 11-12/22

The Deadlands is a monthly speculative fic­tion magazine. They “publish short stories, poems, and essays about the other realms, of the ends we face here, and the beginnings we find elsewhere. It is an adventure into the unknown, to meet those who live there still, even though they may be dead. Death is a journey we all will take, but we’d ...Read More

Tor.com 12/1/22, 12/24/22, 1/11/23, 1/18/23, 1/25/23 The Dark 11/22, 12/22 Nightmare 11/22, 12/22 The Sunday Morning Transport

I’ll start 2023 off by looking at three January stories from Tor.com as well as a couple from December 2022. Chances are, you still haven’t caught up with all of end-of-the-year fiction, so we’ll then look at more from last year.

‘‘Time: Marked and Mended’’ by Carrie Vaughn (Tor.com 1/11/22) is ...Read More

The Dark 9/22, 10/22 Nightmare 10/22 The Deadlands 10/22, 11/22

The Dark 89 offers its usual four originals. In ‘‘The Eighth Cigarette’’ by Lisa Cai, a woman who, in one of her previous lives was inspiration for Pierre Loti’s Madame Chrysanthème (published in 1887), takes revenge for the decades the author’s fiction had impact on the West’s understanding – or rather misunderstanding – of Asian women and culture. A real ...Read More

PodCastle 7/5/22 PseudoPod 9/9/22, 9/16/22 Weird Horror Fall ’22

PodCastle 742: “The Morning House” by Kate Heartfield deals with the shifting perceptions of reality involved with an aging parent suffering from dementia and, well, shifting reality.

PseudoPod 828: “Taxiptómy” by Shannyn Campbell presents a consideration of a “con­troversial art of deliberately causing the death of a human as part of a public performance, before preparing and ...Read More

Tor.com 10/12/22, 9/21/22, 9/14/22, 9/7/22, 8/24/22 Apex 133 Uncanny 9-10/22, 11-12/22

Tor.com’s Fall offerings are all good, but I liked some better than others. PH Lee offers a clever tribute to Stanislaw Lem’s The Cyberiad series with “How the Crown Prince of Jupiter Undid the Universe, or, The Full Fruit of Love’s Full Folly”, in which an impossible romance is made possible. A routine trip to Mercury to ...Read More

PseudoPod 7/27/22 Nightmare 8/22, 9/22 The Dark 7/22, 8/22 The Deadlands 7/22, 8/22

There are numerous worthy re-published stories and a single recent original at its supposedly darker sister PseudoPod. In PseudoPod #821’s “Celestial Shores” by Sarah Day & Tim Pratt, a troubled couple visit a vacation rental and wind up somewhere quite terrifyingly unexpected.

Nightmare #119 has two original short stories and a flash piece. Climate change ...Read More

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 7/22 Tor.com 8/10/2022 PodCastle 6/7/22, 6/14/22, 6/21/22, 6/28/22

If you enjoy truly original fiction, you’ll ap­preciate Lady Churchill’sa Rosebud Wristlet #45. Anna O’Connor’s “The Rattling Seed” features a young man who meets a stranger and accompanies him to a strange ritual in the woods. The protagonist of “This World Will Be True” by Ellen Rhudy is struggling to hold onto the ...Read More

Uncanny 7-8/22 Apex #132 Three-Lobed Burning Eye #36

Uncanny #47 is not themed, but each specu­lative story ultimately deals with common human problems. Marie Brennan’s “Fate, Hope, Friendship, Foe” mixes Greek mythology into a great little story set in a decayed American Midwest of the near-future. Even godlings must make choices. It’s only negative is that it is far too short. “Family Cooking” by AnaMaria ...Read More

The Dark 3/22, 4/22 Nightmare 3/22, 4/22, 5/22

There’s quite a variety in the four originals of The Dark #83. In “Knotlings” by Aliya Whiteley, the narrator accepts her pain as a good thing. She rejoices when her son experiences the same affliction and, like her, vomits up “knotlings.” The mother teaches her son how to cope, but as he matures, he develops his own way of ...Read More