Charles Payseur Reviews Short Fiction: Fantasy, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Fantasy 1/23
Lightspeed 1/23
Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/1/23, 1/12/23, 1/26/23

January’s Fantasy includes Flossie Arend’s novelette, “Broodmare”, which introduces Marge and Trace, two people from a community that travels into Texas to perform clandestine abortions in a future where access and entry into the state are strictly controlled. Marge has been doing this for a long time, but for Trace, it’s a first, and as they see the realities there, as they serve as best they can the people desper­ate for help, they reflect on and ruminate on why they do what they do. Arend deals with a timely topic with compassion and care, showing both the horror of what is happening and what still could while also doing a wonderful job of exploring Marge and Trace’s perspectives, motivations, and memories. On the poetry front, Alice Towey’s “I Should Have Been a Pair of Ragged Claws” focuses on a heart that is rejected as ugly and vile and yet is still part of a person, deserving of understanding, respect, and love. Because without that, it can become a toxic element inside a person, poisoning them and stealing their joy and worth. The poem’s lines are rather short, leaving a lot of space on the page (or screen), which seems to act as what is unsaid, where this heart and narrator share space underneath notice, in a stolen moment that is full of tenderness and kindness. Towey leaves room for readers to imagine what happens between the lines while still delivering a strong poetic statement.

Lightspeed started off 2023 with a very powerful issue, including the stunning “The Narrative Implications of Your Untimely Death” by Isa­bel J. Kim, which picks back up the idea of a real­ity show built around people killing each other. Here, though, contestants can be brought back to life and put back on the show if, like Jamie, they are popular enough. Jamie, however, just wants an escape from the unending betrayals, intrigues, and stress of the game. He wants out, but he’s just too good at what he does, crafting storylines for his and other people’s characters that are complex and satisfying. Kim explores how, under corporate and capitalist systems, there’s no end for popular characters, no death that is sacred and can’t be undone. It’s a fantastic story, biting in its parody and sharp as a knife slipping through ribs and finding the vulnerable heart beneath. Maria Dong keeps things bloody and visceral in “Braid Me a Howling Tongue”, in which a narrator who has had her tongue cut out faces isolation and danger in a place where on every fifth day the residents are hunted by a beast that kills one of them. And despite the distrust and distance the prison and wardens try to put into the inmates, the narrator finds herself forming an intimate bond with someone else, and despite not sharing a language the two find ways to work for their freedom. Dong weaves an intense tale of abuse and hope where victory isn’t won at the end of a blade, but through the work of crafting, creating, and cooperating.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies released three issues in January, the first of them focused on survival, betrayal, and debts. The second issue shifts to focus on fairy tales and their meanings and morals, with two pieces that do some interesting work with form and frame. The final issue of the month focuses on couples facing the greatest loss they can imagine, like with Eboni J. Dun­bar’s “A Sin for Freedom”, where Slati lives in an Empire ruled by a Great Mother who owns everyone and everything, a place where passion for another person is a sin akin to stealing. A sin that Slati is guilty of, though she’s tried to remain loyal to her liege, and has agreed to do penance in the form of tracking down the Great Mother’s errant child, a rebel who helps others escape. While Slati struggles against her desires and her loyalties, though, she’s drawn into a tense confrontation – a clash that won’t allow her to avoid who truly holds her heart. Dunbar does stunning character work and worldbuilding, mixing action, romance, and angst in perfect measurements for a story that should definitely not be missed! Jae Steinbacher pulls back the pacing a bit in “What the Mountain Takes, What the Journey Offers” but lessens none of the stakes as Ilhani seeks a cure to their wife’s illness, and is willing to risk everything to get it. It’s a quest that takes them far, through many dangers, and asks a rather terrible price, but Steinbacher beautifully captures a network of people helping each other, inspiring each other, and showing that the world is not as cold and lonely as it seems on its worst days. It’s a story bursting with warmth and kindness and love..

Recommended Stories
“The Narrative Implications of Your  Untimely Death”, Isabel J. Kim (Lightspeed 1/23)
“Braid Me a Howling Tongue”, Maria Dong (Lightspeed 1/23)
“A Sin for Freedom”, Eboni J. Dunbar (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/26/23)
“What the Mountain Takes, What the Journey Offers”, Jae Steinbacher (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/23)

This review and more like it in the March 2023 issue of Locus.

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