Charles Payseur Reviews Short Fiction: Diabolical Plots, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and GigaNotoSaurus

Diabolical Plots 3/23
Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/9/23, 3/23/23
GigaNotoSaurus 3/23

Diabolical Plots celebrated March with a special issue on telepathy dubbed Diabolical Thoughts, guest-edited by assistant editor Ziv Wities. All four works in the issue circle influence, mind control, and mental communication. As with The Desert’s Voice is Sweet to Hear” by Carolina Valentine, which finds Zazy moving through a desert that wants to embrace her like an enormous pitcher plant by getting into her mind and making her eat sand or bother some of the local (deadly) fauna. Which isn’t the only danger. The last of a once-powerful political family, she’s been on the run for a long time has recently lost her mount and psychic protec­tion in a run-in with some bandits. Valentine paces the story tightly, drawing Zazy into an ever-more dangerous situation in her attempt to survive and hold to the memory of those she’s lost. The worldbuilding is careful and personal while still capturing a building and epic feel as Zazy must learn to take power from her memories and silence the voices of fear and insecurity plaguing her. It all comes together well, and provides a deeply satisfying second world fantasy adventure.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies kicked off March with an issue featuring folklore and beings that some might see as monsters, that have complex rules, rituals, and truths. Such as in “Discreet Services Offered for Women Ridden by Hags” by Stephanie Malia Morris, which follows a nar­rator working as a doctor specialized in treating women possessed by soucouyants. Though the possession comes with side effects – physical abnormalities, a need to consume blood, and needing to let the soucouyant assume a true form during the night – it’s also not the death sentence that many fear it is. It’s a lesson that the narrator has learned in the worst way, and that she’s hoping to spare her sister, who walks into her practice needing help. Morris does careful and powerful work building up the backstory of the characters, the tragedy of family and loss and guilt that binds them together. The ideas of stigma, societal pressure, and the cost of survival in an unjust world make for some heavy reading, but also an incredible and freeing ending.

The second issue of the month focused more on worlds recovering from the abuse of magic, and the scars left behind long afterward. In “The Void Door” by V.M. Ayala, the scars come in the form of a suppression of magic among Luz’s maternal relations because of a near-cataclysm in the past, and a locking away of the great magic once possible behind a special door – a door that Luz opened a crack without fully meaning to. A crack isn’t enough for Luz, though, who sees the potential for magic and has seen the damage done by those seeking to demonize it out of fear and tradition. It’s a coming-of-age story compli­cated by familial strife, cultural isolation, and a vexing magic door that seems to have a mind of its own. Ayala echoes personal and societal wounds, reaching for a healing that can only come once the source of injury has been removed and the injuries properly dressed.

In March’s GigaNotoSaurus, Anna Martino tells the story of a half-human, half-fae chemist in “Once Measured, Twice Cut”. George is a healer, treating humans and fae alike from his practice and acting as a kind of bridge between worlds. When patients come in with afflictions that initially vex him, however, he has to rely on his experience and his family to rethink his approach. Martino looks at the dangers of infections and allergies spreading across the barriers between the human and fae worlds and populations. And while those connections, those moments of contact, can be a source of infection, they can also bring a spark of insight not otherwise possible. For George, dealing with the dangers of being a part of both worlds is unavoidable, and offers a rewarding blend of challenges and triumphs.

Recommended Stories:

“Discreet Services Offered for Women Ridden by Hags”, Stephanie Malia Morris (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/23)

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

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