Escape Pod, Lightspeed, and Baffling,: Short Fiction Reviews by Charles Payseur

Escape Pod 7/11/24
Lightspeed 7/24
Baffling 7/24

Brian Hugenbruch features in the July Escape Pod with the rather charming “A Foundational Model for Talking to Girls”. The story unfolds with a backdrop of the ruined Earth, humans surviving in orbit of their home and living very different lives. But social awkwardness is still definitely a thing, which the narrator can at­test to, as he finds himself unable to articulate himself around girls. So he tries a program that turns out to not be the advanced LLM he thought it was, though the program aspires to one day be robust and helpful. In the meantime, what the program can teach him is the importance of patience, and consent, and kindness. Which is more important, it turns out, than getting a date for the big dance, because it gives him the tools to react to setbacks and failures in ways that aren’t reactive or destructive, but centered on growth and understanding. Hugenbruch takes some risks in the story that pay off nicely, showing a more nuanced and complex look at attraction and self-improvement. It’s well worth a look!

July’s Lightspeed opens with a new story from Dominique Dickey, whose “The Last Lucid Day” explores family, technology, and grief. The story begins as the narrator is contacted by his father’s memory care facility, as a new technol­ogy that allows them to track cognitive decline has determined this will be his last really good day. The narrator is left to confront not just the present and his father’s condition but his past as well, his father’s many failings, and the resent­ment that he still carries about it all. Dickey captures with vivid and wrenching clarity the messiness of being a child, an adult, and a parent in a situation where there is no happy ending, really. Here there are wounds, some of them healed, some of them healing, some of them brand-new, and it makes for a beautiful and moving story. In the same issue, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko’s “The Heist for the Soul of Humanity” finds a small group of thieves work­ing for a nepo baby to recover a priceless relic he wants back on his bedroom wall. And Nadja is part of that heist, though almost none of it sits well with her – the legendary “honorable” thief she’s working with seems unconcerned about the ethics of the job, the plan itself hinges on vague promises that the security will be disabled, and none of it seems aimed at hurting the company who currently owns the relic, a media giant similar to Disney whose intellectual property contracts have screwed over thousands of cre­atives, including Nadja’s family. Zorko does a clever job of layering the intrigues, though, with the real plan both incredibly simple and precarious at the same time, and the resolution an intensely feel-good experience that is a joy to discover. It’s fantastic!

July brings a new issue of Baffling, and it starts strongly with Jared Povanda’s “A Demon Dates in New York City”, which follows a demon with a long history that has lived through times of risk and relative freedom. And it’s the relationships that he had during those times of risk – sweaty stolen moments in cramped rooms with men who could lose everything if discovered – that have lingered the most. They have become a kind of trauma that others experience generationally, a shared memory that keeps people afraid and isolated, but which he remembers firsthand. In the arms of a new partner, though, in a time when they can be seen in public, can take their time, the memories might still crowd in at times, but there is also a sense of possibility, of heal­ing, and of hope. Povanda does a fantastic job of capturing the mix of grief and passion that keeps this demon, at least, still looking for new connections, and new horizons. It’s amazing! In Matt Richardson’s “If You Lingered”, themes of danger and safety recur, as the piece places read­ers as a kind of voyeur, watching a scene inside a local herbalist shop, where Thomas, the son of the shop’s founder, works and thrives despite the distrust and rumors of the town. To most of the townspeople, Thomas is a figure clouded in sus­picion – an outsider whose unexpected arrival and curt manner makes him an easy target of gossip. The truth, though, is more complicated, and more tender and joyous. The view the reader is invited to behold is intimate and warm, a far cry from the sinister imaginings of the town, and Richardson reminds readers that insular, tribal structures often produce incorrect and prejudiced assumptions. Meanwhile, in Ramez Yoakeim’s “Omar’s Perfect Falafel”, a man finds himself drawn to Omar, an exuberant and lively falafel vendor who sells his wares at prices even the poor can afford. Despite his attraction, the narrator keeps his distance out of fear and awkwardness. When Omar’s business is vandal­ized and his livelihood threatened, the narrator decides to reach out, and finds that there’s more to Omar that meets the eye. Yoakeim balances the tension of the attack and the fear the narra­tor feels against the magic all around him, the warmth of comfort and love, and defiance to not bend to bullies. And it all comes together wonderfully!

Recommended Stories
“A Foundational Model for Talking to Girls”, Brian Hugenbruch (Escape Pod 7/11/24)
“The Last Lucid Day”, Dominique Dickey (Lightspeed 7/24)
“The Heist for the Soul of Humanity”, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko (Lightspeed 7/24)
“A Demon Dates in New York City”, Jared Povanda (Baffling 7/24)

This review and more like it in the September 2024 issue of Locus.

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