Flash Fiction Online, Cast of Wonders, and Strange Horizons: Short Fiction Reviews by Charles Payseur

Flash Fiction Online 10/24
Cast of Wonders 10/20/24, 11/11/24
Strange Horizons 10/21/24, 11/4/24

Flash Fiction Online released an extra-large issue in honor of the spookiest month, which is capped off by Christine Lucas’s haunting “Final Harvest”, in which the daughter of a rather abusive and manipulative mother returns to perform said mother’s final rites – the harvest of nekrophyta that grows on the body of the dead. These small plants and flowers are valuable, and reveal things about the departed that are often unexpected and reflect their deeper personality and truths. For the narrator, the whole process is fraught as she has to face the emotional and psychological scars left by her mother’s treatment, all while trying to treat her body with respect and restraint. The result isn’t frightening exactly, but still looks at a kind of haunting and exorcism, as the narrator works to cleanse not just her mother’s body but the mess left behind in herself, so that she can come to some kind of peace and let go of all the rest. It’s a powerful story.

October was also a big month for Cast of Wonders, which released a number of Halloween-linked stories, including E.M. Dasche’s “Devil’s Food”. In it, Tristan is an evil sorcerer in the making, or at least wants to be, but his aspirations are hampered by a largely absent (but affluent) mother and a peer group that mocks him for his stutter and shuns him for his rather megalomaniacal ways. When he sees an advertisement for what he thinks is a summer camp for would-be villains, he thinks he’s finally found his place to shine. But can he overcome his own doubts and fear to see the experience and himself for what they could be rather than what he wants them to be? Dasche tells a thoroughly entertaining and charming story wrapped around this boy’s hopes and dreams, finding in his quest for domination something much more grounded, vulnerable, and moving. And in November, Matt Tighe’s “Optimal Care” follows James and his tenderbot, who monitors James’s degenerative ill­ness and runs the math for what might help James improve or further worsen his condition. For both boy and bot, it’s a delicate and perhaps impossible equation for doing things that improve his quality of life while avoiding things that will hasten his decline. Going to a dance seems like far too great a risk to the tenderbot, except what the math alone fails to consider is how much it means to James to go, when he might never get the chance again. Tighe deals with some very heavy emotional issues, namely the terminal illness of a child, but does so with care and respect, providing a beautiful and wrenching look at the way James and his tenderbot come to care for each other and work together to make their lives as good as they can for as long as they can. It’s well worth checking out.

Strange Horizons wound down their October with Gabrielle Emem Harry’s sharp “Faith Is a Butterfly Resting on a Rotting Eye (or The Art of Faith)”. Udo is the younger brother of a great man, one revered in their village and beyond. So when their god demands a sacrifice of their best and brightest, it’s Udo’s brother who is chosen to be killed. It becomes Udo’s first real crisis of faith, but it’s far from his last, as he leaves home in search of a more just god only to find more of the same wherever he goes. Harry explores how faith can be easily twisted by corruption and fear into something deeply unjust. Udo has to stand again and again against the tyrannies he finds, saving what can be saved only at great risk, and along the way revealing a different vision of faith that is in people instead of gods. It’s wonderful! Moving into November, K. M. Praschak’s poem “Departure: New Selene Station 21:56” imagines a future that isn’t exactly utopian, though people continue to try and make a mostly rigged system work as best they can. Space is the place for a boom industry, and people have flocked to be a part of it, only to find that space and its freedoms have been lever­aged by the wealthy to further enrich themselves. Still, the narrator remains somewhat optimistic, even in the face of advancing age and declining prospects. Praschak is careful to show the sharp edges of that optimism, and how precariously the narrator is balanced on it, willing to risk it all to win big. It’s not a plan that seems destined for success, but the poem really captures the way people face dreams that have turned to ash, and hope that has been used against them for someone else’s benefit.

Recommended Stories
“Final Harvest”, Christine Lucas (Flash Fiction Online 10/24)
“Devil’s Food”, E.M. Dasche (Cast of Wonders 10/20/24)
“Faith Is a Butterfly Resting on a Rotting Eye (or The Art of Faith)”, Gabrielle Emem Harry (Strange Horizons 10/21/24)

This review and more like it in the January 2025 issue of Locus.

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