Charles Payseur

GigaNotoSaurus 4/23 Flash Fiction Online 4/23 Lightspeed 5/23

May’s GigaNotoSaurus presents a video game-centered tale in Andrew Dana Hudson’s “Any Percent”. In the story, Luckless is a player of a simulation game where in the span of an hour people can live through sometimes multiple lives in-game, sometimes just experiencing life outside of themselves, and sometimes upping the stakes to try and speed-run a rise to the ...Read More

Strange Horizons 4/17/23, 4/24/23, 5/1/23, 5/8/23, 5/15/23 Fantasy 5/23 Diabolical Plots 4/23

Strange Horizons closed out April with the poem ‘‘In a country where history is only a memory that has grown older’’ by Michael Imossan, which imagines the world as a stage and the plot of the play something of a tragedy. The narrator has lost a brother to the violence of bullets and the people ...Read More

Flash Fiction Online 4/23 Lightspeed 5/23 F&SF 5-6/23

The April Flash Fiction Online opens with Sheila Massie’s interesting take on the fae and dance clubs in “Fae Magic on a Friday Night”. Like Biswas’s story, the standard tropes surround­ing the supernatural are subverted and turned around. The fae in this story aren’t the ones preying on humans, but rather have become sources of an almost narcotic magic ...Read More

Diabolical Plots 4/23 GigaNotoSaurus 4/23 Fusion Fragment 4/23 3LBE 4/23 Baffling 4/23

Guan Un drags Sisyphus into the modern world in April’s Diabolical Plots with ‘‘Re: Your Stone’’, a story framed as a series of emails between the unfortunate Sisyphus and the bu­reaucratic nightmare that is Hades Corp. The story deftly captures the tone and excruciating layers of automation and pointed ineptitude of working with many corporate structures ...Read More

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 4/6/23 Kaleidotrope 4/23 Fiyah Spring ’23

Beneath Ceaseless Skies keeps on the themes of family, crisis, and healing with its first issue of April, especially in Martin Cahill’s “An Inheritance of Scars”. The story unfolds in a world where trauma, from heartbreak to loss to family strife, are expressed as glowing scars. Temi is a young man raised by a single father who has ...Read More

Strange Horizons 3/20/23, 3/27/23, 4/3/23, 4/10/23 Cast of Wonders 3/24/23, 4/4/23, 4/13/23 Escape Pod 3/9/23, 3/16/23, 3/30/23, 4/6/23, 4/13/23

Strange Horizons closed out March strong with some excellent poetry and fiction, including Iona Datt Sharma’s aching and beautiful story ‘‘Always and Forever, Only You’’, which finds Edie living in an assisted liv­ing home, passing her days bored and lonely. Having survived her husband, Edie retains a kind ...Read More

Hexagon 3/23 Flash Fiction Online 3/23 Lightspeed 3/23, 4/23 Fantasy 3/23, 4/23

Hexagon’s latest issue presents a range of speculative fiction and poetry, including Lyndsey Croal’s postapocalyptic science fantasy, “The Loneliness of Water”. The piece introduces a woman living on her own on a partly ruined island, making a home for herself while search­ing for signs that she’s not the only survivor to the great calamity that ...Read More

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 ...Read More

Cast of Wonders 2/25/23, 2/28/23 Worlds of Possibility 2/23 Samovar 2/27/23 Strange Horizons 2/20/23, 3/6/23, 3/13/23

Cast of Wonders, which I mentioned last month, fit a few more stories into Feb­ruary, including a rather charming one about a ‘‘malfunctioning’’ AI in Marie Vibbert’s ‘‘Haunting the Docks’’. To the artificial dock­ing manager, though, it’s more accurate to say they’re just a bit enthusiastic about their work, and perhaps ...Read More

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/9/23, 2/23/23 Lightspeed 2/23 Fantasy 2/23 F&SF 3-4/23

Following an issue focused on people chal­lenging the status quo, the second February issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies is much more about colonization, language, and resistance. Both stories in the issue are quite good, full of difficult situations and people standing against the abuses of imperial power. In Kelsey Hut­ton’s “Your Great Mother Across the Salt Sea ...Read More

Diabolical Plots 2/23 GigaNotoSaurus 2/23 Escape Pod 2/5/23 Cast of Wonders 2/1/23

February’s Diabolical Plots features two stories where the lines between the human and super­natural worlds touch and ideals of perfection must give way to the beauty and magic of being able to make mistakes. It’s not an easy thing, though, especially for a goddess, as in Anja Hendrikse Liu’s “The Monologue of a Moon Goddess in ...Read More

Reckoning 1/23 Fusion Fragment 1/23 Drabblecast 1-2/23 Strange Horizons 1/16/23, 1/23/23, 1/30/23, 2/6/23, 2/13/23

Reckoning released a new issue in January, which means a whole new year’s worth of non-fiction, poetry, and stories. It starts strongly with Nadine Aurora Tabing’s “The Bright in the Gyre”, which features Cora as a scientist working on a project to create special mushrooms that can break down plastic pollu­tion and recycle ...Read More

Worlds of Possibility 12/22 Baffling 1/23 Strange Horizons 12/12/22, 12/19/22, 1/2/23, 1/9/23 Diabolical Plots 1/23

The December Worlds of Possibility featured a beautiful story about a djinn and human and the mysteries of the universe in Khushbu Khushi’s “Songs from Samarkand”. The bonds between the human Amir and the djinn Baji are deep and warm, bursting with love, and yet their story is also one of ...Read More

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 ...Read More

Zooscape 12/22 Anathema 12/22 Escape Pod 12/15/22, 12/22/22, 12/29/22

December is always a busy month for short fiction releases, and 2022 was no exception, with a number of publica­tions slipping in new gifts to readers during the bustle of end-of-year festivities. Among them was Zooscape, whose December issue includes the stunning “The Huli Jing of Chinatown” by Wen Wen Yang, which finds a fox spirit in America ...Read More

Fiyah Winter ’23 Kaleidotrope 1/23 GigaNotoSaurus 11/22

Opening its sixth year of publication, Fiyah’s January issue carries no official theme but does return again and again to ideas of cultural inertia, trauma, and the need to break toxic cycles to reach for healing. In “A Small Bloody Gift” by Naomi Day, Kehaka is next in line to be a Keeper, someone who makes the soil live again ...Read More

GigaNotoSaurus 12/22 Flash Fiction Online 12/22 Three-Lobed Burning Eye 12/22 F&SF 1-2/23

December’s GigaNotoSaurus story has some strong Star Trek vibes with “Patterns in Stone and Stars” by MV Melcer, where a Federation in conflict with different galactic powers needs to determine if the inhabitants of a certain strategically important planet are sentient and therefore would prevent the world from being colonized. Szkazy is from the outer ...Read More

Fusion Fragment 12/22 Diabolical Plots 12/22 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 12/1/22, 12/15/22

Fusion Fragment’s last issue of 2022 brings a mix of genres and styles, with a decidedly grim and slightly dystopian feel to it. That re­ally coalesces in Owen Leddy’s ‘‘Lifeblood’’, in which a blood heist goes rather wrong for Joel, who is desperate to find a way to save his partner. Aching and not afraid to ...Read More

Fantasy 12/22 Lightspeed 12/22 Hexagon 12/2

Fantasy closed out 2022 with a bang with an issue full of hauntings, magic, and people desperate for a safe place to be. In ‘‘The End of a Painted World’’ by Sam Kyung Yoo, a painter named Woojin must flee an assault by the emperor’s soldiers. The reason for the attack is never confirmed, but it likely has to do with ...Read More

Cast of Wonders 11/15/22, 12/11/22 Escape Pod 11/17/22, 12/8/22 Strange Horizons 11/14/22, 11/21/22, 11/28/22, 12/5/22

Cast of Wonders rounded out November with the feline-centric “The Cat of Lin Villa” by Megan Chee. The story features a cat who enjoys the company of a woman trapped in an unhappy and abusive marriage. Because she gives treats and com­pany, this cannot stand, and it’s up to the cat to ...Read More

Lightspeed 11/22 GigaNotoSaurus 11/22 Reckoning: Our Beautiful Reward 11/22

November’s Lightspeed features the wonderful novelette “The Noon Witch Goes to Sound Planet” by Kristina Ten, where Hailey is a young woman who doesn’t really want to be the Noon Witch, something she’s inherited from her mother, who used to give men heatstroke back in the old country. Hailey just wants friends and figures if she can spend ...Read More

Diabolical Plots 11/22 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 11/3/22, 11/17/22 Flash Fiction Online 11/22 Fantasy 11/22

November’s Diabolical Plots surprised me a bit with a foodie science fiction story I definitely hadn’t seen before. Phil Dyer bakes up a creepy exploration story in “Beneath the Crust”, where a team moves into the mysterious Bake, a whole dimension of dough that some people can shape with their minds into any kind ...Read More

Samovar 10/24/22 Strange Horizons 10/17/22, 10/31/22, 11/7/22 Drabblecast 11/22 Amazon: Into Shadow 11/22

Samovar also came out with an issue in Octo­ber, featuring two stories and poem presented bilingually. Mónica Bustos’s “Warm Beds”, translated by Analía Villagra, weaves together the fates of three people who come to exist only at different times of the day, all while sharing the same room, and same bed. While they never ...Read More

Worlds of Possibility 10/22 Baffling 10/22 Cast of Wonders 10/14/22, 10/23/22, 10/29/22, 10/31/22

I’m quite happy that Julia Rios is back in an editing chair, and Worlds of Possibility makes for an interesting next chapter for them. As sad as I was to see Mermaids Monthly come to a close at the end of 2021 (and as much as I’m hoping that project will still find a way to return ...Read More

Kaleidotrope 10/22 Diabolical Plots 10/22 F&SF 11-12/22

Kaleidotrope’s October issue is positively burst­ing with flash fiction – twenty stories in all. The focus on shorter works gives the issue a breadth of ideas while allowing readers to move quickly from piece to piece, from world to world. It’s a speculative smorgasbord mixing fantasy, sci­ence fiction, and horror of all stripes and flavors. Ziggy Schutz provides a story of fae and ...Read More

Cast of Wonders 9/20/22, 9/22/22, 9/25/22, 9/27/22, 9/28/22, 9/29/22 Escape Pod 9/29/22, 10/6/22 Strange Horizons 9/19/22, 9/26/22, 10/3/22, 10/10/22 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 10/6/22, 10/20/22

Cast of Wonders had a busy Septem­ber, thanks largely to its celebration of Banned Books Week. Before that, though, Riley Neither took the stage with a short story of family and grief in “A Portal”. Set on a world far distant and now cut ...Read More

GigaNotoSaurus 9/22 Fantasy 10/22 Lightspeed 10/22

GigaNotoSaurus featured a story about magic maps and desperate opera composers in Sep­tember’s “A Conspiracy of Cartographers” by Barbara A. Barnett. Said desperate opera composer is Guillaume who, after his latest work was panned by critics, seeks a short cut to success with the help of a map that will bring him to his greatest work. It’s a hasty and foolish ...Read More

Beneath Ceaseless Skies 9/8/22, 9/22/22 Hexagon 9/22 Flash Fiction Online 9/22 September brought two issues of Beneath Cease­less Skies, the first of which centers isolation and being trapped in bad situations and trying to navigate a way out, sometimes violently. In “Turn To Stone Ourselves” by Marie Croke, a stone Dreamer is living a second life long after their life in flesh ended. It’s as a statue ...Read More

Escape Pod 8/18/22, 9/8/22 Strange Horizons 8/15/22, 8/22/22, 8/29/22, 9/5/22, 9/12/22 Diabolical Plots 9/22

The mixture of humor and horror continues in August’s Escape Pod with Douglas DiCicco’s “Laser Squid Goes House Hunting”. As the title implies, the infamous Laser Squid, terror from the deep, is looking for a place where she can raise a new generation, and it’s up to the story’s narrator as her realtor ...Read More

Zooscape 8/22 Anathema: Spec from the Margins 8/22 Black Cat Weekly 8/13/22

Zooscape’s August issue continues the mission of showcasing furry speculative fiction, and pulls no emotional punches with its opening story, “The Best Way to Pro­cure Breakfast” by Dana Vickerson. In it, a cat named Pho is hard at work trying to get his human to stick to the script of feeding him. Something is wrong, ...Read More

Samovar 7/25/22 Strange Horizons 7/18/22, 8/1/22. 8/8/22 Drabblecast 7/22, 8/22 Diabolical Plots 8/22

The end of July also brought an issue of the specu­lative translation publication Samovar. In it, Chen Chuncheng (translated by Jack Hargreaves) presents a strange and almost bucolic story of a person who manicures clouds so that they always appear fluffy and appealing in “A Cloudcutter’s Diary”. The titular cloudcutter is in something of ...Read More