Saturday Storytime: A Call to Arms for Deceased Authors’ Rights
I read the title of this story by Karin Tidbeck and thought, “Okay, but how does that make a story?” Then I read it. I don’t know whether it will resonate as well with anyone who isn’t a writer, but...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Killing Time
I’ve been throwing some tough stories out here lately. For a brief change of pace, let’s go with this “cozy” from Jennifer Moore. “Come on, Ms. Priver,”he thought, checking his watch. “I haven’t got...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: This is the Hardest Thing I Do All Day
This story from Alexandra Grunberg went nowhere I expected from its beginning. It was a pleasant surprise in all the best ways. “Wow, you literally have no idea how to have fun. Here, let me help you,”...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The House that Made the Sixteen Loops of Time
I try to notice new names when I’m reading for this feature. One of the glories of the current F&SF short story market is that it’s big enough to give us a chance to discover new authors. Still,...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Andromache and the Dragon
Oh, this story. This is a first fiction publication for Brittany Pladek. “Why are you still here, human?” she asked, looking sideways at Andromache. “We have made our pact.”“I’m interested,” said...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The Savannah Liars Tour
Some days you’re reading along, thinking, “This is a good story. That one is interesting. Hmm, I like that.” Then you hit one like this from Will McIntosh, and you say, “Oh.” Jillian was waiting at the...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Tower of the Rosewater Goblet
Sometimes it’s not about the stories but about who gets to tell them. This is by Nin Harris. In the sylvan city of Tare, deep within the ornate forest the Yroi called the Svieg, lurked a strange...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Godfall
I don’t know yet how I feel about the ending of this story from Sandra Odell, but the worldbuilding hooked me so hard, I don’t care. Tully brought the skiff in from the south. The blue mountains of...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The Spy Who Never Grew Up
If you’ve read here for any length of time, it will be no surprise to you that I love to see stories grow and change, like this from Sarah Rees Brennan. The submarine drifted to a stop not far from the...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The Sincerity Game
I’ll be right back. I just need to go read all of Brit Mandelo‘s stories. Hiding in plain sight—that’s a version of the sincerity game. Or, more accurately, it’s a motif. The fairy–lights strung over...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: How the God Auzh-Aravik Brought Order to the World...
I do have a particular weakness for stories of making and unmaking like this from Arkady Martine. The god Auzh-Aravik spat into her flayed palm and turned the saliva streaked with blood, out onto the...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Not by Wardrobe, Tornado, or Looking Glass
Here’s one by Jeremiah Tolbert for all of us serial escapists. The agency had placed Louisa with Dewem, Putnam, and Low, a small but venerable legal office downtown. The interview had been very brief,...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Grandpa’s Glasses
Sometimes we look at a story and think it has no plot because the stakes and the conflict are personal, as with this story from Carol Otte. Those are often my favorites. For two weeks I did nothing. I...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: There’s Always a Nuclear Bomb at the End
I’m not entirely sure that this story by Jennifer Mason-Black is a story. At the same time, it’s all our stories. Sometimes it belongs to terrorists, their lives devoted to this one thing, this one...
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